when they gave me the diploma without taking the classes.”
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A complainant speaks about his niece who attended Pershing High School:
“She got an “A” in calculus. How is that? She can’t even do her times tables.”99
Many complaints came from parents forced to attend an EAA school only because the nearest school to them
closed. Many complained about the worst schools being left open, while stellar schools like Hutchins were
closed. Parents compare what they learned in a particular grade, and what EAA students are learning and
believe their children are doing below grade average work. A complainant talks about how easy classes were at
an EAA school:
“Classrooms at Henry Ford (EAA), are always overcrowded. I felt I was taught at a first grade
level. When I did have a real 12th grade class, it was Ms. Felton, a short … older woman who
challenged me. No other teacher gave us intellectually challenging classes… Everything else
was easy work in the other classes.”F
One parent who believes the EAA provides insufficient training states:
“My children were forced to go to an EAA school. Now, because of the EAA, more people left
the neighborhood and it is the closest school to us, but because our community has changed
since Governor Snyder was in office, there are gun shots in the morning as I take my children to
school. When I get to school, there is not an organized drop off. There are not enough people
to direct the traffic. I feel that it is stressful and if feels dangerous.”106
Students forced to attend a school where the class is doing below average grade work is a problem, but
falsifying grades allows the Governor to appear to be succeeding, while diverting resources from DPS and
actually short changing the students. Henry Ford, Pershing and Denby were mentioned often as regards grade
inflation and grade altering.
“I had a teacher named Ms. Proctor, she passed everyone, and we didn’t do anything but watch
movies every day. We learned nothing about drama… nothing about how to make a play. My
12th grade math class, all we had to do was sign our name…. I do not know if I did the work
correctly or not because (the teacher) never gave me any work back…. My social studies
class, …every time I received a Progress Report it showed I was failing, but on the Report Card
I was passing with an A or B, I didn’t know why this was, but I happy that wow, some kind of
way I passed. I learned more in middle school than I did in high school. I went to (Henry
Ford) because Cooley had already closed down. There is no other high school near me. I was
allowed to be passed along (without)… skills I would need to (get a job).” F
82