“Not Present or Accounted For": Part 10

The following is a transcript of Part 10 of the radio series “Not Present or Accounted For: The Attendance Crisis in Baltimore Schools,” which was supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.

Baltimore school officials recently touted high school achievements as part of a new approach aimed at keeping teens in school. In part 10 of WEAA’s documentary Not Present or Accounted For: The Attendance Crisis in Baltimore Schools, reporter Melody Simmons contrasts that strategy with a similar, unfiltered street movement underway in east Baltimore.

This a disparate tale of our city.

The first narrative opens in a once abandoned row house in east Baltimore. Here, a high ranking member of the Bloods who goes by the street name “Black,” lectures a group of 25 men, most of them among the city’s thousands of dropouts. He details a community-based chance for furthering their education.

“All this opportunity that I’m giving to y’all is in walking distance. You don’t need no bus pass, no cab ride, no hack. No nothing. Even computer class you get transported from point A to point B. not only are you getting your GED, you’re getting a couple of dollars, too. Insurance. I wish school did that for me. Y’all don’t know how good y’all got it.”

Many here are former drug dealers on Baltimore’s violent streets. Today, they are taking computer lessons and working toward GEDs. Far from the structure of the city school system, they have turned to this unorthodox urban classroom, set in the ghetto pockmarked by blocks of vacant houses once occupied by working class families. Black continued:

“You cannot sell drugs forever. The law won’t allow it. Society won’t allow it. Corporate America won’t allow it. Ok? Look at John Gotti. ”

A 14-year-old named D.S. stood nearby. He was skipping classes at Collington Square Middle School that day. He explained why:

“It’s a lot of things on my mind, for real. I don’t know what I really want to do or nothing.”

Also in the room was 17-year-old dropout, Maurice. He said he became disengaged from school at a young age because he had no one at home to take care of him. Now a father of two with another baby on the way, Maurice wants to return to class.

“I don’t really have a dream. I just have a goal. And that’s to make sure my kids are, my family, my mother and I just live right.”

Not many miles, but a world away, another facet in the city’s ongoing and complex struggle for school redemption played out.

On Monday, at a press conference at the combined Digital Harbor and National Academy High Schools in Federal Hill, Schools CEO Andres Alonso was optimistic. In attendance was Gov. Martin O’Malley and state school Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.

“For the first time in the past five years, the overall enrollment in our high schools is up. So the story is no longer about loss, the story is about gain.”

With a dropout rate of 7.9 percent, down from 2007’s rate of 9.6 percent, administrators claimed limited progress in tackling Baltimore’s attendance crisis. They pointed toward slight gains in state test scores. The 10th grade enrollment was up this fall over last year – even though nearly 3-thousand ninth graders didn’t return to class in September. Dr. Alonso explained:

“The reason why that’s important is it shows more kids remaining in school and making it to the 10th grade. And we know what happens in the ninth grade is essential in terms of an indicator of graduation down the line. Many kids drop out at the end of the ninth grade.”

Some of them end up back in the hood. Out of school, they still yearn to learn even though many are choked by social problems. In east Baltimore, with some community support, Black offers second chances outside of the school system.

“What you have now taking place is instead of me giving out a pack or giving somebody a gun, you got kids walking around east Baltimore with notebooks in their hand, taking GED classes along with computer classes.”

Both sides of this uncommon story are proud of their accomplishments. But one question stands out: Will the end justify the means?