Henry Mack III nag-retweet
A Baltimore mother working three jobs thought her son was on track to graduate. The school kept promoting him.
Then she learned the truth.
In four years at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in West Baltimore, he passed three classes. He earned 2.5 credits. He failed 22 courses. He was late or absent 272 times. His GPA was 0.13.
The school promoted him anyway — from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2 after failing Algebra 1. From English 2 to English 3 after failing English 2.
His class rank was 62 out of 120.
Nearly half his classmates had a GPA of 0.13 or lower.
In four years, one teacher requested a parent conference. It never happened. No one told his mother he was failing.
The school’s response was a two-page statement explaining what should have happened.
He was moved back to ninth grade. She pulled him out. Enrolled him in an accelerated program. He graduated in 2022 with mostly A’s and B’s.
That was one student. One mother. One accelerated program that happened to work.
His school still operates. The district around it has not fundamentally changed.
Baltimore City Schools received a 38% funding increase since 2017. Chronic absenteeism district-wide runs at roughly 45%. Academic proficiency in Algebra 1 sits at approximately 9%.
The school didn’t fail him because it lacked money.
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