Douglass High School Summary

This documentary analyzed the academic performance of Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland. This school is made up almost exclusively of black students. Many of these students come from poor families. A large number of students come from single parent homes and others do not have the support of either parent. This can cause them to put other issues ahead of schoolwork and academic performance. They have to worry about taking care of their brothers and sisters and working to provide money for their family. Many students have no role model and are doomed to fall into the traps of gang violence and drug abuse that is so common in areas of the city. Together, these issues have resulted in very poor academic performance for most of
There were certainly some good teachers and administrators featured in the documentary, but as a whole, teacher quality was not where it needed to be. Two-thirds of the teachers at Douglass were not certified. Many of these teachers were just substitutes who had taken only a few basic education courses in their lifetimes. So, as we have discussed before, the children with the worst academic performance were being taught by some of the lowest quality teachers. This only grows the disparity in academic performance between races across the nation. With this said, it is hard to tell whether an improvement in teacher quality would have a large effect. With students having such a high number of absences and being very disruptive when in class, it would be almost impossible for any teacher to help them. Ultimately, many students are pushed to graduate by completing make-up work assigned at the end of the semester even if they do not deserve to pass their classes. This is problematic because the students and not learning what is expected of a person their age, but you can’t keep these students in high school into their twenties. Even if you did, an extra year or two may not result in any noticeable