Posted on 06/11/24
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - June 11, 2024 - Baltimore City Schools continues to get more funding, but new numbers show student achievement is going in the wrong direction.
Project Baltimore looked at the most recent numbers, which show less than half of last year’s ninth graders were on track to graduate in four years.
Dr. Sonja Santelises, at the end of June, will complete her eighth year as Baltimore City Schools CEO. Her contract expires on June 30, and there’s still no word on whether she will sign a new one.
Now, with negotiations coming down to the wire, a Project Baltimore investigation has found alarming numbers concerning student achievement.
“Well, I will always be concerned until we get closer to 90 or 100%,” Dr. Santelises told Project Baltimore.
According to recently released City Schools data, analyzed by Project Baltimore, just 40.8% of last year’s ninth graders, or less than half, are on track to graduate in four years. That means, nearly 60% of all ninth graders in Baltimore City last year were not on track to graduate high school on time.
That is a significant drop from the 2021-2022 school year, when according to projections, 56.5% of City Schools ninth graders were on track to graduate in four years, which was the lowest in the state.
City Schools has a $1.7 billion budget, all of it coming from taxpayers. And while the funding has increased, enrollment has decreased by nearly 9,000 students since 2014. In other words, City Schools is getting more money to educate fewer students.
To determine if a ninth grader is on track to graduate in four years, the Maryland State Department of Education considers several factors. Those factors include the number of credits the student has earned and whether the student failed any core courses.
This year, the state also placed a greater emphasis on student attendance, which Dr. Santelises says led to the significant drop in ninth graders on-track to graduate.
“That shift had an impact on us,” Dr. Santelises told Project Baltimore. “The state raised the standard for what was also considered on track. So, we will always embrace higher standards.”
The high standards didn’t affect all schools. The percentage of ninth graders on track to graduate in Baltimore County, over the past two years, went up from 78% to 85.3%. Anne Arundel and Howard Counties saw more modest drops. Carroll County saw the biggest drop in the Baltimore region going from 90.4% to 71.9%.
“We know overall attendance matters,” said Dr. Santelises.
Low attendance is a problem in City Schools that has gotten worse. In 2016, when Dr. Santelises became CEO, the City Schools overall attendance rate was 88%. It’s now at 83%, the lowest is the state.
Getting students to class, the CEO says, has been a priority for her administration, which includes a strategy to re-engage students.
“Our re-engagement center has been doing a lot of work making sure young people who've been more disconnected from school, are in a place to attend and actually learn and be a part of school,” explained Dr. Santelises.
According to the CEO, the district is also focusing on ninth grade advisors to help students get on track. The advisors, who are now in 26 schools, identify where incoming ninth graders struggled in eighth grade and address those shortfalls.
But as the CEO works to improve student outcomes in the coming years, she does not know her own future with the school system.
“Can you give any insight to parents or taxpayers about where you stand with your negotiations with the school board?” Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst asked Dr. Santelises.
“Yeah, so you know, I’m having conversations,” Dr. Santelises replied. “I want to stay, I think we’re working on that. And I think the public and parents can rest assured that we are working on it, it’s not something we’re just sitting down on. And we’re in conversation and hoping we’ll come out with something soon.”
So, what happens if the CEO does not have a new contract when her current one expires on June 30? According to the school system, the CEO and the board could come to an understanding to keep her in place as CEO temporarily until there is a resolution.