BALTIMORE (WBFF) - Baltimore City Schools has reached an alarming low in student performance. Project Baltimore has learned, during the first three quarters of this year, nearly half of high school students in City Schools earned a grade point average below a D.

When Jovani Patterson ran for Baltimore City Council President last year, he ran on a platform that included accountability in education.

“They take. They take. They take. Yet, despite the amount of money they get. We don’t see much change. Our schools outspend 97% of other major school districts,” Patterson said during a 2020 campaign ad.

When Project Baltimore showed Patterson how Baltimore City students have been doing this year, here is how he reacted.

“This is terrible,” Patterson told Project Baltimore. “This is just further perpetuating a cycle of poverty, of despair.”

Project Baltimore obtained a chart assembled by Baltimore City Schools. The chart shows the average GPA for every high school grade in the city – freshman through senior. In the first three quarters of this past school year, according to the chart, 41% of all Baltimore City high school students, earned below a 1.0 grade point average. In other words, nearly half of the 20,500 public high school students in Baltimore earned less than a D average.

“It's heartbreaking,” said Patterson. “If almost half of our kids are failing, what options do they have after high school? This is really disheartening. It's sad to see this.”

On the other end of the chart, 21 percent of city high school students earned a GPA of 3.0 or better; a B average. That’s about half as many who earned below a D. We can also see the district lost 706 high school students during the first three quarters of the year.

In January, City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises first sounded the alarm, announcing the course failure rate for students nearly doubled during the Covid shutdown. A few months later, in May, North Avenue announced students would not be held back for failing classes. This most recent GPA data could indicate why City Schools made that decision.

During the second quarter of the 2019/2020 school year, just before COVID hit, 24% of high school students had a GPA below 1.0. Now, it’s 41 percent.

City Schools declined an interview but told us in a statement,” Consistent with the experience of many school districts across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruptions to student learning. As early as the summer of 2020, City Schools identified large numbers of students with decreases in their grade point averages and classroom performance when compared to past performances.

Starting this summer and beyond, City Schools is providing students with a variety of opportunities to acquire the unfinished learning they lost. Each student's progress will be assessed, and an action plan will be developed to complete any unfinished learning. These plans will guide families and teachers in helping students get back on track.”

City Council President Nick Mosby, who defeated Patterson in the election, is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice concerning campaign finances, business and tax records. Project Baltimore emailed and called Mosby’s office requesting an interview to discuss these numbers concerning student GPAs. We never heard back.

“They don't care, man. They come from the same environment. Nick Mosby is a product of Baltimore City schools. Brendan Scott is a product of Baltimore City schools and they see what's going on. But then when you bring this to them, they don't care. They don't care at all. You have to raise the standard,” Patterson told Project Baltimore. “Everyone should be speaking out about this.”