On the surface, Pitman High School seems to be doing great. Our graduation rate being 95%, there is nothing to worry about for neither parents nor administrators.
But what about the students? They seem to be happy enough showing up to school, paying attention (or lack thereof) and going back home. However they do in class, they are inevitably going to graduate.
According to the Director of Secondary Education at the Turlock Unified School District office, John Acha, Pitman’s graduation rates since 2021 have been above 95%.
However, out of the 459 juniors that tested for math, about 24% of them either met or exceeded standard leaving about 76% of students that did not, according to caaspp-elpac.ets.org.
Similar results are shown for Turlock High School across town. Their graduation rate being almost 95%, their math score is 20% and ELA is 47%.
As to why the numbers don’t match, I asked Matt Jeans (former Bio teacher and current Video Arts teacher), Doug Reimers (Science Department), Sara Smith (English Department), Angela Freeman (Pitman Principal), an anonymous faculty member and David Kline (Turlock High School’s Principal) some questions about this topic.
“The [state test scores] measure progress toward college and career readiness,” says Freeman and Kline.
They claim that the graduation rates measure whether or not “students have met the state of California and TUSD graduation requirements.”
The principals don’t think that students are being set-up for failure. They state that with 95%+ graduation rates, students are being “successful in their district.”
“I have taught many students and they got exactly the grades they needed,” adds Reimers.
“I think to a certain extent, students are being set up for failure,” Smith disagrees. “But at a certain point, students need to take ownership of their education.”
An anonymous teacher on the Pitman campus says students are being set up for failure. “I am concerned that [students are being set up for failure]. [Students] get life lessons in school that do not apply to them in real life…”
They continued, “For instance, being able to retake all of your tests or getting the idea that an institution’s job is to find a way for you to succeed rather than for you to find a way to succeed in the institution.”
“[Students] are being coddled in the sense that they are always told that whatever they do is good enough, and if not, then we’ll give you another chance.”
Reimers thinks that the numbers of our graduation rate and our test scores don’t match because of Pride Time. He says that because students get retakes and they are in the habit of that, they get good grades and they graduate. Whereas, for state tests, they do not get retakes hence the mediocre results.
Jeans says it’s a business and it’s all about making money. “If you were a junior in high school and you knew that you wanted to be a lawyer, why don’t we get you started right now? Instead, you have to take three or four classes that you know don’t care about at all.”
He added: “And that’s not a school issue, that’s an education system issue.”
As a principal on top of the school hierarchy, Freeman says that by the time students are seniors, “95% have figured out their way.”
I dissent. 95% of my class’ students have in fact not found their way. 95% of the class of 2024 hadn’t found their way yet they graduated.
It may have been more than 50% (which in my opinion is still a reach) but it was not 95%. As such, graduation rates do not and should not represent a school’s success rate.
At the end of the day, each teacher has their opinion on why the numbers don’t match or why the shift between education last decade and now is so drastic.
This does not help students who have been put into an archaic education system where easier rules and policies are being implemented, but are in classrooms with teachers whose views on said policies differ.