I'm in no way trying to give schools a pass for the results nationally, but the below read gives a glimpse into what schools and teachers have been left with trying to educate the kids that show up at their door.
http://www.cincinnati.com/longform/news/.../25949437/
I'm in no way trying to give schools a pass for the results
"In 0 degree weather Arthur came to school with no socks on! Sorry, I didn't send a note, but this is who I was asking socks for this morning."
"What Barb Demasi, the nurse at Ethel M. Taylor Academy in Millvale, saw that February morning was so much more than bare ankles.
Arthur's light blue, long-sleeved polo shirt was too big, covered in food, the sleeves black from several wears. His gray pants were too small for the 8-year-old, meant for a child half his age. His toes peeked out of worn tennis shoes, also meant for a much smaller child.
He smelled of urine.
Demasi riffled through a plastic bin of donated clothes she keeps for just such occasions. She then sent Arthur into the bathroom with a clean and better fitting uniform, new socks and new underwear"
"In reading and math – typical indicators of success – Taylor students fared worse than their district and state counterparts in third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
In the category ranking sixth-grade math, Taylor Academy's score of 50 percent proficient is so far behind the district's score, 64.1 percent, and the state average, 76.4 percent, that it doesn't even show up on a state graph of statistics."