Failing students creates 'life and death' situation in Baltimore City, says tutor

BALTIMORE (WBFF) - A group trying to improve student outcomes in Baltimore City Schools says the matter is life and death. That strong statement follows a FOX45 News investigation that found more than half the students in one city high school class are reading or doing math at elementary school levels.

When Project Baltimore broke the story, hundreds of people commented on social media. We obtained student assessments, known as iReady scores, which show a majority of 11th graders in one Baltimore City high school class scored at elementary school levels for reading. Four of the nine high school students tested in third grade. One student, who’s a junior in City Schools, was reading on a second-grade level.

“To me, it wasn't surprising to know or hear that 11th-grade students were reading that low,” said Andrew Nelson of Reading Partners Baltimore, a non-profit that tutors students in reading from kindergarten to fourth grade.

ALSO READ | Leaked documents show Baltimore high schoolers perform math, reading at grade school level

“I had a second-grade student last year who didn't even know their letters, or the letter sounds, and I could show them a letter B or letter C and they couldn't even tell me what it was,” said Nelson.

In his three years at Reading Partners, Nelson says he’s has seen students passed through the grades without knowing the material. He’s watched them struggle to do the work, get frustrated and fall farther behind.

“I don't think that it's an exaggeration to refer to it as life and death,” said Jeffrey Zwillenberg, the senior executive director of Reading Partners Baltimore.

Zwillenberg says the focus on kindergarten to fourth grade is vital. If a child cannot read at grade level by fourth grade, he says that child is four times less likely to graduate high school.

“Reading is also that one fundamental skill that unlocks all others. So, regardless of what a child wants to go on and do in their life, reading will play a part, period,” Zwillenberg told Project Baltimore.

But groups like reading partners are fighting an uphill battle. Baltimore City is a school system that has adopted a one-fail regulation, meaning “students cannot be retained a second time prior to ninth grade.” In other words, a student can only be held back in a grade one time prior to high school, and that’s no matter how poorly they do or how little they attend class.

North Avenue would not do an interview with Project Baltimore to discuss this regulation, but we received this statement: "City Schools does not support or allow social promotion based on the ages or non-academic factors of its students. However, students learn best with their grade-level peers, as has been proven consistently by data-driven research. As such, multiple retentions should be a last resort for students."

“I've seen in my personal experience, students that, because they're so far behind, they start falling through the cracks,” said Nelson.

In a comment on FOX45’s Facebook page, Nelson wrote that just 16% of fourth-graders in City Schools read at grade level.

ALSO READ | Nearly half of students in one Baltimore high school have 0.99 GPA or lower

“Holding students and making sure that they are able to do these things, I think is more beneficial to them than would be if a student was just to be passed on, because the further they get passed on, the more they are unable to retain the material,” said Nelson.

Reading Partners is currently in 16 city schools. Last year, they tutored about 600 students. This coming fall, due to increasing demand, they hope to expand to around 720 students. Reading Partners has been in Baltimore for more than 20 years.