Three of Durham’s five traditional high schools continue to fail their students despite years of state interventions, writes Lynn Bonner. At Southern High, just 32.5 percent of students passed end of course exams last year.
Charter schools that had these results would have been shut down long ago, but the state board of education instead will dump in more resources. They justify it with statements like
“When progress doesn’t occur, there’s an individual story about why it doesn’t,” Pat Ashley, a state education official, told the State Board of Education on Thursday. “We’ll work with the superintendents and the principals and talk about what needs to happen to make change in those schools.”
