The Washington Post reports:
As graduation approached last year, the list of often-absent students at Albert Einstein High School in suburban Maryland was long. More than 175 seniors repeatedly missed classes, many in courses required for their diplomas.
Most students at the Montgomery County school graduated anyway.
They crossed the stage because of a phenomenon that goes widely unnoticed in Maryland’s largest school system: Students can pass classes they often miss. Some have forgone weeks of classroom learning and yet earned credit in their courses and graduated, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post and a video of commencement.
Records from Einstein High provide telling details about what students miss: One senior skipped algebra 36 times last spring. Another racked up 47 unexcused absences in English. Still another was gone for more than half a semester of chemistry.
Roughly 40 percent of Einstein’s Class of 2018 missed large chunks of instruction last school year, not showing up for some classes 10 to more than 50 times in a semester, documents show.
The extent of the absenteeism at Einstein raises questions among some educators about the integrity of grades and diplomas in a school system regarded as among the nation’s best. The issue arises as diploma scandals have roiled school systems in the District of Columbia and nearby Prince George’s County, Md., where investigations have been conducted and changes made.
There's more:
At Einstein last year, about 40 percent of students were from low-income families, and 17 percent were English-language learners.
The great moments of government schools. With the federal government subsidizing this via Title 1, one wonders is this constitutes fraud given that standards almost don't exist...
