ATLANTA CHEATING SCANDAL REDUX.... ANYONE SEE A PATTERN HERE?

A friend of mine on another site posted a blog yessterday on the Atlanta cheating scandal – and it IS a scandal that something like this could go on for 10 years and be totally acceptable to those in charge…. Once they changed the scores, they had to KEEP changing the scores so as to not call attention to a ‘backslide’.

I’ve thought a lot about this mess since I last posted on it here on 7/7/11 and a thought bubbled up a time or two.  (and yes, I DO have thoughts!  LOL)  

Anyway….. after reading his take, I took a while and did a few searches to see if my theory had merit.  Some will surely say it doesn’t since you can find ANY facts you want to support your position.  I’ve posted the link below where I got the school stats – I simply copied the school/city information but on the site, they give stats – and they are breathtaking!  Go to the link and look at the 25 photos – frame lists school type, grade, and the school’s performance COMPARED TO THE STATEWIDE PERFORMANCE….. some of the statewide numbers are scary as hell!

As the title of my post says……….. anyone see a pattern here?  (and I know – in all fairness I should do the TOP 25 BEST and make a similar comparison – that’s for another day – or another blogger)

THE TOP 25 WORST SCHOOLS IN AMERICA…. (actually 24 as one was removed for bad data)

25. Milwaukee Spectrum School (Milwaukee, WI)

24. Fenger Academy High School (Chicago)

23. Hope CS (Philadelphia)

22. W.A. Perry Middle School (Columbia, SC)

21. Englewood Technical Prep Academic HS (Chicago)

20. Welcome Center @ Mifflin M.S. (Columbus, OH)

19. Bus. Entrepreneurship, Science, Tech. Academy (Highland Park, Mich)

18. Harper High School (Chicago)

17. Lakeview Middle School (Greenville, SC)

16 – Removed because of incorrect data

15. Vechig Himdag Mashchamakud (Sacaton, AZ)

14. Alcorn Middle School (Columbia, SC)

13. Choices School (Florence, SC)

12. Charleston Development Academy (Charleston, SC)

11. Circle of Courage Learning Center (Poughkeepsie, NY)

10. Midlands Math and Business Academy (Columbia, SC)

9. Brentwood Middle School (Charleston, SC)

8. Morningside Middle School (N. Charleston, SC)

7. Spring Creek Elementary (St. Francis, SD)

6. Robeson High School (Chicago)

5. Youthbuild Charleston Center (N. Charleston, SC)

4. HR Acad/Global Awareness HA (Milwaukee, WI)

3. School of Humanities (Milwaukee, WI)

2. Kennedy/Lloyd Charter School (Aiken, SC)

1. Tomorrows Builders Charter School (E. St. Louis, Ill)

http://www.walletpop.com/photos/worst-performing-public-schools/

Of the 24 schools, I was able to get information on 19 as to who is running the show…………………

Mayor of Charleston, SC  1975 – present  (D)  ****

Mayor of Columbia, SC  1990 – 2010  (R)  ***

Mayor of Philadelphia PA 1952 – present  (D)  *

Mayor of Chicago, Il 1931 – present  (D)  ****

Mayor of Florence, SC 1995 – present  (D)  *

Mayor of Aiken, SC 1991 – present  (D)  *

Mayor of St. Louis, MO 1949 – present (D) *

Mayor of Columbus, OH 2000 – present  (D)  *

Mayor of Milwaukee, WI 1960 – present (D)  ***

*  Each asterisk indicates number of schools on the Top 25 list

Could not find history/parties for Highland Park, MI, Greenville, SC, Sacaton, AZ, Poughkeepsie, NY and St. Francis, SD (which appears to be an Indian Reservation)

One final observation - the Department of Education's records for 2004 (most recent I could find) show that there are over 93,000 PUBLIC elementary and secondary schools in the United States.  You gotta be really, really BAD to make the worst 25.............