Tales Out of School
It can be hard to get reliable information on how well inner-city schools are performing. V. Dion Haynes and Aruna Jain of the Washington Post worked around this problem by contacting Cardozo High's Class of 2005, surveying 127 District of Columbia students or their families. Their report -- "Whatever Happened to The Class of 2005?" -- is unsettling:
Over four years, the class had its share of bright spots -- hints of what might be possible given more resources, better management and more family support. But the survey showed that, despite heroic efforts by some teachers and administrators, Cardozo's generally low academic standards led to disappointment in college. Other students said they suffered from the failures of a city public school system that could not keep records straight, classrooms orderly or hallways safe.
The students' own stories add a compelling element:
A 2003 audit found mistakes in student transcripts at every high school. At Cardozo, Pedro Peña received a letter from his counselor a month before commencement notifying him that he didn't have enough credits to graduate and that he would have to go to summer school. Peña said he was devastated. He had long dreamed about the day he would walk across the stage in his cap and gown.
But when he showed up to register for summer school, he said, an assistant principal asked why he wasn't at graduation the night before to pick up his diploma. His name was called out, he was told.
"I could have graduated," said Peña, 20. The counselor had been mistaken, but Peña had not been able to straighten out the confusion beforehand.
"Every day I'd go to the counselor and she wouldn't be there," said Peña.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601165.html