William A. earned a 3.4 GPA at his Tennessee high school, and received a diploma in 2024, reports Frannie Block on The Free Press. But he was "illiterate," he charges in a suit against his school district.
Clarksville-Montgomery County schools denied him the “free appropriate public education” guaranteed by federal law, the suit charges. "On February 3, a federal appeals court sided with William, concluding that he was 'capable of learning to read'," reports Block.
On reading tests, William scored very poorly. In his final year, he tested in the first percentile. On a test asking him to spell 31 words in three minutes, he missed half, according to the suit. He spelled "school" as "shcool."
He was given extra time to complete assignments, but no extra instruction. He used programs like Grammarly and ChatGPT to do work at home, and received good grades.
Finally, in his junior year, William’s parents paid for a specialist, who diagnosed dyslexia. They hired a tutor to help him learn to read. They also sued, winning the right to 888 hours of district-paid “compensatory education.” The school district appealed the ruling, but lost the appeal this month.
"Meanwhile, William’s family has launched a second suit in federal court, arguing that his school district violated the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," reports Block. The parents charge "the school’s practice of 'inflating grades and the graduation track artificially' served to boost the district’s 'graduation statistics with the state,' at the expense of students like William."
In December, I blogged about Ibrahim Barrie, 18, who received A's in English despite reading at a second- to third-grade reading level, at his San Jose school. Partially deaf and learning disabled, he expected a "certificate of completion." Instead, he was given a diploma that that made him ineligible for an adult school that offers job training, reports Candice Nguyen for NBC News.
Now three more deaf students have come forward saying they learned only basic reading and math skills in the County's Deaf and Hard of Hearing program, but were awarded diplomas, reports Nguyen and colleagues. Rodi Flores, like Barrie, can't find a job and has been shut out of job training. Twin sisters are now in college.
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