NEWS RELEASE Embargoed: Not for release before 10 a.m. EDT, June 24, 2008
CONTACT: Kari Hudnell (202) 955-9450 ext. 324 or khudnell@communicationworks.com
State Test Scores in Reading and Mathematics Continue
To Increase, Achievement Gaps Narrow
Positive Trends in State Test Scores Seen Since 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 24, 2008 – Student scores on state tests of reading and
mathematics have risen since 2002, and achievement gaps between various groups of students
have narrowed more often than they have widened, according to the most comprehensive and
rigorous recent analysis of state test scores. These improvements have occurred during a
period when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state education reforms, and local school
improvement efforts have focused on raising test scores and narrowing achievement gaps.
The report, Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?: State Test Score Trends
Through 2006-07, was released today by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy (CEP). It
analyzes state test data from all 50 states as well as trends through 2007 on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the only federally administered assessment of
reading and math achievement. While expanding on a similar report from last year, this study
continues the focus on two main questions: whether reading and math achievement has
increased since 2002 and whether achievement gaps between subgroups of students have
narrowed. The number of states included varies depending on the type of trend being reported.
CEP excluded state data from years that should not be compared because a state introduced a
new test, changed the passing score on its test, or made other major test changes. CEP also
looked at two indicators of achievement on state tests – the percentage of students scoring at or
above the “proficient” level and a statistic called “effect size,” which avoids some limitations of
percentages proficient.

The report’s analysis found that, among the states with sufficient data, 21 states made
moderate-to-large gains in math in both percentages proficient and effect sizes at the
elementary level, while 22 states showed gains of this size on both indicators in middle school
and 12 states posted such gains for high school. In reading, 17 states had moderate-to-large
gains in percentages proficient and effect sizes at the elementary level, 14 states made such
gains for middle school, and eight states showed gains for high school. Additional numbers of
states made slight gains on one or both indicators or showed improvement on one indicator but
lacked data on the other.

In general, the overall trends on state tests and NAEP moved in the same direction, though
gains on NAEP tended to be smaller (NAEP tests are not aligned with any specific state’s
academic standards). The most agreement was in grade 4 math. Of the 33 states with sufficient
state test and NAEP data, 31 showed gains on both assessments.

Achievement gaps have also narrowed more often than widened on state tests and NAEP,
according to CEP. The exception to the pattern of more gaps narrowing was in grade 8 math,
where gaps widened on NAEP more than they narrowed. In general, NAEP tended to show
larger gaps between different demographic and economic groups than state tests.
It is impossible, notes the report, to determine the extent to which these trends in test results have
occurred because of NCLB. Since 2002, many different but interconnected policies and programs
have been undertaken to raise achievement and close achievement gaps – some initiated by
states or school districts on their own, and some in response to federal requirements. Other
possible explanations for increased test scores and narrowed gaps include, among others,
districts and schools devoting more instructional time to reading and math, and students and
teachers becoming more familiar with the content and format of state tests.

“Through NCLB and many state and local efforts, the nation has sought to raise test scores and
to narrow the achievement gap. These results show that we are making progress, although
much more work needs to be done,” said Jack Jennings, president and chief executive officer of
CEP. “Last year, we sought to determine whether NCLB had resulted in increased student
achievement, but discovered that it is not possible to make a causal connection. We know,
though, that NCLB required a vast expansion of student testing and we now have a better
understanding of whether students, in general, have achieved more.”

This year’s study builds on CEP’s 2007 appraisal of student achievement described in the
report, Answering the Question that Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since
No Child Left Behind? The study also draws on knowledge gained from CEP’s broader, six-year
study of state and local implementation of NCLB, published in a series of annual reports, From
the Capital to the Classroom, and over 30 special-topic reports. These reports and other
information from CEP are available online at www.cep-dc.org.
# # #
Based in Washington, D.C. and founded in January 1995 by Jack Jennings, the Center on Education
Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The
Center works to help Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the
need to improve the academic quality of public schools. The Center does not represent any special
interests. Instead the Center helps citizens make sense of the conflicting opinions and perceptions about
public education and create conditions that will lead to better public schools.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:27 PM 0 comments Links to this post

By Roberto Alonzo
Rio Grande Guardian
July 31, 2008

AUSTIN, July 31 - One of the most comprehensive legal decisions in education history has just been issued by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.

It concerns the civil rights of English language learners (ELL), a ruling which finds that Texas is failing to overcome language barriers in educating an estimated 140,000 Latino students in our secondary public schools.

I think it is imperative that both the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) and the Senate Hispanic Caucus (SHC) join forces and get prepared for what promises to be an interesting appeals process by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to overturn this decision.

While we must applaud Judge Justice for reversing his own decision of over a year ago (July 2007), not surprisingly TEA has already made it public that it will ask the Attorney General's Office to appeal the latest Justice ruling.

As such, I think it is critically important that members of the Legislature, particularly representatives of both the MALC and SHC, be well-prepared, educated on the issue, and well-versed on the statistical data to help support and keep Judge Justice's decision intact.

As chairmen of the two major Latino caucuses in the Legislature, I therefore appeal to you to jointly form some type of Bilingual Education Task Force to closely monitor the development of this important ruling and issue a report to all members when we convene for the 81st Regular Session in January 2009.

According to the 95-page court decision, the State of Texas, specifically TEA, has been given a deadline of January 2009 to address the issues of ineffective monitoring and poor ESL programs for secondary students, low test scores, high dropout rates among Latinos, graduation rates, and other educational flaws that violate the civil rights of ELL students.

If past history is any indication, there is no doubt that TEA will once again continue to use the same excuse as before by saying that they are "already addressing the issue," when in reality, we know that is not the case as the picture for ELL learners in Texas continues to look dismal. That seems to be a typical TEA response anytime a ruling like this is issued by a court.

However, keep in mind also that numbers and statistics do not lie. Most of the numbers and other verifiable data cited by Judge Justice in his court ruling come directly from TEA, and most of the accumulative historical records clearly show that our state-approved language programs for ELL students have not improved the performance of secondary students with limited English skills. And that is the bottom line - plain and simple.

If the state of Texas is to do an adequate job of closing that gap and have a skilled, educated workforce for future generations, we must take action now. And while Judge Justice's decision is a welcome invitation to action now, as well as a major wake-up call for all state and local policymakers, I am certain that the formation of a Bilingual Education Task Force made up of members from both the MALC and SHC is well in order right now, especially since the court's decision deadline of January 2009 will fall immediately after the start of the 81st Regular Session.

Roberto Alonzo is state representative for District 104, in Dallas. A Democrat, Alonzo co-chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus’s task force on higher education. The above column is based upon a letter Alonzo sent July 29, 2008, to the state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, and state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, chair of the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus.

Labels: English language learners

posted by Patricia Lopez at 7:56 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This is an interesting piece that addresses aspects of decline in our country. Read on. -Angela

Harvard Magazine
(July-August 2008)


Unequal America
Causes and consequences of the wide-and growing-gap between rich and poor

by Elizabeth Gudrais

When Majid Ezzati thinks about declining life expectancy, he says, "I think of an epidemic like HIV, or I think of the collapse of a social system, like in the former Soviet Union." But such a decline is happening right now in some parts of the United States. Between 1983 and 1999, men's life expectancy decreased in more than 50 U.S. counties, according to a recent study by Ezzati, associate professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and colleagues. For women, the news was even worse: life expectancy decreased in more than 900 counties-more than a quarter of the total. This means 4 percent of American men and 19 percent of American women can expect their lives to be shorter than or, at best, the same length as those of people in their home counties two decades ago.


 


The United States no longer boasts anywhere near the world's longest life expectancy. It doesn't even make the top 40. In this and many other ways, the richest nation on earth is not the healthiest. Ezzati's finding is unsettling on its face, but scholars find further cause for concern in the pattern of health disparities. Poor health is not distributed evenly across the population, but concentrated among the disadvantaged.


 


Disparities in health tend to fall along income lines everywhere: the poor generally get sicker and die sooner than the rich. But in the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor is far wider than in most other developed democracies, and it is getting wider. That is true both before and after taxes: the United States also does less than most other rich democracies to redistribute income from the rich to the poor.


 


Americans, on average, have a higher tolerance for income inequality than their European counterparts. American attitudes focus on equality of opportunity, while Europeans tend to see fairness in equal outcomes. Among Americans, differences of opinion about inequality can easily degenerate into partisan disputes over whether poor people deserve help and sympathy or should instead pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The study of inequality attempts to test inequality's effects on society, and it is delivering findings that command both sides' attention.


 


Ezzati's results are one example. There is also evidence that living in a society with wide disparities-in health, in wealth, in education-is worse for all the society's members, even the well off. Life-expectancy statistics hint at this. People at the top of the U.S. income spectrum "live a very long time," says Cabot professor of public policy and epidemiology Lisa Berkman, "but people at the top in some other countries live a lot longer."


 


Much is still unknown in this dynamic field, where Harvard is home to pioneers who first recognized income inequality as worthy of study and younger scholars at the forefront of its study today. The variety of disciplines featured in presentations of the University's Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy-economics, sociology, political science, public policy, health, medicine, education, law, and business-highlights the field's broad importance.


 


Because of the subject's complexity and the scarcity of consistent data that would allow comparison between countries and across wide timespans, research findings are often highly specific or framed in the language of interesting coincidences, rather than as definitive conclusions. Even when discernable patterns exist, there tend to be counter-examples; for instance, the United States, with high inequality, has low life expectancy compared to Denmark and Finland, with very low inequality-but in Spain and Italy, with inequality somewhere in between, life expectancy is even longer.



 


But the coincidences are intrig-uing indeed. Research indicates that high inequality reverberates through societies on multiple levels, correlating with, if not causing, more crime, less happiness, poorer mental and physical health, less racial harmony, and less civic and political participation. Tax policy and social-welfare programs, then, take on importance far beyond determining how much income people hold onto. The level of inequality we allow represents our answer to "a very important question," says Nancy Krieger, professor of society, human development, and health at HSPH: "What kind of society do we want to live in?"


 


Keeping Up With The Joneses


The United States is becoming even more unequal as income becomes more concentrated among the most affluent Americans. Income inequality has been rising since the late 1970s, and now rests at a level not seen since the Gilded Age-roughly 1870 to 1900, a period in U.S. history defined by the contrast between the excesses of the super-rich and the squalor of the poor.


 


Early in the twentieth century, the share of total national income drawn by the top 1 percent of U.S. earners hovered around 18 percent. That share hit an all-time high in 1928-when top earners took home 21.1 percent of all income, including capital gains-then dropped steadily through the next three decades. Amid the post-World War II boom in higher education, and overall economic growth, the American middle class swelled and prospered, and the top 1 percent of earners took home less than 10 percent of all income through the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the topmost 1 percent have seen their share rise again: it shot past 15 percent in 1996 and crested at 20.3 percent in 2006, the most recent year for which numbers are available.


To describe the distribution of income inequality in the United States, Allison professor of economics Lawrence F. Katz likes to use the analogy of an apartment building. "Over the last 25 years," he says, "the penthouse has gotten really, really nice. All sorts of new gadgets have been put in. The units just below the penthouse have also improved a lot. The units in the middle have stayed about the same. The basement apartment used to be OK, but now it's gotten infested with cockroaches and it's been flooding." (See graph, page 26.)


 


The argument that none of this matters as long as the overall economy is growing-that a rising tide lifts all boats, as President John F. Kennedy famously said-is the subject of vigorous academic review, with mixed results, but it may not be the most important question. Picture a buoyant luxury cruise ship surrounded by dilapidated dinghies, full of holes and on the verge of sinking. The fact that the tide has lifted them does not mean they are doing well.


 


This is a concept social scientists call relative deprivation. The idea is that, even when we have enough money to cover basic needs, it may harm us psychologically to see that other people have more. When British economist Peter Townsend developed his relative deprivation index in 1979, the concept was not new. Seneca wrote that to be poor in the midst of riches is the worst of poverties; Karl Marx wrote, "A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut."


 


Investigating whether relative deprivation and the negative emotions it engenders help explain why the poor have worse health than the rich in most societies began with epidemiologist Michael Marmot's study of British civil servants in the 1960s and 1970s. Marmot found that the lower-ranking bureaucrats had elevated levels of stress hormones compared to their high-status coworkers, even though the low-ranking workers still had job security, a living wage, decent hours, and benefits.


Others have found similar links. Examining health outcomes for identical twins raised together-pairs that shared genes and environment-Nancy Krieger found that when the twins became adults, if one was working class and the other professional, the working-class twin's health was, on average, worse.



 


There is little question that it is bad for one's health to be poor. Americans at the 95th income percentile or higher can expect to live nine years longer than those at the 10th percentile or lower. The poor are more likely to develop illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer, and there is evidence that relative deprivation and the stress it engenders are involved. When high inequality and rising top incomes shift society's accepted standards of living upward, it seems that people experience deprivation even when they have adequate food, clothing, and shelter. The official U.S. poverty rate-12.3 percent in 2006-is relatively low, but scholars agree that number is essentially meaningless.


 


The poverty threshold was developed in 1965 based on the cost of a grocery budget "for temporary or emergency use when funds are low," multiplied by three. It was "arbitrary," says Wiener professor of social policy Christopher Jencks, "but once it was adopted, it was politically impossible to change it." That threshold has been adjusted for inflation, but does not take into account the fact that housing prices, energy prices, and certain other costs have grown faster than the consumer price index (CPI). "Going to movies, eating out at restaurants, going on occasional vacations, having Internet access and a cell phone-none of these things are in the federal poverty level," says Ichiro Kawachi, professor of social epidemiology at HSPH and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "What matters for functioning in society is what the average person is able to do." During the same period, the Gallup Poll definition of the poverty line-based on asking people how much income they need not to feel deprived-has risen much more steeply than the CPI.


 


Kawachi, who grew up in Japan, believes a predominant consumption culture in the United States exacerbates relative deprivation. "The Japanese have a very strong culture against conspicuous displays of affluence," he says. "When I was a child growing up in suburban Tokyo, it was very difficult to distinguish, by dress or anything else, rich kids from poor kids-whereas in America, bring it on!"


 


As further evidence of a correlation between inequality and consumption culture, he points to national spending on advertising as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The top-ranked countries on this measure, according to United Nations (UN) data, are Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela-countries with inequality levels among the highest in the world-but also Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (U.K.), and the United States, countries with higher inequality than similarly prosperous peers.


 


Japan comes second only to Denmark in terms of equal-income distribution among its inhabitants, according to United Nations data. And life expectancy at birth for the Japanese is 82.3 years, compared to Americans' 77.9 years, even though per-capita GDP in the United States is about $10,000 more than in Japan. "It's pretty clear that an egalitarian ethos runs along with the idea of having strong safety nets and protecting the health of the most vulnerable," says Kawachi, who also directs HSPH's Center for Society and Health. "And that's reflected in national health statistics."


 


The United States ranks twenty-first among the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of life expectancy, and twenty-fifth in terms of infant mortality. Kawachi and others have found that the U.S. counties with the most income inequality stack up poorly on health measures, and as mortality rates have fallen nationwide, they have fallen most slowly in states where income inequality increased the most-a cause for concern, whatever the explanation.


 


American Exception?


One widely used measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient, named for Italian statistician Corrado Gini, who first articulated the concept in 1912. The coefficient measures income distribution on a scale from zero (where income is perfectly equally distributed among all members of a society) to one (where a single person possesses all the income). For the United States, the Gini coefficient has risen from .35 in 1965 to .44 today. On the per-capita GDP scale, our neighbors are Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.; on the Gini scale, our neighbors include Sri Lanka, Mali, and Russia. (Even with this basic measure of inequality, it is difficult to get comparable data for all countries, and some other sources find a much wider gap between the United States and Russia. For instance, the Luxembourg Income Study ranks Russia at .43 and the United States at .37, and does not even list Sri Lanka and Mali.)





Source: United Nations Human Development Report, 2007/08


The recent increase in inequality reflects a migration of money upward as salaries have ballooned at the top. In 1965, the average salary for a CEO of a major U.S. company was 25 times the salary of the average worker. Today, the average CEO's pay is more than 250 times the average worker's. At the same time, the government is doing less to redistribute income than it has at times in the past. The current top marginal tax rate-35 percent-is not the lowest it's been-there was no federal income tax at all until 1913-but it is far lower than the 91-percent tax levied on top earners from 1951 to 1963. Meanwhile, forces such as immigration and trade policy have put pressure on wages at the bottom.




Source: The Race between Education and Technology, by Lawrence F. Katz and Claudia Goldin (Harvard University Press, 2008)


Tax policies and employer-pay practices affect income distribution directly. But what governs these pay practices, and why have American voters and politicians chosen the tax policies they have? One answer lies in Americans' unique attitudes toward inequality. Asked by the International Social Survey Programme whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that income differences in their home country are "too large," 62 percent of Americans agreed; the median response for all 43 countries surveyed-some with a much lower degree of inequality-was 85 percent.


 


Americans and Europeans also tend to disagree about the causes of poverty. In a different survey-the World Values Survey, including 40 countries-American respondents were much more likely than European respondents (71 percent versus 40 percent) to agree with the statement that the poor could escape poverty if they worked hard enough. Conversely, 54 percent of European respondents, but only 30 percent of American respondents, agreed with the statement that luck determines income.


 


It makes intuitive sense that those who view poverty as a personal failing don't feel compelled to redistribute money from the rich to the poor. Indeed, Ropes professor of political economy Alberto Alesina and Glimp professor of economics Edward L. Glaeser find a strong link between beliefs and tax policy: they find that a 10-percent increase in the share of the population that believes luck determines income is associated with a 3.5-percent increase in the share of GDP a given nation's government spends on redistribution (see "Down and Out in Paris and Boston," January-February 2005, page 14).


These attitudes, in turn, are rooted in U.S. history, says Christopher Jencks, whose 1973 book Inequality examined social mobility in the United States. Jencks has been studying inequality and social class since the 1960s, and has written dozens of journal articles, essays, and book chapters, as well as four more books, on the subject. He looks back to the Constitution's framers, who enshrined property rights as sacred and checked the government's ability to control the national economy. "The founding fathers didn't want the government to do that much," he says.


 


The Constitution is structured in such a way that it is harder to change than the constitutions of Europe's welfare states, where left-leaning groups have succeeded at writing in change. By and large, Alesina and Glaeser write, the U.S. Constitution "is still the same document approved by a minority of wealthy white men in 1776." And the "vestiges of feudalism" in European society make leftist arguments appealing there, whereas American politicians' rhetoric has emphasized individual agency since the time of George Washington (who wrote in 1783 that if citizens "should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be intirely their own"). The authors cite a 1980s history curriculum for public schools in California ("hardly the most right-wing of states," they note) that instructed, "A course should assess the role of optimism and opportunity in a land of work: the belief that energy, initiative, and inventiveness will continue to provide a promising future."



 


An alternative, and possibly complementary, explanation points to the United States's particular place in geography and history. Jencks also finds this persuasive. "The highest levels of inequality are found in the New World and not the Old, for reasons we don't understand," he says (see chart above). Societies with higher inequality also tend to have higher crime rates, although it's not clear which way the causal arrow runs, or if it exists. "These are societies built on conquest, many of them on slavery," Jencks adds. "A lot of the inequality may just be the legacy of those things."


 


Former colonies such as Haiti and Namibia inhabit the top end of the Gini scale, with coefficients of .59 and .74, respectively. But there are exceptions to the pattern: the low end of the scale includes transitional economies that are far from rich (Belarus and Moldova, with coefficients of .30 and .33), and former colonies (Ethiopia and Laos, with coefficients of .30 and .35). For all the scholarly study, consensus on whether the Gini coefficient can, in and of itself, say something good or something bad about a country is still lacking. Still, scholars are using what evidence does exist to ask, and test, whether the United States has things in common with Sri Lanka, Mali, and Russia, as it undoubtedly does with Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.


The excesses of the Gilded Age led, in the decades that followed, to a backlash in the form of the minimum wage and other labor laws to protect workers, business and financial-market regulation to protect consumers, social safety-net programs-Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid-and infrastructure investment to benefit all. But as the United States moves from a period of relatively balanced income distribution back into higher inequality, it remains to be seen whether these twentieth-century developments will enable the country to escape the problems that often accompany high inequality.


 


Left Out At The Bottom


An argument commonly made in inequality's defense is that it serves to motivate. Here, Kawachi cites evidence from the sports world. A 1990 study of golfers found that they performed best in professional tournaments, where the spread in the size of the prize money is widest. Similarly, a study of professional auto racers found that performance improved as the spread in the size of the various prizes widened.


 


So inequality may act on the human psyche to elicit hard work and high achievement-but it also may make us more individualistic. In a study of baseball players, teams with wider pay dispersion performed more poorly-and so did individual players within those teams. "In a world in which each individual is looking out for themselves, players will tend to concentrate on improving their own performance to the exclusion of team goals, since their own performance is what matters for moving up the pay scale," Kawachi and Bruce P. Kennedy (a former HSPH professor who passed away this year) wrote in The Health of Nations: Why Inequality Is Harmful to Your Health. "Concentrating on trying to hit more home runs or improving one's own hitting average are not necessarily the tactics that lift team performance-as opposed to, say, practicing great defense."


 


This gets at the ways inequality may affect the fabric of society. Perhaps motivated by inequality and the prospect of getting ahead, Americans work longer hours than their European counterparts-about 200 more hours per year, on average, than the British, and 400 more hours per year than the Swedes. Again, there are counter-examples (the Japanese work almost as much as Americans do, just 50 hours less a year), but in any case, time spent at work is time not spent with friends or family, and this has its own implications for health.


 


As an outreach worker in San Francisco in the 1970s, Lisa Berkman noticed that her clients in the North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods-poor or working-class, but with the strong social connections typical of immigrant communities-had far better health than her clients in the gritty Tenderloin district, who were much more socially isolated and disconnected from one another. The link between social integration and mortality risk became the subject of Berkman's dissertation at Berkeley, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1977. At the time, the idea that social ties could protect health was radical. Now it is accepted wisdom-and a factor that, Berkman believes, helps to explain the extraordinarily high life expectancy in Spain and Italy.



 


But the danger of disconnectedness may go beyond being less happy or even less healthy. Kawachi and Kennedy cited a wealth of evidence that increasing income inequality goes hand in hand with a decrease in "social capital," a concept akin to community involvement that incorporates, among other things, social relationships, trust, reciprocity among friends and neighbors, and civic engagement. (Malkin professor of public policy Robert Putnam made a similar argument in his seminal 2000 book Bowling Alone.) Letting social capital atrophy means a less cohesive populace that, at the extreme, leaves entire classes of people disadvantaged and excluded. "The big worry," says Lawrence Katz, "is creating something like a caste society."


 


As American neighborhoods have become more integrated along racial lines, they have become more segregated along income lines and, some research indicates, with regard to all manner of other factors, including political and religious beliefs. (The Big Sort, a new book by journalist Bill Bishop, examines this evidence.) What's more, even along racial lines, American society is still far from integrated. Sociologist David R. Williams, Norman professor of public health and professor of African and African American studies, has examined racial discrimination and health in the United States and elsewhere, including South Africa, where in 1991, under apartheid, the "segregation index" was 90, meaning that 90 percent of blacks would have had to move to make the distribution even. "In the year 2000," says Williams, "in most of America's larger cities-New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee-the segregation index was over 80." Only slightly lower, that is, than under legally sanctioned apartheid.


 


When a society is starkly divided along racial or ethnic lines, the affluent are less likely to take care of the poor, Glaeser and Alesina have found. Internationally, welfare systems are least generous in countries that are the most ethnically heterogeneous. Those U.S. states with the largest black populations have the least generous welfare systems. And in a nationwide study of people's preferences for redistribution, Erzo F.P. Luttmer, associate professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), found strong evidence for racial loyalty: people who lived near poor people of the same race were likely to support redistribution, and people who lived near poor people of a different race were less likely to do so. Differences in skin color seem to encourage the wealthy to view the poor as fundamentally different, serving as a visual cue against thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I."


 


Alesina's work investigates this cognitive process as an explanation for the high crime rates in less equal societies. Rather than following the common-sense explanation that the poor see what the rich have and covet it, leading to burglary and violent crime, Alesina argues that as the incomes of the rich and poor diverge, so do their interests. Members of a relatively equal society find it relatively easy to reach agreement about what the purpose and priorities of a legal system should be. But if the rich favor protecting property, while the poor care more about preventing and punishing interpersonal violent crime, the lack of consensus will produce a weak system that fails to meet the desires of either group. In one essay, his colleague Glaeser offers this apocalyptic prediction: "Great gaps between rich and poor mayŠhurt democracy and rule of law if elites prefer dictators who will protect their interests, or if the disadvantaged turn to a dictator who promises to ignore property rights."


 


This doesn't seem possible in a democracy such as the United States, where each citizen's vote carries the same weight regardless of income (the electoral-college system notwithstanding). In fact, given the shape of the income distribution, it seems that Americans would elect leaders whose policies favor the poor and middle class. Mean household income in 2004 was $60,528, but median household income was only $43,389. More than half of households make less money than average, so, broadly speaking, more than half of voters should favor policies that redistribute income from the top down. Instead, though, nations-and individual states-with high inequality levels tend to favor policies that allow the affluent to hang onto their money.



 


Filipe R. Campante, an assistant professor of public policy at HKS and a former student of Alesina's, thinks he's discovered why. After investigating what drives candidates' platforms and policy decisions, Campante has concluded that donations are at least as influential a mode of political participation as votes are.


 


Previous research has shown that voter turnout is low, particularly at the low end of the income spectrum, in societies with high inequality. Again, this is counterintuitive: in unequal places, poor people unhappy with government policies might be expected to turn out en masse to vote, but instead they stay home. Campaign contributions may provide the missing link.


Candidates, naturally, target voters with money because they need funds for their campaigns. And since the poor gravitate toward parties that favor redistribution and the wealthy align themselves with parties that do not, campaign contributions end up benefiting primarily parties and candidates whose platforms do not include redistribution. By the time the election comes around, the only candidates left in the race are those who've shaped their platforms to maximize fundraising; poor voters, says Campante, have already been left out. In a study of campaign contributions in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, he found that higher income inequality at the county level was associated with fewer people contributing to campaigns, but contributing a larger amount on average-so the haves participated, and the have-nots did not.


 


The solution, he says, is not to scrap the system altogether in favor of full public financing, but to enact contribution limits strict enough to level the playing field. He views contributions not as bribery or buying policy, but as a legitimate form of civic engagement. "The ideal system," he says, "would be a system where you have a really broad base of contributors that are contributing relatively small amounts.ŠYou want parties to be responsive to voters. Donations are a way in which parties are made responsive to voters."


 


Buffers Against Inequality


The effects of relative deprivation can come in a form more tangible than stress or low self-esteem. Krieger uses the example of a job interview. In a society where the average person has a cell phone, it can hurt one's job chances not to have one. Wearing old clothes to a job interview might be interpreted as a sign of not taking the interview seriously, when in fact the problem is inability to afford a new outfit. Bad teeth, which require money to fix, can trigger disgust in prospective employers and even hold people back from making friends. "Your income," Krieger says, "can decline to a point where you're no longer able to participate meaningfully in society."


 


Stress can also make people behave in ways they otherwise wouldn't. David Williams believes that the "hierarchy of needs" framework helps explain why, the poorer people are, the less likely they are to take care of their health. The framework, developed in 1943 by psychologist Abraham Maslow, defines the needs that motivate human behavior and the priority people assign to those needs. Physiological needs (eating, sleeping, breathing) form the foundation; not until those needs are met can people pursue needs in the higher categories (in succession: safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization). "If people are worried about their basic needs of survival and security and food and shelter," says Williams, "they cannot worry about the fact that a cigarette, which is providing relief from stress now, is going to cause lung cancer 20 years from now. If you can address the basic needs so people are no longer worried about them, you free them to consider those larger, higher-level needs that have long-term consequences for their well-being."


 


Lisa Berkman's latest project aims to let low-wage workers focus on such higher-order needs. In a study of nursing-home employees, Berkman found that nursing assistants, janitors, and kitchen workers had far less flexibility than higher-status workers in terms of being able to leave work if a family member fell ill, and that this lack of flexibility was related to increased risk of heart disease and chronic sleep problems. Now she is following nursing homes and retail establishments to see what happens when they implement more flexible policies. If workers in high-demand, low-wage jobs can spend more time with their families and stop worrying about getting fired if they need to handle an emergency, she says, "workplace policies may have a profound effect on health."



 


Improving living conditions in poor neighborhoods is another way to alleviate poverty's ill effects even in the absence of income redistribution, says Williams. The poor are more likely to smoke, to eat poorly, and to lead sedentary lives. These are personal choices-but every choice is made in context, and one's surroundings affect the choices one makes. "When people live in areas where there aren't supermarkets that sell fresh fruits and vegetables, their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables is dramatically lower," he says. "If people live in areas where there aren't sidewalks, where there aren't safe bike paths and places to walk and playgrounds, or where the rate of crime is so high that it's not safe to go outside, then their level of exercise is much lower and their rates of obesity are higher." Building parks and sidewalks and bringing farmers' markets to poor neighborhoods, then, makes it easier for residents to make healthy choices.


 


Another category of initiatives aims at improving living conditions for poor people by giving them vouchers to move to better neighborhoods, but the details are important, says Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, an HSPH associate professor of society, human development, and health. She is helping design the public-health component of one such program. Stemming from a landmark 2005 desegregation court case, it has already enabled about 1,300 former tenants of Baltimore public housing to move to suburban communities. "What people are expecting," she says, "is that if people move to a new neighborhood, they're automatically going to do better. Well, in fact, a lot of this is about connecting people to resources": for example, helping them find landlords who will rent to them-not the easiest thing in an unfamiliar neighborhood.


 


The aid doesn't stop there. Many doctors in affluent communities don't accept Medicaid; Acevedo-Garcia's proposal would have case workers help clients find doctors who do, and in some cases persuade doctors to start. "People may be used to doing their shopping at a convenience store or a liquor store," she says; case workers will tell them which grocery store has good produce at low prices, and where to catch the bus that will take them there. Something as simple as taking the new residents to a park can make a difference, she says: "They may not be used to the idea of exercising outside if they came from a neighborhood that was not safe."


 


Unequal Chances


"Adults' economic status is positively correlated with their parents' economic status in every society for which we have data," write Christopher Jencks and Laura Tach, a doctoral student in sociology and social policy, "but no democratic society is entirely comfortable with this fact." The prospect of upward mobility forms the very bedrock of the American dream, but analyses indicate that intergenerational mobility is no higher in the United States than in other developed democracies. In fact, a recent Brookings Institution report cites findings that intergenerational mobility is actually significantly higher in Norway, Finland, and Denmark-low-inequality countries where birth should be destiny if inequality, as some argue, fuels mobility.


 


In the United States, the correlation between parents' income and children's income is higher than chance: 42 percent of children born to parents in the bottom income quintile were still in the bottom quintile as adults, and 39 percent of children born to parents in the top quintile remained in the top quintile as adults, according to the Brookings analysis. But it is difficult to see whether mobility is increasing or decreasing, because it would require comparing specific individuals' incomes to their parents' incomes, against the wider backdrop of income distribution across society at that time. Because data with that level of detail do not exist for earlier periods, scholars can't say with certainty whether the results represent an increase or a decrease in mobility from other periods in American history.


 


Americans' steadfast belief in mobility probably stems from increases in absolute, rather than relative, mobility. As the overall economy mushroomed throughout the nation's history, the majority of people exceeded their parents' income. Recall Katz's apartment building analogy; rather than tenants moving from one floor to another, the entire building was shifting ever higher on a hill. But "if anything," Alesina and Glaeser write, "the American poor seem to be much more 'trapped' than their European counterparts," in the sense that fewer people who start life in the bottom quintile ever make it out.



This is puzzling given American society's emphasis on fairness and openness. Lee professor of economics Claudia Goldin and Katz detect an explanation in the increasing cost of collegetuition. In 1950, the average tuition price at a private college was roughly 14 percent of the U.S. median family income; public college tuition was even lower (only 4 percent). Percentages for both types of institutions fell further in the ensuing decades, bottoming out around 1980, but then rising steeply ever since. In 2005, the cost of attending the average public college was 11 percent of median family income; for private colleges, the average was 45 percent. There is financial aid, but not enough, and the system "can be harder to crack than Fort Knox," Katz and Goldin write in their new book, The Race between Education and Technology.


 


For most of the twentieth century, the average American exceeded his parents' education level by a significant margin: between 1900 and 1975, the average American's educational attainment grew by 6.2 years, or about 10 months per decade. Then, between 1975 and 1990, the authors find that there was "almost no increase at all"; from 1990 to 2000, there was a gain of just six months. Although college graduation rates for women are still rising steadily, for men they have barely increased since the days of the Vietnam draft.


 


At the same time, the "college wage premium" has also increased. In 1975, the average college graduate's hourly wage was 24 percent higher than the average high-school graduate's. By 2002, that number had risen to 43 percent. Katz and Goldin say this increase indicates higher demand for workers with college degrees, even as computers have eliminated the type of jobs a high-school-diploma recipient or mediocre college graduate would have done 25 years ago: clerical work, basic accounting, middle management. Technology has exerted downward pressure on those workers' pay, explaining stagnating wages at the middle and bottom of the income distribution.


 


The United States once led the world in the rate at which its citizens finished college; it now falls in the middle of the OECD pack. It could lead again if Americans made a decision to fund higher education the way they chose to fund universal public high-school education early in the last century. "If you had made people borrow money to go to high school in the early twentieth century," says Katz, "you wouldn't have seen the same sort of expansion." But as technology continues to advance, if Americans do not break down barriers to higher education, the authors foresee an even more acute shortage of highly trained workers-and, other things being equal, a further increase in inequality.


Elizabeth Gudrais '01 is associate editor of this magazine.


Copyright ©1996-2008, Harvard Magazine, Inc.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:32 PM 0 comments Links to this post

PRESS RELEASE

Growth of For-profit Education Management Organizations Now Leveling Off
July 30, 2008

CONTACT: Gary Miron -- (269) 599-7965; gary.miron@wmich.edu
Alex Molnar -- (480) 965-1886; epslmail@asu.edu

TEMPE, Ariz and BOULDER, Colo. (Wednesday, July 30, 2008) -- The 10th annual "Profiles of For-Profit Education Management Organizations: 2007-2008" released today finds that the growth of for-profit Education Management Organizations (EMOs) appears to be leveling off. The report was released by the Commercialism in Education Research Unit and the Education Policy Research Unit at ASU, and the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Key findings of the new report include:

1) In 2007-2008 the number of for-profit EMOs is substantially unchanged from 2006-2007. The report documents a net increase of two new companies profiled, bringing the total in the U.S. to 50 for-profit EMOs.

2) The overall number of schools managed by EMOs declined by 11 over the past year. In 2007-2008 a total of 533 schools were managed by for-profit EMOs. Edison Schools Inc. had the largest net decrease in the number of schools that it reported managing, from 97 to 80 schools.

3) Although the number of schools operated by EMOs decreased in 2007-2008, the total enrollment in the EMO-managed schools increased to 254,413. The report documents an overall increase of 16,000 students over the last two school years.

4) Most EMO-managed schools are charter schools (85%). A small but growing number (8%) are virtual schools.

5) Eighty-four percent of for-profit schools are managed by large EMOs (those managing more than 10 schools). Schools run by large EMOs account for 89 percent of students enrolled in for-profit schools.

6) Most EMO-managed schools are primary schools (60%). Primary schools run by large EMOs have a higher median enrollment than primary schools run by medium- and small-size EMOs.

Arizona State University Professor Alex Molnar, the lead author of the Profiles report, says, "while new smaller companies continue to enter the market, the for-profit school management industry continues to be dominated by larger EMOs that concentrate on primary schools enrolling relatively large numbers of students."

Co-author, Western Michigan University Professor Gary Miron points out "although the data suggest that the growth of EMOs has slowed and is leveling off, many of the medium and large-size EMOs have been diversifying and expanding into new service areas, such as the provision of supplemental education services -- a sector that is less regulated and shows growth potential."

CONTACT:
Gary Miron, Professor
Western Michigan University
269-599-7965
gary.miron@wmich.edu

Alex Molnar, Professor and Director
Commercialism in Education Research Unit
Education Policy Research Unit
480-965-1886
epslmail@asu.edu
http://edpolicylab.org

**********

Labels: For-profit Education Management Organizations (EMOs)

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 1:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Interesting piece that needs to get un-packed. The immigration policy and pre-immigration socioeconomic status and schooling differences together with the present discriminatory landscape in the U.S. needs to get figured into this analysis. These are hinted at but are largely unexplored.

-Angela


Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?
Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas.
By Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 16, 2008
The eight students walked into a room at Lincoln High School prepared to discuss an issue many people, including some of their teachers, considered taboo.

They were blunt. Carlos Garcia, 17, an A student with a knack for math, said, "My friends, most of them say, 'You're more Asian than Hispanic.' "
 

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"I think Carlos is Asian at heart," said Julie Loc, 17, causing Carlos to laugh good-naturedly. Asian students who get middling grades often get another response, she said.

"They say, 'Are you really Asian?' " Julie said.

"It's sad but true," said Eliseo Garcia, a 17-year-old with long rocker hair, an easy manner and good grades. "I had an Asian friend, but he didn't necessarily get that great a grades. We used to say, 'He's Mexican at heart.' "

What accounts for such self-deprecating humor? Or the uneven academic performance that prompts it?

The state's top education official, Supt. Jack O'Connell, called for that kind of discussion last fall when he decried the "racial achievement gap" separating Asian and non-Latino white students from Latinos and blacks.

At The Times' request, the Eastside students gathered to talk about this touchy subject.

Lincoln Heights is mostly a working-class Mexican American area, but it's also a first stop for Asian immigrants, many of them ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam.

With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.

Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian.

"A lot of my friends say the achievement gap is directly attributable to the socioeconomic status of students, and that is not completely accurate," O'Connell said. "It is more than that."

But what is it? O'Connell called a summit in Sacramento that drew 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts to tackle the issue. Some teachers stomped out in frustration and anger.

No Lincoln students stomped out of their discussion. Neither did any teachers in a similar Lincoln meeting. But the observations were frank, and they clearly made some uncomfortable.

To begin with, the eight students agreed on a few generalities: Latino and Asian students came mostly from poor and working-class families.

According to a study of census data, 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the neighborhoods around Lincoln High have median annual household incomes below $50,000. And yet the Science Bowl team is 90% Asian, as is the Academic Decathlon team.

"Look at the statistics. It's true," said George De La Paz, 17, whose single mother works as a house cleaner.

Asian parents are more likely to pressure their children to excel academically, the students agreed.

"They only start paying attention if I don't do well," said Karen Chu, 15, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam. "They don't reward me for getting straight A's. I don't get anything for that. But if I get a B, they're like, 'What's this?' "

If her grades slipped, she said, her parents laid on the guilt extra thick. "My parents are always like, 'If you don't do well in school, then it's all going to be worth nothing,' " Karen said, laughing nervously.

Julie Loc, the daughter of a seamstress and a produce-truck driver, said that if she gets a B, her parents ask whether she needs tutoring. She said her father used to compare her to other people's children, noting their hard course loads or saying, "They have a 4.3 [grade-point average]. Why do you only have a 4.0?' "

Julie said her mother, Kin Ho, finally told her father to stop making comparisons. Ho, in an interview, said with a slightly embarrassed smile, "My daughter has embraced American culture, where she expects my reassurance and approval. Our children, if they did something well, they would ask us if we were proud of them, if they did good. They ask if we love them."

George said his mother, a Mexican immigrant, has high expectations for him too, but she is not so white-knuckled when it comes to school. She wants him to do well -- he's now thinking of college -- but the field of endeavor is up to him.

"She said, 'I came here to do better for you,' " he said. "But that's about it. Being happy and getting by, that's what she wants."

For Carlos Garcia, the one with the knack for math, the message from his parents was to focus on school. Neither got to finish grade school in their native countries.

His mother, Maribel, from El Salvador, is a homemaker; his father, Santos, a Mexican immigrant, is a drywall finisher who once took Carlos and his older brother to work with him -- to scare them away from manual labor. Two of their children have college degrees, one is still in college and Carlos, the only Latino on Lincoln's Academic Decathlon team, wants to attend Caltech.

Ericka Saracho, 16, an A student, said her Latino family did not push her to do well in school. When she got a rare B, "they're like, 'Oh, wow, Ericka finally got a B! How do you feel about that?' " she said. She is one of the few Latina students on Lincoln's Science Bowl team.

The students talked not just about parental expectations, but also about those of peers. Karen drew laughter when she said of other students, "They expect me to be smart. Even if, like, I do everything wrong on purpose, they still copy off of me -- as if I'm right just because I'm Asian."

She said expectations came into play in an even odder way in Lincoln High's hallways.

"In our school we have tardy sweeps, and normally the staff members let the Asians go," Karen said. "They don't really care if we're late."

The group, nodding, erupted into laughter. "They don't even ask them for a pass sometimes," George added.

"Generally speaking -- like it's stereotypical that Asians all do better -- I also think there's a stereotypical view that Asians are usually late," Julie said. "They'll come to school late, but they'll get to class and do their work."

This drew more laughter.

Many factors influence academic performance: class size, poverty, and school and neighborhood resources. But as the discussions at Lincoln show, expectations loom large.

Fidel Nava, a coordinator for English learners at Lincoln, said some Latino students say that Asians get higher grades simply because, well, they're Asian.

"In a sense, they have come to believe that it's OK for Asians to be smart and not for Hispanics," said Nava, who immigrated from Mexico at 14.

Nava, the only one of six siblings to go to college, said he was once like many of his students. His parents wanted the children to finish high school, but there also was an expectation that they get jobs and help the family.

"A lot of my relatives don't see my job as a stressful job at all," Nava said. "If I tell them I'm tired, they say, 'Why? You're not doing any labor. You're not doing anything.' "

Rocio Chavez, 18, said that even though her older sister graduated from high school, their mother didn't really expect her to go to college.

"I guess she didn't expect that from me, either," Rocio said. "And now that I'm going to move on to college, she's kind of scared. She gets kind of sad I'm leaving. She's like, 'You're supposed to graduate from high school, go to work and help me out.' "

Frank D. Bean, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, has studied the Mexican work ethic and found that work and education occupy the same pedestal, and in some cases, work is even more valued.

Bean said his research shows that children of Latino immigrants, if they drop out of school, are more likely to be working than most other students who leave school.

"In Latino families, being able to work to provide defines your manhood, your worthiness," said Min Zhou, a UCLA sociology professor who has studied working-class Korean and Chinese communities.

Latino and Asian families in Lincoln Heights were essentially in the same socioeconomic boat, she said, but Asian immigrants were more likely to have been more affluent and had better education opportunities in their native countries.

Of course, there are exceptions to stereotypes at Lincoln. "My mom just wants me to pass," said Thin Lam, 17.

But Thin said counselors assumed he wanted to take a slew of AP classes, and a counselor urged him to take AP calculus.

"I said, 'Yeah, sure, I want to take it,' " he said. "In the end, I dropped it."

A few hours after the eight students concluded their discussion, some teachers gathered in Principal James Molina's office.

"I feel a little bit uncomfortable talking about racial and ethnic generalizations," said Cynthia High, a 20-year teaching veteran now in charge of teachers' aides and other programs.

"In some situations, it sparks a good conversation. In others, it's more taboo-ish to talk about it," said William Olmedo, who teaches AP physics.

Barbara Paulson, who coordinates Lincoln's magnet program and teaches AP biology, said it had been understood for a long time that teachers needed to try harder to recruit Latino students for AP classes because "the Asian kids come on in droves."

Gilbert Martinez, who teaches AP government, said he didn't think the school did as good a job as it could to raise expectations among Latino students and to get them into AP classes.

"But I do," Paulson said.

"I'm not saying you, Barbara. I'm saying all over."

Olmedo said many capable Latino students refused to take AP classes or join other academically rigorous activities.

Teachers said they were saddened by self-defeating attitudes.

"I think the thing I always hear from the Latino kids is, 'Oh, well, Miss, he's Asian, she's Asian. Of course they do well,' " said Alli Lauer, who teaches English. "It's frustrating to hear them do it to each other."

But as one student said in a separate interview, many Latino students are responding to cues. Johana Najera, 17, said the Academic Decathlon offers a not-so-subtle cue about who belongs.

"We already know that it's Asian, and they kind of market it more for Asians," Najera said. She noted that the shirts for the Academic Decathlon team have a logo done in the style of anime, Japanese animation. "It appeals more to Asian students," she said.

Martinez turned the conversation toward parents' attitudes, summarizing a discussion from one of his Chicano studies classes.

"Let's say a Latino student is studying and an Asian student is studying," Martinez said. "The Latino parent will often say, 'Hey, come help me out real quick, then you can go back to your studying.' Where the Asian parent will say, 'Oh, you're doing your homework. OK, you finish, and then after you're done, you come help me.' "

High recalled a good Latino student she had a few years ago. He also was a gang member.

"He would wear baggy pants, and he would load up his pants with books," she said. "He looked around to make sure no one was seeing him so he could look like the baddest kid in the block."

The teachers were then asked about tardy sweeps, the topic the students had found so amusing. Was it true that Asians could wander outside class without a hall pass?

"My Asian kids laugh at that," Olmedo said. "I say, 'Take the pass.' They say, 'I'm Asian. Who's going to ask an Asian student for a pass?' "

"Oh, you're kidding!" High said with a gasp.

"I'll send one of my [Latino] boys out just to get water, and here comes the security, 'Please make sure you send him out with a pass,' and I'll say I will," Olmedo continued. "And the Asian kid will walk around the whole campus, the whole day, the whole week, for a whole month!"

Don Brewer, an English teacher, said some Latino students were allowed to slide by without hall passes, including athletes and others involved in school activities.

"But you know," Brewer said, "when you're looking down the hall and you see that one kid pop out, you go, 'OK, he's Asian. I can go back in.' You know, I think that happens. It's obvious it happens."

High shook her head. "But I must say I don't feel comfortable with that. And if we're doing that, that's not OK. That's just not OK."

"Oh, it's happening," Olmedo said. "It's happening."

hector.becerra@latimes.com

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:27 AM 0 comments Links to this post

This is big step in a positive direction!
-Patricia

By JEFF CARLTON
Associated Press
July 26th 2008

DALLAS — A federal judge on Friday gave the state of Texas until the end of January to come up with a plan to improve education programs for secondary school students with limited proficiency in English, criticizing the state education agency for "failing to ensure equal education opportunities in all schools."

U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice said the Texas Education Agency is violating the civil rights of Spanish-speaking students under the federal Equal Education Opportunity Act. Furthermore, the state's monitoring of programs for students with limited English-language skills is "fatally flawed" because of unqualified monitors, undercounting of students with limited English proficiency and arbitrary standards, Justice said.

The 1981 Bilingual and Special Education Programs Act, a measure passed by the Texas Legislature 27 years ago that staved off court action addressing discrimination in Texas schools, has not improved the schooling of secondary students with limited English proficiency, Justice ruled.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, an organization that helped litigate the case on behalf of other advocacy groups, said primarily Spanish-speaking students in Texas have higher dropout rates, lower graduation rates and lower achievement rates than their English-speaking counterparts.

"The clear failure of secondary LEP students unquestionably demonstrates that, despite its efforts, TEA has not met its obligation to remedy the language deficiencies of Texas students," Justice wrote. "After a quarter century of sputtering implementation, defendants have failed to achieve results that demonstrate they are overcoming language barriers for secondary LEP students. Failed implementation cannot prolong the existence of a failed program in perpetuity."

The ruling gave the TEA until Jan. 31, 2009, to come up with plans to improve secondary school programs for students with limited English proficiency and the monitoring of those programs. Those plans must be implemented by the 2009-10 school year.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe declined to comment Friday night, saying she hadn't seen the ruling.

In a statement, MALDEF hailed the ruling as the "most comprehensive legal decision concerning the civil rights of English language learners in the last 25 years."

Justice's ruling affects "every single high school in Texas," Luis Figueroa, a MALDEF attorney, told the Associated Press. "Every school district is going to have to realize the TEA is going to be looking at their accountability of English language learners."

Justice did say in the ruling that the problems in secondary schools are not seen in the state's elementary school programs.

Labels: bilingual education, English language learners

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:25 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out the full report: PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Information Technology

-Patricia

As Californians Broaden Use of Web, Latino and Low-income Residents Left Behind

SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 25, 2008 — At least half of Californians go online to get news, make purchases, look for health information, or visit government websites. But as the state’s residents integrate the Internet into their daily lives, there are signs that the digital divide is widening for some groups, particularly Latino and low-income residents. These are among the key findings in a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) in collaboration with the California Emerging Technology Fund.

Californians value access to the web: Nearly all Internet users (92%) say it is at least somewhat important in everyday life, and even 56 percent of those who don’t go online agree. But disparities in Californians’ use of technology reveal a digital divide: Residents who are white, black, or over age 55 have significantly increased their use of computers and the Internet since 2000, while Latinos, Asians, and low-income residents have not.

“Many Californians go online to research the decisions they make as voters, taxpayers, and consumers,” says Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. “Yet there are tremendous differences in access to critical information that put many at a disadvantage in their everyday lives. At a time when technology’s role is growing and in a state that has led the way, this poses a major policy challenge.”

Computer Use Similar in California and Nation

Three in four Californians (75%) use a computer at home, school, or work, a statistic that has held steady since 2000. A 2008 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found similar results (74%) nationwide. The percentage of Californians who use the Internet has increased since 2000, from 65 percent to 70 percent. Today, Californians and adults across the nation are equally likely to have Internet access at home (63% vs. 62% in the 2008 Pew survey) and a broadband connection (55% each).

White, Black, Older Californians Increase Use

Differences emerge in the way demographic groups use technology.

* Race/ethnicity: Since 2000, computer use has grown among whites (79% to 85%) and blacks (76% to 83%), as has Internet use (70% to 81% for whites, 60% to 82% for blacks). Among Latinos, computer use has declined (64% to 58%) and Internet use is unchanged (47% to 48%). Asians have seen declines in both their use of computers (91% to 81%) and the Internet (84% to 80%).
* Age and income: Internet use has grown sharply among those age 55 and older (42% to 58%), but not among adults with household incomes less than $40,000 (47% to 49%). Adults under age 35 are more likely to use the Internet (78%) than older adults. Almost all adults with household incomes of $80,000 or more use computers (94%) and the Internet (92%).

Fewer Latinos Have Computers, Web Access at Home

A digital divide is also apparent among ethnic/racial groups, income levels, and regions when comparing rates of computer ownership, Internet access, and broadband connections at home.

* Race/ethnicity: Less than half of Latinos (48%) have a home computer compared to about eight in 10 or more for whites (86%), Asians (84%), and blacks (79%). Just four in 10 Latinos (40%) have Internet access and a third (34%) broadband connection at home. In contrast, majorities in other racial or ethnic groups have both Internet access and broadband.
* Income: Among households with incomes under $40,000, half have home computers, but only four in 10 (40%) have home Internet access and just a third (33%) have broadband. At higher income levels, overwhelming majorities of Californians have home computers, Internet access, and broadband.
* Region: Majorities in each region of the state say they have home computers and Internet access, but Los Angeles residents report lower rates of broadband connection (48%) than residents in the San Francisco Bay Area (65%), Orange County/San Diego (58%), Inland Empire (56%), and Central Valley (53%). Rural residents are somewhat less likely than urban residents to have a computer (65% vs. 73%), Internet connection (58% vs. 63%), or broadband (51% vs. 56%).

What Are Californians Doing Online?

Californians are far more likely than they were in 1999 (PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government, September 1999) to report that they go online to shop (52% vs. 30% in 1999) or get news about current events (55% vs. 43% in 1999), and slightly more likely to seek information about their work or jobs (49% vs. 45% in 1999). Half of Californians (50%) look for health information online or visit government websites. Less than half (47%) bank or manage finances online or look for community events and activities (47%). Fewer go online to use government resources, such as downloading forms (43%); get housing or real estate information (40%); engage in education activities, such as taking a class (27%); or use social networking sites (26%), such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn.

Stark differences emerge in the way demographic groups use the Internet. Latinos are more likely than they were in 1999 to go online for news (35% vs. 28%), but far less likely to do so than whites (67%), blacks (62%), and Asians (61%). Comparing age groups, most people under age 35 (62%) and between ages 35 and 54 (61%) get news online, compared to 41 percent of residents age 55 and older.

While more Latinos report shopping on the web today (29% vs. 16% in 1999), they are far less likely than whites (67%), blacks (63%), or Asians (58%) to research or make purchases online. Among other differences:

* Health information: While half of Californians say they get health information online, lower income adults (30%) and Latinos (31%) are the least likely to do so.
* Social networking: Half of residents under age 35 use social networking sites, compared to 20 percent in the 35-54 age group and 8 percent of adults over age 55.
* School websites: More than half of parents (56%) visit their children’s school websites. However, only 30 percent of those with household incomes under $40,000 do so, compared to 84 percent of those with incomes of $80,000 or more.

Who’s Texting?
Some experts have suggested that mobile devices may be the platform to bridge the digital divide because a phone and service plan costs less than a computer and Internet connection. In California, 75 percent of all adults and solid majorities in all demographic categories have cell phones. Whites (83%) and blacks (78%) are more likely than Asians (72%) and Latinos (63%) to have cell phones.



Nearly six in 10 use their cell phones to send or receive text messages, and younger residents (87%) are the most likely to do so. They are also most likely to use their cell phones for email or to access the Internet. Overall, one in four Californians uses cell phones for email (26%) or to go online (25%).

More Key Findings:

* More have DSL connections – Page 12
To access the Internet, 29 percent have DSL, 19 percent have cable modems, 5 percent have wireless, and 2 percent have fiber optic or T-1 connections. Just 7 percent have dial-up connections.
* Most say cities should provide free wireless – Page 19
As local governments consider the benefits and difficulties of providing free wireless Internet access, 67 percent of Californians say it is a good idea and 26 percent say it is a bad one.
* Comfort with technology, worries about security – Pages 20, 21
Internet users are comfortable using technology but less confident that they can keep viruses and spyware out of their computers. They’re even less confident about the security and privacy of financial transactions online.
* Californians concerned about digital divide – Page 22
Two-thirds (65%) think Californians in lower-income areas are less likely to have broadband Internet access, and nearly as many (62%) are at least somewhat concerned about the disparities.

About the Survey

This is the first survey in a series on public opinion and information technology conducted with funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and ZeroDivide. The report is based on a telephone survey of 2,503 California adult residents, including 2,253 interviewed on landline telephones and 250 on cell phones, conducted between June 3 and June 17, 2008. Interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese), Vietnamese, and Korean. The sampling error for the 2,503 adults is +/- 2%. The sampling error for subgroups is larger. For more information on methodology, see page 25.

Mark Baldassare is president and CEO of PPIC, where he holds the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Chair in Public Policy. He is founder of the PPIC Statewide Survey which he has directed since 1998. This is the 87th PPIC Statewide Survey in a series that has generated a database that includes the responses of more than 185,000 Californians.

PPIC is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues. The institute was established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett. PPIC does not take or support positions on any ballot measure or on any local, state, or federal legislation, nor does it endorse, support, or oppose any political parties or candidates for public office.

Labels: California, technology

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:25 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's the link to check out the full report
-Patricia




AT RECORD LEVEL, VOTERS SAY FINANCIAL TROUBLES MOUNT
By Karen de Sá | Mercury News
07/25/2008

In a half-century of polling, the independent, non-partisan Field Research has never recorded so many Californians reporting woeful financial conditions as this month: A record 63 percent now say they are worse off than they were a year ago.

Eighty-six percent of registered voters surveyed this month feel California is in "bad" economic times, but those are only the numbers. The reality behind them affects the young and old, with retirees lining up for handouts for the first time ever, and children at risk of hunger.

Survey respondent Milton Cadena of San Jose has his own worries at home, then goes to work to face even greater desperation. As a manager for Catholic Charities, his salary from a non-profit agency has remained flat, forcing his wife to seek work instead of caring full time for the couple's two small children. The family gave up on new clothes, and no longer visits Santa Cruz and Monterey on weekends - instead walking to local parks to save on gas.

Arriving at work at the Eastside Neighborhood Center in Alum Rock, Cadena is among the fortunate. The number of senior citizens showing up for free lunches each weekday has doubled in the past year from 50 people to more than 100.

Young mothers and children have been turned away so often from the elders-only lunch that the agency launched an informal food handout with donations from local grocers. Now, more than 100 people regularly line up for eggs, tortillas, milk and juice.

"They are outside waiting for that food at least once a week," Cadena said.

In the latest of a series of survey results released this month, the Field Poll - which began polling in 1961 - found unprecedented expressions of economic hardship.

Low-income residents reported the greatest hardship in this month's random sample of 422 registered voters statewide, with 72 percent saying they were worse off than last year. But even the more comfortable classes reported taking hits: 66 percent of middle-income residents reported an income loss, and 49 percent of those with household incomes of more than $100,000 did as well.

Almost half of all respondents expected no improvement in their crumbling financial state and nearly a quarter think it will get worse.

"This is really showing that the economic downturn is affecting a broad base of people, broader than we've seen in previous downturns," said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo, noting gas prices and the plunge in stocks and home values as drivers of the economic woes. "People are seeing a lot of their assets deteriorate."

Even the relatively comfortable expressed concern.

Laura Dingler, a self-described stay-at-home mom, said life in unincorporated Menlo Park is fine - for now. Dingler and her partner, a lawyer representing area school districts, are raising their two daughters with no significant income reduction over last year.

But there's plenty keeping the couple "in a fog of nervousness," Dingler said.

Schools are so strapped they could soon cut back on lawyer services. And the couple's mortgage is with IndyMac Bank, which collapsed this month in a major bank failure.

The Field Poll found still others whose trouble had already blown indoors.

Menus have changed this year for Elizabeth B. Williams of Oakland, who retired from the dry-cleaning industry and at age 81 is raising an 11-year-old adopted daughter on a fixed income. For the first time in her life, she is relying heavily on charity.

"A year ago, I could afford to buy what I needed," Williams said. "Now everything is just sky-high."

Williams no longer can pay for a much-needed paint job on her house, and she can't fix a broken toilet. Dinner was sometimes steak or roast; now it's only beans and meatloaf, or the chicken legs occasionally handed out at the food bank she visits each week.

After a lifetime of work, it's humiliating, Williams said. "I feel very small. Very inadequate."

Labels: California

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:09 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This is outrageous. Yet another example of the negative effects of Homeland Security's overtaking of immigration and its treatment of undocumented workers.

You can also read more about the interpretor mentioned in this article from a previous post on this blog entitled "An Interpretor Speaking up for Migrants"

Here's the link to check out the "Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act of 2004"

-Patricia


by Jennifer Ludden
NPR Morning Edition
July 24, 2008

· For years, the chief punishment for immigrants caught working illegally in the United States has been deportation. But prosecutors are now bringing criminal charges that include aggravated identity theft, which can bring a hefty prison sentence. Immigrant rights groups and some members of Congress are challenging the practice.

A congressional panel is meeting Thursday to look at the controversial fallout from an immigration raid on an Iowa meat-packing plant in May. Not long ago, illegal immigrants swept up in such raids faced administrative charges and swift deportation. But in recent years, the Bush administration has started bringing criminal charges against immigrants who use fake documents, including stolen Social Security numbers.

After the raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, more than 250 workers were sentenced to five months in prison. Rights groups, defense lawyers and even some judges are questioning the Bush administration's strategy.

Iowa immigration attorney Dan Vondra says he was stunned to see immigrant workers from the plant charged with aggravated identity theft. Congress created that law in 2004 to toughen penalties for the growing problem of identity theft.

Still, Vondra said, "When you think of identity theft, what you really want to target is somebody getting credit cards in your name, ruining your credit, using your name to commit crimes, things of that nature."

The immigrants had bought stolen Social Security numbers to help them find work, Vondra said. In fact, one of the translators at the court proceedings has said the mainly Guatemalan immigrants he encountered had no idea what a Social Security card was — let alone that the numbers on it belonged to real people.

Challenges In The Courts

Last year, another Iowa attorney used that argument in court. Gary Koos' client had been arrested at a concrete company after buying an ID off the street in order to fill out employment forms. Koos didn't think that fit the crime of aggravated identity theft.

"If you want to think of it in legal terms, it would be that a person has to be put upon notice of what the crime is," Koos said. "And in this case, it's knowingly to use someone else's identity. My client didn't know he had someone else's Social Security number, he just had a number."

Koos lost the case on appeal, and his immigrant client is now serving five years in federal prison. But Koos' argument has been backed by other appeals courts — and he thinks the Supreme Court may need to resolve the dispute.

The issue is coming up more often because of another part of the Bush administration's immigration crackdown. More and more companies are using a federal computer program that can detect fake Social Security numbers. But it can't tell when real numbers are used by another person — which has fueled a growing market for stolen IDs.

"The issue is whether people using false identifications should be held accountable for that," said Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in northern Iowa, which prosecuted the Agriprocessors case.

Teig said he didn't know whether any of the workers charged with aggravated ID theft had used Social Security numbers for anything but work. But that's not the point, he said.

"The point is, by the time it happens it's too late. The statute is not just designed to punish, the statute is designed to prevent," Teig said.

A Stiff Mandatory Sentence

To be clear, the Agriprocessors employees did not plead guilty to aggravated ID theft. But because the charge carries a two-year prison sentence as its mandatory minimum, it put pressure on them to accept a plea deal on lesser charges.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has called for a hearing to look at that procedure. She's also an immigration attorney, and she questions whether due process was upheld.

"Hundreds of people were convinced to plead guilty to a crime without really an adequate opportunity to see if they had any remedy under immigration law," Lofgren said. "And of course, now that they've pled guilty to a crime, they have no remedies that they might otherwise have had."

Not all arrested immigrant workers are being sentenced to jail time. But federal immigration officials say incarceration can be an important deterrent. And Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that some victims of this kind of ID theft suffer financial and legal hardships.

"We think it's tragic and unfortunate when people break the law by coming here," Myers said, "and then break the law again by actually stealing the identity of U.S. citizens."

So far this year, the immigration agency has made more than 900 criminal arrests.

Labels: immigration

posted by Patricia Lopez at 1:45 PM 0 comments Links to this post

In the little time I've spent working with Austin HS students (young women) I can say that talking about sexuality is a major topic of discussion for them. A policy that places stringent limits their ability to discuss and gain information on this issue is very counterproductive to preparing youth for life. My personal opinion.

-Patricia

Area schools differ in what they tell teens about sex, but not by much.

By Melissa Mixon | AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, July 14, 2008

When it comes to sex, what kids are taught in school varies widely from state to state and often from school district to school district.

In Texas, the education code treats human sexuality differently from the rest of the public school curriculum. Unlike subjects such as English or history, course materials dealing with sexual issues are reviewed by local advisory councils of parents and community representatives, with the specific content of what's taught to be decided by each school board.

But local latitude goes only so far, thanks to Texas' appetite for federally funded abstinence programs — it leads the nation in spending for abstinence instruction— and the state's restrictions on what teachers may tell their students about sex and contraceptives.

In the Austin Independent School District, high school teachers routinely leave pamphlets and brochures about teen pregnancy, contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases on a table in the classroom. But their health textbooks omit information on contraceptives, which is relegated to an optional supplement.

As in all public schools in Texas, Austin district teachers are forbidden to hand out condoms, and the district does not allow instruction on proper use. The state requires that information about condoms be given "in terms of human use reality rates" — an estimate that condoms are effective, on average, only 85 percent of the time, with failures usually due to improper handling or inconsistent use.

That's in contrast to some schools in California, where teachers can demonstrate how to wear condoms by rolling them onto bananas. And in Portland, Maine, school board members approved a measure last year that allows middle school students, who range from 11 to 15 years old, to get birth control prescriptions from the school's health center.

Twenty years ago, Texas teachers had more freedom to talk about condoms and birth control methods as part of health courses that covered a broad range of sexual, reproductive and family issues. That is now considered "comprehensive" sex education. With few exceptions, it is a thing of the past in Texas public schools.

That dismays state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who co-authored abstinence legislation in 1995, believing it still gave school districts room to fully inform students about condom and contraceptive use. Instead, he said, conservatives have used the education code to limit what students are taught.

"Abstinence should be discussed like a method of birth control, but that's where they're not following the law," Coleman said. "I think they're just saying, 'Don't have sex.' "

Indeed, individual school districts could have a broader discussion about sexual matters in the classroom if they want to, said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. And though Texas schools are not required to teach sex education, state curriculum standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) set expectations regarding knowledge of sexual matters, she said.

"We set the ultimate goal so that students will know about sex education and abstinence, but we don't tell districts how to achieve that goal. We give them the flexibility to decide how," Ratcliffe said.

Few school districts have done so, leaving some teachers uncertain how much information they can give their students.

"That's something (the Hays school district) is looking at right now. How far can we go when we're talking about contraception?" said Whitney Self, a health teacher at Chapa Middle School.

'It breaks my heart'

Some parents say that more information about sexual matters is better than none.

Magdalena Cano said that while she was growing up her mother made her "scared to death to talk about sex." So Cano, now 40, vowed to be honest and open with her own daughter about sex. It's especially important to her now that her 16-year-old daughter, Jessica Enyioha, a Crockett High School student, is dating for the first time.

Cano said she wants schools to teach everything about sex.

"Condoms, birth control, STDs, everything," said Cano, who sees many pregnant teens in her job as a family support worker with Healthy Families Travis County.

"Unfortunately, in the program I work with, we're seeing the moms younger and younger, so I really feel like the more information, the better," said Cano. "It's not to say (getting pregnant) won't happen, but hopefully they'll make informed decisions."

The same goes for Mary Galer, a grandmother to three teenage girls, one of whom is eight months pregnant.

"She'll have the baby while she's 16," Galer said of her granddaughter, who recently graduated from Crockett. "It breaks my heart."

Galer said she recently enrolled her 14-year-old granddaughter, the youngest of the three, in teen pregnancy prevention classes at the University of Texas campus. "With the youngest," Galer said of her granddaughter, "there's still hope."

But Monica Reyes, the mother of two boys in Hyde Park Baptist School, said instruction on sex and contraceptives should take place at home, not school, and that discussing these subjects with her children is her "right as a parent."

A 2006 national survey reported that 82 percent of parents want sex education that teaches students about not only abstinence but other methods of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, such as condoms and birth control methods. The survey, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, showed that 68.5 percent of parents want schools to teach proper use of condoms. Years before, another survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found similar results.

Abstinence proponents hail their own study, done by Zogby International in 2003, which found that the majority of parents support values taught in abstinence-only programs, teaching, for instance, that sex should be linked to love and intimacy, which are most likely to occur in the context of marriage.

'A no, no, no thing'

Texas leads the nation in the amount of federal funding it gets for abstinence programs (almost $17 million, matched with $3 million in state funds last year), which trickles down to more than 1,200 school districts and charter schools through direct grants and grants to private contractors. The money has a single purpose: teaching "the social psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity."

Even school districts that don't take the money, such as Austin, may contract with companies that do, and that abstinence instruction is defined by federal strictures. School districts that do neither are still bound by the state education code, which is similarly restrictive.

Ten school districts in Central Texas, including Austin, Eanes, Hays and Leander, have policies emphasizing that abstinence be taught as the only sure protection from pregnancy and STDs and limiting instruction on contraceptives. The Austin district's policy does allow "spontaneous class discussions generated by student questions."

Rita Gonzales, a health teacher at Bowie High School, said she is comfortable having discussions about contraceptives with her students. "We're hoping that the kids would stay abstinent until they are married, but we're not stopped from talking about birth control. We just can't show them how to use it."

However, she said talking about condoms was "like a no, no, no thing" in the mid-1990s when she taught at Leander High School. "We weren't told either way, but it was assumed we couldn't," Gonzales said.

In the six years that Jan Halstead has been executive director of abstinence programs in the Leander schools, she does not remember a time when teachers couldn't discuss contraceptives, though she said the district's sex education policy changed about the time she started.

"The way it's generally presented is, if you're in a relationship — if you're married — and you don't want to have a baby, here are some preventative methods," Halstead said. "If you use this method, this is the percentage of times that it works and here's the time it doesn't work."

The abstinence message is not only about sex. It also emphasizes self-empowerment, self-respect and being comfortable with setting physical boundaries. The idea is that choosing to refrain from sex will not only prevent a pregnancy or an STD, but lead to a healthy lifestyle, with fewer distractions from school and a better relationship with parents.

As a component of the health course that's required for high school graduation, abstinence programs are the only portion of the academic curriculum routinely taught by outside contractors instead of accredited teachers.

"The law is broad enough that any course could be contracted out, but it's still a rarity," said the TEA's Ratcliffe.

Tracy Lunoff, the Austin district's school health coordinator, said there's a difference between teaching a class and presenting one, and abstinence contractors simply add to information teachers already have given students.

"We assume that (the contractors) have done their own pre-screening of their volunteers," she said.

mmixon@statesman.com, 246-0043

AUSTIN DISTRICT POLICY

Curriculum content shall ... include the most current and scientifically accurate information regarding child and adolescent health issues, contraception and accurate information on failure rates, and risk reduction of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV.

Abstinence shall be taught as the only sure protection from risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection.

Contraceptive devices shall not be demonstrated nor disseminated in district facilities.

Spontaneous class discussions generated by student questions shall not be precluded by this policy.

The Texas Education Code

Any course materials and instruction relating to human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases or Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ... must teach contraception and condom use in terms of human use reality rates instead of theoretical laboratory rates, if instruction on contraception and condoms is included in curriculum content.

Labels: sexuality

posted by Patricia Lopez at 1:23 PM 0 comments Links to this post

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out given this is a highly affluent school.
-Patricia

Parents and youths act after testing services nullify 385 students' results because at least 10 cheated and some test proctors were seen sleeping or reading.
By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2008
Calling themselves Justice for 375, a group of Orange County parents and students says it's ready to fight a decision to cancel the high schoolers' Advanced Placement test scores amid allegations of numerous testing violations at the school.

They gathered at a Rancho Santa Margarita park Wednesday evening to protest actions by the College Board and the Educational Testing Service to invalidate the scores of 690 college-level exams taken in May by hundreds of Trabuco Hills High School students.

By the end of the evening, they had a plan to mount public and legal pressure to force the testing agencies to reinstate scores for students who say they are innocent of cheating and fear that the score cancellations will jeopardize years of study.

It is one of the largest AP test imbroglios in a decade, according to the Educational Testing Service, and perhaps the most memorable in Southern California since 1982, when the scores of more than a dozen students in Jaime Escalante's AP calculus class at Garfield High School were invalidated because of suspected cheating. The students retook the exams and passed, and the events were later turned into the film "Stand and Deliver."

Parents and students are pointing fingers at Trabuco Hills High officials for mismanaging the exams taken by 385 students in early May. They say there were insufficient proctors in exam rooms and there was inadequate monitoring of students, who were allowed to sit too close together and face one another. Some proctors were seen reading or sleeping, and some left the rooms, according to students.

Amid the alleged lax attention, 10 students later conceded having cheated on statistics and macroeconomics exams by using cellphones to send text messages. Use of electronic devices is not allowed in rooms.

The Mission Viejo school, meanwhile, has reassigned an assistant principal who had been in charge of administering the exams, and it might mete out more punishment.

The Saddleback Valley Unified School District is weighing its legal options, consulting counsel for the Orange County Department of Education in advance of a third appeal to the testing agencies to reconsider their decision.

In a statement released Thursday, district Supt. Steven L. Fish said that "the arbitrary decision by the Educational Testing Service to cancel all student scores for 10 different Advanced Placement [exams] is of great magnitude and affects nearly 400 students."

"It is overly punitive and devastating to Trabuco Hills High School, the district and this community. While we admit some mistakes were made, to punish innocent groups of students is unprofessional and unnecessary."

Dan McClure, 18, who started a Facebook website group for disgruntled parents and students and was appointed a co-chairman of Justice for 375, said six of his AP scores -- macro and microeconomics, biology, English, chemistry and statistics -- were nullified. AP exams test college-level work in 22 subject areas that can earn students credit and advanced placement at most colleges and universities.

"At first I thought, No, this can't be serious," the UC Berkeley-bound McClure said. "I was mad to say the least; I had to get people together. The only way we can do this is to show them that they can't walk all over us."

But the group will face a tough road. The Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service, which administers AP exams, the SAT and other tests for the College Board, insisted Thursday that reinstating the scores was off the table, setting up a classic showdown with irate parents who see trusted educational institutions -- in this case the testing agencies and the school -- letting them down.

"For some of these students, it's the difference between entering college as a freshman or a sophomore," said David McClure, Dan's father. "It's a first year of college credits; that's how much it's going to cost these students."

Retesting has been scheduled for the week of Aug. 11. But many parents and students say the dates conflict with long-planned vacations and other commitments. Many say it will be difficult to prepare, again, for the tests.

Roger Faubel said that in a celebratory gesture, his daughter Alex, 18, burned the notes for four exams whose scores were subsequently canceled.

"Nobody has told the students how they're going to get their primary textbooks to study," he said, noting that most school offices are closed and teachers are away for the summer. "If they are going to do something, they need to do something to help the students soon."

It's definitely unfortunate, said Testing Service spokesman Jason Baran. The vast majority of students were honest, he conceded. If there had just been cheating, he said, only those students' scores would be affected. But rampant irregularities at the test site left the agency no choice.

"Because of the overwhelming number of irregularities, the possibility exists that cheating was much more widespread," he said. "When it comes to reporting scores back to students, high schools and universities, we need to have scores that we can confidently stand behind. These students did not test under standardized conditions that were fair and secure."

Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a Cambridge, Mass., organization that promotes fair and equal testing, said the Trabuco Hills incident reflected a general weakness in the nation's testing system.

Most test proctors are teachers, guidance counselors and coaches who typically are underpaid for their time and may not take testing too seriously, Schaeffer said. "A basic notion of standardized tests is that the exams are given in the same manner everywhere, and in fact one hears all kinds of stories of huge differences in the quality of proctoring."

Linda Riley, whose daughter Shauna, 18, is headed to the University of San Diego, said parents and students would not go down without a fight.

"It's a sad hit for kids who studied so hard for 13 years and, honestly, don't deserve to be treated this way," Riley said.

Labels: Advanced Placement courses, high-stakes testing

posted by Patricia Lopez at 1:10 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Fair Test
Issue: Jul 2008

Researchers continue to find that high-stakes testing has damaging consequences such as decreased graduation rates, especially for low-income and minority group students. Survey results show that employers do not find test scores meaningful for evaluating job candidates. And a study evaluated the sources of achievement gaps in part by asking how students chose answers on a fifth grade science exam.


* In January, Rice University’s Linda McNeil and colleagues published "Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis,” which found that Texas’s accountability system has depressed graduation rates. Most severely affected were African Americans, Hispanics, and English language learners. (Summary and link to article is available HERE


Now Julian Vasquez Heilig and Linda Darling-Hammond have published a complementary study, "Accountability Texas-style: The Progress and Learning of Urban Minority Students in a High-Stakes Testing Context," in the June issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. This study of one Texas district demonstrates how high-stakes testing prompted significant increases in grade 9 retention (grade 10 is tested, 9 is not). Up to 30% of the students were retained in 9th grade; of those "only 12% ever took the TAAS, and only 8% passed it." Up to 40% of each grade cohort "withdrew." Most were not labeled “dropouts” but simply disappeared from the rolls; only 8% transferred to other schools.


The fraudulent result was a soaring reported graduation rate, though the authors' analysis showed only one-third of a cohort graduated in five years or less. African Americans, Latinos and English language learners had the lowest completion rates. This study covers years before the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law was enacted but when the Texas model for NCLB was already in full force. The accountability system did not help low-income and minority-group children, but it helped the state pretend its policies were working.

--EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS.2008; 30: 75-110

* Exit exams have no positive impact on academic achievement, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Educational Policy in June. The study, by Eric Grodsky, Demetra Kalogrides and John Robert Warren, compared reading and math scores of students in exit exam states with those in states without exit exams. It found that even the most difficult exams failed to improve performance in reading and math. The researchers analyzed the scores of 13- and 17-year-olds on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams.


-- “State High School Exit Examinations and NAEP Long-Term Trends in Reading and Mathematics, 1971-2004”

* Businesses evaluating potential employees generally do not place a high value on test results, according to a survey of 301 employers by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. The survey, released in January, reported that employers see multiple-choice tests as ineffective. They prefer to judge potential workers based on “assessments of real-world and applied-learning approaches,” such as evaluations of supervised internships, community-based projects, and comprehensive senior projects.



-- “How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning?” is available

--A related FairTest fact sheet, “Why Graduation Tests/Exit Exams Fail to Add Value to High School Diplomas” is available.


* “Left Behind by Design” found differential results for low, middle and high-performing Chicago students on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Illinois State Achievement Test. Derek Neal and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, both University of Chicago economists, examined the performance of Chicago public school students to see how test-based accountability systems influenced the achievement of students at different ability levels. They found that No Child Left Behind and similar district reforms failed to generate score gains for the lowest-performing students. There were gains for students in the middle of the pack, but only mixed evidence of gains among the highest achieving students. The authors said that because of requirements to have more students score proficient, "Schools may find it optimal to ignore students who have little or no chance of reaching proficiency without intensive and costly intervention … and to limit services for gifted children who are likely already proficient.” In addition, "raising standards may actually increase the number of low-achieving children who are ‘left behind’ by increasing the number for whom the standard is out of reach." They did not discuss to what extent the gains by the middle students were score inflation from narrowed curriculum and teaching to the test, consequences found in other studies.


--“Left Behind by Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-Based Accountability” is available at.


* A study of why students chose particular answers on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) 5th grade state science test provides broader insights into achievement gaps and the limitations of standardized tests, particularly for low-income students and English language learners. The test appears to underestimate how much these students know.

The researchers studied measurement error caused when students who know the material nevertheless choose the wrong answer ("false negatives") or when students who don’t know the material get the answer right ("false positives"). The researchers interviewed students as to why they chose the answers they did.

Question wording seemed to cause both false positives and false negatives. On questions and answers with long or complicated wording, more students chose the wrong answer even though they knew the science behind the question. Low-income and English language learner students primarily fell into the false negative error pattern.

The authors wrote that when students, classes or schools do poorly on a test, there is a tendency to assume that the student, teacher or school is at fault. “The results reported here, while preliminary, suggest a far more complicated picture that at the very least casts doubt on the use of scores on MCAS and similar high-stakes tests to make consequential decisions about students, teachers, administrators, and schools.”

--For more information on the study, “Making Sense of Children’s Performance on Achievement Tests: The Case of the 5th Grade Science MCAS,” contact TERC, at www.terc.edu.

Labels: high-stakes testing

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:08 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By JULIA PRESTON | NY Times
Published: July 11, 2008

WATERLOO, Iowa — In 23 years as a certified Spanish interpreter for federal courts, Erik Camayd-Freixas has spoken up in criminal trials many times, but the words he uttered were rarely his own.

Then he was summoned here by court officials to translate in the hearings for nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers arrested in a raid on May 12 at a meatpacking plant. Since then, Mr. Camayd-Freixas, a professor of Spanish at Florida International University, has taken the unusual step of breaking the code of confidentiality among legal interpreters about their work.

In a 14-page essay he circulated among two dozen other interpreters who worked here, Professor Camayd-Freixas wrote that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing or the rights most of them had waived.

In the essay and an interview, Professor Camayd-Freixas said he was taken aback by the rapid pace of the proceedings and the pressure prosecutors brought to bear on the defendants and their lawyers by pressing criminal charges instead of deporting the workers immediately for immigration violations.

He said defense lawyers had little time or privacy to meet with their court-assigned clients in the first hectic days after the raid. Most of the Guatemalans could not read or write, he said. Most did not understand that they were in criminal court.

“The questions they asked showed they did not understand what was going on,” Professor Camayd-Freixas said in the interview. “The great majority were under the impression they were there because of being illegal in the country, not because of Social Security fraud.”

During fast-paced hearings in May, 262 of the illegal immigrants pleaded guilty in one week and were sentenced to prison — most for five months — for knowingly using false Social Security cards or legal residence documents to gain jobs at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in nearby Postville. It was the largest criminal enforcement operation ever carried out by immigration authorities at a workplace.

The essay has provoked new questions about the Agriprocessors proceedings, which had been criticized by criminal defense and immigration lawyers as failing to uphold the immigrants’ right to due process. Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said she would hold a hearing on the prosecutions and call Professor Camayd-Freixas as a witness.

“The essay raises questions about whether the charges brought were supported by the facts,” Ms. Lofgren said.

Bob Teig, a spokesman for Matt M. Dummermuth, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said the immigrants’ constitutional rights were not compromised.

“All defendants were provided with experienced criminal attorneys and interpreters before they made any decisions in their criminal cases,” Mr. Teig said. “Once they made their choices, two independent judicial officers determined the defendants were making their choices freely and voluntarily, were satisfied with their attorney, and were, in fact, guilty.”

Mr. Teig said the judges in the cases were satisfied with the guilty pleas.

“The judges had the right and duty to reject any guilty plea where a defendant was not guilty,” Mr. Teig said. “No plea was rejected.”

The essay by Professor Camayd-Freixas, who is the director of a program to train language interpreters at the university, has also caused a stir among legal interpreters. In telephone calls and debates through e-mail, they have discussed whether it was appropriate for a translator to speak publicly about conversations with criminal defendants who were covered by legal confidentiality.

“It is quite unusual that a legal interpreter would go to this length of writing up an essay and taking a strong stance,” said Nataly Kelly, an analyst with Common Sense Advisory, a marketing research company focused on language services. Ms. Kelly is a certified legal interpreter who is the author of a manual about interpreting.

The Agriprocessors hearings were held in temporary courtrooms in mobile trailers and a ballroom at the National Cattle Congress, a fairgrounds here in Waterloo. Professor Camayd-Freixas worked with one defense lawyer, Sara L. Smith, translating her discussions with nine clients she represented. He also worked in courtrooms during plea and sentencing hearings.

Ms. Smith praised Professor Camayd-Freixas’s essay, saying it captured the immigrants’ distress during “the surreal two weeks” of the proceedings. She said he had not revealed information that was detrimental to her cases.

But she cautioned that interpreters should not commonly speak publicly about conversations between lawyers and clients. “It is not a practice that I would generally advocate as I could envision circumstances under which such revelations could be damaging to a client’s case,” Ms. Smith said.

Professor Camayd-Freixas said he had considered withdrawing from the assignment, but decided instead that he could play a valuable role by witnessing the proceedings and making them known.

He suggested many of the immigrants could not have knowingly committed the crimes in their pleas. “Most of the clients we interviewed did not even know what a Social Security card was or what purpose it served,” he wrote.

He said many immigrants could not distinguish between a Social Security card and a residence visa, known as a green card. They said they had purchased fake documents from smugglers in Postville, or obtained them directly from supervisors at the Agriprocessors plant. Most did not know that the original cards could belong to Americans and legal immigrants, Mr. Camayd-Freixas said.

Ms. Smith went repeatedly over the charges and the options available to her clients, Professor Camayd-Freixas said. He cited the reaction of one Guatemalan, Isaías Pérez Martínez: “No matter how many times his attorney explained it, he kept saying, ‘I’m illegal, I have no rights. I’m nobody in this country. Just do whatever you want with me.’ ”

Professor Camayd-Freixas said Mr. Pérez Martínez wept during much of his meeting with Ms. Smith.

Ms. Smith, like more than a dozen other court-appointed defense lawyers, concluded that none of the immigrants’ legal options were good. Prosecutors had evidence showing they had presented fraudulent documents when they were hired at Agriprocessors.

In plea agreements offered by Mr. Dummermuth, the immigrants could plead guilty to a document fraud charge and serve five months in prison. Otherwise, prosecutors would try them on more serious identity theft charges carrying a mandatory sentence of two years. In any scenario, even if they were acquitted, the immigrants would eventually be deported.

Worried about families they had been supporting with their wages, the immigrants readily chose to plead guilty because they did understand that was the fastest way to return home, Professor Camayd-Freixas said.

“They were hoping and they were begging everybody to deport them,” he said.

Ms. Smith said she was convinced after examining the prosecutors’ evidence that it was not in her clients’ interests to go to trial.

“I think they understood what their options were,” she said. “I tried to make it very clear.”

Legal interpreters familiar with the profession said that Professor Camayd-Freixas’ essay, while a notable departure from the norm, did not violate professional standards.

Isabel Framer, a certified legal interpreter from Ohio who is chairwoman of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, said Professor Camayd-Freixas did not go public while the cases were still in court or reveal information that could not be discerned from the record. Ms. Framer said she was speaking for herself because her organization had not taken an official position on the essay.

“Interpreters, just like judges and attorneys, have an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the process,” she said. “But they don’t check their ethical standards at the door.”

Labels: immigration, workers rights

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:41 AM 0 comments Links to this post

The figure rise nearly 50% from the year before, a federal report says. Officials cite a campaign by Spanish-language media and community groups, plus a desire to apply before a fee hike kicked in.

By Teresa Watanabe | LA Times
July 11, 2008

The number of Mexican-born immigrants who became U.S. citizens swelled by nearly 50% last year amid a massive campaign by Spanish-language media and immigrant advocacy groups to help eligible residents apply for citizenship, according to a government report released Thursday.

Despite Mexicans' historically low rates of naturalization, 122,000 attained citizenship in 2007, up from 84,000 the previous year, with California and Texas posting the largest gains. Salvadorans and Guatemalans also showed significant increases at a time when the overall number of naturalizations declined by 6%.



At the same time, the number of citizenship applications filed doubled to 1.4 million last year, the report by the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics found.

The surge in naturalization of Mexicans, their largest year-to-year increase this decade, came amid pitched national debate over immigration reform. The report cited the campaign by Spanish-language media and community groups, along with a desire to apply before steep fee increases took effect, as two major reasons for the jump in naturalizations.

"Immigrants are tired of the tone and tenor of the immigration debate, which they feel is humiliating and does not recognize their contributions," said Rosalind Gold of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' Educational Fund in Los Angeles. "That climate has fueled their desire to have their voices heard."

New citizens interviewed Thursday echoed those sentiments. Erika Lorena Rivera, 30, came to Los Angeles from Mexico at age 1, became eligible for naturalization a decade ago but decided to take the plunge -- along with four relatives -- just last October. Rivera, a supervisor for a Los Angeles hair accessory firm, said she was offended by what she perceived as growing anti-immigrant bias and was moved to apply for citizenship after seeing ads about it on TV.

"I became a citizen to have full rights and vote for a president for the first time," said Rivera, adding that she and her family plan to vote for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

The increase in Latinos with the power to vote could affect the political landscape in November, analysts said. Louis DiSipio, a UC Irvine political science professor, said one of the biggest impacts could be in Florida, a key battleground state that posted 54,500 new citizens last year. Although the ethnic Cuban population there has dominated the Latino political landscape and tended to vote Republican, he said, more of the newer immigrants are coming from South America and trending Democratic. For the first time this decade, more Latinos were registered as Democrats than Republicans, 35% to 33% as of this spring, according to Gold.

Beyond November, the swelling Latino numbers nationwide will continue to recast the political landscape for local elections, DiSipio said. He said that growing Latino naturalizations in the late 1990s, thanks to a 1986 amnesty for illegal immigrants, helped California Democrats gain an 800,000-plus voter edge and that similar gains could occur with the newest increase.

Gold said that new Latino citizens have higher voting rates than longtime Mexican Americans and that their political allegiances are shallower. As a result, she said, their votes are still up for grabs for those elected officials willing to work hard to reach them. In addition, she said, the proportion of Latino voters identifying themselves as independents is growing.

Erica L. Bernal-Martinez, senior director of civic engagement for the association of Latino officials, said grass-roots organizations planned to continue their push to encourage naturalizations among the estimated 4 million to 5 million eligible Latinos. Mexicans have historically had low rates of naturalization -- 35% compared with 59% for all immigrants -- but that appears to be changing as media and community organizations pour unprecedented resources and energy into their civic engagement campaigns, Bernal-Martinez and Gold said.

More than 400 community organizations across the country, along with major Spanish-language media, have joined forces in a "Ya Es Hora" (It's Time) campaign to help eligible voters become citizens and register to vote. The campaign plans to hold naturalization workshops in 10 cities Saturday.

"We think with this type of promotion and outreach, we can really rewrite this story of Latino naturalizations," Gold said.

However, steep fee increases last July sharply reduced the overall monthly number of new applicants from August to December. Applications peaked at 457,000 in July, then plummeted to a monthly average of about 30,000 after the application fee increased to $675 from $400.

The new report found that California posted the largest gains in new citizens in 2007, from 153,000 the year before to 182,000; followed by Texas, from 38,000 to 53,000; and Illinois, from 30,000 to 39,000.

After Mexico, the largest number of new citizens came from India, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, South Korea and El Salvador.

The overall decrease in the number of naturalizations last year occurred after special congressional funding to process the backlog of citizenship applications ran out. But applications continued to soar in the Latino community because of the targeted citizenship campaigns, experts said.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, an El Salvador native and Long Beach community activist, finally naturalized last year with his mother; he had been eligible since 1992. He said he had not become a citizen sooner because he wasn't sure why it would matter and he still clung to his allegiances to his native land.

That changed a few years ago when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would have criminalized illegal immigrants and those who aided them. Millions of immigrants and supporters poured into the streets to protest, and community organizations mobilized to urge people like Cabrera to naturalize, register to vote and make their voices heard.

Cabrera, 39, and his 73-year-old mother took the plunge.

"We felt there were millions of voices left unheard every year, so we decided our two votes were needed to make a difference," he said.

Labels: citizenship, immigration

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:31 AM 0 comments Links to this post

by Michelle J. Nealy | Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Jul 11, 2008, 23:28

WASHINGTON � Reforming the No Child Left Behind Act to promote higher accountability standards for the nation�s high schools, inclusive and equitable testing and culture-based curricula may help stem the wave of minority high school student dropouts and shrink the achievement gap, a panel of educators and activists said at a LULAC meeting here this week.

Every year, approximately 1.2 million students drop out of high school. The dropout rate for Hispanic students is more than 40 percent, and for Blacks it hovers at 50 percent. Underrepresented minorities, in general, have less than a 58 percent chance of graduating high school with a regular diploma. This inequality can be reversed by reforming No Child Left Behind (NCLB), education advocates say.

Policymakers, educators, civil rights leaders and activists convened this week for a town hall-styled meeting hosted by the League of United Latin Citizens (LULAC) to address NCLB policies that shortchange minority students and fail to hold high schools accountable for poor graduation rates. LULAC, a founding member of the Campaign for High School Equity, a diverse coalition of civil rights organizations committed education equality, is pressing for visible reform in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act slated to pass sometime next year.

Currently NCLB neither ensures that graduation rates are calculated consistently or accurately nor requires the data collected to be disaggregated by race.

Panelist Holly Kuzmich, deputy chief of staff for policy and programs at the Department of Education, insisted that standardized test scores in mathematics and reading have risen since the passage of NCLB in 2002, particularly among minority and special education children, but admitted the program is flawed.

�In 2002, focus on accountability was really put on elementary schools. High schools are our new focus, [especially] better reporting of graduation rates and dropout rates. There is no uniform definition of dropouts. States get to define that for themselves,� said Kuzmich. �We have proposed a set of regulations to get all states reporting on the same scale by 2013.�

Nearly 5.5 million English Language Learner students are enrolled in America�s public school system. According to LULAC officials, this student population is being left behind. ELL students � 80 percent of whom are Hispanic � are among the country�s lowest-performing students. In 2007, only 4 percent of eighth-grade students scored above �proficient� in reading for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared with 31 percent of ELL students. In addition, only 49 percent of ELL students graduate from high school on time.

Peter Zamora, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund�s Washington, D.C., regional counsel, favors testing in native language to level the playing field. Zamora, a credentialed bilingual educator, says that in teaching 12th-grade English at a California high school he learned that, �most English-language learners are not going to be able to perform well on an English assessment test.�

LULAC is also petitioning for implementing culture-based curricula, an educational approach which is not supported by NCLB. Data from the Nation Indian Education Association reveal that learning in an environment that incorporates native language, culture and traditions increases students� mastery of math and science. Federal education policy that promotes culturally based teaching is critical in shrinking the achievement gap, advocates say.

�School climate is tied to academic achievement,� said Dr. Joel Gomez, associate professor of educational leadership at The George Washington University. �Research shows that when kids feel good about going to school they do better.�

Labels: NCLB

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:24 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's a recent report released by PACE entitled: "Beyond the Numbers: Understanding California's High School Dropouts".

-Patricia

Abstract:

Six of California’s largest urban school districts have joined together in the Partnership for Urban Education Research (PUER), to address the most pressing issues in urban education. The six PUER districts have agreed to work together to increase data availability, enhance internal research capacity, and promote collaboration and information sharing across district lines for the benefit of their students. PUER seeks to build a partnership in which participating districts can use their collective research capacity to carefully evaluate their own instructional programs and practices. In a new report, six PUER school districts—Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)—joined efforts to identify opportunities for improving the current dropout reporting system, and to review district efforts to reduce dropout rates. The PUER districts are working with PACE to review and publish their research.

Labels: California, Dropouts

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:19 PM 0 comments Links to this post

AIMS test may have no future in schools
Task force will weigh merits of exam, explore alternatives
By Rhonda Bodfield
ARIZONA DAILY STAR / Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.15.2008

The days for Arizona's AIMS test may be numbered.

In a little-noticed provision slipped into the budget bill that was passed in the early morning during the final hours of the legislative session, a task force was created to examine the merits of the state's high school exit test and explore alternatives.
The seven-member task force, which will include a principal, a finance officer and a curriculum expert, also will examine whether college-placement exams might be merged with existing AIMS questions as a graduation test, similar to a model used in Michigan, and will look at whether the test should even be a high-stakes test at all.
To make sure Arizona doesn't trot too far down the AIMS path, lawmakers also limited any contracts with the test publisher to one year.
The amendment was supported by an unlikely coalition of conservatives, who fear the test has been "dumbed down" so much that it's an irrelevant measurement of student skills, and moderate-leaning members who worry that the test has bled some of the creativity and innovation from the classroom.
"I think doing away with AIMS is very likely going to be part of the discussion," said John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association, which represents teachers. Wright said he found out about the amendment too late to weigh in on it but would have supported it in concept.
"I think there's always value in examining current practice and seeing how to improve our practice, so we have an opportunity in front of us," Wright said.
Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards test, which students are required to pass in order to graduate, generally has been problematic, he said, because it has limited utility in helping teachers refine their instructional practices since results for the spring tests come out in the fall.
On the other end of the spectrum, The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank, is also supporting doing away with the existing testing system.
"I think the Legislature has taken the right approach in saying we need to start over," said Matthew Ladner, vice president for research and a longtime critic of how the state tests are administered and measured.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act sets up a perverse system that gives incentives for states to ratchet down test expectations to meet mandatory benchmarks, Ladner said. Arizona, he maintains, has responded by reducing the passing thresholds so that more students could pass. "Presto chango, we go from being in deep trouble to well, it's not so bad," Ladner said.
Taxpayers can't know, then, how schools are performing, and parents can't readily make educated choices about where to send their kids to school, he said.
"The test scores have gotten to be a bit of a farce," Ladner said. "I think what the Legislature has done is recognize the need for a credible system of testing in the state.
"It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Libertarian or a vegetarian; we all want to see kids succeed, and I applaud the Legislature for the step they've taken," he said.
Despite the initial agreement, there's going to be plenty to argue about. Wright, for example, is leery of the provision to study making college-entrance exams a graduation prerequisite, saying those tests do not match Arizona standards and may test students on things they've never seen in a state classroom.
Ladner, meanwhile, said policymakers can debate the merits of a high-stakes graduation exam but suggested Arizona should follow the lead of other states such as Florida and instead put the emphasis on the lower grades. If students were tested in third grade, he said, and those who couldn't read were retained, it would help dent the dropout rate.
"What we know about literacy is that absent any heroic intervention that schools rarely provide, kids who can't read fall further and further behind, and by late middle school they can't read the textbooks in front of them," he said. "So by putting the emphasis on a test in the 10th grade, we're addressing the problem at the back end instead of at the front end."
At any rate, the potential overhaul isn't sitting well with Republican state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who issued a letter to lawmakers late last week defending the test and saying he was intentionally excluded from "secret" discussions because backers of the amendment feared he would obstruct its passage.
Horne said Arizona was at the end of its current five-year contract and was prepared to send out bids for another five years. The contract cap will make the test inordinately expensive, he maintained.
"Making a policy decision like this, which ties the Board's hands to a one-year contract and thereby makes Arizona's cost skyrocket, at 2 a.m. so that legislators can be kept ignorant of any input from the Department of Education, is not good public policy making," he wrote to lawmakers.
Horne denied that the test was dumbed down, noting that 3,000 students last year had the credits to graduate but couldn't pass the AIMS test after five tries. Those students were ultimately allowed to graduate under a bill that permitted students to use the grades they received in classes to supplement their AIMS scores. "You can't have it both ways," he wrote.
Rep. Pete Hershberger, a Tucson Republican, supported the move. Teachers are teaching to the test, and students are being drilled to memorize factoids instead of applying deeper learning, he said.
Hershberger's bills in the past to look at scrapping AIMS for a different model never got a hearing.
The momentum has clearly shifted.
"I think it's just a higher-profile issue because now we're seeing that kids are not graduating. We had to fight so hard with augmentation that it's starting to sink in that AIMS is a reality and not just hypothetical. There's opposition from the left and the right to the AIMS test now."
The task force is required to make its recommendations to the governor and Legislature by June 2009.
● Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at 806-7754 or rbodfield@azstarnet.com.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 5:42 PM 0 comments Links to this post

July 20, 2008
The Next Kind of Integration

By EMILY BAZELON
In June of last year, a conservative majority of the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, declared the racial-integration efforts of two school districts unconstitutional. Seattle and Louisville, Ky., could no longer assign students to schools based on their race, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his lead opinion in Meredith v. Jefferson County School Board (and its companion case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1). Justice Stephen Breyer sounded a sad and grim note of dissent. Pointing out that the court was rejecting student-assignment plans that the districts had designed to stave off de facto resegregation, Breyer wrote that “to invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown.” By invoking Brown v. Board of Education, the court’s landmark 1954 civil rights ruling, Breyer accused the majority of abandoning a touchstone in the country’s efforts to overcome racial division. “This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret,” he concluded.

Breyer’s warning, along with even more dire predictions from civil rights groups, helped place the court’s ruling at the center of the liberal indictment of the Roberts court. In Louisville, too, the court’s verdict met with resentment. Last fall, I asked Pat Todd, the assignment director for the school district of Jefferson County, which encompasses Louisville and its suburbs, whether any good could come of the ruling. She shook her head so hard that strands of blond hair loosened from her bun. “No,” she said with uncharacteristic exasperation, “we’re already doing what we should be.”

Todd was referring to Louisville’s success in distributing black and white students, which it does more evenly than any district in the country with a comparable black student population; almost every school is between 15 and 50 percent African-American. The district’s combination of school choice, busing and magnet programs has brought general, if not uniform, acceptance — rather than white flight and disaffection, the legacy of desegregation in cities like Boston and Kansas City, Mo. The student population, which now numbers nearly 100,000, has held steady at about 35 percent black and 55 percent white, along with a small and growing number of Hispanics and Asians.

With its decision in Meredith, the court was forcing Louisville to rethink the way it would assign elementary-school students and, in the process, to confront some tricky questions. Is the purpose of integration simply to mix students of different colors for the sake of equity or to foster greater familiarity and comfort among the races? Should integration necessarily translate into concrete gains like greater achievement for all students? If so, is mixing students by race the most effective mechanism for attaining it?

In Louisville, the achievement gap between whites and blacks is 20 percentage points at many grade levels. For Todd and her team, whatever their reservations about the decision in Meredith, coming up with an alternative assignment plan was an opportunity to think about a new kind of integration and what it might accomplish. In Louisville, integration would no longer focus solely on race but also on the barriers of class, of advantage and disadvantage. Other cities have been thinking along these lines. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, four other districts — Des Moines, Burlington, Vt., Omaha and Beaumont, Tex. — announced a switch to class-based integration. Seattle, too, is discussing setting aside 5 to 15 percent of the spots (a relatively small percentage) in desired high schools for low-income students. Some of the plans go into effect this fall; others, including Louisville’s, begin a year from September.

The chief justice didn’t address the idea of class-based integration in his opinion. But Justice Anthony Kennedy did, in a separate concurrence. And because Kennedy cast the fifth vote for the majority, his view controls the law. Though he agreed with Roberts that public school districts should not make school assignments based on the race of individual students, he added that the court’s ruling “should not prevent school districts from continuing the important work of bringing together students of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.”

How were schools to do this? Around the country, school-district lawyers studied Kennedy’s opinion and came to a rough consensus. In its amicus brief before the court, the Bush administration cited socioeconomic integration as a “race neutral” alternative to race-based assignment plans. Kennedy picked up on this, and no other justice wrote to contradict him. As a result, the school-district lawyers concluded that districts could assign an individual child to a school based on any kind of socioeconomic measure they chose — income, assets, parental education attainment. Districts could also be “race conscious,” according to Kennedy, when they drew school boundaries, chose sites for new schools and directed money to particular programs. But in these situations, they would usually be limited to taking into account the racial composition of a neighborhood rather than the race of an individual student.

In terms of the court’s jurisprudence, this is a major change. Race has been the organizing principle of integration since Brown v. Board of Education. At the time of the court’s ruling in Meredith, hundreds of districts were pursuing some sort of racial integration, with or without a court order, while only a few dozen at most were trying any form of socioeconomic integration. Over the years, racial integration has proved to have tangible benefits. Amy Stuart Wells, an education professor at Columbia Teachers College, has found that going to school with substantial numbers of white students helped black students to form cross-racial friendships and, by giving them access to white social networks, eventually to find work in jobs higher up the economic ladder.

However important these gains are, they are long-term and cannot be easily or quickly assessed. And increasingly, schools are held to a standard of immediately measurable outcomes. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in 2002, demands student test scores that climb ever upward, with a mandate for all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Test scores may not be the best way to assess the quality of a teacher or a school, but the pressure to improve scores, whatever its shortcomings, is itself on the rise. And if high test scores are the goal, it turns out, class-based integration may be the more effective tool.

Researchers have been demonstrating this result since 1966, when Congress asked James S. Coleman, a Johns Hopkins sociologist, to deliver a report on why the achievement of black students lagged far behind that of white ones. The expected answer was that more than a decade after Brown, black kids were still often going to inferior schools with small budgets. But Coleman found that the varying amount of money spent on schools didn’t account for the achievement gap. Instead, the greater poverty of black families did. When high concentrations of poor kids went to school together, Coleman reported, all the students at the school tended to learn less.

How much less was later quantified. The Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks reanalyzed Coleman’s data in the 1970s and concluded that poor black sixth-graders in majority middle-class schools were 20 months ahead of poor black sixth-graders in majority low-income schools. The statistics for poor white students were similar. In the last 40 years, Coleman’s findings, known informally as the Coleman Report, have been confirmed again and again. Most recently, in a 2006 study, Douglas Harris, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, found that when more than half the students were low-income, only 1.1 percent of schools consistently performed at a “high” level (defined as two years of scores in the top third of the U.S. Department of Education’s national achievement database in two grades and in two subjects: English and math). By contrast, 24.2 percent of schools that are majority middle-class met Harris’s standard.

There are, of course, determined urban educators who have proved that select schools filled with poor and minority students can thrive — in the right circumstances, with the right teachers and programs. But consistently good education at schools with such student bodies remains the rare exception. The powerful effect of the socioeconomic makeup of a student body on academic achievement has become “one of the most consistent findings in research on education,” Gary Orfield, a U.C.L.A. education professor, and Susan Eaton, a research director at Harvard Law, wrote in their 1996 book, “Dismantling Desegregation.”

Most researchers think that this result is brought about by the advantages that middle-class students bring with them. Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation lays them out in his 2001 book, “All Together Now”: more high-level classes, more parent volunteers and peers who on average have twice the vocabulary and half the behavioral problems of poor students. And, especially, more good teachers. Harris, the economist, says that poor minority students still don’t have comparable access to effective teachers, measured by preparation and experience. The question, then, is whether a plan that integrates a district by class as well as by race will help win for all its schools the kind of teaching that tends to be linked to achievement. “The evidence indicates that it would,” Harris says.

Ronald Ferguson, an economist at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, is less persuaded. His research highlights the nagging persistence of a racial achievement gap in well-off suburbs. “What happens with the achievement gap in a place like Louisville,” he says, “will depend on how vigilant their leaders are to make sure high-quality instruction is delivered across the board.” Such teaching is more likely in a school with a critical mass of middle-class parents, he concedes. But he stresses that to reap the benefits, poor kids have to be evenly distributed among classrooms and not just grouped together in the lowest tracks. “To the degree a district takes the kids who struggle the most academically and spreads them across different classrooms, they’re making teachers’ work more doable,” he says. “And that may be the biggest effect.”

Once they started looking for them, Todd and her colleagues saw the effects of class division and poverty in the Jefferson County schools. Thorough racial desegregation had not, it seemed, led to thorough class desegregation. At 40 of 90 elementary schools in the district, 75 percent or more of the students came from low-income homes. And the effects of these high concentrations of poverty were striking: poor students in Louisville, black and white, fared worse when they attended schools filled with other poor kids. In elementary school, 61 percent of poor students at mostly low-income schools scored proficient in reading, compared with 71 percent of poor students at majority-middle-class schools. For math, the comparative proficiency rates were 52 percent to 63 percent. Because black students were disproportionately poor, they were more likely to attend high-poverty schools, and this was contributing to the district’s pronounced black-white achievement gap.

Todd and her planners wanted to tackle the problem, she says, but they were mindful of going too far in their efforts and losing the support of parents. In other districts — including Cincinnati, Evanston, Ill., Bibb County, Ga., and Madison, Wis. — the reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling had been to move to dismantle racial-integration programs. Todd and other school officials didn’t want integration redefined to turn into no integration all. To get a handle on a new plan, Todd turned to an heir of James Coleman: the researcher John Powell.

In the 1960s, Powell was one of the only African-American students in his advanced high-school classes in Detroit; when he became the class valedictorian, a teacher told him he wasn’t the smartest student. He now directs the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, and he says he still thinks that race is a category with singular power. But he also appreciates the stark effects of segregating poor kids. “Ever since the Coleman Report, we’ve seen that there’s a high correlation between good schools and schools that are integrated socioeconomically as well as racially,” he says. “I think everyone agrees that what we need are more good schools.”

In Louisville, Powell lent his expertise to Todd and her team. They came up with a computer-generated map that shows what Powell defines as the district’s areas of “low opportunity.” Todd, who is 61 and taught every grade in the Louisville schools before becoming an administrator, went over the map with me one day last December. The map used two different measures of class to identify Jefferson County’s areas of disadvantage: income level and the educational attainment of adults. (To gauge disadvantage, districts embarking on class-based integration often use who among their students receives free or reduced lunch; Powell, however, contends that this is a relatively crude measure.) Using census data, Todd’s team identified the zones in the district in which households fall below the average income and education levels, with fewer adults who have finished high school or gone to college or beyond. Finally, the team added one more factor: a higher-than-average number of minorities, almost all of them African-Americans or Hispanics.

The map’s class-plus-race formula revealed a major partition. One region, which Todd’s team called Geographic Area A, is a mermaid-shaped swath of blue, with its head in Louisville’s West End, just south of the Ohio River, and its tail to the south. The region encompasses the parts of the district with a higher-than-average minority population, lower-than-average median income and lower-than-average adult educational attainment. In Geographic Area A live about 30 percent of Jefferson County’s students. The rest of the county, colored yellow, included everyone else — the better off, better educated and whiter Geographic Area B.

What if the district were to use this map as a guide for school integration? Instead of maintaining each school as no less than 15 percent and no more than 50 percent black, Todd’s team could propose that each school have no less than 15 percent and no more than 50 percent of students from Geographic Area A. By distributing students from the district’s residential zones of disadvantage, the new plan would integrate the schools by class. There would no longer be 40 elementary schools with heavily poor-student populations. There could potentially be no such schools.

Given the presumed boost to test scores resulting from distributing poor students more widely, you might wonder why Todd’s team retained race as an admissions factor at all. To answer this, it’s worth considering the country’s existing examples of purely class-based integration. The best known is in Wake County, N.C. With 134,000 students, the Wake County school district ranks 19 among the country’s 20 largest, spanning 800 square miles that include bleak tracts in the city of Raleigh, mansion-filled suburban cul-de-sacs and rural roads ending in the fresh earth of a new subdivision. The student population is about half white, one-quarter African-American and one-quarter Hispanic, Asian and multiracial. The district voluntarily pursued race-based integration in the 1980s and ’90s. In 2000, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit began to frown on the use of race in student assignment — a harbinger of the Supreme Court’s stance last year — the district began assigning kids to schools based on the income level of the geographic zone they lived in. The aim was to balance the schools so that no more than 40 percent of the students at each one come from a low-income area. (This year, the district added another goal: to have no more than 25 percent of students at any one school for whom English is a second language.)

Wake County adopted class-based integration with the hard-nosed goal of raising test scores. The strategy was simple: no poor schools, no bad schools. And indeed, the district has posted striking improvements in the test scores of black and low-income students: in 1995, only 40 percent of the black students in Wake County in the third through eighth grades scored at grade level in state reading tests; by last year, the rate had almost doubled, to 82.5 percent. Statewide scores for black students also got better over the same time period, but not by as much. Wake County’s numbers improve as students get older: 92 percent of all eighth graders read at or above grade level, including about 85 percent of black students and about 80 percent of low-income students. (Math scores are lower, following a statewide trend that reflects a change in the grading scale.) The district has achieved these results even as the share of low-income students over all has increased from about 30 percent a decade ago to about 40 percent today.

But the lessons of Wake County, Powell and Todd argue, don’t apply everywhere. “In different districts, you have different geographic patterns,” Powell says. “So you need different integration models to shop around.” To begin with, Louisville is less affluent — more than 60 percent of its elementary school students receive free or reduced lunches, compared with Wake County’s 40 percent. In Wake County, the vast majority of the poor students are black and Hispanic, and so mixing kids by class tightly correlates to mixing them by race. But in Jefferson County, more than a third of the kids who receive free or reduced lunches are white. As a result, redistributing students by class alone might still isolate them by race.

This is a limitation of class-based integration that holds true elsewhere. The city of San Francisco, for instance, has undergone substantial racial resegregation since retooling its diversity plan to emphasize socioeconomic factors. Even in Wake County, the fraction of students in racially segregated schools has climbed a bit over the last decade, from 25 percent to 32 percent. A 2006 paper by the education researchers Sean Reardon, John T. Yun and Michal Kurlaender crunched census data across the country and concluded that “given the extent of residential racial segregation in the United States, it is unlikely that race-neutral income-integration policies will significantly reduce school racial segregation, although there is reason to believe that such policies are likely to have other beneficial effects on schooling.”

Many big cities have a different problem. Simple demographics dictate that they can’t really integrate their schools at all, by either race or class. Consider the numbers for Detroit (74 percent low-income students; 91 percent black), Los Angeles (77 percent low-income; 85 percent black and Hispanic), New York City (74 percent; 63 percent), Washington (64 percent; 93 percent), Philadelphia (71 percent; 79 percent), Chicago (74 percent; 88 percent) and Boston (71 percent; 76 percent). In theory, big cities can diversify their schools by class and race by persuading many more middle-class and white parents to choose public school over private school or by combining forces with the well-heeled suburbs that surround them. But short of those developments, big cities are stuck. “The options have shrunk,” says Tom Payzant, a former superintendent of schools in Boston.

Notably, there are a good many districts that have evaded this predicament. They are particularly found in the South, in part because of a historical accident. Because it was predominantly rural for longer, the South has more countywide school districts than the North. An unintended consequence was to ease the way to integration. Instead of city schools filled with poor black and Hispanic kids separated from a burgeoning ring of suburban districts stocked with affluent whites (and in some places, Asians), one district controls student assignment for the region.

Even in school districts with a mix of students of different races and income levels, however, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to socioeconomic integration, as underscored by the differences between Wake County and Jefferson County. Wake County’s demographics entail that mixing kids by class, on its own, produces a fair degree of racial integration. Jefferson County’s demographics don’t necessarily work this way. And so civil rights lawyers suggest that districts configured like Jefferson County should continue to pursue racial diversity directly. They point to cities like Berkeley, Calif., which has an assignment plan that primarily relies on socioeconomics, but like Geography Area A also factors in the racial composition of a neighborhood to guard against resegregation along racial lines. “It’s not either-or,” says Anurima Bhargava, an education lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

In addition, there’s a tacit liberal constitutional agenda at work in hybrid class-race approaches to integration: better to test Kennedy’s opinion, with its support for the drawing of “race conscious” school boundaries, than to retreat further than is in fact required. “For Kennedy, there are ways of taking race into account,” John Powell says. “It’s just the method that’s in question. How do you do it? We need to find out what’s still permitted.” He also points out that African-Americans are more likely than whites to be poor over generations — a bigger hurdle than a short stint in a low-income bracket.

The continuing attention to race aligns with the internal politics of Louisville and its suburbs. Many of today’s parents grew up there and tend to remember and care about overcoming their county’s Jim Crow legacy. In 1975, when a federal judge first ordered the city and its suburbs to desegregate, the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated, and the next day about 150 white protestors attacked eight school buses filled with black students. “We had tough times here when the buses burned,” says Ann Elmore, a black member of the Jefferson County School Board. “We can still include race as a factor in our plan, and let me say I think it’s important that we do.”

Elsewhere in the United States, it is too soon to tell how the politics of class-based integration (Wake County) or class-plus-race (Jefferson County) will play out. Richard Kahlenberg makes the case for shifting integration policies primarily or solely to being class-based over the next decade or two. What’s fair, he asks, about giving a spot in a coveted magnet program to the son of a South Asian college professor or an African-American politician over the daughter of a white waitress? Over time, such injustices threaten to sour white parents on the whole diversity enterprise, whereas giving poor kids a boost, whatever their color, is far less controversial. Polls at the time of the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which concerned affirmative action at public universities, showed public support running 2 to 1 for giving poorer kids a leg up in going to college, as opposed to 2 to 1 against race-based preferences. In her majority opinion in the case, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor famously said she thought that racial preferences would continue only for another 25 years. Barack Obama has said, looking ahead to his daughters’ college applications, that they don’t deserve an admissions break — an acknowledgment that the mix of race, affirmative action and privilege is a complicated one.

To catch on nationwide, however, class-based integration would have to generate momentum that it has so far lacked. In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush urged action “to help liberate poor children trapped in failing public schools.” And yet a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that theoretically allows students to transfer depends on the availability of open spaces elsewhere and has barely been utilized. The administration may have advocated class-based integration to the Supreme Court, but Bush officials haven’t used their signature education law to make it happen.

If Congress were to revise No Child Left Behind to encourage more transfers of poor students to middle-class schools, would poor students drag down their better-off peers? In the end, the prospects of class-based integration will probably rise or fall on the answer to this question. Socioeconomic integration may be good for the have-nots, but if the haves think their kids are paying too great a price, they will kill it off at the polls. Richard Kahlenberg argues that the key is to ensure there is a solidly middle-class majority at as many schools as possible. That majority will then set the tone, he argues. Kahlenberg says that more research is needed to pin down the percentage of middle-class kids that a school needs to have to serve all its students well. Maybe a school can go as high as 50 percent low-income without losing ground. Or maybe it’s telling that in Wake County, a proposal to increase the ceiling for low-income students from 40 percent to 50 percent died a swift death last fall after concerted protest.

Whatever the exact answer, there is some support for the view that schools can handle a substantial fraction of poor students without sacrificing performance. In Wake County, test scores of middle-class students have risen since instituting income-based integration. Additionally, Kahlenberg points out that middle-class students are generally less influenced by a school’s environment because they tend to learn more at home, and that the achievement of white students has not declined in specific schools that experienced racial (and thus some class) desegregation.

Would schools need to track students by ability to protect middle-class students, who are more often higher-achieving than their low-income peers? Perhaps not. In a 2006 longitudinal study of an accelerated middle-school math program in Nassau County, N.Y., which grouped students heterogeneously, the authors found that students at all achievement levels, as well as minority and low-income students, were more likely than the students in tracked classes to take advanced math in high school. In addition, the kids who came into the program as math whizzes performed as well as other top-achievers in homogenous classes.

This study underscores Ronald Ferguson’s point about the value of seating students of different backgrounds and abilities in class together, as opposed to tracking them. Still, it’s worth noting that less than 15 percent of the students studied in Nassau County were low-income. So the math study doesn’t tell us what happens to the high-achieving middle-class kids when close to half of their classmates aren’t as well off.

At the end of February, Todd started showing the map of mermaid-shaped Geographic Area A, which she hoped to use to implement the new assignment system, to the parents of Jefferson County. Todd would start her presentation with quotes from Justice Kennedy and from Justice Breyer’s dissent; she especially wanted to remind her audiences of the sentiment Breyer expressed by quoting former Justice Thurgood Marshall: “Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.”

Todd’s first stop was at a forum sponsored jointly by the Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P., groups associated with Louisville’s black establishment. Most of their members supported the school district, but some clergy members who worked with the city’s black youth spoke against it. The Rev. John Carter, associate minister at Green Street Baptist Church, pointed to the district’s black-white achievement gap and called for a return to neighborhood schools and an earlier era of black self-reliance.

As more forums followed in high-school auditoriums across the county, white parents asked a different question: How would the new assignment plan affect their kids? Would they be forced to switch schools in second, third or fourth grade? “We like the diversity,” a white parent named Niki Noe told me the next morning at her son’s elementary school, St. Matthews. “But if we have to go to Chenoweth” — a school with lower test scores — “we’ll pull out and go to private school.”

That’s a serious threat to the district’s well-being, but one that Todd anticipated. She designed a grandfather clause for kids like Noe’s, so that the new assignments would apply almost entirely to new students. Meanwhile, at every meeting, Todd polled parents on whether they cared about maintaining diverse schools. The University of Kentucky also conducted a telephone survey with 654 parents of elementary schoolers. In April, Todd called me, elated and relieved, with the results: 88 percent of parents supported enrollment guidelines “to ensure that students learn with students from different races and backgrounds.” Todd said she had dropped Breyer’s dissent in Meredith from her presentation; she was no longer feeling frustrated with the court. “It’s been a personal emotional trek, but I think we’ve come out better for it,” she said in May.

Carter, the proponent of black-self reliance, was feeling more at ease, too. He had come to see the virtue of mixing kids by income level. “Once I did the research, I was pretty impressed by the economic part of it,” he said. Carter had taken note of the district’s data showing that a switch to neighborhood schools, as he had first advocated, would mean that median household income would range from a high of more than $100,000 at the wealthiest school to about $8,300 at the poorest. A split between rich students and poor schools, he agreed, was the wrong path.

It is, of course, the path taken by most of the country. And yet at the end of May, the Jefferson County School Board voted unanimously to make Geographic Area A the basis for integrating elementary schools for the 2009 school year, a new chapter in the district’s history. As the schools shift to the new class-plus-race formula, the district will closely watch the test scores of black students and poor students, hoping for an upsurge, and those of middle-class students, hoping to see achievement hold steady. And if they do, maybe the court’s decision in Meredith will come to seem less like a cause for regret and more like an unexpected opportunity.

Emily Bazelon is a senior editor at Slate who writes frequently about legal issues. Her last article for the magazine was about autistic girls.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:26 PM 0 comments Links to this post

U.S. Department of Education
Office of Communications & Outreach, Press Office
400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 18, 2008

Contact: Samara Yudof, Elissa Leonard
(202) 401-1576


U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION MARGARET SPELLINGS DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE 2008 HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT "A TEST OF LEADERSHIP" IN CHICAGO

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today delivered remarks on the progress that her Commission on the Future of Higher Education helped to facilitate, as well as discussed global competitiveness and the workforce needs of the 21st Century in Chicago, Ill. Following are her prepared remarks:

(Introduced by Charles Miller, chairman, Meridian National, Inc.)

Thank you, Charles, for introducing me.

Charles has been a great friend and a trusted mentor and adviser. One of the first pieces of advice he gave me was that changing higher education wasn't going to be easy. You've heard of the "third rail"?

My Commission couldn't have done its great work without Charles. Their report was a test of leadership not only for the academy, but also for my department. And I want to thank my Under Secretary Sara and her team for passing the test with flying colors.

Most importantly, I thank the pioneers from within the higher ed community who have embraced and advanced the commission's recommendations. Your commitment and dedication are encouraging. We may "agree to disagree" on some issues. But we agree on a whole lot more.

Now, while I still have the bully pulpit, I want to speak frankly to you about what I think needs to be done. And I'm going to turn to history to help make my case.

History shows us that transformative change in higher education has often been driven by external events.

Take the GI Bill: millions of soldiers returning to America as civilians, looking for the opportunity to achieve the American Dream they fought so hard to protect.

At first, University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins warned that by opening the ivory tower to 10 million World War II veterans, the legislation would convert colleges into "intellectual hobo jungles."

Harvard President James Conant initially predicted that the bill would allow "the least capable among the war generation to flood the facilities for advanced education." Later, he described the same soldiers as "the most mature and promising students Harvard has ever had."

Of course, now we all know the true value of the bill. After so much controversy, the GI Bill produced 450,000 more engineers, 240,000 more accountants, 238,000 more teachers, 91,000 more scientists, 67,000 more doctors, 22,000 more dentists, plus one million other college-educated citizens within a single decade.

A few years later, another event spurred change. This time it was a satellite called Sputnik. People today forget how worried America was about that little beeping ball in space.

In response, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act. President Eisenhower called it an "emergency undertaking."

The law would provide loans to more than 1.5 million college students, producing 15,000 new PhD's a year over the next 10 years. High school math and science curriculum was strengthened. And a new agency was formed, what we now know as DARPA. It would lead to the creation of the Internet.

The most recent crisis that sparked change was 9-11. Security concerns loomed as barriers to openness, student exchange, and scholarly endeavor. But now, as the system recovers and adjusts, it's becoming even stronger.

Similarly, after the tragedy of Virginia Tech, we have built better plans to keep students safe and to protect their privacy.

The point is, we do not have to wait for an external threat to accomplish change.

Is it acceptable that students graduate from inner-city high schools, only to find that their curriculum was so watered-down and irrelevant that few colleges will accept them, without costly and time-consuming remedial courses?

Is it acceptable that the financial aid system is so confusing, complex and inefficient, that many young people, and their parents, simply throw up their hands and walk away?

Is it acceptable that the average graduating student is saddled with $20,000 in debt? $20,000 farther away from buying a home and starting a family. $20,000 less likely to give back to their country through teaching or public service.

That's why, once again, we must change and adapt and respond. And we must do so immediately.

Time and again, we've proven that consumer needs and demands are not threats to quality. They are catalysts for innovation.

The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems estimates that to keep up with international competition, at least 20 million more Americans must access higher education by 2025. 20 million people! That's twice as many as the GI Bill aimed to serve.

To meet this challenge, we must improve the "Three A's" access, affordability, and accountability.

My commissioners produced a provocative report. Where other reports are quickly shelved and forgotten, theirs hit a nerve. They provoked strong reactions and thoughtful discourse in the finest tradition of academic debate.

They found that one of the biggest barriers to change is a lack of coordination between high schools and higher ed. Too often, high school coursework is not rigorous or varied enough to act as a springboard to success in college.

On Tuesday, a coalition including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other leading business groups reiterated that we are far from meeting their needs. We're nowhere near the goal of doubling the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in the STEM fields-science, technology, engineering, and math.

The problem is not a lack of resources. My department recently returned more than 500 million dollars in AC/SMART grants to the U.S. Treasury. Why? Because we could not find enough college-ready students from low-income families to take them. That's 500 million dollars that has gone unused, and countless more untapped human potential.

As the Secretary of Education, I'm obligated to speak for students and families, and for we federal taxpayers who are one-third investors in higher education.

They rightly expect us to knock down barriers to progress - like an opaque accreditation process that often inhibits innovation instead of encouraging it, or discourages new players from entering the system.

They rightly expect us to build human capital by educating more people from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds.

They rightly expect us to use technology and innovation to advance change and empower students.

And, they rightly expect us to continue our traditional emphasis on excellence in research and scholarship, as well as to nurture and cultivate partnerships with private and philanthropic sectors.

Simply put, higher ed must become more agile, transparent, and student-centered.

We at the federal level are doing more.

Pell grantees in 2008 will benefit from the largest increase in their annual award in 30 years. In addition, all students will benefit from new tools to help them choose a college and apply for financial aid. Like College dot gov, the FAFSA4caster, the College Navigator and the Federal Aid First brochure that Under Secretary Tucker discussed yesterday.

In addition, I'm heartened that a pioneering band of innovators are embracing the commission's recommendations many of them in this room.

I've seen the fruits of their labors. In May I saw students from more than 150 nations graduate from Miami Dade College. Under the leadership of my friend Eduardo Padron, Miami Dade has become the nation's leader in graduating low income and minority students, and students who are the first in their family to earn a degree.

We see the tremendous potential of increased transparency in MIT's new free open courseware, and in Stanford's podcasts of hundreds of free courses.

We see it at James Madison University, a leader in sharing information to help families make wise choices. As their web site says, "Some say their education programs are successful at JMU, we can prove it!" I love that.

We owe it to students and families to reinforce these efforts. As one of my critics has said: "We're educators if you feel that there is not enough information out there, well, by golly, we'll give it to you."

That promise is what American universities are all about. We're not in the business of containing information or knowledge. We're in the business of sharing it!

At the same time, I am disappointed that many challenges of leadership remain unmet. After all, American universities assemble some of the finest minds in the world, and your intellectual capacity is unbounded.

Rigorous debate and analysis are the hallmarks of the academy. And your ability to question traditions and challenge assumptions has made our system the finest in the world.

Yet there is often real hesitancy to turn that critical thinking inward.
I have been proud to lead delegations of university presidents to nations around the world. Everywhere I go, I tell students about the unmatched benefits of the American system of higher education. I am your number one advocate.

But as the mother of a teenager, I also believe in what some people call "tough love."

So, I feel honor-bound to remind you that in the absence of continued leadership in education, others will step in. When public demand reaches critical mass, policymakers are compelled to act whether they're in the Congress or on state boards or in state legislatures.

I suspect their solutions will likely not be as informed or sophisticated as what you would propose. Because while terms like "access, affordability, and accountability" are abstract concepts to many in Washington, they represent real-life challenges to students and faculties. And policymakers are pressured and obligated to respond.

In Washington, even as we speak, the Congress is contemplating actions that many in the Academy view as micromanagement and mandates. For example, there are proposals that would ask you to regulate Internet piracy, to report the number of fire drills you hold each year, and to keep track of any student leaving campus for more than 24 hours.

To meet our need for 20 million, 20 million by 2025, we must broaden and elevate the conversation.

Let's start by giving ourselves a deadline to reach the halfway point by the next Presidential election in 2012.

We have only just begun to tap the potential of the American population a population with strengths and talents even more diverse and abundant then those of our universities. Transforming to meet their needs will take time, resources, and sustained effort. And I challenge the next administration no matter what party they represent to carry forward the progress we've made so far.

I know we can reach our goal because we've done it many times before.

The GI Bill was signed into law on June 22, 1944. Within the next 12 years, nearly 8 million veterans took advantage of its education benefits.

Sputnik flew through the sky on October 4, 1957. Within the next 10 years, we tripled the number of math and science PhDs awarded annually.

I formed my commission in October 2005. By educating 20 million more people over 20 years, we will increase our Gross Domestic Product by 500 billion dollars. Half a million more people will be employed. 20 million people will be much more likely to vote and engage in their communities. 20 million will be more likely to live longer, healthier, more prosperous lives.

Together, our leadership can and will make this dream a reality. So let's get to work!

Thank you. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Labels: GI Bill, higher education

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:50 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Critics say the expected three-year time frame for implementing the rule is unrealistic. School districts will need help to prepare students, they add.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 10, 2008

Every California eighth-grader will be tested in algebra -- ready or not -- under a policy approved Wednesday that could make the state the first in the nation to require an upper-level math class before high school.

The state Board of Education voted for the change under pressure from federal officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who broke months of silence by siding this week with advocates who want algebra to become mandatory in eighth grade within three years.

Proponents say the new policy will push school districts to ensure that eighth-graders are ready for the demands of algebra. Critics say the anticipated three-year time frame is unrealistic. The new mandate, they contend, overlooks the real need to help school districts better prepare students.

Lucila Zetino, a summer school student at Monroe High in North Hills, typifies both the state's aspirations and its failings.

Zetino, 18, was part of an early push to get all students into Algebra 1 in eighth grade. Zetino flunked the class and has been flunking it ever since. Now she is attending classes after her senior year -- giving it another try, determined to earn her high school diploma.

Zetino's struggles demonstrate the depth of the challenge. Her math slide began at Millikan Middle School in seventh grade, she said. Then came eighth-grade algebra, when her teacher quit and was followed by several long-term substitutes. "I don't think I was prepared. I think they just, like, pushed me into algebra. . . . Math was like a different language I never understood. I felt hopeless."

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, more than half of eighth-graders, along with more than 2,000 seventh-graders, took algebra in 2007. But only 21% of eighth-graders tested proficient. About two-thirds of those who failed the class passed on their second try.

At many low-performing campuses, the picture is more dire. At Gompers Middle School in Watts, for example, only 30% of eighth-graders took algebra, and only 15% of those scored proficient. Moreover, only 1% of students in general math, an easier course, tested proficient.

The state's curriculum for eighth grade has long included algebra, and schools get penalized on their own report card, the state's Academic Performance Index, for every eighth-grader who doesn't take the algebra test.

The next step, the state board decided, was to force all students to take the test -- and thus an algebra course -- at a younger age. Under the likely terms of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the state would have three years to make the transition.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell had proposed instead a second, easier, algebra test as a fallback for some students. That test, already in development, would have been ready in spring 2010.

Requiring all students to take algebra "will hurt kids and contribute to other problems; I pray that I'm wrong," O'Connell said after the vote. "Absent additional resources, we're setting our students up for failure."

Statewide, only 24% of students, regardless of age or grade, scored proficient in algebra in 2007.

In eighth grade, 38% tested proficient -- a number virtually unchanged since 2003. But more students are taking algebra: less than a third in 2002 and more than half today.

For months, O'Connell's two-test option had considerable support. The governor's office raised no objection, and state board President Ted Mitchell co-signed a letter to federal officials with O'Connell.

"Board members were uncomfortable with a second test that would create the appearance of mastery of algebra but not actually do that," said Mitchell, explaining why he and other board members altered their positions.

Federal officials have complained that California established algebra as eighth-grade material but didn't require students to take the algebra test. Instead, they could take the more basic general math test. The requirements and the test have to match under federal law.

Washington couldn't tell California exactly how to comply with the law, said Holly Kuzmich, deputy chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. "But education policy is leading us to getting kids access to algebra by the eighth grade, and we know that's what leads kids to jobs and college."

She added: "We are delighted at the governor's push for high standards." Kuzmich said she knew of no other state that required algebra as early as eighth grade.

For months, advocates lobbied against O'Connell's approach.

"This $1-million proposed 'algebra light' alternative test will be a disaster for California kids and teachers," said Jim Lanich, president of California Business for Education Excellence, before the vote. "It will be a watering down of academic standards. . . . It will institutionalize a lower expectation for minority and low-income kids."

There also were critics from a nearly opposite perspective who wanted a test that matched the state's new "algebra readiness" curriculum. Some of these advocates wanted the state to wait out the Bush administration.

For them, even the easier algebra test was "meaningless and cruel" for students who, because they weren't ready, hadn't taken algebra, testified Charles T. Munger Jr., a math curriculum expert.

The state board postponed the decision in May and also punted in June, but had to act this month to avoid possible sanctions.

The federal government could have stripped away several million dollars that the state uses to oversee programs for students from low-income families. The state also could have lost flexibility for developing reforms.

The approved solution creates another problem. If 95% of eighth-graders don't take the algebra test, a school could be judged as "failing" under federal rules and subject to penalties.

Schwarzenegger stayed out of the debate until 24 hours before trustees were to act.

"We must set our goals higher," the governor wrote to the state board. "Algebra is the gateway to critical thinking, pivotal for success in science, engineering and technology."

To graduate, California students must pass two years of high school math, including Algebra 1, and the high school exit exam. To enter the California State or University of California systems, students need a C or better in three years of high school math, which usually takes them at least through Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2.

In L.A. Unified, as in other urban districts, students will need more help before eighth grade. The district has had trouble attracting and keeping qualified and effective math teachers.

Its teaching corps needs training in imparting the concepts of math as well as skills that will lead to algebra, said Jeanne Ramos, director of secondary mathematics.

Zetino's current teacher, Brian York, is taking part in a new effort among schools in his area to coordinate early math instruction.

"You can't just say, 'Eighth-graders, you're taking algebra,' " York said.

Despite clear explanations, good humor and words of encouragement, York can expect only about 50% of his class of algebra repeaters -- some of whom barely speak English -- to make it through, based on past experience. But he's going to keep trying.

So is Zetino, who wants to be a cosmetologist or find a job in the arts.

"I really want to graduate from high school," she said. "I'm hoping I do good in this class."

Labels: academic standards, California

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post

An important mention of the "essential conditions" for digital inclusion by UT's Paul Resta:

(1) basic literacy skills
(2) access to information and communications technology (ICT) devices, software, and connectivity
(3) access to culturally relevant content in the student's local language
(4) the ability to create, share, and exchange digital content
(5) access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources in pedagogically sound ways
(6) access to effective leadership in policy and planning.

-Patricia


By Dennis Pierce, Managing Editor, eSchool News
July 7, 2008

Summit addresses key question: How to ensure access to digital learning opportunities for all students

Despite gains in the number of households that are online and the number of computing devices in the hands of students, making sure all learners have equitable access to technology resources continues to be a challenge in the United States and worldwide, said panelists at a recent summit.

"We've made a lot of progress, but we've got a lot more work to do," said Link Hoewing, vice president of internet and technology policy for Verizon Communications.

Hoewing was speaking at a Digital Equity Summit held July 1 at the National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio, Texas, where participants discussed ways to close the gaps between those who have easy access to digital tools and resources and those who don't.

Students who lack this access to technology are at a disadvantage, ed-tech advocates say, because they are missing out on opportunities to learn and to become participants in an increasingly digital workforce and society.

At the summit, panelists shared the latest research on digital inequities in the United States and abroad, as well as possible solutions. One thing they agreed on was that the nature of the problem appears to be changing--and policy makers and education leaders must expand how they view and respond to this challenge in turn.

Thanks to a program in Brazil through which the government offers special-finance loans for people to buy computers, an estimated 36 million Brazilian children reportedly will be using Linux-based machines by the end of this year. Low-cost laptops such as Intel's Classmate PC and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's XO computer have reached nearly a million students worldwide. And cell-phone use in Africa has exploded in the last few years; coupled with the convergence in wireless devices, this trend has important implications for students in developing countries.

Yet, while there are many more digital devices now available to students, there seems to be a narrowing of the content they can use, said Joyce Pittman, director of the Center for Learning and Teaching with Technology at United Arab Emirates University.

Paul E. Resta, director of the University of Texas at Austin's Learning Technology Center, framed the digital-equity challenge as one of providing not just technologies, but "digital opportunities," for students.

"The digital divide is traditionally defined in terms of internet access," he said, "but it is really part of a broader divide that contributes to the social and economic exclusion of people."

Resta listed six things that he called "essential conditions" for digital inclusion: (1) basic literacy skills; (2) access to information and communications technology (ICT) devices, software, and connectivity; (3) access to culturally relevant content in the student's local language; (4) the ability to create, share, and exchange digital content; (5) access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources in pedagogically sound ways; and (6) access to effective leadership in policy and planning.

n other words, closing the so-called digital divide is about much more than providing access to computers and the internet, he said; it's about providing all the opportunities for learning that technology affords.

"The digital divide helps widen an even more alarming problem," Resta said--"the knowledge divide."

There are significant efforts under way to provide access not just to digital tools and devices, but also to digital content. The emergence of open educational resources, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's OpenCourseWare project, and the rapid growth of digital libraries such as Google's book-scanning project are a few examples.

Yet, the amount of digital content that is available only in English is still overwhelming. Eighty percent of the web sites on the internet are in English, but only 10 percent of the world's population understands English, said Laura Sujo de Montes, educational technology program coordinator for New Mexico State University.

Besides needing content that is easily accessible, students and families on the wrong side of the digital divide also need training in how to use technology tools and resources.

Ashanti Jefferson, technology integration senior analyst for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), talked about a program in her district that addresses this need. CPS has teamed up with Intel Corp. to offer free technology literacy tutorials that are available online in multiple languages through a low-bandwidth internet connection. These free tutorials work on multiple computing platforms and include resources for parents as well as students, Jefferson said.

‘Thrashing around'

Even though a growing number of students now have access to computers, software, and the internet both in the United States and abroad, there is still a great deal of work to be done in this area, too, panelists said.

Computer refurbishing programs are helping to reduce digital inequities worldwide, Resta said--the top 1,000 companies in the world have an estimated 70 million machines they are trying to dispose of--and so is the open-source software movement.

Any company that develops proprietary software that works only on a single platform "is serving the platform, not the student," said David Thornburg, founder and director of the Thornburg Center, which helps schools deliver inquiry-driven, project-based instruction in science, math, and technology.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has a goal of connecting villages, schools, hospitals, and libraries to the internet, ensuring than at least half of the world's population has access to modern technology by 2015, Resta said. But one of the key challenges to this effort is the cost of broadband services.

Resta showed a graphic that indicated the average annual cost of broadband service is only 2 percent of the total income for high-income populations--yet it's more than 900 percent of the annual income for low-income populations.

And though the average per-capita income of families in the United States far exceeds that of families in developing nations, the challenge of bringing broadband internet access into homes isn't limited to the rest of the world.

Sujo de Montes showed a slide listing the characteristics of those affected by the global digital divide: they typically live in rural areas, are uneducated, and many are unskilled laborers. "Don't these criteria apply to the poor in America?" she asked, to great applause.

Resta noted that the United States has fallen to 15th in broadband penetration among industrialized nations, according to rankings compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development--down from fourth in 2001.

He said most countries have set a goal of universal broadband service, much like electricity, telephone service, or any other utility. But in the United States, "we really don't have much of a [national] policy--we're thrashing around," Resta said, and it's incumbent on educators to help push for a national broadband strategy.

Verizon's Hoewing described the efforts his company is making to ensure that all students have equitable access to high-speed internet service.

New developments in fiber-optic technology now give internet providers the ability to bend fiber lines into an "L" shape without interfering with how light waves travel along the lines, Hoewing said--which has important implications for delivering fiber-optic service to city apartments and other hard-to-wire places.

Verizon also aims to reach traditionally underserved populations by offering broadband wireless to people's cell phones. The company's EV-DO service now reaches an estimated 228 million people, Hoewing said.

He noted that 82 percent of Americans now own a cell phone, and there is not much of a gap in cell-phone use among racial demographics: 74 percent of white Americans, 71 percent of African-Americans, and 84 percent of Hispanics reportedly own phones. And even faster "4G" wireless service should be available by 2010, he said.

Still, new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that attitude, rather than availability, might be the main reason more Americans don't have high-speed internet access. (See accompanying story: "Study: Many dial-up users don't want broadband.")

Hoewing acknowledged that convincing some families to subscribe to broadband service is a key challenge. He said he's heard from some parents that they're not online because they're afraid of the dangers lurking on the web. In response to these concerns, he said, Verizon now offers free online protection tools for families.

He also agreed that cost is still an issue for many families, even in the United States.

Labels: digital divide, technology

posted by Patricia Lopez at 12:09 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Undocumented college students endure hardships over their status, then see an uncertain future.
By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2008

He took 15 AP classes in high school, and kicks himself for passing up two others. Now, he is graduating from UCLA, with a double major in English and Chicano Studies and a B-plus grade point average.

But for all his success, Miguel does not share the full-bodied exuberance of the graduating seniors who marched last month five abreast into Pauley Pavilion, belting out the '60s hit "Build Me Up, Buttercup." A native of Puebla, Mexico, he is an illegal immigrant.

Around the UCLA campus, ubiquitous kiosk signs encourage students to "Jump Into Great Jobs!" But for Miguel, any employment will be difficult. Like many undocumented students, he may elect to prolong his studies to stave off an uncertain future.

"When you're in school you have a place in society, you're a university student," Miguel, 23, said during an interview at a campus coffee spot on graduation day. "When you graduate, you're just an immigrant again."

Miguel and other students, who asked that their full names be withheld for fear that they or their families could face federal action, are caught between contradictory U.S. immigration policies.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitled illegal immigrants to public education from kindergarten through high school; 50,000 to 70,000 graduate from U.S. high schools each year (California's share, by some estimates, is 40%), according to experts. But the students' access to higher education has not been guaranteed by the courts and Congress.

Over the last seven years, California and nine other states have encouraged undocumented college students to pursue higher education by offering many who graduated from California high schools in-state tuition. California public universities do not ask about legal status on applications. Some private universities, including Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara, have scholarships tailored for illegal immigrants. They are not entitled to most financial aid or loans at public colleges.

Their numbers at the university level remain low. The UC system had an estimated 271 to 433 undocumented students, out of total enrollment of 214,000, in 2006-2007, the latest figure available, a spokesman said.

But attending college, and even doing splendidly, does nothing to alter these students' illegal status. A proposed federal law called the Dream Act would have offered a pathway to citizenship for many college students and members of the military. But supporters last year were unable to secure enough votes to prevent a filibuster of the bill.

Opponents said the students are looting limited educational resources that should go to citizens and legal residents.

"To these students, I say I hope you return to your home country right away," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), "and I hope you repay what you have spent of other people's money. It's a horrible crime."

Students have come far

Advocates argue that it's inhumane and counterproductive to ostracize students who have come so far with so little.

"These students have been here since they were small children, and we've done everything to encourage them to stay in school and help them prepare for college," said UCLA Asst. Vice Provost Alfred Herrera of the Center for Community College Partnerships. "The sad reality is most of these students are the best and the brightest."

And if history is any guide, they aren't leaving. Some, instead, remain in school.

Living off academic stipends, scholarships and a steady diet of ramen, these students play out an endless "Groundhog Day" script of school applications, research projects and degrees.

"They mostly hang around colleges, assistantships, getting paid to do surveys. It's not employment, it's catch-as-catch can," said Michael Olivas, an expert on immigrants in higher education who teaches at the University of Houston Law Center.

"I think continuing your studies is the best option for us now," said Tam Tran, 24, who heads to Brown University this fall for a five-year doctoral program in American Civilizations.

Born in Germany to Vietnamese parents, Tran has a complex immigration history: a U.S. immigration board in 2001 found that her family faced political persecution in Vietnam for past anti-Communist activities, but ordered them deported to Germany.

Germany, however, would not take them. The nation only recognized as citizens children born on its soil to German parents.

She said she would have liked to stay at UCLA, maybe go to film school. But the public university can't give her aid, while both Brown and Yale universities offered generous packages.

Robert Lee, professor in the Department of American Civilization at Brown, said the university is not bothered that Tran might be unable to work in the U.S. in her academic field. "Even as students, they're producing important academic product," Lee said. "We don't train all students to become university professors; they might end up working for an NGO [non-governmental organization], or a film producer . . . or in government service, maybe not in the U.S."

'Miley Cyrus Americans'

Stephanie, 22, drops out roughly every other quarter towork at low-paying jobs like making cardboard boxes.

"The reason I don't feel bad about it taking me so long to get through is that as long as I'm a UCLA student, I can say, 'We're on our way, we're up-and-comers," said Stephanie, over dinner recently at a Japanese restaurant.

Stephanie's parents brought her here at age 4, after the disco craze dissolved in the Philippines, leaving her father, a lighting installer, without a job, she said. Her parents only told her she was undocumented when she tried to transfer to UCLA, she added.

"What people don't get is we're Miley Cyrus Americans," said Stephanie, an aspiring writer and copy editor. "English is the only language I speak."

A story about Stephanie in the Daily Bruin newspaper earlier this year drew scant sympathy. Stephanie "has a choice to make: become a legal resident or continue to live a life of deferring the task her parents should have taken care of years before," a letter to the editor said.

Stephanie and Miguel said they would risk deportation if they sought legal status.

Even the most prestigious academic posting has not shielded students from immigration authorities. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a classics scholar, Princeton salutatorian and illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was able to pursue a masters at Oxford University without facing possible exclusion upon his return only through an intense legal and publicity campaign, his lawyer, Stephen Yale-Loehr said. Yale-Loehr is an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School.

As it is, Padilla was able to obtain only a temporary waiver and visa so he could travel to the U.S. during summer and vacations to work on a research project for Princeton.

"Naturally the uncertainty over my status has been a source of anxiety," Padilla said in an e-mail from Oxford. "But I've tried to keep that anxiety quite separate from my academic and extracurricular pursuits. I feel enormously privileged to have studied first at Princeton and now at Oxford."

This same optimism pervaded speeches at a small graduation ceremony arranged by the UCLA chapter of IDEAS, a campus support organization for students, documented and undocumented, who receive the in-state tuition exemption.

About 10 students talked about life as an "Underground Undergrad" (the title of a book undocumented UCLA students released this spring): the two- to three-hour commutes, crashing on couches, eating only if somebody could sneak them into the dining hall. Several said they were hopeful the Dream Act will be reintroduced soon, and this time pass, opening the door to legalization.

But mainly, they expressed gratitude for their education.

"I choose not to place the burden [of my situation] on everyone," said Matias Ramos, another graduating senior, whose grandmother flew in from Argentina for the event. "I have had the blessing of encountering a lot of people who've helped me."

"A lot of stereotypes that linger on, we break all of them," said Miguel. "All of us are very assimilated and we're very proud of it. . . . We're driven by huge optimism."

But as she cleared cut fruit from the refreshment table, Tran grew wistful.

"We're always in a position where we're oppressed and privileged at the same time," she said. "I wonder if getting a PhD in American studies is going to prove I'm an American?"

Labels: California, higher education, immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:47 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By REUTERS
Published: July 7, 2008

By Jason Szep

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers.

She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game.

"It's comfortable," she said of Scholastic Corp's FASTT Math software in which she and other students compete for high scores by completing mathematical equations. "This makes me learn better. It's like playing a game," she said.

Education experts say her school, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston, offers a glimpse into the future.

It has no textbooks. Students receive laptops at the start of each day, returning them at the end. Teachers and students maintain blogs. Staff and parents chat on instant messaging software. Assignments are submitted through electronic "drop boxes" on the school's Web site.

"The dog ate my homework" is no excuse here.

The experiment at Frederick began two years ago at cost of about $2 million, but last year was the first in which all 7th and 8th grade students received laptops. Classwork is done in Google Inc's free applications like Google Docs, or Apple's iMovie and specialized educational software like FASTT Math.

"Why would we ever buy a book when we can buy a computer? Textbooks are often obsolete before they are even printed," said Debra Socia, principal of the school in Dorchester, a tough Boston district prone to crime and poor schools.

There is, however, one concession to the past: a library stocked with novels.

"It's a powerful, powerful experience," added Socia. Average attendance climbed to 94 percent from 92 percent; discipline referrals fell 30 percent. And parents are more engaged, she said. "Any family can chat online with teacher and say 'hey, we're having this problem'."

Unlike traditional schools, Frederick's students work at vastly different levels in the same classroom. Children with special needs rub shoulders with high performers. Computers track a range of aptitude levels, allowing teachers to tailor their teaching to their students' weakest areas, Socia said.

SURGE IN ONLINE COURSES

The Internet is also a catalyst for change. U.S. enrollment in online virtual classes reached the 1 million mark last year, 22 times the level seen in 2000, according to the North American Council for Online Learning, an industry body.

That's only the beginning, said Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns."

"Our projections show that 50 percent of high school courses will be taught online by 2019. It's about one percent right now," said Horn, executive director of education at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts.

K12 Inc , which provides online curriculum and educational services in 17 U.S. states, has seen student enrollment rise 57 percent from last year to 41,000 full-time students, said its chief executive, Ron Packard.

Much of the growth is in publicly funded virtual charter schools.

"Because it is a public school, the state funds the education similar to what they would in a brick and mortar school, but we get on average about 70 percent of the dollars," Packard told Reuters.

"We don't usually get capital dollars, or bond issue dollars. Sometimes we don't get local dollars. So on average it works out 70 percent of the per pupil spending that an average school in the state would receive," he said.

"We're getting the kids who the local school is not working for. And the spectrum goes from extreme special education to extremely gifted kids," he said.

U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley says K12 and similar companies look set to capture an increasing share of the $550 billion publicly funded U.S. education market for children aged from about 5 to 18 as more U.S. states adopt virtual schools.

Virginia-based K12 recently opened an office in Dubai to expand overseas. Packard says he expects strong offshore demand for American primary and secondary education tailored for foreign nationals who want to enter U.S. universities.

Apex Learning Inc, based in Bellevue, Washington, is seeing a similar surge in demand. It started in 1997 by offering online advanced-placement courses to parents and individual schools but now sells an array of online classes for entire school districts and state departments of education.

"Over the last two years in particular we have seen very, very significant growth in the interest and demand for our type of digital curriculum," Apex chief executive Cheryl Vedoe said in a telephone interview.

Apex enrollments rose 50 percent to 300,000 in 2006-2007, and likely grew at the same pace last year, she said.

"Where we see the greatest growth today is actually in brick and mortar high schools for programs for students who are not succeeding in the existing programs," she added.

Online tutoring is also expanding rapidly. Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched online U.S. services in 2005, estimates its average global growth in active students at 22 percent a month -- all taught by "e-tutors" mostly in India.

Horn expects demand for teachers to fall and virtual schools to boost achievement in a U.S. education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school -- a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

"You deliver education at lower cost, but you will actually improve the amount of time that a teacher can spend with each student because they are no longer delivering one-size-fits-all lesson plans," he said. "They can actually roam around."

Labels: technology, virtual schools

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post

José Martí Child Development Center, an accredited bilingual Spanish and English preschool at El Centro de la Raza of Seattle, will receive $16,500 for the impact it has made on Latino families.

Aria Shepard
Seattle Times staff reporter
July 7, 2008

Four-year-old Victoria Garcia likes learning English and is not looking forward to leaving her preschool.

"I want to stay here; I don't want to go to kindergarten," she said. "I like to listen, and I like to stay here. I like to read more."

Victoria attends José Martí Child Development Center, a bilingual Spanish and English preschool at El Centro de la Raza of Seattle on Beacon Hill.

El Centro, which offers support services to Latino families, was recently named winner of the 2008 National Council of La Raza/Annie E. Casey Foundation Family Strengthening Award for the positive impact the José Martí center has had on Latino families.

"It's been a big help," Victoria's mother, Cecilia Martinez, said in Spanish through a translator. She was one of four parents who provided testimonials about the day-care center to the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil-rights group in the United States.

Martinez and her husband moved here in 1997 from Mexico, where their friends and extended family live. When they began looking for a preschool for their son, Victoria's older brother, Tomás, they found what they needed at José Martí.

"For myself, for people who come from other countries, we can find it all here, from immigration to lawyers, all the information I need," Martinez said.

When Martinez was pregnant with Victoria, she turned to El Centro again for resources and information. Now she is more engaged with her community; she participates in immigration rallies and visits legislators in Olympia. She credits her increased involvement to El Centro.

José Martí, the first accredited bilingual early-learning program on the West Coast, according to El Centro, serves 68 preschool students, whose progress is tested regularly as they prepare for kindergarten.

Hilda Magaña, director of José Martí, has been working at El Centro for 23 years.

Children from all backgrounds attend the center, she said, and some come in with little knowledge of English or Spanish.

Because children learn languages at their own pace, one challenge for the center is meeting the expectations of parents, some of whom "want the children to learn English quickly because it's a survival skill," she said.

When the center first started, lessons were taught only in Spanish. When students began to fall behind in kindergarten, Magaña said, the center re-evaluated its goals and now emphasizes dual-language learning and maintaining a cultural heritage.

"Every family is unique," she said. "Sometimes the children carry on messages of their culture, and some don't. Hopefully we've given the tools to the children to learn from their culture, but we cannot control them."

The award comes with $16,500, which Magaña said will be used to enhance several programs and for materials and toys.

Eight-year-old Tomás Garcia says he is better at speaking English but likes speaking Spanish.

"When I talk Spanish to my grandma, she gives me money to buy Popsicles," he said.

Tomás misses the preschool but enjoys the after-school programs available at El Centro for 5- to 12-year-olds. "I want to come here until I die," the soon-to-be fourth-grader said. "It's really a good place. They take care of you."

Labels: additive schooling, English language learners, Parent Involvement

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:18 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Bilingual classes required by law

June 30, 2008
By CIGI ROSS Staff Writer

ELGIN -- Local school districts have a tough time recruiting bilingual teachers to accommodate the high number of Spanish-speaking students.

Carpentersville-based Community Unit School District 300 and Elgin School District U46 have large numbers of students needing bilingual services -- about 2,000 and 6,500 respectively. But the districts aren't just trying to help the non-English speaking students out. They are required by law to offer the students classes that cater to their language abilities.

Illinois law requires districts to offer bilingual education to students until their English proficiency meets testing standards and they can advance to an English classroom.

The type of class model is determined by how many students of the same language background are at a school. Traditional bilingual education is provided for students when there are 20 or more of the same language background. According to Illinois law, students are taught in their native language while they learn English. Traditional bilingual education helps students maintain and develop skills in their primary language and culture while they are introduced to and develop their English skills.

Districts offer a transitional program of instruction when there are 19 or fewer students of the same language background at a school. These classes focus on developing English and educational concepts appropriate for their ability and language level throughout the day.

The amount of time the students are taught in their native language is determined by the student's progress. The amount of English increases as the child gets better at English, said Lalo Ponce, U46's assistant superintendent of administrative services.

Each year, school districts administer a state-mandated proficiency test called Assessing Comprehension and Communication in State-to-State for English Language Learners, or ACCESS. The ACCESS test is the indicator of English language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Schools are required to provide bilingual education until each student has progressed enough to move on to English-only classrooms. Once the students meet the state and district criteria, they can exit the English language learners program.

"By law, all students receive formal English language instruction daily and they advance based on their language and academic performance," Ponce said.

Bilingual teachers also are required to meet state standards. Teachers must take a language proficiency test that determines their English mastery. The minimum passing score is 80 percent in the areas of reading, writing and speaking.

Ponce said teachers need an Illinois State teaching certificate in addition to the 18-hour endorsement in English as a second language and bilingual education to be highly qualified.

Labels: English language learners, teachers

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:11 AM 0 comments Links to this post

New director of U.S. Census Bureau talks about state and national trends, and the 2010 census.

By Suzannah Gonzales
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, June 15, 2008

The American-Statesman recently got one of the first interviews with the new director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Steve Murdock.

Before getting the call from the White House, Murdock was the first state demographer of Texas. For more than 25 years, he led the Texas State Data Center and Texas Population Estimates and Projections Programs.

While at the Census Bureau, Murdock is on leave from Rice University, which he joined about a year ago from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

In this edited and condensed interview, Murdock talks about important demographic trends, the 2010 census and his love of data tables.

American-Statesman: I've quoted you before saying, 'The Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow.' What are the most important demographic trends facing Texas and the country? And what are the policy implications of these trends?

Steve Murdock: We are, relative to all other developing countries, a very rapidly growing nation. Our growth is such that we're expecting to be a population of over 400 million by the middle of this century, almost 420 million, I think. Not only do we have a relatively high rate of natural increase — that's the excess of births over deaths — but we also have a relatively high rate of immigration. And that immigration is leading to more rapid growth, and it is also leading to increased diversity.

The diversification of the population is another major force impacting the U.S. One of the reasons that I say that Texas is a barometer of the country is that if you looked at Texas in 2000, about 53 percent of the population was non-Hispanic white, or Anglo as we call it in Texas, and by about 2040, that is the percentage that the Census Bureau projects to be the case for the country as a whole.

A third factor is the aging of the population due to that group of people born between 1946 and 1964, what we refer to as the baby boom generation. They're about a quarter of the U.S. population. They're about a quarter of the Texas population. The first of the baby boomers will turn 65 in 2011, and by about 2030, about 20 percent of all Americans will be 65 years of age or older.

What are some ofthe implications? Let's look again at population growth. It is leading to a younger work force. I think we're looking at a population that continues to have some economic advantages relative to market growth, relative to labor force supplies, compared to slower growing countries.

When you look at the diversification of the population, 2050 will look more like the world than it does today. Just like we see the economy globalizing, internationalizing, we're seeing that the nation's population is internationalizing.

When you look at the aging population, from now to about 2030, we're looking at primarily a relatively large middle-age population. In the long run, we have some very difficult decisions to make about the elderly. Costs related to medical care, costs related to long-term care, these sorts of factors are impacted by the aging population. And we will have the largest aging, aged population in the history of the United States.

What are the challenges of the census?

There's a lot more concern about your personal information. Our mandate is to count those people residing in the United States at any one given point in time, that being April 1, 2010. We have a good deal of contentiousness about the issue of immigration. We take no stance on the issue, but it does impact the fear and concern that people may have in responding to the census.

The data that people provide to the census are absolutely confidential. We don't share that information with any other agency. It's absolutely confidential and absolutely safe, but we have to ensure that people are confident that we will protect that confidentiality. That and the growth of the population — we'll be around 310 million, we think — by that point in time. All of those are challenges to us.

Describe the typical American now, compared with 50 years ago and 50 years from now.

If we can talk in general terms, the average American 50 years earlier than now was very likely to be non-Hispanic white, would have been younger, had lower levels of education, living in a household that was larger, more likely to be living as part of a married-couple-with-children household, living in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Now, bring it to today, that average American is older. There's a higher likelihood that they will be diverse, they will live in either a single-person household or a married-couple-without-children household and be living in the South or the West.

And if you go 50 years from now, what you can say is that person will be about equally likely to be what we characterize now as minority members as they will be non-Hispanic white. Let 2050 be about 50 years from now, that American, one of every four we expect to be Hispanic, a little less than 50 percent will be non-Hispanic white, another eighth or so will be African American and then you can take another plethora of groups that will make up the rest.

How did you become interested in demography and crunching numbers? What do you enjoy most about working with data?

Demography is not destiny, but it certainly is a large determinant of what occurs. I got, as one of my colleagues refers to it, infected by demography early in my graduate career and became just enamored with it. I love tables. My staff used to say that if you wanted to keep me entertained for the afternoon, just give me about 25 tables and I would spend the rest of the afternoon looking at every element of data on those tables. On the other hand, most people would have, you know, been asleep in about half an hour.

Labels: demographics, Latinos

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:02 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By Kim Minugh - kminugh@sacbee.com
July 5, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

WOODLAND – Woodland Joint Unified School District will get more than $875,000 in grant funding over the next three years for an English-language learner program that eventually could be a model for districts statewide.

It is one of 44 schools and districts receiving a total of $20 million as part of a California Department of Education effort to identify best practices for teaching English-language learners.

Agencies had to apply for the funding by outlining a program they have had in place for at least three years and presenting department officials with evidence of that program's results with English learners.

Each of the 44 schools and districts will receive $200 per English learner and must match that amount.

Each district will be evaluated by an independent evaluator, must collect data and report results to the department.

A final report will be compiled for the governor and the Legislature at the end of the three-year project.

Labels: California, English language learners

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:55 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Some interesting findings by the Pew Study: "The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap" -Patricia

by DIVERSE Hispanic Staff
Jul 2, 2008

Gaps in test scores narrow when students who have not mastered English are not isolated in low-achieving schools, according to a new report from the Pew Center for English-Language learning.

The report released June 26 noted that students designated as English language learners (ELL) tend to go to public schools with low standardized test scores � schools where other groups are also struggling. These schools generally have high student-teacher ratios, high student enrollments and high student poverty rates, the report said.

The report focused on public schools in Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas, states that educated about 70 percent of the nation's students enrolled in English language learning (ELL) programs.

As defined in the report, "English language learner (ELL) students are designated by public schools as students who cannot excel in an English language classroom. Designation procedures vary across states and school districts but often include a test of the student's English reading and writing skills as well as listening and speaking abilities."

"The continued growth of the ELL student population will present large challenges for some public schools and school districts in meeting requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act," the report said. �NCLB mandates that all groups of students, including ELLs, meet state proficiency standards in mathematics and reading by 2014. Recent results from national and state assessments indicate that ELL students are among the groups least likely to meet state proficiency standards. One of the fastest-growing groups of students is also one of the lowest-achieving student groups in both mathematics and reading.�

Previous studies have found that ELL students are much less likely than other students to score at or above proficient levels in both mathematics and reading/language arts.

Pew Hispanic center said this report builds on previous studies �by illustrating that the educational isolation of ELL students is associated with the math proficiency gap between English language learners and other students.�

"It also shows that White and Black students who attend the public schools in which ELL students are concentrated are doing worse than their peers who attend public schools with few English language learner students," the report said.

Among the report's other key findings:

* The projected number of school-age children of immigrants will increase from 12.3 million in 2005 to 17.9 million in 2020, accounting for all the projected growth in the school-age population. Many of these children will need ELL services.

* In the five states with large ELL student populations, the proportion of ELL students scoring at or above the proficient level on the state mathematics test is often below the proportion of Black students scoring at or above the proficient level. For example, in Texas 22 percent of ELL eighth-graders scored at or above the proficient level on the math assessment, compared with 44 percent of Black eighth-graders. (The terms Black and White in the report refer to those who are not also Hispanic.)

* In both elementary grades and middle school grades in these states, ELL students are much less likely than White students to score at or above the proficient level

* In mathematics. The measured gaps are in the double-digits. For example, in Florida 45 percent of ELL third-graders scored at or above the proficient level for math, compared with 78 percent of White third-graders.

* ELL students who took the state mathematics assessment were heavily concentrated in the public schools that had to disclose publicly the English language learner testing results � schools with a minimum threshold number of ELL students taking the test. White test-takers and Black test-takers were much less concentrated in the public schools reporting ELL testing outcomes.

* Public schools that reported results for ELL fourth-graders educated less than 20 percent of White fourth-grade test-takers in the state and slightly more than half of Black fourth-grade test-takers.

* In the five states with large ELL student populations, the public schools in which ELL test-takers are concentrated are much more likely to be central city schools.

* Public schools in which ELL test-takers are concentrated have a much higher enrollment, on average, than other public schools in the state.

* Middle schools in which ELL test-takers are concentrated have, on average, significantly higher student-to-teacher ratios than other public schools in the state.

* Public schools in which ELL test-takers are concentrated have, on average, a substantially greater proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price school lunches.

* Public schools in which English language learner students are concentrated are significantly more likely to be designated Title I schools � those with student bodies that have a large proportion of economically disadvantaged students and receive additional federal funding.

Labels: English language learners

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:42 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's the full report: "Kentucky's Immigrant Youth Face Tough Transition to Adulthood" by Kentucky Youth Advocates. -Patricia

By Sarah Vos
svos@herald-leader.com
June 27, 2008

Kentucky's immigrant teenagers are five times more likely to drop out of high school than their American-born counterparts, according to a new study by Kentucky Youth Advocates.

The biggest reason for their failure is a limited ability to speak English, said Janessa Bryan, the report's author and a policy analyst for Kentucky Youth Advocates.

The report found that 41 percent of immigrants ages 16 to 19 either speak English ”not well“ or ”not at all.“ But 70 percent of immigrants who were not enrolled in school had limited English skills.

Kentucky has one of the highest dropout rates in the nation. Most of the dropouts are white and U.S.-born. One in 10 is an immigrant.

But the number of immigrants in schools is growing. In 1990, 1,300 Kentucky students learned English as a second language. In 2005, more than 11,000 did.

Hispanic teenagers, in particular, are likely to drop out, the report found. Nearly three-quarters of Hispanic immigrants ages 16 to 19 were not in school and did not have a diploma or a GED.

To help immigrant teenagers graduate, the state needs to invest more in programs that help kids stay in school, Bryan said.

The report also calls for the state to track limited students after they finish English proficiency programs. Tracking students would help schools know whether the programs successfully transferred immigrant students into the English-speaking classrooms.

Labels: Dropouts, immigrant children

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:40 AM 1 comments Links to this post

Matias Bernal, an illegal immigrant from Mexico City, holds a folder from a visit to his favorite school, UCLA, in July 2006. Bernal was wait-listed at Princeton, but without access to financial aid and most scholarships, he had to prepare to attend California State University in Fresno, Calif., so he could live at home and pay tuition with money from jobs he's not supposed to have.


USA Today
July 7, 2008

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.

In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school in the state. That represents a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for such students.

This summer, South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities.

North Carolina's community colleges in May ordered its 58 campuses to stop enrolling undocumented students after the state attorney general said admitting them may violate federal law.

"The new trend is to kick illegal aliens out of college altogether," says William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, which opposes taxpayer subsidies for undocumented immigrants.

Josh Bernstein of the National Immigration Law Center, an illegal-immigrants advocate, says sweeping anti-immigration bills are "a very serious threat" to the overall illegal population.

Georgia, which barred undocumented students from in-state tuition rates in 2006, enacted laws in May preventing them from receiving state scholarships and certain student loans.

This fall, the University of Arkansas will require students to submit Social Security numbers and proof of residency. In May, Arkansas Department of Higher Education Director Jim Purcell warned that students without documentation "will not be considered as legally enrolled students" when determining an institution's state funding.

Opponents say students shouldn't be penalized for their parents' actions. Helping them is "the right thing to do even if it's unpopular," says North Carolina state Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat who introduced a bill that would prevent state institutions from asking about students' immigration status.

Labels: higher education, immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:30 AM 0 comments Links to this post

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Thursday, July 17, 2008

The University of California is moving toward a major revision to its
admissions policy that would de-emphasize test scores and give the system's
nine undergraduate campuses greater flexibility in choosing their freshman
classes.

The plan, which was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the system's
Board of Regents, would be the biggest change to how the university
evaluates prospective students in at least a decade. It was proposed last
month by faculty leaders who argue that the system's strict eligibility
formula disqualifies deserving students, especially those from low-income
and minority backgrounds.

Since the 1960s, California's premier public-university system has promised
admission to at least one of its campuses to the top 12.5 percent of the
state's high-school graduates, as determined primarily by grades and test
scores. Under the faculty plan, the proportion of students who are
guaranteed a spot would be reduced to about the top 10 percent. The
remaining spots would go to students chosen by individual campuses, which
would more closely consider applicants' personal backgrounds.

The proposal would also ease the list of requirements that potential
undergraduates must complete before applying. Applicants would no longer
need to take an SAT II subject test or complete as many college-preparatory
classes in order to be considered.


Uncertainty Over Effects


At Wednesday's Board of Regents meeting, many regents appeared receptive to
the goals of the proposal, but they were unsure if it would work as
intended. Mark G. Yudof, the university's new president, told the regents
that he was "sympathetic on the merits," but that he would need more details
about the plan's possible effects on the university's diversity and academic
performance.

"I want to carefully assess this proposal," Mr. Yudof said. "It's one of the
most consequential things the regents will ever approve."

By putting more discretion in the hands of campus admissions officials, the
new policy would help to bring the university's admissions process more in
line with those of many private and public research universities, said David
A. Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education.

The university's current admissions policy is unusual, Mr. Longanecker said,
because of the bright line the university draws between applicants who are
eligible for consideration and those who are not. All eligible applicants
are guaranteed a spot on a university campus, while nearly all ineligible
students are rejected outright.

The changes would probably have only a small effect on the university's
flagship campuses, at Berkeley and Los Angeles. Those branches already
comprehensively review each application they receive, taking into account
applicants' personal backgrounds, and they are too selective to be greatly
affected by the revised eligibility rules. But the system's less-selective
campuses, like those in Riverside and Merced, could see a substantial shift
in the makeup of their freshman classes.

Robert G. Jacobsen, a professor of physics at Berkeley and chairman of the
campus's faculty admissions committee, said the proposed admissions change
would have no effect on decisions on about two-thirds of applicants. The
bottom third, he said, "will be looked at in more depth, and we'll make
better decisions with those people."

Proponents of the plan say the university's current eligibility policy is a
maze of course and testing requirements that disqualifies too many
high-achieving students. Mark M. Rashid, a professor of engineering at the
university's Davis campus and chairman of the university faculty committee
that developed the proposal, said approximately 2,000 high-school graduates
a year with grade-point averages above 3.5 are not typically considered for
admission because they do not meet basic requirements, like taking the right
college-preparatory courses or the SAT II. These students, he said, are far
more racially and economically diverse than the applicant pool as a whole.

"These are students that the University of California should be bending over
backwards to be fair to, and yet we're just summarily declining them for
these trifling bureaucratic reasons," Mr. Rashid said.


Reluctance to Embrace a New Model


But the proposal has sparked resistance in California, where the
university's history and prominence ensure that each percentage change in
the admissions formula is analyzed for possible effects. Nearly a quarter of
the university faculty's own leadership opposed sending the plan to the
Board of Regents.

One major point of contention is the decrease in the number of students who
are guaranteed a spot on the campus. The University of California is tasked
by the state's Constitution and its master plan for public higher education
to serve the top one-eighth, or 12.5 percent, of the state's high-school
students. Since the 1960s, this has generally meant that students with the
highest grades and test scores would be admitted.

William J. Drummond, a journalism professor at Berkeley who chairs the
university's academic senate, said the university should not move away from
that successful model without better understanding the effects of the
proposed change. He said he fears the new eligibility rules will be less
transparent and more difficult to understand than the old ones.

"It's a change in substance as well as in symbol," Mr. Drummond said. "Ever
since the 1960s and the master plan, we've been telling kids from primary
school on up that if you work hard, we will guarantee you a place. Now we'll
just guarantee that you'll be reviewed."

It is also unknown how the revised admissions structure would affect racial
diversity. The new admissions proposal has been attacked from both sides of
the affirmative-action debate, with some people arguing it would serve as an
impediment to minority students and others saying it would be a back-door
way of renewing affirmative action, which has been banned in California
since 1996.

Ward Connerly, the former university regent who led the campaign to ban the
use of race in admissions, said he is not sure how the proposal will affect
campus diversity. He said, however, that an admissions system that involves
more subjective considerations could be vulnerable to a challenge.

"Someone I think could make a case, even with comprehensive review, that
race was a factor," he said.

Labels: California, high-stakes testing, higher education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 1:04 PM 0 comments Links to this post

bNet Business Network

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino
April-May, 2003

David Hayes-Bautista: the end of California as we know it - Q&A

Jorge Ferraez

Q. Tell us about your family background.

A. I am one of the few native Angelenos that you will ever find. My parents were born in the United States. My grandparents were from Mexico, from a town called Atlautla in the state of Mexico. My grandfather was a historian, and he came here almost a century ago. He liked it and went back and brought the family over. I went through second mad third grades in Los Angeles, where I was categorized as having learning deficiencies. I didn't know this until I graduated from high school. My parents were very happy that I graduated, and then they shared the terrible secret that they had been carrying around all these years. They had been assured by my teachers and counselors that I would never graduate because I just couldn't learn.

Q. Were your studies always focused on Latino healthcare?

A. I started off my college studies in engineering. My father was an engineer, so he wanted me to be an engineer. It made sense to him. It didn't make sense to me, but I studied it for three years. It was good preparation, but ultimately I decided that I didn't want to be an engineer. I started at UC Davis studying civil engineering and then transferred to the College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley--this was in the mid-sixties. At this point, I had heard that there were 25 Chicano students at Berkeley, as opposed to one at UC Davis. Interestingly enough, two or three of us still work together. We formed relations in the mid-sixties, and we are still working in the healthcare field together.

Q. How did you feel as a student at this time?

A. It was the early days of the Chicano movement--it was very exciting. I began to get involved with community groups in East Oakland that wanted to set up a clinic, and I was graduating from UC Berkeley and going to UC Medical Center to do my graduate work. This community group asked me if I would head up this clinic, and I said, "I am just starting school. What do I know about this?" They insisted that I was the closest thing to anybody who knew anything about healthcare. I took up the challenge, and I became the founding director of La Clinica de La Raza in Oakland between 1970 and 1974. La Clinica just celebrated its 35th anniversary last fall. It is still a major healthcare provider, but it basically started as a student-community effort. I guess that really got me interested in Latino health. Meanwhile, I was going to school at UC Medical Center in San Francisco. I did my master's and Ph.D. while I was working at La Clinica, and when I was finished with both, I asked to do some teaching at UC Berkeley and joined the faculty in 1974. In those days, there wasn't a lot of information on Latino health. In tack there was very little. And I am a quantitative person. I need to have information, data. We need to have science behind things. I began working the few data sets that were there: the census, birth files, etc. Late in 1978, people thought that because the Anglo baby boom was over that soon there would be fewer children entering high schools and, later, the University. We were being told to be prepared to downsize the University of California--that we might need to close a campus. I was a member of the Systemwide Health Sciences Committee. We have five medical schools in the UC system, and this Committee had taken this message to heart and spent a whole year talking about which medical school it would close. At that point, I said, "Don't close anything. You are assuming that everybody has the same demographic behavior as non-Hispanic whites, which is low fertility and low immigration. Look at Latinos: high fertility and high immigration. There is going to be population growth, only it will be Latino and not non-Hispanic white." Everybody said, "You're crazy. It's never going to happen." So, I got the 1980 census out and started doing my own computations. It was clear to me that there was going to be huge Latino population growth. At that point, I had the heretical notion that California would one day be half Latino. Of course, that frightened people.

Q. How did the demographic data pan out?

A. On February 5, 2003, we released a report that analyzed a master birth file, which lists every birth in California--about half a million every year. As it turns out, beginning in the third quarter of 2001 over 50 percent of all babies born in California are Latino. The Latino majority has emerged. That Latino majority is now 18 months old. What this means is that in the fall of 2006, the majority of all children entering the state's kindergartens will be Latino. In the fall of 2013, the majority of children entering the state's high schools will be Latino. In the fall of 2016, the majority of new workers entering the labor force will he Latino. By 2019, the majority of young people who have turned 18 and are eligible to register and vote will be Latino. The Latino majority is here. I saw this happening in 1975.

Q. What has caused this phenomenon?

A. It has to do with population movement within a country. In the mid-fifties as many as half a million braceros were in California each year. The total Latino population of the state was not even a million and there were almost as many braceros as there were resident Latinos. In the mid-sixties, the bracero program ended just as immigration laws changed. They changed the status of the bracero to immigrant. Changing their status from bracero to immigrant meant that they could stay here and get married, have children. As braceros they had already been here for 22 years, but couldn't stay. They began to stay all year round instead of going back to Mexico. They got married and started to have children. During the seventies most of the population growth was due to braceros changing their status to immigrants. But ever since the mid-eighties, births have been the primary factor of Latino population growth. In fact, in the last 10 years about 85 percent of Latino population growth in California has been due to births, and only 15 percent is due to immigration. Immigration to California has really fallen off tremendously.

Q. What other observations halve you, made from your data?

A. What we have seen in our data is that Latinos do have lower incomes and less education. We seem to be the urban underclass, which means high levels of labor force desertion, high levels of welfare dependency, disintegrated families, health-harming behavior, shorter life expectancy, drug use, smoking, drinking--you name it. However, as we got better data, it became clear to me that there was a paradox, the Latino epidemiological paradox.

Q. What about obesity and its effects on Latino health?

A. It is clear that a higher percentage of Latinos will be obese or overweight compared to non-Hispanic whites. Obesity can be due to either diet or lack of physical exercise, usually some combination of the two. Although, what is interesting is that for Latinos obesity does not yet translate into elevated levels of heart attack, cancer, or stroke. But yes, obesity is a problem, and I don't think we should turn our back and say, "because it doesn't translate into elevated heart disease right now, we don't have to worry about it." Yes we do have to worry about it. We have a little grace period before something will probably start to go terribly wrong.

Q. Which Latino healthcare problems need to be addressed?

A. The No. 1 problem is to resolve the Latino physician shortage. For better patient care, and secondly to get more physicians into academic medicine researching this whole Latino epidemiological paradox. Usually, Latinos are interested in finding out why, but if there are few Latino researchers, there are few people who are doing the research, which is why I cannot tell you the mechanism by which Latino culture produces this paradox. All I can tell you is that it produces it. But also better patient care: if we can be this healthy with poor access to medical care, just suppose we had decent access to medical care. We would make the United States, in terms of health, start to compete with Japan and Sweden, countries usually considered the paragons of a healthy population.
he Latino Epidemiological Paradox

A minority's health profile should be weaker than its non-Hispanic white counterpart; however, this is not the case for Latinos.

* Latinos

have about 35 percent fewer heart attacks.

have 42 percent lower cancer rate.

have 25 percent fewer strokes.

have lower infant mortality.

have lower rates of drinking, smoking, and drug use.

in California live five years longer than non-Hispanic Whites.

* Despite

low income

low education

low access to care

Info LINK
Dr. David Hayes-Bautista
Director, UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture
924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 730 Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tel: (310) 794 0663
COPYRIGHT 2003 Ferraez Publications of America Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Jorge Ferraez "David Hayes-Bautista: the end of California as we know it - Q&A". Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino. April-May 2003. FindArticles.com. 18 Jul. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PCH/is_2_4/ai_113053458

Labels: California, health care, Latinos

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:19 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out the full report: "Reach Higher, America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce".

-Patricia

Friday, June 27, 2008
By Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The United States needs a major overhaul in adult education and work force training if it hopes to reverse a decline in adult literacy, said a report released yesterday by the National Commission on Adult Literacy.

The report -- the product of two years of research and hearings -- calls for new federal legislation and funding to serve 20 million people by 2020.

"This is of monumental importance to our country and it's urgent," said Cheryl King, study director and former commissioner of adult education and work force development in Kentucky. "This is not an issue that can wait another 10 years for resolution."

The United States is unique among the world's most developed nations in actually losing educational momentum, said the report. Among the 30 countries that are members of the Organization for Cooperation and Development, the United States is the only country where the younger generation (adults 25 to 34) has a lower percentage of high school diplomas than the older generation (ages 45 to 54).

"Countries other than the U.S. do a lot better job with adult literacy than we do," said Don Block, executive director of the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council. "They don't seem to draw this line at age 18 or high school completion."

Out of an adult population of about 222 million, the 2005 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that 30 million Americans scored "below basic" on a literacy test, and another 63 million did not have adequate literacy to enroll in postsecondary education.

"This is a staggering problem, and it is growing," Ms. King said.

The federal government currently spends about $4 billion to serve 3 million people, she said.

The report calls for a "Marshall Plan" in the form of an Adult Education and Economic Growth Act that would ramp up spending to $20 billion by the year 2020 to serve 20 million adults.

The new system would coordinate and renovate the array of disparate federal literacy programs under the Department of Education and Department of Labor that currently have different standards for eligibility and reporting systems.

The report divided those in need of adult education into several different categories: the unemployed; low-skilled incumbent workers; immigrants with no or limited English; parents or caregivers; incarcerated adults; high school dropouts; and high school graduates unprepared for college.

Each group should have specific recommendations written into the new law, advised the report, so that each gets the necessary attention.

Mr. Block, who attended the presentation of the report yesterday in Washington, D.C., cautioned that literacy should not just be seen as a means to workforce development.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 people use the Literacy Council's services every year, he said, many seeking further education in order to help their children with their schoolwork.

"The reasons are quite broad," he said. "They have to do with family, parenting, citizenship, and also employment, but it's broader than just jobs."

Labels: adult literacy

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:35 AM 0 comments Links to this post

This cohort of students will also be the first high school group required to pass End of Course Exams to receive a high school diploma.

-Patricia

Thousands won't get into high school this year unless they pass the TAKS test

By ERICKA MELLON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
July 1, 2008

Thousands of eighth-graders across Texas will sit this week for the biggest test of their young lives.

For the first time in the state, eighth-graders must pass standardized exams in math and language arts to be promoted to high school automatically. The students had two chances during the school year, but that was not enough for many who failed the exams on both attempts.

"When I take a test, I get nervous and just forget," said Kristen Diaz, who is retaking eighth-grade math at HISD's Patrick Henry Middle School this summer in hopes of passing the state test on her third try. "I even asked for extra work because I don't want to stay here no more."

Statewide, nearly one in five eighth-graders has yet to pass the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

That's at least 55,918 students who face retention in eighth grade if they again fail the test, which is being given for the third and final time today.

Texas is one of the toughest states when it comes to tying grade promotion to testing. Students in grades 3, 5 and — now — 8 must pass the TAKS in some subjects to advance. High school students must pass four exams to graduate.

The state law does provide a loophole at the lower grade levels. Students who fail the exams can ask a school committee — consisting of the principal, a teacher and one of the student's parents — to promote them anyway. The committees are supposed to consider whether the student would succeed the next year with some extra help.



School districts negligent?

Supporters praise the flexibility of the committees, while critics complain that too many students are being promoted or are not getting the special attention they need to catch up. Now, urban and suburban school districts alike find themselves with eighth-graders who cannot prove they have basic math and reading skills.

"We've pushed them through, and we've never done any of the remediation that the law called for," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, who lobbied for the 1999 law mandating the promotion tests.

"It's negligence on the part of the school districts," she added. "For the most part, superintendents thought, 'We'll just get around this law.' Well, no, you won't. Now you're faced with it big time."

Then-Gov. George Bush championed the law before his run for president. The intent was to curb social promotion, or the widespread practice of allowing students to advance a grade, no matter their academic skills, so they can be in class with peers their own age.

Tutorials offered

In the Houston Independent School District, the state's largest, 27 percent of the eighth-graders tested — or 3,115 students — face retention if they fail the math TAKS today. The eighth-grade language arts test has tripped up 1,046 students, or 9 percent of those tested. The third administration of the language arts test is on Wednesday.

Statewide, eighth-graders did better in language arts than in math. Only 5 percent of students, or 16,490, failed the test in that subject.

HISD, like other districts across the state, has been offering TAKS tutorials this summer. Chief Academic Officer Karen Garza said she is confident more students will pass the exams on their third try, but she knows principals, teachers and parents still face a difficult decision in the coming weeks when test scores come back.

"The research has been pretty clear about the dangers of retention," Garza said, noting that students who are retained are more likely to drop out of school. "I'm also not a proponent of just passing them to the next grade. It's a delicate balance."

Kathy Christie, who has studied promotion policies nationwide, said schools need to do a better job of catching up struggling students, regardless of whether they are forced to repeat a grade.

"Sometimes I think kids are retained and they sit in a classroom where they know three-fourths of the material," said Christie, chief of staff of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

3rd time's the charm

Gilbert Ponce, an eighth-grader at Patrick Henry Middle School, expressed confidence last week that he would succeed on the math TAKS this time around. He said he previously missed the passing mark by one question, but he is having an easier time learning fractions in his smaller summer school class.

"I'm learning more than what I learned in regular school — mainly because I didn't pay attention," he said, adding that he understands why the state has promotion requirements. "You gotta be prepared, you know."

Labels: high-stakes testing, TAKS

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer
Tue Jul 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - Six states are getting the OK to write their own prescriptions for ailing schools under the Bush administration's signature education law.

It's a softening from how No Child Left Behind currently works — with schools having to take certain steps at specific times for missing math and reading testing goals. Critics have complained that the approach is too rigid and treats schools the same regardless of whether they miss the mark by a little or a lot.

The states getting more freedom under a pilot program are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland and Ohio. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings made the announcement during a speech Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

The states that won approval have come up with plans to more closely tailor solutions to individual schools' problems and focus resources on schools in the worst shape.

"We expect to see a closer fit between the causes of school underperformance and a focused attention at repairing those sources of failure," said Margaret Raymond, director of an education think tank at Stanford University and the chair of a panel that reviewed the state proposals.

Examples of changes the states plan to make include requiring schools to offer tutoring earlier than is currently called for and a greater reliance, in Indiana for example, on testing throughout the year to catch academic weak spots.

In Florida, schools with low-performing students will likely be assigned teachers who have experience teaching similar students successfully.

Maryland is placing more emphasis on training principals. It's common under the law for failing schools to replace their principals. "We think principal leadership is key. It's not just changing a principal, it's ensuring principals have the necessary skill sets," said Maryland schools superintendent Nancy Grasmick.

In Georgia, the state is spelling out that schools can become charter schools, which are public but operate with broad independence, earlier than is currently called for, said the state's superintendent of schools, Kathy Cox.

Some critics worry the changes, specifically the focus on the worst-performing schools, will take the pressure off schools that are generally doing well but having trouble with one group of students — such as a minority group or kids with disabilities.

"I don't think it's taking the pressure off. I think it's allowing focus," Cox said.

Spellings has said up to 10 states will be allowed to try to participate in the pilot program. The Education Department plans to review additional state proposals this fall.

The six states that won approval were among 17 that sought it.

The states that didn't win approval were Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Spellings said in an interview that the efforts by the states that won approval to try new approaches will be closely watched and will shape any future rewrite of the six-year-old No Child law.

"We're trying to set the table for a strong and sensible reauthorization," Spellings said. "We're going to learn some things."

Labels: NCLB

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:24 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By PETER SCHMIDT | Wall Street Journal Editorial
June 28, 2008; Page A11

Thirty years ago this past week, Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. condemned our nation's selective colleges and universities to live a lie. Writing the deciding opinion in the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, he prompted these institutions to justify their use of racial preferences in admissions with a rationale most had never considered and still do not believe – a desire to offer a better education to all students.

To this day, few colleges have even tried to establish that their race-conscious admissions policies yield broad educational benefits. The research is so fuzzy and methodologically weak that some strident proponents of affirmative action admit that social science is not on their side.

In reality, colleges profess a deep belief in the educational benefits of their affirmative-action policies mainly to save their necks. They know that, if the truth came out, courts could find them guilty of illegal discrimination against white and Asian Americans.

Selective colleges began lowering the bar for minority applicants back in the late 1960s to promote social justice and help keep the peace. They felt an obligation to help remedy society's racial discrimination, even if they generally weren't willing to acknowledge their own. And with riots devastating the nation's big cities, they saw a need to send black America a clear signal that the establishment it was rebelling against was in fact open to it – and that getting a good college education, not violence, represented the best path to wealth and power.

In the mid 1970s, when colleges talked about the educational benefits of race-conscious admissions, what they had in mind were the benefits reaped by minority students. And tellingly, the University of California had said nothing about the educational benefits of diversity in defending the UC-Davis medical school's strict racial quotas against the lawsuit brought by Allan P. Bakke, a rejected white applicant.

When the U.S. Supreme Court took up that decision on appeal, however, the educational diversity argument was tucked into a few of the many friend-of-the-court briefs submitted in the case.

Justice Powell would come to rely heavily on one of those briefs, in which Columbia, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania joined in arguing, without any empirical evidence, that diversity "makes the university a better learning environment." Like the four other conservatives on the court, Powell rejected the social-justice rationale for such policies, arguing that the government should not be in the business of deciding which segments of American society owed what to whom for past misdeeds. Nevertheless, he did not want the court to be radically changing how colleges did business. Looking for a way out, he ended up saying the four elite colleges had convinced him of the educational benefits of treating some applicants' minority status as a "plus factor."

Most selective colleges interpreted Justice Powell's controlling opinion in the case as a green light to keep doing what they had been as far as racial and ethnic-group admissions preferences were concerned. At the same time, they fretted little about how their campuses were actually becoming less diverse in socioeconomic terms as they jacked up tuitions and increasingly favored applicants from families wealthy enough to fatten endowments and pay their children's full fare. And despite a professed concern with viewpoint diversity, some colleges adopted rigid speech codes aimed at squelching statements that made minority students uncomfortable.

Academe got a rude awakening in 1996. Californians passed a ballot measure in that year barring public colleges from considering race and ethnicity in admissions. And a federal appeals court rejected Justice Powell's diversity rationale in a lawsuit, Hopwood v. Texas, involving the University of Texas law school. In his book, "Diversity Challenged," Gary Orfield, a staunch advocate of affirmative action, says people in higher education looked around and suddenly realized "no consensus existed on the benefits of diversity" and "the research had not been done to prove the academic benefits."

Over the next several years, education researchers scrambled to find such proof and repeatedly met with college leaders to discuss their progress. Their work took on a sense of urgency, on the expectation the Supreme Court would soon be revisiting Bakke. Yet again and again, their studies were shown to have gaping holes and deemed too weak to hold up in the courts.

Fortunately for affirmative-action advocates, the Center for Individual Rights, which coordinated the legal assault on race-conscious admissions, made a tactical decision not to seriously challenge such research – out of a belief it could win on legal principle. When the Supreme Court waded back into the controversy, it reaffirmed Justice Powell's diversity rationale in a 2003 decision, Grutter v. Bollinger, involving the University of Michigan law school. The opinions revealed that the majority of justices had been swayed by a barrage of friend-of-the-court briefs spinning and exaggerating what the research said about the alleged educational benefits of diversity.

Proponents of race-conscious admissions policies have yet to produce a study of their educational benefits without some limitation or flaw. Many focus only on benefits to minority students. Others define benefits in nakedly ideological terms, declaring the policies successful if they seem correlated with the adoption of liberal views. A large share relies on survey data that substitute subjective opinions for an objective measurement of learning. The University of Michigan's star witness, Patricia Gurin, a professor of psychology and women's studies, presented studies showing the educational benefits of classes and campus programs that promote interracial understanding. Those may exist at colleges that don't consider an applicant's race.

Affirmative action advocates argue that it is unreasonable to expect more of the research, because no education policy has incontrovertible proof of effectiveness. But affirmative-action preferences are not just any education policy; they require some students to suffer racial discrimination for the sake of a perceived common good. In grounding his definition of that good in the shifting sands of social science, Justice Powell may have left colleges legally vulnerable for decades to come. The courts, after all, are known for diverse opinions.

Mr. Schmidt is a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education and the author of "Color and Money: How Rich White Kids Are Winning the War over College Affirmative Action" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Labels: affirmative action

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:00 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's the link to check out the full report AP Poll-Education (June 27, 2008) conducted by Knowledge Networks. Click the link labeled

-Patricia

USA Today
June 30, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not much of a report card.

Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.

"A lot of kids, when they get out school, are kind of lost," said Jamie Norton, a firefighter in Gridley, Calif. "When you get out of high school, what are you educated to do?"

The views of the general population echo concerns from business and college leaders, who say they have to spend a lot of time and money on remedial education for people who completed high school but don't have the skills to succeed at work or in higher education.

Education ranks behind the economy and gas prices as a top issue for Americans, the survey said. However, nearly all those polled said the quality of a country's education system has a big impact on a country's overall economic prosperity.

Education was generally viewed to be as important as health care and slightly ahead of the Iraq war. Among minority parents, education is just as important an issue as the economy.

Minorities and whites rate schools differently. Fifty-nine percent of whites rate their local school as good or excellent, compared with 42% of minorities.

Minority parents are more likely to think their children are getting a better education than they received as children. Overall, the majority of those surveyed said the quality of U.S. schools has declined over the past 20 years.

Three-fourths of those surveyed believe schools place too much emphasis on the wrong subjects. Asked what subjects should be given more time in school, more than a third said math. English was a distant second, at 21%. A tiny fraction picked art, music and the sciences, such as biology and chemistry.

Parents may want more math in school because they feel unprepared to help at home, said Janine Remillard, who teaches math-related courses at the University of Pennsylvania's education school.

"Math is the subject that parents are often intimidated by," she said. "We've allowed a lot of kids to just say, 'I'm not good at math,' .... and those kids become parents."

Most think the United States is just keeping up or falling behind the rest of the world in education. On some recent international tests, U.S. students have posted flat scores and landed in the middle to bottom of the pack when compared with other nation's children.

Americans have mixed views about standardized tests, which have grown in importance. The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law judges schools based on math and reading tests taken by their students. Schools face increasingly tough consequences for scores that miss the mark.

About half of those polled said standardized tests measure the quality of education offered by schools well, while the rest disagree.

The vast majority think classroom work and homework — not standardized tests — are the best ways to measure how well students are doing.

Larry Michalec, a computer programmer in San Deigo, called the testing a waste of time. "They're standardized and people aren't standardized," he said. "Children get taught to the test. They get taught to take the test. They don't get taught to learn."

School districts are increasingly tying student performance to teacher pay. Americans seem to support that trend. Sixty percent said the amount of pay teachers receive should be based at least in part on the performance of their students.

The nation is split over whether teachers should be allowed to strike, with half thinking strikes should be allowed. Whether strikes are allowed is governed by state law.

The AP survey of 833 adults and 854 parents of school-aged children was conducted June 18-23 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for each sample.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

The research was financially supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Associated Press had sole editorial responsibility for the design of the survey questionnaire and the analysis of the survey results.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POLL

Though the economy and gas prices were mentioned more often as people's top concern, education came in ahead of the Iraq war, the environment and education and about even with health care.

Math and English were the subjects people most thought should be emphasized more in schools.

Half said the U.S. education system is falling behind that of other countries, and six in 10 said the quality of American schools has declined in the past 20 years.

Just one in 10 said the quality of their local public schools is excellent. Non-whites and Hispanics tended to rate the quality of their public schools lower than whites did.

Most said children who do better on standardized math and science tests will be more financially successful later in life.

A majority said teacher pay should be based at least partly on the performance of their students.

Labels: college readiness

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:53 AM 0 comments Links to this post

This is worth reading. I'd have to agree that expectations play a pretty significant role in students' lives - as you see this can go in many directions, some better than others.

I think the comment that Latino families value work over education should be looked at closer -- how were questions asked is a good start. One of many comments here that should be looked at more critically.

-Patricia

Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas.
By Hector Becerra
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 16, 2008

The eight students walked into a room at Lincoln High School prepared to discuss an issue many people, including some of their teachers, considered taboo.

They were blunt. Carlos Garcia, 17, an A student with a knack for math, said, "My friends, most of them say, 'You're more Asian than Hispanic.' "

"I think Carlos is Asian at heart," said Julie Loc, 17, causing Carlos to laugh good-naturedly. Asian students who get middling grades often get another response, she said.

"They say, 'Are you really Asian?' " Julie said.

"It's sad but true," said Eliseo Garcia, a 17-year-old with long rocker hair, an easy manner and good grades. "I had an Asian friend, but he didn't necessarily get that great a grades. We used to say, 'He's Mexican at heart.' "

What accounts for such self-deprecating humor? Or the uneven academic performance that prompts it?

The state's top education official, Supt. Jack O'Connell, called for that kind of discussion last fall when he decried the "racial achievement gap" separating Asian and non-Latino white students from Latinos and blacks.

At The Times' request, the Eastside students gathered to talk about this touchy subject.

Lincoln Heights is mostly a working-class Mexican American area, but it's also a first stop for Asian immigrants, many of them ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam.

With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.

Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian.

"A lot of my friends say the achievement gap is directly attributable to the socioeconomic status of students, and that is not completely accurate," O'Connell said. "It is more than that."

But what is it? O'Connell called a summit in Sacramento that drew 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts to tackle the issue. Some teachers stomped out in frustration and anger.

No Lincoln students stomped out of their discussion. Neither did any teachers in a similar Lincoln meeting. But the observations were frank, and they clearly made some uncomfortable.

To begin with, the eight students agreed on a few generalities: Latino and Asian students came mostly from poor and working-class families.

According to a study of census data, 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the neighborhoods around Lincoln High have median annual household incomes below $50,000. And yet the Science Bowl team is 90% Asian, as is the Academic Decathlon team.

"Look at the statistics. It's true," said George De La Paz, 17, whose single mother works as a house cleaner.

Asian parents are more likely to pressure their children to excel academically, the students agreed.

"They only start paying attention if I don't do well," said Karen Chu, 15, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam. "They don't reward me for getting straight A's. I don't get anything for that. But if I get a B, they're like, 'What's this?' "

If her grades slipped, she said, her parents laid on the guilt extra thick. "My parents are always like, 'If you don't do well in school, then it's all going to be worth nothing,' " Karen said, laughing nervously.

Julie Loc, the daughter of a seamstress and a produce-truck driver, said that if she gets a B, her parents ask whether she needs tutoring. She said her father used to compare her to other people's children, noting their hard course loads or saying, "They have a 4.3 [grade-point average]. Why do you only have a 4.0?' "

Julie said her mother, Kin Ho, finally told her father to stop making comparisons. Ho, in an interview, said with a slightly embarrassed smile, "My daughter has embraced American culture, where she expects my reassurance and approval. Our children, if they did something well, they would ask us if we were proud of them, if they did good. They ask if we love them."

George said his mother, a Mexican immigrant, has high expectations for him too, but she is not so white-knuckled when it comes to school. She wants him to do well -- he's now thinking of college -- but the field of endeavor is up to him.

"She said, 'I came here to do better for you,' " he said. "But that's about it. Being happy and getting by, that's what she wants."

For Carlos Garcia, the one with the knack for math, the message from his parents was to focus on school. Neither got to finish grade school in their native countries.

His mother, Maribel, from El Salvador, is a homemaker; his father, Santos, a Mexican immigrant, is a drywall finisher who once took Carlos and his older brother to work with him -- to scare them away from manual labor. Two of their children have college degrees, one is still in college and Carlos, the only Latino on Lincoln's Academic Decathlon team, wants to attend Caltech.

Ericka Saracho, 16, an A student, said her Latino family did not push her to do well in school. When she got a rare B, "they're like, 'Oh, wow, Ericka finally got a B! How do you feel about that?' " she said. She is one of the few Latina students on Lincoln's Science Bowl team.

The students talked not just about parental expectations, but also about those of peers. Karen drew laughter when she said of other students, "They expect me to be smart. Even if, like, I do everything wrong on purpose, they still copy off of me -- as if I'm right just because I'm Asian."

She said expectations came into play in an even odder way in Lincoln High's hallways.

"In our school we have tardy sweeps, and normally the staff members let the Asians go," Karen said. "They don't really care if we're late."

The group, nodding, erupted into laughter. "They don't even ask them for a pass sometimes," George added.

"Generally speaking -- like it's stereotypical that Asians all do better -- I also think there's a stereotypical view that Asians are usually late," Julie said. "They'll come to school late, but they'll get to class and do their work."

This drew more laughter.

Many factors influence academic performance: class size, poverty, and school and neighborhood resources. But as the discussions at Lincoln show, expectations loom large.

Fidel Nava, a coordinator for English learners at Lincoln, said some Latino students say that Asians get higher grades simply because, well, they're Asian.

"In a sense, they have come to believe that it's OK for Asians to be smart and not for Hispanics," said Nava, who immigrated from Mexico at 14.

Nava, the only one of six siblings to go to college, said he was once like many of his students. His parents wanted the children to finish high school, but there also was an expectation that they get jobs and help the family.

"A lot of my relatives don't see my job as a stressful job at all," Nava said. "If I tell them I'm tired, they say, 'Why? You're not doing any labor. You're not doing anything.' "

Rocio Chavez, 18, said that even though her older sister graduated from high school, their mother didn't really expect her to go to college.

"I guess she didn't expect that from me, either," Rocio said. "And now that I'm going to move on to college, she's kind of scared. She gets kind of sad I'm leaving. She's like, 'You're supposed to graduate from high school, go to work and help me out.' "

Frank D. Bean, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, has studied the Mexican work ethic and found that work and education occupy the same pedestal, and in some cases, work is even more valued.

Bean said his research shows that children of Latino immigrants, if they drop out of school, are more likely to be working than most other students who leave school.

"In Latino families, being able to work to provide defines your manhood, your worthiness," said Min Zhou, a UCLA sociology professor who has studied working-class Korean and Chinese communities.

Latino and Asian families in Lincoln Heights were essentially in the same socioeconomic boat, she said, but Asian immigrants were more likely to have been more affluent and had better education opportunities in their native countries.

Of course, there are exceptions to stereotypes at Lincoln. "My mom just wants me to pass," said Thin Lam, 17.

But Thin said counselors assumed he wanted to take a slew of AP classes, and a counselor urged him to take AP calculus.

"I said, 'Yeah, sure, I want to take it,' " he said. "In the end, I dropped it."

A few hours after the eight students concluded their discussion, some teachers gathered in Principal James Molina's office.

"I feel a little bit uncomfortable talking about racial and ethnic generalizations," said Cynthia High, a 20-year teaching veteran now in charge of teachers' aides and other programs.

"In some situations, it sparks a good conversation. In others, it's more taboo-ish to talk about it," said William Olmedo, who teaches AP physics.

Barbara Paulson, who coordinates Lincoln's magnet program and teaches AP biology, said it had been understood for a long time that teachers needed to try harder to recruit Latino students for AP classes because "the Asian kids come on in droves."

Gilbert Martinez, who teaches AP government, said he didn't think the school did as good a job as it could to raise expectations among Latino students and to get them into AP classes.

"But I do," Paulson said.

"I'm not saying you, Barbara. I'm saying all over."

Olmedo said many capable Latino students refused to take AP classes or join other academically rigorous activities.

Teachers said they were saddened by self-defeating attitudes.

"I think the thing I always hear from the Latino kids is, 'Oh, well, Miss, he's Asian, she's Asian. Of course they do well,' " said Alli Lauer, who teaches English. "It's frustrating to hear them do it to each other."

But as one student said in a separate interview, many Latino students are responding to cues. Johana Najera, 17, said the Academic Decathlon offers a not-so-subtle cue about who belongs.

"We already know that it's Asian, and they kind of market it more for Asians," Najera said. She noted that the shirts for the Academic Decathlon team have a logo done in the style of anime, Japanese animation. "It appeals more to Asian students," she said.

Martinez turned the conversation toward parents' attitudes, summarizing a discussion from one of his Chicano studies classes.

"Let's say a Latino student is studying and an Asian student is studying," Martinez said. "The Latino parent will often say, 'Hey, come help me out real quick, then you can go back to your studying.' Where the Asian parent will say, 'Oh, you're doing your homework. OK, you finish, and then after you're done, you come help me.' "

High recalled a good Latino student she had a few years ago. He also was a gang member.

"He would wear baggy pants, and he would load up his pants with books," she said. "He looked around to make sure no one was seeing him so he could look like the baddest kid in the block."

The teachers were then asked about tardy sweeps, the topic the students had found so amusing. Was it true that Asians could wander outside class without a hall pass?

"My Asian kids laugh at that," Olmedo said. "I say, 'Take the pass.' They say, 'I'm Asian. Who's going to ask an Asian student for a pass?' "

"Oh, you're kidding!" High said with a gasp.

"I'll send one of my [Latino] boys out just to get water, and here comes the security, 'Please make sure you send him out with a pass,' and I'll say I will," Olmedo continued. "And the Asian kid will walk around the whole campus, the whole day, the whole week, for a whole month!"

Don Brewer, an English teacher, said some Latino students were allowed to slide by without hall passes, including athletes and others involved in school activities.

"But you know," Brewer said, "when you're looking down the hall and you see that one kid pop out, you go, 'OK, he's Asian. I can go back in.' You know, I think that happens. It's obvious it happens."

High shook her head. "But I must say I don't feel comfortable with that. And if we're doing that, that's not OK. That's just not OK."

"Oh, it's happening," Olmedo said. "It's happening."

Labels: achievement gap, California, Parent Involvement

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:18 AM 0 comments Links to this post

I think the method speaks well to student engagement and teacher-student relationships, two things that have been shown to impact the schooling experience of students of color.

-Patricia

by Michelle D. Anderson
June 26, 2008
Washington

Teachers must be sensitive and inclusive to all students' cultural backgrounds, educators and advocacy organizations said during a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

The briefing, "Culturally Based Teaching: A Model for Student Success," provided educators and student advocates with the opportunity to share their views and provide federal policymakers with first-hand accounts on how using a culturally based education model will empower students and help close the achievement gap.

The teaching model encourages quality instructional practices rooted in cultural and linguistically relevant contexts. During the briefing, many of the panelists agreed that educators and advocacy organizations must provide statistical data and other information to encourage lawmakers to support and fund the cultural-based teaching model.

The event sponsor, Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), acts as a diverse coalition of national organizations representing communities of color that believe high schools should prepare every student for graduation, college, work and life.

Dr. Sheryl Denbo, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center, which works with educators to close the achievement gap among students in Mid-Atlantic states including Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, said students who feel that their culture is validated in school will be more likely to participate and take an active role in advancing their education.

We're not asking for something that's just for Latino students, we're not asking for something that's just for African-American students [and] we're not asking for something that's just for working-class students," Denbo said. We're looking for something that's for everyone."

Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, president of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA),

shared NIEA's research on the impact of culturally based curricula in public schools and communities.

"These approaches include recognizing and utilizing native languages as a first or second language that can incorporate traditional cultural characteristics and involve teaching strategies that are harmonious with the native culture knowledge and contemporary ways of knowing and learning," said Gilbert in an earlier statement.

Gilbert highlighted that the new model has led students to be more academically and socially successful. According to the NIEA, this teaching model transcends only teaching language and culture to students, as it is a systematic approach to incorporating cultural ways into thinking, learning and problem-solving.

"If we are to make change in the educational system, we have to include everyone," Gilbert said.

Rushern L. Baker III, executive director of the Community Teachers Institute, also spoke, highlighting how the institute has prepared culturally competent teachers. The institute is a national nonprofit organization that supports the creation of programs, policies and partnerships to train and develop teachers working in communities of color.

Baker noted that in many teaching communities, there is a majority-minority student population with a mostly White female teaching population. He said not only do these teachers need to be more sensitive to students� cultural backgrounds, but teachers must also be culturally confident in themselves.

He added that schools must put more effort into recruiting minority teachers who are more likely to be culturally sensitive.

Gilbert echoed Baker's sentiments later in the discussion, saying that in many school districts teachers generally do not live in the same community as their students.

Dr. Luis A. Vazquez, associate graduate school dean at New Mexico State University, said that students will be more likely to excel academically if they can relate to what is being taught.

Vazquez used his parents as an example. One only made it to the fourth grade and the other to the seventh grade. He added that the lack of cultural identity in his family members' school curriculum was generational.

Nothing in the textbooks looked like them, nothing related to them,� V�zquez said, adding that students today do not need to feel like �they are guests in somebody else�s house� while in school.

Our students need to have some "KICS," he added, referencing to acronym, which stands for Knowledge in Interpersonal Communication Skills. K.I.C.S. is a tenant that is part of the Academic Cultural Competence Teaching (ACCT) model.

Educators at New Mexico State University use the model to encourage Hispanic students to develop a strong academic identity. Also part of the model's three tenants is Collaborative Learning and Student Success (CLASS) and Teaching Academic Skills and Knowledge (TASK).

Other speakers during the briefing included Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and Michael Wotorson, director of community partnerships at the Campaign for High School Equity and the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Labels: curriculum, Diversity, teachers

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:59 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out the Full Report -Patricia

Using questionnaire and transcript data collected in 1972, 1980, 1982, 1992,
and 2004, this report presents information on five cohorts of high school
seniors.

The analysis addresses overall trends, as well as trends within
various subgroups defined by sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status
(SES). Key findings of the report include the following:

* The proportion of Black seniors who were in the highest SES quartile
doubled from 1972 to 1992 (from 5 percent to 10 percent), and increased
overall from 5 percent in 1972 to 14 percent in 2004.

* The percentage of seniors enrolling in calculus during their senior year
grew from 6 percent to 13 percent between 1982 and 2004. The percentage of
seniors taking no mathematics courses during their senior year declined from
57 percent to 34 percent over this time period.

* Seniors increased their senior-year enrollment in advanced science courses
(chemistry II, physics II, and advanced biology) from 12 percent in 1982 to
25 percent in 2004.

* In each class of seniors, most of those who planned further schooling
intended to attend four-year postsecondary schools, with the proportion of
students planning to attend four-year schools rising from 34 percent in 1972
to 61 percent in 2004.

* In all years, higher percentages of Asian high school seniors, and lower
percentages of Hispanic seniors (except in 1992), compared to other
racial/ethnic groups, planned attendance at four-year institutions.

* No difference was observed between 1972 and 2004 between the percentage of
seniors expecting a bachelor's degree as their highest level of education.
Instead, growth between these two time points was greatest in expectations
for a graduate or professional degree: 13 percent of seniors expected to
attain this level of education as their highest in 1972, compared to 38
percent of seniors in 2004.

* In 1972, males expected to earn a graduate degree as their highest
educational level in greater proportions than did females (16 percent versus
9 percent); however, in 2004, females expected to earn a graduate degree
more often than males (45 percent versus 32 percent).

* Seniors increasingly expected to work in professional occupations (growing
from 45 percent of seniors in 1972 to 63 percent of seniors in 2004
expecting to work in a professional field).

Labels: higher education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:39 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Here's the link to the full report "Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006–07" by CEP. -Patricia


Researchers, though, stop short of crediting 2002 federal act for gains.

By Laura Heinauer
AMERICAN-STAFF STATESMAN
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Student achievement in math and reading is increasing, and the gap in performance, particularly among black and low-income students and their white and non-low-income peers, has narrowed in most states since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in 2002, according to a study released Tuesday.

Texas especially has made significant performance gains in recent years, according to the researchers at the Center on Education Policy, an independent nonprofit Washington-based research group.

Researchers stopped short of crediting the federal act for improvements, saying many programs are in place to raise achievement. The study follows up on one from last year that was criticized for trying to compare student test performance before and after the act was passed.

Jack Jennings, the center's president, said, "What we're reporting today is ... positive, realistic news that we can document."

Shortcomings with this year's study were also pointed out: There is no control group for comparison. The study did not consider results from states that changed testing policies and had less than three years of data to analyze. As a result, 43 states were represented in the results.

The study looked at Texas results from 2005 to 2007 and found that students made moderate to large gains in both reading and math at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Texas was one of only eight states, out of 27 evaluated, to show gains at the high school level. And middle and elementary school performance mirrored that in most other states. The study showed that achievement gaps narrowed in most groups in Texas.

Tuesday's results gave ammunition to advocates both of the current system and to those who would reduce the emphasis of the Texas' high-stakes achievement test.

David Thompson, a consultant with Raise Your Hand, a Texas-based group wanting to focus more on individual student progress, said, "Tests clearly have a role, but not the only role."

State Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, is co-chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Public School Accountability, which is expected to offer recommendations to the Legislature in December. Eissler said lawmakers are considering ways to tweak the state system so it is more user-friendly and even better at improving academic performance.

Now, students in third grade must pass the reading portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills to be promoted; students in fifth and eight grades must pass reading and math for promotion. Lawmakers have revised a requirement for students to pass the TAKS in order to graduate high school.

Sandy Kress, who serves with Eissler on the state committee and who was a senior adviser to President Bush on the federal law, said, "When we see results like this, that ought to give us pause in considering making radical changes. ... If we do anything, we maybe ought to strengthen the system."

Labels: high-stakes testing, NCLB

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:22 PM 0 comments Links to this post

By WINNIE HU | NY Times
Published: June 25, 2008


Christopher Julien, 7, was one of 14 first graders in the Gift of Time program at Hempstead Elementary in Spring Valley, N.Y.

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — With the increasing emphasis on standardized testing over the past decade, large urban school systems have famously declared an end to so-called social promotion among youngsters lacking basic skills. Last year, New York flunked 6 percent of its first graders, and Chicago 7.7 percent.

Now the 8,400-student East Ramapo school district in this verdant stretch west of the Palisades is going further, having revived a controversial retention practice widely denounced in the 1980s to not only hold back nearly 12 percent of its first graders this spring but to segregate them in a separate classroom come fall.

The special classes, which are limited to 15 students and follow a pared-down curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic, are called the Gift of Time and come with extras like tutoring and field trips to a local farm.

School officials say that adding resources — about $2,000 per child, in a district whose average general-education spending per pupil is about $13,000 — and tailoring the lessons for low-performers works. Nearly 80 percent of the 54 first graders and 47 second graders in Gift of Time classes this past school year now read at grade level (although they are, of course, a year behind their age group); at least 30 percent of the younger group and 11 percent of the older group are above grade level, according to district evaluations performed last month.

Iraida Hada, the principal of Hempstead Elementary here, said that merely holding back students without a special program to address their needs would not have been as effective.

“How are we going to make it work the second time around, if it didn’t work the first time?” asked Mrs. Hada, whose school was one of five in the district that inaugurated the program this year. “What are we going to do for them? What are we going to change? I believe this program has afforded them another opportunity.”

But some parents have greeted the idea with skepticism, and many education experts say it doubly stigmatizes vulnerable children by combining two practices widely discredited by research: retention and tracking low-achievers.

“This is very worrisome,” said Jay Heubert, a professor of law and education at Teachers College at Columbia University, arguing that both holding back students and separating them can lower self-esteem and academic achievement, increasing the likelihood of dropouts.

Michelle Brown, 34, a certified nursing assistant, fought unsuccessfully to keep her son, Nallehc, out of the program this year for fear that he would be picked on — which he was.

“We believe that for you to have to repeat first grade, it means that you are not capable, you are a dunce child,” Ms. Brown said. “It was bad enough to repeat, and then to repeat in a Gift of Time class. I thought it was a polite way of saying he’s a special-needs child.”

The concept, often called transition classes, was tried in kindergarten in thousands of schools — including East Ramapo’s — in the 1970s and ’80s. Lorrie Shepard, dean of the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said such programs were generally abandoned after students failed to show significant academic gains and often developed a worse attitude toward school.

“Kids as young as kindergarten were aware that they were being held back and that what they were doing wasn’t normal,” Dr. Shepard said.

But with the federal No Child Left Behind law and a battery of state mandates increasing pressure on schools to raise test scores, efforts to end the longtime practice of promoting children based on age rather than achievement have taken on new urgency. Districts in Milford, Del., and Lakeland, Fla., are among a handful nationwide that have been experimenting with transition classes in recent years, though both dropped them in the face of parental resistance and, in Florida, concerns among teachers.

“I had a hard time putting just the low-achieving kids together,” said Betty Fitzgerald, principal of Lakeland’s Churchwell Elementary, which ran a separate class for repeating third graders for two years in response to tougher state standards. “It’s like saying, ‘You all are low kids, and you all didn’t pass.’ ”

(The Delaware schools scrapped the retention piece: low-performing kindergarteners are promoted, but grouped in a first-grade class that emphasizes basic skills)

Supporters of the separate classes say they give struggling students a chance to learn at their own pace rather than setting them up for future failure by shoe-horning them into a uniform timetable. Since the 1970s, several schools scattered around New Hampshire have placed kindergarteners in what they call readiness classes for up to a year before starting first grade; the classes are usually smaller and promote social development as much as academics.


“I feel it raises the academic bar in the entire school,” said Dillard E. Collins, principal of an elementary school in Hampstead, N.H., who enrolled his own son in a readiness class in nearby Nashua in the 1980s. “If all the children are ready to go, it’s like moving the starting line up.”

Here in Rockland County, the East Ramapo district serves a mostly poor and minority student population: nearly three-quarters qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program; about 56 percent of the overall public school enrollment is black, 25 percent Hispanic and 7 percent Asian.

District officials said they revived Gift of Time classes to address a widening gap in the vocabulary and other skills of the youngest children. Similarly, the district began requiring full-day kindergarten last year for the bottom one-fifth of students.

Dr. Mitchell J. Schwartz, a psychologist who retired this spring as the district’s superintendent, said East Ramapo had similarly tried separate classes in the 1980s to address an achievement gap between boys and girls (boys were behind). He said those classes, also called Gift of Time, were successful but were eliminated after several years for financial reasons.

East Ramapo spent $200,000 on the program this year, buying new class materials and training teachers. That amounts to about 15 percent more per student than the district typically spends, according to state records. In the fall, only the first-grade classes will continue — district officials said that holding first graders back last year meant there were few second graders needing to repeat — saving the district $100,000.

Stripped of required social studies and science lessons, Gift of Time classes give teachers extra time to focus on basic skills, allowing them to spend several days on a single topic if needed. A reading specialist works with the students every day, and a speech therapist comes in every other week.

Gift of Time students rejoin other first and second graders for lunch and recess. Come fall, they will be reintegrated into regular classrooms, now a grade behind the other children in their age group.

At Hempstead Elementary, off a pastel green and blue hallway leading to all seven first-grade classrooms, the Gift of Time class looks like an SAT war room, with charts on reading comprehension and narrative writing plastered to the cinderblock walls and overflowing onto the window shades.

Ericka Quiñones, the teacher, said that most of the eight girls and six boys were not only barely reading when they arrived in her classroom but were so disengaged and unsure of their abilities that they would stare back blankly when she asked questions. So Ms. Quiñones started calling on students; one girl responded by saying that she had not raised her hand.

All 14 students now read at least at grade level, according to last month’s district evaluation. Nallehc Brown, 7, is one of four who are reading above grade level.

Nallehc said that at first, he did not want to be in the class because his friends told him it was “a baby class, and I felt bad.” But he said that that he had made new friends and did not feel as self-conscious now.

His mother said that she still did not like the name Gift of Time — in her neighborhood, it’s known as the “special-needs class” — but that “a lot of the fears I had at the beginning have disappeared.”

Several parents interviewed last week said that their children had probably learned more because they had been segregated from the younger students. Rose Julien, 43, who works in an accounting office, said that her 7-year-old twins often talked about being in second grade, as though they have forgotten they are repeating first.

“If they were in a regular first grade, they’d feel like they don’t belong there,” she said. “That would frustrate them.”

Sharaya Lakes, 26, a stay-at-home mother of six, said the Gift of Time class had not only helped her son, Zy-Air, learn to read, but also boosted his self-confidence; he talks constantly about a girl in the class. At first, Ms. Lakes had cried because she felt as if she had failed Zy-Air when he had to repeat first grade, and worried about how he would fit in with the other children who had been held back. But in the end, there were some positives in the experience.

“They all help each other,” she said. “They made friends out of this program, too.”

Labels: high-stakes testing, NCLB

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:11 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Sent to the Boston Herald, July 9

Edward Moscovitch (“No time to close book,” July 8) might want to take a closer look at research on reading. Quoting Secretary Spellings, Moscovitch states that in a recent study, thanks to Reading First, the “vast majority” of states showed increases in the percent of students proficient in reading comprehension.

Not really. Let’s take a closer look at the study, published by the Center for Educational Policy. Only 28 states had sufficient data for analysis at the elementary level. Of these, about 11 (40%) either no gains or "slight" gains, less than a 1% yearly increase in the percentage of children reaching the proficient level. In middle school and high school reading, the results were even less impressive.

Reading First cost about a billion dollars a year, and Reading First children get considerably more instructional time in reading, the equivalent of an extra six weeks every year. A more accurate description of the report is: "Nearly half of the states showed little improvement, despite huge increases in funding and instructional time."

Stephen Krashen

For a copy of Moscovitch’s article and interesting commentary by Gerald Bracey, see: http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.html?id=3453

Labels: Reading First

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:36 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Summer 2008

By the Editors of Rethinking Schools

Educators call them "teachable moments." Circumstances
accidentally cross paths, creating the opportunity or
need to learn about a certain topic.

We might have witnessed such a moment this spring on a
national level after Fox News aired short video
excerpts from sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
Senator Barack Obama's minister and friend. Right-wing
talk-show hosts had a field day and YouTube buzzed as
people viewed Wright's denunciations of U.S. social
ills.

Obama rose to the occasion, and on March 18 delivered
a 37-minute nuanced speech about race and racism in
the United States.

The speech was an anomaly in U.S. history. How
refreshing to have a mainstream political leader speak
so poetically and in such detail on a topic that at
least in white and multiracial settings is rarely
discussed.

This national silence about race is especially
apparent in the school curriculum. A case in point is
the recent controversy in Milwaukee over the potential
multimillion dollar social studies textbook adoption.
Activists pointed out that none of the four major
publishers' books on U.S. history for the 5th
grade˜some over 600 pages long˜ever mentions the words
"racism," or in the case of two of the four, even the
word "discrimination."

Such omissions are not only factually inaccurate and a
sorry commentary on the scholarship behind such books,
but more importantly they teach children not to notice
the silences surrounding key social concerns.

The issue involves more than acknowledging the stain
of racism in our country's past. When texts don't talk
about racism, when standards don't mention racism,
when teachers don't teach about racism, they
automatically eliminate any discussion of anti-racism.
For if there is no racism there is no reason to be
anti-racist. As a result, kids rarely learn of moments
in U.S. history when people worked against
racism˜especially times they worked across racial
lines.

This is a particularly unfortunate omission for white
students who need examples of their "moral ancestors"
acting as allies in the battle against white
supremacy. Few kids know of whites in U.S. history who
dedicated their lives to the struggle against racism:
John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips,
Prudence Crandall, Theodore Weld, Lydia Maria Child,
Lucretia Mott, or Elijah Lovejoy. But all students,
regardless of their own racial identity, need a
curriculum that names racism and highlights the
struggles against it.

But race is not the only social and curricular
silence. Another is empire. In Howard Zinn's essay in
this issue, he laments the silences and distorted
characterizations of U.S. foreign policy from the
first Indian wars through today's Iraq war.

If textbooks, Weekly Readers and other classroom
materials mention U.S. imperialism at all, it's most
likely a mere hiccup starting with the
Spanish-American War in 1898 and perhaps continuing
through Teddy Roosevelt's interventionist "Big Stick"
policy in Central America and the Caribbean. Rarely is
"Westward Expansion" regarded as "imperialism," as
empire building. It's a similar omission when it comes
to the 1846-48 War on Mexico, after which the U.S.
seized almost half that country's territory˜albeit
"legalized" in a treaty. And Vietnam˜if history
teachers make it that far˜is more often portrayed as a
"mistake" than as part of a pattern of U.S. imperial
policy.

But curriculum begins not just with textbooks. The
renowned educator Asa Hilliard, who passed away last
year, was fond of saying, "Curriculum is what is
inside a teacher's head"˜and, we might add, what's not
inside a teacher's head. Many are unaware of the long
history of imperial conquest that preceded the Iraq
war. The World War II fight against fascism seems to
have shaped the way too many educators view the United
States in the world: at best, a fighter for freedom
and democracy, at worst, a well-intended blunderer.

Educators' classroom approaches often reflect
one-sided textbooks that neglect the dozens of overt
and covert U.S. military and CIA interventions since
World War II. Few know, for example, of the 1953 U.S.
intervention in Iran at the behest of the oil industry
that overthrew the democratic reformer Mosaddegh; and
yet this historical fact is crucial to understanding
that area today. Other interventions˜Guatemala in
1954, Cuba in 1961, Brazil in 1964, the Dominican
Republic in 1965, the secret wars in Cambodia and
Laos, Chile in 1973, Nicaragua and El Salvador in the
1980s˜rarely appear in textbooks or classroom
discussions. Other "soft interventions" also go
unmentioned, such as the U.S. "constructive
engagement" policies that propped up the apartheid
regime in South Africa, and our elected officials'
refusal to sign international treaties ranging from
child labor and women's rights to global warming and
international war crimes.

And there is a corresponding curricular silence about
the long history of opposition to imperial policies.
Henry David Thoreau's opposition to the U.S-Mexico war
occasionally gets a sentence in some texts, but for
the most part the rich history of anti-imperialist
activism is forgotten˜whether it's the
Anti-Imperialist League formed by Mark Twain and
others to protest the U.S. war against Cuba and the
Philippines, the massive antiwar movement during World
War I, or the significant role the anti-war movement
played in Vietnam (and in the U.S. military itself).
Absent these voices of dissent, the curriculum
implicitly tells children that "we" were the ones
fighting wars and planting flags. But, as Howard Zinn
wrote in his book, A Power Governments Cannot
Suppress, "If patriotism in the best sense is loyalty
to the principles of democracy, then who was the true
patriot, Theodore Roosevelt, who applauded a massacre
by American soldiers of 600 Filipino men, women, and
children on a remote Philippine island, or Mark Twain,
who denounced it?"

These two silences˜race and empire˜are intimately
connected. An honest appraisal of one, cannot proceed
without an examination of the other. The ability of
this country's rulers to successfully use jingoism to
generate support for the many U.S. imperial ventures
is tied to the racialized portrayal of the "other."
This began with the dozens of wars to steal this
continent's land from the original inhabitants, but is
also manifested in the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
sentiments that fuel the current conflicts. When the
curriculum fails to address race and empire, our
students are ill-equipped to face a world where both
are very much alive.

We need an extended teachable moment in our
schools˜collective efforts on the part of educators,
parents, and social justice activists to expose and
eliminate these silences in our curriculum and
teaching.

On the national level, we need courageous leaders
willing to put the issue of race on the table along
with the equally difficult topic of American Empire.
It is only when we begin to address both issues at a
societal level that real change will come to our schools.

------------------------------------

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 6:50 PM 0 comments Links to this post

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Houston & Texas News

July 1, 2008, 12:00AM
Moment of truth for 8th-graders
Thousands won't get into high school this year unless they pass the TAKS test
By ERICKA MELLON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Thousands of eighth-graders across Texas will sit this week for the biggest test of their young lives.

For the first time in the state, eighth-graders must pass standardized exams in math and language arts to be promoted to high school automatically. The students had two chances during the school year, but that was not enough for many who failed the exams on both attempts.

"When I take a test, I get nervous and just forget," said Kristen Diaz, who is retaking eighth-grade math at HISD's Patrick Henry Middle School this summer in hopes of passing the state test on her third try. "I even asked for extra work because I don't want to stay here no more."

Statewide, nearly one in five eighth-graders has yet to pass the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

That's at least 55,918 students who face retention in eighth grade if they again fail the test, which is being given for the third and final time today.

Texas is one of the toughest states when it comes to tying grade promotion to testing. Students in grades 3, 5 and — now — 8 must pass the TAKS in some subjects to advance. High school students must pass four exams to graduate.

The state law does provide a loophole at the lower grade levels. Students who fail the exams can ask a school committee — consisting of the principal, a teacher and one of the student's parents — to promote them anyway. The committees are supposed to consider whether the student would succeed the next year with some extra help.

School districts negligent?

Supporters praise the flexibility of the committees, while critics complain that too many students are being promoted or are not getting the special attention they need to catch up. Now, urban and suburban school districts alike find themselves with eighth-graders who cannot prove they have basic math and reading skills.
"We've pushed them through, and we've never done any of the remediation that the law called for," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, who lobbied for the 1999 law mandating the promotion tests.

"It's negligence on the part of the school districts," she added. "For the most part, superintendents thought, 'We'll just get around this law.' Well, no, you won't. Now you're faced with it big time."

Then-Gov. George Bush championed the law before his run for president. The intent was to curb social promotion, or the widespread practice of allowing students to advance a grade, no matter their academic skills, so they can be in class with peers their own age.

Tutorials offered

In the Houston Independent School District, the state's largest, 27 percent of the eighth-graders tested — or 3,115 students — face retention if they fail the math TAKS today. The eighth-grade language arts test has tripped up 1,046 students, or 9 percent of those tested. The third administration of the language arts test is on Wednesday.

Statewide, eighth-graders did better in language arts than in math. Only 5 percent of students, or 16,490, failed the test in that subject.

HISD, like other districts across the state, has been offering TAKS tutorials this summer. Chief Academic Officer Karen Garza said she is confident more students will pass the exams on their third try, but she knows principals, teachers and parents still face a difficult decision in the coming weeks when test scores come back.

"The research has been pretty clear about the dangers of retention," Garza said, noting that students who are retained are more likely to drop out of school. "I'm also not a proponent of just passing them to the next grade. It's a delicate balance."

Kathy Christie, who has studied promotion policies nationwide, said schools need to do a better job of catching up struggling students, regardless of whether they are forced to repeat a grade.

"Sometimes I think kids are retained and they sit in a classroom where they know three-fourths of the material," said Christie, chief of staff of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

3rd time's the charm

Gilbert Ponce, an eighth-grader at Patrick Henry Middle School, expressed confidence last week that he would succeed on the math TAKS this time around. He said he previously missed the passing mark by one question, but he is having an easier time learning fractions in his smaller summer school class.
"I'm learning more than what I learned in regular school — mainly because I didn't pay attention," he said, adding that he understands why the state has promotion requirements. "You gotta be prepared, you know."

ericka.mellon@chron.com

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:16 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Prophet Motives
Summer 2008

Does the charter movement stimulate reform or spur
more privatization?

An Excerpt from Keeping the Promise? The Debate Over
Charter Schools

In the last two decades, charter schools have emerged
as one of the dominant reforms in public education in
the United States. While desegregation and magnet
schools were hallmarks of education reform in the
1970s and into the 1980s, by the end of the century
charter schools had eclipsed such initiatives to take
center stage.

From only a handful of schools in the early 1990s, by
the 2006ˆ07 school year there were more than 4,000
charter schools enrolling more than a million students
in 40 states and the District of Columbia. In some
urban districts, charters enrolled a growing
percentage of public school students˜as much as 57
percent in New Orleans and 27 percent in Dayton, Ohio,
and Washington, D.C. The for-profit Edison Schools,
meanwhile, had 157 schools, dwarfing the size of many
urban districts.

The charter school movement has roots in a progressive
agenda that, as educator Joe Nathan wrote in
Rethinking Schools in 1996, viewed charters as "an
important opportunity for educators to fulfill their
dreams, to empower the powerless, and to help
encourage a bureaucratic system to be more responsive
and more effective."

Early proponents of charter schools did not view their
reform as a cure-all but as one of many vehicles to
improve public schools, particularly in urban areas
where this country's dichotomies of race and class are
most pronounced. As Lisa Stulberg and the late Eric
Rofes wrote in their 2004 book, The Emancipatory
Promise of Charter Schools, charters are one specific
reform initiative that can "begin to open up a wider
discussion of a new, progressive vision for public
education."

Unfortunately, the charter concept also appealed to
conservatives wedded to a free-market, privatization
agenda. And it is they who, over the past decade, have
taken advantage of the conservative domination of
national politics to seize the upper hand in the
charter school movement.

The question today is, where is the charter school
concept heading? Will it help spur reform so that all
public schools, charter and traditional, can live up
to the promise of a quality education for all and
serve the needs of an increasingly multiracial
democracy? Or will the movement drain away necessary
resources and energy from districtwide reform and
instead promote a system of individual consumer
choice, inevitably coupled with all the inequalities
inherent in a market system of distribution?

This country is on the cusp of a new political
dialogue. The conservative stranglehold on political
debate is ending, opening up opportunities for
progressives to regain the initiative. How this
opening will affect public education in general and
charter schools in particular is not yet clear, but it
ushers in possibilities not imaginable a decade ago.
A Multifaceted Movement

It is impossible to lump together our country's public
schools: well-funded schools in privileged suburbs are
far different than under-resourced schools in poor
urban neighborhoods. Likewise, charter schools come in
many varieties: they are shaped by a state's charter
school laws, by the motivations and capabilities of
the charter school's founders, and by the broader
local, state, and national political climate.

That being said, several legal requirements are common
to all charter schools. They are publicly funded, are
nonreligious, are not to charge tuition, and must obey
civil rights regulations.

Some charter schools have strong ties to their
community, are led by experienced educators, and are
committed to providing all children a comprehensive
education that meets their needs. Others are led by
entrepreneurs, sometimes as part of a national
franchise, who too often see schools primarily as a
source of money and profits and whose educational
experience is limited. Many charter schools fall
somewhere between these two poles.

Philosophically, the charter school movement started
with several core assumptions. Two are most important:
first, that freedom from bureaucratic rules and union
contracts will foster innovation and improve academic
achievement; and, second, that the lessons from the
charter movement's successes will be used to improve
public education overall. Any discussion of charter
schools must ask not only whether charters promote a
worthwhile vision of public education, but also
whether they are faithful to their own promises.
The Many Meanings of Choice

While academic excellence and equity of access were
dominant themes in education following the Civil
Rights Movement, the concept of "choice" has risen to
new heights in recent decades. A fluid and problematic
concept, it nonetheless strikes home with many
Americans; used properly and in moderation, it can
ensure that public education is sensitive to the
varying needs of this country's 50 million public
school students representing an escalating number of
nationalities and languages.

White and middle-class families in the suburbs have
made a choice of geography that provides them access
to schools they generally like and support. For poor
people in the cities, especially people of color,
choices are more difficult. Thus it is not surprising
that many urban families may see charters as a choice
of a safer school, smaller classes, and more
meaningful academics.

Virtually all segments of the charter school movement
have targeted urban areas. Some hope to counteract
inequity, spur innovation and better meet the needs of
marginalized students. Others, taking advantage of the
frustration that inevitably follows when districts are
allowed to deteriorate, seek fame and fortune. Some
hope to gain enough "market share" that they are on
par, and compete, with traditional schools. Finally,
there are those who view charters as a way to get rid
of public schools altogether.

The elixir of an individualized bailout from a
struggling system has serious side effects, however.
It can create a painful wedge in many communities,
especially among African Americans; it can weaken the
political will for a collective solution to the
problems in public education; and it can promote the
deterioration of traditional schools. As highly
motivated and engaged families pull their children
from traditional public schools, urban districts have
fewer resources˜both financial and human˜to address
their many problems. The worse the schools get, the
more appealing the escape to charters and private
schools, all of which feeds into the conservative
dream of replacing public education with a free-market
system of everyone for themselves, the common good be
damned. Beleaguered urban districts, meanwhile,
sometimes seem to give up on systemwide improvement
and instead take a triage approach of abandoning some
schools while providing "life boats," often in the
form of small niche schools with a selective student
body.

Too often, charter schools and "choice" public schools
prefer, in practice if not in rhetoric, to educate
"the deserving poor." There is far less inclination to
serve students whose parents are absent or uninvolved,
or who have severe physical or emotional educational
needs, or who have run afoul of the juvenile justice
system, or who don't speak English as their first
language. Perhaps the most glaring example involves
students with special education needs. Such students
are increasingly overrepresented in traditional public
schools, making a mockery of reforms that held out the
promise that special ed students would not be treated
as second-class citizens.

For both charter and traditional public schools, the
question is how to develop a system that recognizes
individual preferences, but not by limiting the
choices and opportunities available to others. What is
necessary is a commitment to serving all students, and
to guard against the danger of linking choice with
exclusion and privilege.

At the same time, progressives must guard against
dismissing all alternatives to the traditional public
school system. There are times when a focused
commitment to the specific needs of specific students
is both necessary and positive, or when one must break
through the boundaries of traditional schooling in
order to create a working model of what could be.

The Freedom Schools established by the Student
Nonviolent Organizing Committee and other civil rights
groups in 1964 are a well-known example of finding a
vision of education outside of the public school
system. Similarly, many "free schools" and
"alternative schools" in the 1960s and 1970s were an
important antidote to the dehumanizing factory model
of education that valued standardization above all
else. More recently, the Coalition of Essential
Schools was founded in 1984 to promote equitable,
intellectually vibrant, and personalized schools that,
while operating within the boundaries of public
education, oftentimes did so outside established
district procedures. These examples show, in different
ways, the power of individuals working together to
create schools that challenge the inequities and
inadequacies of too many traditional public schools.

The charter school movement does not grow directly out
of such examples. But the involvement in charter
schools of progressives with similar visions should
not be dismissed.

At the same time, one cannot deny that the charter
school concept, as a movement, has been hijacked by
individuals, groups, and corporations who are guided
by free-market principles, often with a hostility to
unions, and who do not necessarily embrace core values
of equity, access, public purpose, and public
ownership.

If charter school reform is to live up to its initial
promises, progressives must regain the initiative and
use charter schools to empower teachers and parents,
to challenge the dominant narrative in public
education of standardization, selectivity, and
privilege, and to use those lessons to improve all
public schools.
Bureaucracy and Contracts

From the beginning, the most important and consistent
themes of charter school proponents were that freedom
from bureaucracy and from union contract provisions
would spur innovation and achievement.

The claims, especially dissatisfaction with
bureaucracy, struck a chord among families frustrated
with how well public schools were serving their
children's needs, especially when the claims were
coupled with anecdotes of teachers and parents
prevented from implementing worthwhile educational
practices.

Without a doubt, too many public school districts
suffer from rote thinking and top-down mandates that
are codified into bureaucratic rules and regulations.
Sadly, the juggernaut of standardized testing and
drill-and-kill curriculum promoted by the federal No
Child Left Behind act (NCLB) has only heightened the
problem of harmful mandates.

As for union contracts, there is no doubt that some
complaints are valid, especially concerns over rigid
seniority rules that make it difficult for schools to
hire a staff committed to a common vision.

But it would be naive to ignore that some of the
antiunion rhetoric comes from conservatives wedded to
an antiunion ideology. Some union rules are the result
of hard-won protections˜with civil rights, special
education, academic freedom, and gender-based
protections just a few examples. Other bureaucratic
rules are designed to counteract problems of
corruption or incompetence. And many union protections
were fought for and won in order to safeguard the
rights of teachers around issues such as due process,
adequate pay, and decent working conditions˜rights
that every individual should have, and that have the
added benefit of ensuring a stable corps of
experienced teachers for our public schools.

The extent to which a charter school is exempt from
the union contract or unnecessary bureaucracy varies,
based not only on state legislation but the chartering
organization's views and the ideology of a charter
school's founders. The movement as a whole, however,
remains committed to the view that bureaucracy and
union agreements are to be circumvented whenever
possible.

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the
charter school movement is how well it has lived up to
its promise of innovation and improved achievement as
a result of its freedoms from bureaucracy and union
agreements. Overall, studies have shown that charter
schools perform either worse or just as well as
comparable public schools, which leads to an
unanswered question, as noted in the 2005 book, The
Charter School Dust-Up, by Martin Carnoy, Rebecca
Jacobsen, Lawrence Mishel, and Richard Rothstein:

If, however, charter schools are not improving the
achievement of disadvantaged children, it may be that
the cause of low student performance is not
bureaucratic rules but something else. When a
treatment is based on a diagnosis, and the treatment
doesn't work, it is prudent to examine not only
whether the treatment should be improved, but also
whether the diagnosis might be flawed.

Even if it is shown that certain bureaucratic rules,
union requirements, or state and federal mandates
stifle innovation and suffocate higher achievement,
shouldn't they be thrown out or modified for all
schools, not just charters?
Finding Quality Teachers

One of the problems facing many charter schools, and
indeed public schools overall in urban and rural
areas, is the insufficient number of excellent
teachers committed to teaching all students. Studies
have consistently shown that after socioeconomic
status is taken into account, a good teacher is the
single most important factor in student achievement.

Teacher certification for charter schools varies
significantly by state. Some states require that
charter schools hire certified teachers, some states
such as Arizona and Texas do not, and some states set
a percentage such as 25 percent or 50 percent
certified teachers, according to the Education
Commission of the States. Some require that charter
school teachers be credentialed at the same level as
other public schools only in college prep and core
academic classes.

In its initial years, the charter school movement
overall had a lower percentage than traditional public
schools of certified teachers, and disproportionately
relied on teachers with less experience. In fact,
strong anecdotal evidence shows that many of the
charter schools that have been favorites with the
mainstream media have had an extraordinarily high
percentage of new teachers and a high turnover rate.

Which raises an important question: is it possible to
build a systemwide reform movement, as charter schools
purport to be, if the movement can neither be
sustained at a quality level nor replicated?

No one disputes that it is possible to build good
schools, as individual charter, public, and private
schools across the country demonstrate. The issue is
creating a system of schools based on
institutionalized structures and practices that ensure
lasting success on a districtwide basis. Reforms are
bound to fail if they rely on the voluntarism of
idealistic, overworked teachers who burn out and leave
the school once they decide to have a family or want
any semblance of a meaningful personal life.

Such issues are related to questions of scale. Many
good, experimental schools, both charter and
traditional, rely on a particular vision that cannot
be replicated on a significant basis without broader
reforms such as adequate resources, a solid corps of
qualified teachers, and a reinvigorated commitment to
serving all children. In this context, perhaps it
remains best to return to the original vision of
charter schools as limited experiments designed to try
out new ideas that can be used to improve education
throughout the district.

Some in the charter school movement instead view
charters as growing exponentially, becoming a
substitute for traditional public schools. Yet when
charters reach that tipping point where they become a
significant sector unto themselves, immense problems
arise˜not just with maintaining quality, but also with
undermining traditional public schools because those
traditional schools have fewer resources and a higher
percentage of disadvantaged students.

Finally, the larger the system of charter schools, the
more glaring the need to address the issue of
democratic control of our schools. In too many
instances, important decisions are taken out of public
control and ceded to boards of directors who have
minimal public accountability beyond insuring against
fraud and corruption. In the case of charter franchise
operations, especially by for-profit companies,
concerns of public accountability are especially
pressing. For all their faults, school boards are
democratically elected bodies that provide a mechanism
for public input; for all their strengths, even
nonprofit boards of directors do not have similar
responsibilities to the public.

To date, there has been insufficient discussion of
dealing with these complicated issues of scale,
sustainability, replication, and public democratic
control.

Unfettered free-market ideology, with its notion of
proprietary ownership of any formula for success, has
been especially harmful in undermining the original
ideal that charter schools would champion innovation
and share the lessons learned in order to improve all
public schools. Too often, charter schools are far
less innovative than promised and, when they do
purport success, do not collaborate with other schools
to share what works and, equally important, what
doesn't work.
Commitment to All Children

Throughout the history of education in the United
States, public schools have served dual and
conflicting purposes. On the one hand, our public
schools pay homage to a vision based on core concepts
of public control, high standards, and equal access so
that all children can develop their potential and
become contributing, productive members of our
democratic society. At the same time, our schools are
infamous for replicating and exacerbating this
country's undeniable stratifications based on class
and race.

It is also essential to recognize that school reform
cannot be isolated from resolving society's larger
injustices. If our schools are to fulfill their
promise, we must ensure that all children have the
healthcare, housing, and family financial stability
they need to do their best. This is not an excuse for
the shortcomings of our public schools. Indeed,
demanding such reforms as an essential component of
good schools can reinvigorate the broader social
movement.

At the same time, we must ensure that our public
schools become doorways to opportunity, not barricades
based on privilege. The original charter school
proponents saw charters as a way to improve public
education as a whole, not to split off into a separate
movement or isolated niche schools. They were
motivated by equity, not selectivity.

The question facing the charter school movement is
whether it will fulfill its founding promise of a
reform that empowers the powerless, or wheth