The Herald’s May 24 editorial congratulates Everett Public Schools on its stellar 95.7 percent graduation rate. Further in the article, which initially dealt with housed vs. homeless students, it notes that statewide proficiency in English language arts is at 60 percent, proficiency in math 49 percent, and 86 percent attend school regularly. These percentages are for the housed students and lower for the homeless students.
Now think this through: We graduate students who are, by the districts’ own admission, poorly prepared for the next level, which comes as no surprise to the next teachers they encounter. Coincidentally, our esteemed education gurus recently shelved the requirement for graduating students to take and pass a proficiency test in these two areas, arguably the most important subjects of their education.
We are graduating 95.7 percent of students when only 86 percent attend regularly! It seems that to graduate high school in Everett, one need only to show up on graduation day and manage to walk across the stage! The mantra of “everyone gets a trophy” has morphed into “everyone graduates.” Hold that thought when the district returns with its hand out for more of your tax money!
Richard Wilson
Everett
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