State results shed new light on wealth vs. poverty debate.
By Laurel Rosenhall - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 6:38 am PDT Thursday, August 16, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A16
Whether they are poor or rich, white students are scoring higher than their African American and Latino classmates on the state's standardized tests, results released Wednesday show. And in some cases, the poorest white students are doing better than Latino and black students who come from middle class or wealthy families.
The so-called achievement gap -- the difference in performance between groups of students -- has long been chalked up to a difference in family income. It makes sense that -- regardless of race -- students whose parents have money and speak English would do better in school, on the whole, than students whose families struggle with employment, food and shelter.
But this year's test scores show that the difference in academic achievement between ethnic groups is more than an issue of poverty vs. wealth.
On the standardized math tests that public school students take every year from second to 11th grade, 38 percent of white students who qualify for subsidized lunch scored proficient or above, compared with 36 percent of Latino students and 30 percent of black students whose families made too much money to qualify for school meals. On standardized English tests, poor white students did about the same as non-poor Latino and African American students.
"These are not just economic achievement gaps," state Superintendent Jack O'Connell said in announcing the test scores from an elementary school in Inglewood.
"They are racial achievement gaps, and we cannot continue to excuse them."
It's a new twist on what has become a common theme for O'Connell -- the danger the achievement gap poses for California's economic future. About 56 percent of the state's public school students are Latino or black, so their academic performance now will have a big influence on the work force of the future.
"I've been pounding this drum and am going to continue to do so, not just for the moral imperative that we have, but for the economic imperative," O'Connell said.
"We're going to focus on (the achievement gap) like a heat-seeking missile during my last three years here as the state superintendent."
In general, test scores were flat compared with last year, but up from five years ago. Forty-one percent of students were proficient in math this year, while 43 percent were proficient in English. Even though students are doing better than five years ago -- when 35 percent were proficient in math and English -- the achievement gap between racial groups has remained a constant, with white and Asian American students scoring higher than their Latino and African American peers.
O'Connell said little Wednesday to explain why the achievement gap persists.
"That is the $50 billion question," said Francisco Estrada, public policy director for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, one of several Latino and African American activists who lauded O'Connell for drawing attention to the issue, even while they criticized the state government for not doing enough to improve education for students of color.
"Superintendent O'Connell should be commended for not just simply saying, 'We're doing great and let's keep doing what we're doing,' which is what we've heard in other years," Estrada said.
Russlynn Ali, director of Education Trust West, said state policymakers are responsible for the achievement gap that has kept black and Latino students behind because they've done little to put experienced, well-trained teachers and rigorous high-level courses in schools that predominantly serve those groups.
"Our system takes poor kids and kids of color -- not just the students of color who are poor -- and provides them less of everything research says makes a difference," she said.
"That is the underlying cause of the achievement gap."
While Ali blamed the government for distributing resources inequitably, others said the gap is due to teachers' expectations.
"The expectations are not as high for African American students as they are for other students," said Anita Royston, an education consultant who used to work for the Sacramento City Unified School District.
Showing posts with label ayp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ayp. Show all posts
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Failing schools
State, federal guidelines too confusing
El Paso Times 08/17/2007
It has become too difficult to understand if one's child is receiving a good public-school education.
State standards are different than national standards and, guess what, even educators are confused.
Here are two El Paso questions:
How come Chapin High fell short of accountability standards, as reported by the Texas Education Agency on Aug. 1, but is not among the 37 El Paso County schools to have missed national Adequate Yearly Progress guidelines (No Child Left Behind) as reported Wednesday?
How come Socorro High is OK in Texas, but not in the nation?
And the two reports showed El Paso County schools did better in the state assessments over last year, but had more failing schools nationally than last year.
Surely somebody can explain this, but surely there are far too many people who just plain don't understand. That shouldn't be.
Parents who think they are alone in not understanding what's going on need not feel education standards are over their heads -- too intellectual for the common working stiffs. Don't worry, parents. Even those who do the teaching are confused.
El Paso school district Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia points out: "The multiple measures created some confusion. I have been a proponent for the federal and state governments to give us a common report card that looks at similar indicators."
As it is, both state and federal accountability agencies have been using the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS test). But they use different aspects of that test when making out their separate report cards that are sent to the individual school districts.
Does your child know his addition and subtraction, or not? Does your child know the name of the state's governor, or not?
State may say yes. The feds may say no.
Just as with taxing jargon, so goes confusion in education. Quite a few citizens have admitted their confusion when a taxing entity lowers a tax-rate, but it doesn't necessarily mean a person pays fewer taxes than the previous year. Now there are those -- parents and their teachers -- who are confused because their child's school may be adequate in the eyes of the state, but not in the eyes of the federal government -- and visa versa, as we have seen in some El Paso schools.
Perhaps testing measures can't be as easy as your ABCs, but it shouldn't take a genius to figure out if one's children are receiving a good education.
El Paso Times 08/17/2007
It has become too difficult to understand if one's child is receiving a good public-school education.
State standards are different than national standards and, guess what, even educators are confused.
Here are two El Paso questions:
How come Chapin High fell short of accountability standards, as reported by the Texas Education Agency on Aug. 1, but is not among the 37 El Paso County schools to have missed national Adequate Yearly Progress guidelines (No Child Left Behind) as reported Wednesday?
How come Socorro High is OK in Texas, but not in the nation?
And the two reports showed El Paso County schools did better in the state assessments over last year, but had more failing schools nationally than last year.
Surely somebody can explain this, but surely there are far too many people who just plain don't understand. That shouldn't be.
Parents who think they are alone in not understanding what's going on need not feel education standards are over their heads -- too intellectual for the common working stiffs. Don't worry, parents. Even those who do the teaching are confused.
El Paso school district Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia points out: "The multiple measures created some confusion. I have been a proponent for the federal and state governments to give us a common report card that looks at similar indicators."
As it is, both state and federal accountability agencies have been using the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS test). But they use different aspects of that test when making out their separate report cards that are sent to the individual school districts.
Does your child know his addition and subtraction, or not? Does your child know the name of the state's governor, or not?
State may say yes. The feds may say no.
Just as with taxing jargon, so goes confusion in education. Quite a few citizens have admitted their confusion when a taxing entity lowers a tax-rate, but it doesn't necessarily mean a person pays fewer taxes than the previous year. Now there are those -- parents and their teachers -- who are confused because their child's school may be adequate in the eyes of the state, but not in the eyes of the federal government -- and visa versa, as we have seen in some El Paso schools.
Perhaps testing measures can't be as easy as your ABCs, but it shouldn't take a genius to figure out if one's children are receiving a good education.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Children of color being left behind
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, August 16, 2007
A frustrating and persistent achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian American peers shows no sign of abating in the latest state test results for nearly 5 million students across California.
Overall, students of all backgrounds made minimal progress in English during the past year and no progress in math.
State schools chief Jack O'Connell said he was not surprised by the leveling off of improvement across the state, noting similar trends across the country that have followed growth spurts, as California had.
But it was the difference in achievement among ethnic groups that O'Connell said was most evident - and most disturbing - about the new test results.
"We cannot afford to accept this, morally, economically or socially," O'Connell said.
The results of the 2007 California Standards Test - taken by 4.8 million students in grades 2 through 11 last spring - are not scores but are percentages of students in every school and district who scored at or above grade level in each subject. Results were released Wednesday.
In English, 43 percent of students scored at grade level, up from 42 percent in 2006.
In math, 41 percent of students scored at grade level in both 2006 and 2007.
In the Bay Area, students are improving more in English than in math.
Among more than 170 Bay Area districts, 95 increased the percentage of students proficient in English since last year, compared with 55 improving that rate in math.
Statewide, more black and Latino students have scored at grade level in the core subjects in recent years, but they still lag far behind other ethnic groups.
O'Connell said the skill gap can't be explained by differences in family income. He noted that black and Latino students who weren't enrolled in the federal free- and reduced-price lunch program - the poverty indicator used by the state Department of Education - scored only about as well as white students who are enrolled in the lunch program.
Slightly more than 40 percent of middle-income black and Latino students scored at grade level in English- about the same as low-income white students. About 67 percent of middle-income white students did as well.
In math, 30 percent of middle-income black students scored at grade level, as did 36 percent of middle-income Latinos. About 38 percent of low-income white students scored at grade level.
The disparity raises serious questions about who might be failing these students of color and what can be done about it.
"For decades, our education system has provided kids of color less of everything that research says makes a difference in public education - even to middle-income kids of color," said Russlynn Ali, executive director of Education Trust West, an Oakland think tank. "Whose fault is that? Everyone who makes up the system."
O'Connell said he will invite experts to Sacramento on Nov. 13 and 14 to figure out what to do about the problem.
"We'll focus on that like a heat-seeking missile," he said.
On the brighter side, progress over the past five years has been steady among all groups.
In English, the percent of students scoring at grade level is eight points higher than it was in 2003, from 35 to 43 percent. That translates to about 442,000 additional students doing well.
The percent of low-income students scoring at grade level in English improved even faster since 2003, rising by nine points, from 20 to 29 percent.
In math, the percent of students scoring at grade level rose six points since 2003- from 35 to 41 percent. In higher-level math, skills declined by two points each in geometry and algebra 2, remaining under 30 percent.
But that slide could be explained by an increase in the number of students enrolled in the tougher math courses, O'Connell said. Geometry enrollment rose by 99,560 students, and algebra 2 added 68,209 more students to its rolls last year.
California's top-scoring school in English was a tiny high school with just 34 students in Nevada County called Ghidotti High. Every one of them scored at grade level or above.
The state's best in elementary math was Faria Elementary in the Cupertino Union District, Santa Clara County, a perennial winner. All but a couple of students scored at grade level.
In the Bay Area, the top-scoring district in English was Hillsborough City Elementary in San Mateo County, which came in second in math. The Bay Area's first-place district in math was Lakeside Joint School District in Santa Clara County, which placed 20th in English.
No student in either district was enrolled in the federal lunch program, and most had parents who were college graduates.
But the results also revealed some Bay Area schools doing unexpectedly well, given their students' challenges.
At San Francisco's Bret Harte Elementary - where 71 percent of students were in the federal lunch program and nearly two-thirds of students were black or Latino - more than half of the pupils were proficient in English.
They had also progressed by a stellar 12 points, so 53 percent of students were at grade level in English, up from 41 percent last year.Bret Harte fared less well in math, with 48 percent proficient - about the same as last year.
Vidrale Antoinette Franklin, who became principal four years ago after years as a Bret Harte teacher, credits not only her school's attention to academic skills - kids take diagnostic tests every six weeks - but her staff's attention to individual children.
"Expectations are high for students," Franklin said. "Teachers have to believe that students can learn."
For example, it would be easy to impose a zero-tolerance policy for acting up in class. But Bret Harte teachers have learned that it's more effective to figure out what's bothering children than to punish them.
"Most of the time, we give them something to eat, and they're back in class," Franklin said.
In Oakland, Think College Now Elementary also belied state trends and strongly raised its scores, though three-quarters of students are Latino and poor.
In math, 60 percent of students scored at grade level, up from 52 percent last year. And 49 percent did as well in English, up from 31 percent.
Principal David Silver credited his school's unique culture with raising students' scores.
Consider "Data Night." While other urban schools have trouble drawing parents to school even with a grand pasta feed, Silver said all he has to do is to promise a rousing evening looking at test scores.
"There's a philosophy," he said. "We set a big goal, set high expectations, and work hard to get the strongest teachers, strongest support staff. And we do whatever we can to support them."
Silver said he isn't allowed to choose his own teachers. But he said he recruits heavily and then works with the district to let him to hire the staff his team wants.
In addition, Silver said the school does not teach students the curriculum favored by the Oakland district, which has not performed as well as Think College Now, overall. Instead, the school teaches the subjects endorsed by the state - which are tested on the California Standards Test.
"Oakland is going more in that direction, too," he said.
Given that Think College Now is apparently doing a good job closing the achievement gap, would Silver consider sharing his secrets with the experts who will attend state Superintendent O'Connell's achievement gap summit in November?
"Sure," Silver said. "If I'm invited."
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, August 16, 2007
A frustrating and persistent achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian American peers shows no sign of abating in the latest state test results for nearly 5 million students across California.
Overall, students of all backgrounds made minimal progress in English during the past year and no progress in math.
State schools chief Jack O'Connell said he was not surprised by the leveling off of improvement across the state, noting similar trends across the country that have followed growth spurts, as California had.
But it was the difference in achievement among ethnic groups that O'Connell said was most evident - and most disturbing - about the new test results.
"We cannot afford to accept this, morally, economically or socially," O'Connell said.
The results of the 2007 California Standards Test - taken by 4.8 million students in grades 2 through 11 last spring - are not scores but are percentages of students in every school and district who scored at or above grade level in each subject. Results were released Wednesday.
In English, 43 percent of students scored at grade level, up from 42 percent in 2006.
In math, 41 percent of students scored at grade level in both 2006 and 2007.
In the Bay Area, students are improving more in English than in math.
Among more than 170 Bay Area districts, 95 increased the percentage of students proficient in English since last year, compared with 55 improving that rate in math.
Statewide, more black and Latino students have scored at grade level in the core subjects in recent years, but they still lag far behind other ethnic groups.
O'Connell said the skill gap can't be explained by differences in family income. He noted that black and Latino students who weren't enrolled in the federal free- and reduced-price lunch program - the poverty indicator used by the state Department of Education - scored only about as well as white students who are enrolled in the lunch program.
Slightly more than 40 percent of middle-income black and Latino students scored at grade level in English- about the same as low-income white students. About 67 percent of middle-income white students did as well.
In math, 30 percent of middle-income black students scored at grade level, as did 36 percent of middle-income Latinos. About 38 percent of low-income white students scored at grade level.
The disparity raises serious questions about who might be failing these students of color and what can be done about it.
"For decades, our education system has provided kids of color less of everything that research says makes a difference in public education - even to middle-income kids of color," said Russlynn Ali, executive director of Education Trust West, an Oakland think tank. "Whose fault is that? Everyone who makes up the system."
O'Connell said he will invite experts to Sacramento on Nov. 13 and 14 to figure out what to do about the problem.
"We'll focus on that like a heat-seeking missile," he said.
On the brighter side, progress over the past five years has been steady among all groups.
In English, the percent of students scoring at grade level is eight points higher than it was in 2003, from 35 to 43 percent. That translates to about 442,000 additional students doing well.
The percent of low-income students scoring at grade level in English improved even faster since 2003, rising by nine points, from 20 to 29 percent.
In math, the percent of students scoring at grade level rose six points since 2003- from 35 to 41 percent. In higher-level math, skills declined by two points each in geometry and algebra 2, remaining under 30 percent.
But that slide could be explained by an increase in the number of students enrolled in the tougher math courses, O'Connell said. Geometry enrollment rose by 99,560 students, and algebra 2 added 68,209 more students to its rolls last year.
California's top-scoring school in English was a tiny high school with just 34 students in Nevada County called Ghidotti High. Every one of them scored at grade level or above.
The state's best in elementary math was Faria Elementary in the Cupertino Union District, Santa Clara County, a perennial winner. All but a couple of students scored at grade level.
In the Bay Area, the top-scoring district in English was Hillsborough City Elementary in San Mateo County, which came in second in math. The Bay Area's first-place district in math was Lakeside Joint School District in Santa Clara County, which placed 20th in English.
No student in either district was enrolled in the federal lunch program, and most had parents who were college graduates.
But the results also revealed some Bay Area schools doing unexpectedly well, given their students' challenges.
At San Francisco's Bret Harte Elementary - where 71 percent of students were in the federal lunch program and nearly two-thirds of students were black or Latino - more than half of the pupils were proficient in English.
They had also progressed by a stellar 12 points, so 53 percent of students were at grade level in English, up from 41 percent last year.Bret Harte fared less well in math, with 48 percent proficient - about the same as last year.
Vidrale Antoinette Franklin, who became principal four years ago after years as a Bret Harte teacher, credits not only her school's attention to academic skills - kids take diagnostic tests every six weeks - but her staff's attention to individual children.
"Expectations are high for students," Franklin said. "Teachers have to believe that students can learn."
For example, it would be easy to impose a zero-tolerance policy for acting up in class. But Bret Harte teachers have learned that it's more effective to figure out what's bothering children than to punish them.
"Most of the time, we give them something to eat, and they're back in class," Franklin said.
In Oakland, Think College Now Elementary also belied state trends and strongly raised its scores, though three-quarters of students are Latino and poor.
In math, 60 percent of students scored at grade level, up from 52 percent last year. And 49 percent did as well in English, up from 31 percent.
Principal David Silver credited his school's unique culture with raising students' scores.
Consider "Data Night." While other urban schools have trouble drawing parents to school even with a grand pasta feed, Silver said all he has to do is to promise a rousing evening looking at test scores.
"There's a philosophy," he said. "We set a big goal, set high expectations, and work hard to get the strongest teachers, strongest support staff. And we do whatever we can to support them."
Silver said he isn't allowed to choose his own teachers. But he said he recruits heavily and then works with the district to let him to hire the staff his team wants.
In addition, Silver said the school does not teach students the curriculum favored by the Oakland district, which has not performed as well as Think College Now, overall. Instead, the school teaches the subjects endorsed by the state - which are tested on the California Standards Test.
"Oakland is going more in that direction, too," he said.
Given that Think College Now is apparently doing a good job closing the achievement gap, would Silver consider sharing his secrets with the experts who will attend state Superintendent O'Connell's achievement gap summit in November?
"Sure," Silver said. "If I'm invited."
Student scores level off in state
The leveling off spurs concern. Also troubling are lagging results by the state's black and Latino students.
By Joel Rubin and Seema Mehta
The Los Angeles Times
August 16, 2007
California public school students posted small or no gains on standardized test scores last spring, raising concerns about a leveling off of previous achievement increases and continuing debate about the disparities between black and Latino students and their white and Asian peers.
Statewide, 41% of students reached the "advanced" or "proficient" level in math and 43% in English on standardized tests -- scores that marked no movement from last year in math and only a one-point rise in English, according to results released Wednesday by the state Education Department.
By contrast, students' scores had jumped 7 percentage points in both subjects in the previous two years. The results, researchers said, could be the beginning of a plateau in achievement levels that often comes after initial gains.
State officials had hoped the latest round of scores would provide more strong evidence to support their efforts to raise educational standards and accountability through testing. Sounding a more subdued note than in previous years, state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell turned particular attention on the comparisons between racial groups.
"This year's results offer both encouragement and reason for serious concern . . . But the data also show the persistent achievement gaps in our system that California simply cannot afford to accept -- morally, economically, or socially," O'Connell said.
The learning chasm that separates white and Asian students from Latinos and blacks is not new -- or unique to California -- and stands as one of the most troubling issues facing the country's public school systems. In California, white students cross the proficiency threshold at about twice the rate as Latinos and blacks in math and English -- a gap that has remained virtually unchanged over the last five years, since the current assessment program began.
But O'Connell ratcheted up the debate Wednesday. Educators and civic leaders, he said, must break the commonly held assumption that Latino and black students' low scores are due largely to the effects of poverty. For the first time, O'Connell compiled statistics that showed black and Latino students who are not designated as poor are performing below white students who are at or near the poverty level.
"These are not just economic achievement gaps; they are racial achievement gaps," he said. "We cannot afford to excuse them; they simply must be addressed."
O'Connell emphasized the economic toll that the growing ranks of poorly educated minorities could have on California. "I really do believe that the biggest threat to our ability as a state to remain the sixth- or seventh-largest economy in the world is to make sure is that these [groups of students] are prepared to become contributing members in our workforce."
Russlynn Ali, executive director of Education Trust-West, a public policy group that focuses on school reform, praised O'Connell for making the distinction between race and economics, saying she hopes it will lead to reforms aimed at improving resources and instruction for minority students regardless of their economic class.
Studies on teacher quality conducted by the group, for example, found that poor white students often have better access to more experienced, educated teachers than wealthier black and Latino students, Ali said.
"So often people think this is about poverty, but it's not just about the damage that poverty inflicts," she said.
The standardized tests, which include science and history in some grades, are aligned to the state's curricular goals and given to students in grades two through 11. Individual student scores will be sent to their homes.
The scores will be used later this month to help determine the ranking of every school in the state under the Academic Performance Index, which forms the foundation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Under that education measure, California must raise all students to the proficient level or above by 2013.
The 710,000-student Los Angeles Unified, by far the state's largest district, produced a muddied, mixed set of gains and setbacks among various grades and demographic groups.
Ninth-graders, for example, posted strong gains, with 25% more students scoring at proficient or higher and 40% fewer students than last year languishing in the "far below basic" category in English. But in grades six and seven, English scores declined after several years of slow improvements. The only unequivocal success came in the early elementary grades, where the district made progress -- albeit meager in places -- across the board.
Girls, meanwhile, performed several percentage points better than boys and, broadly speaking, L.A. Unified fared similarly to other urban districts such as San Francisco and Oakland.
The performance of the nearly 265,000 students in L.A. Unified who are struggling to learn English as a second language remained troubling, with most of them scoring either "below basic" or "far below basic" on language arts tests.
The district's weak track record in teaching these English learners has become a matter of sharp scrutiny. Last month, school board President Monica Garcia and board member Yolie Flores Aguilar sponsored a measure ordering district staff to redesign how these students are taught and their teachers are trained.
Overall, L.A. Unified improved at a faster clip than the state as a whole but remained well below California averages. Fewer than one out of every three Los Angeles students scored at or above proficient in English and only 28% did so in math. And hundreds of thousands of students in the district remained stuck at the bottom ranks of the exams.
"We've still got some real heavy lifting to do," Supt. David L. Brewer said. Along with improving instruction for English learners, Brewer emphasized that the district needs to better support failing schools, but it must also set clear, strict goals and hold school staffs responsible for meeting them.
The year's results present Brewer with a starting point of sorts. A retired Navy vice admiral, Brewer took over the district about nine months ago and is under considerable pressure to improve instruction, especially at middle and high schools. Any improvements or declines next year will be laid at Brewer's feet.
Capistrano Unified, a high-achieving Orange County district, showed spotty gains, flat lines and small dips over various grades in English and math proficiency between. In earlier years, students had made far larger gains. Similarly, in Santa Ana Unified, the state's fifth-largest district, growth at early grade levels outpaced the state but were slower than previous years' results.
Michelle Benham, Capistrano's executive director for assessment and research, compared the slowdown to a young child's learning curve.
"I have a toddler. The concepts she's gaining right now are huge," Benham said. "I wish she could continue to learn as much in the next 10 years of her life that she's learned in the first three."
Researchers said it would not be surprising to see this year's leveling-off of statewide results continue in coming years. The earlier gains came about partly as teachers grew more familiar with the tests and so better prepared their students, but replicating the significant jumps year after year becomes increasingly difficult, said Christy Kim Boscardin, a senior researcher at UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.
Such a trend would mirror what is occurring in other states, said Bruce Fuller, an education and public policy professor at UC Berkeley who led a recent national study on education accountability systems.
"California's consistent with what we're seeing around the country; nationwide, state test scores have begun to level off," he said. "The good news is we saw marked progress in [prior years] but the bad news is that the earlier buoyancy has largely faded."
By Joel Rubin and Seema Mehta
The Los Angeles Times
August 16, 2007
California public school students posted small or no gains on standardized test scores last spring, raising concerns about a leveling off of previous achievement increases and continuing debate about the disparities between black and Latino students and their white and Asian peers.
Statewide, 41% of students reached the "advanced" or "proficient" level in math and 43% in English on standardized tests -- scores that marked no movement from last year in math and only a one-point rise in English, according to results released Wednesday by the state Education Department.
By contrast, students' scores had jumped 7 percentage points in both subjects in the previous two years. The results, researchers said, could be the beginning of a plateau in achievement levels that often comes after initial gains.
State officials had hoped the latest round of scores would provide more strong evidence to support their efforts to raise educational standards and accountability through testing. Sounding a more subdued note than in previous years, state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell turned particular attention on the comparisons between racial groups.
"This year's results offer both encouragement and reason for serious concern . . . But the data also show the persistent achievement gaps in our system that California simply cannot afford to accept -- morally, economically, or socially," O'Connell said.
The learning chasm that separates white and Asian students from Latinos and blacks is not new -- or unique to California -- and stands as one of the most troubling issues facing the country's public school systems. In California, white students cross the proficiency threshold at about twice the rate as Latinos and blacks in math and English -- a gap that has remained virtually unchanged over the last five years, since the current assessment program began.
But O'Connell ratcheted up the debate Wednesday. Educators and civic leaders, he said, must break the commonly held assumption that Latino and black students' low scores are due largely to the effects of poverty. For the first time, O'Connell compiled statistics that showed black and Latino students who are not designated as poor are performing below white students who are at or near the poverty level.
"These are not just economic achievement gaps; they are racial achievement gaps," he said. "We cannot afford to excuse them; they simply must be addressed."
O'Connell emphasized the economic toll that the growing ranks of poorly educated minorities could have on California. "I really do believe that the biggest threat to our ability as a state to remain the sixth- or seventh-largest economy in the world is to make sure is that these [groups of students] are prepared to become contributing members in our workforce."
Russlynn Ali, executive director of Education Trust-West, a public policy group that focuses on school reform, praised O'Connell for making the distinction between race and economics, saying she hopes it will lead to reforms aimed at improving resources and instruction for minority students regardless of their economic class.
Studies on teacher quality conducted by the group, for example, found that poor white students often have better access to more experienced, educated teachers than wealthier black and Latino students, Ali said.
"So often people think this is about poverty, but it's not just about the damage that poverty inflicts," she said.
The standardized tests, which include science and history in some grades, are aligned to the state's curricular goals and given to students in grades two through 11. Individual student scores will be sent to their homes.
The scores will be used later this month to help determine the ranking of every school in the state under the Academic Performance Index, which forms the foundation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Under that education measure, California must raise all students to the proficient level or above by 2013.
The 710,000-student Los Angeles Unified, by far the state's largest district, produced a muddied, mixed set of gains and setbacks among various grades and demographic groups.
Ninth-graders, for example, posted strong gains, with 25% more students scoring at proficient or higher and 40% fewer students than last year languishing in the "far below basic" category in English. But in grades six and seven, English scores declined after several years of slow improvements. The only unequivocal success came in the early elementary grades, where the district made progress -- albeit meager in places -- across the board.
Girls, meanwhile, performed several percentage points better than boys and, broadly speaking, L.A. Unified fared similarly to other urban districts such as San Francisco and Oakland.
The performance of the nearly 265,000 students in L.A. Unified who are struggling to learn English as a second language remained troubling, with most of them scoring either "below basic" or "far below basic" on language arts tests.
The district's weak track record in teaching these English learners has become a matter of sharp scrutiny. Last month, school board President Monica Garcia and board member Yolie Flores Aguilar sponsored a measure ordering district staff to redesign how these students are taught and their teachers are trained.
Overall, L.A. Unified improved at a faster clip than the state as a whole but remained well below California averages. Fewer than one out of every three Los Angeles students scored at or above proficient in English and only 28% did so in math. And hundreds of thousands of students in the district remained stuck at the bottom ranks of the exams.
"We've still got some real heavy lifting to do," Supt. David L. Brewer said. Along with improving instruction for English learners, Brewer emphasized that the district needs to better support failing schools, but it must also set clear, strict goals and hold school staffs responsible for meeting them.
The year's results present Brewer with a starting point of sorts. A retired Navy vice admiral, Brewer took over the district about nine months ago and is under considerable pressure to improve instruction, especially at middle and high schools. Any improvements or declines next year will be laid at Brewer's feet.
Capistrano Unified, a high-achieving Orange County district, showed spotty gains, flat lines and small dips over various grades in English and math proficiency between. In earlier years, students had made far larger gains. Similarly, in Santa Ana Unified, the state's fifth-largest district, growth at early grade levels outpaced the state but were slower than previous years' results.
Michelle Benham, Capistrano's executive director for assessment and research, compared the slowdown to a young child's learning curve.
"I have a toddler. The concepts she's gaining right now are huge," Benham said. "I wish she could continue to learn as much in the next 10 years of her life that she's learned in the first three."
Researchers said it would not be surprising to see this year's leveling-off of statewide results continue in coming years. The earlier gains came about partly as teachers grew more familiar with the tests and so better prepared their students, but replicating the significant jumps year after year becomes increasingly difficult, said Christy Kim Boscardin, a senior researcher at UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.
Such a trend would mirror what is occurring in other states, said Bruce Fuller, an education and public policy professor at UC Berkeley who led a recent national study on education accountability systems.
"California's consistent with what we're seeing around the country; nationwide, state test scores have begun to level off," he said. "The good news is we saw marked progress in [prior years] but the bad news is that the earlier buoyancy has largely faded."
Thursday, August 16, 2007
More schools fail federal standards
More schools fail federal standards
Web Posted: 08/16/2007 12:08 AM CDT
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News
Thirty-three San Antonio schools failed to meet the federal government's standards for the 2006-07 school year, up from 26 last year.
The schools failed to make adequate yearly progress — the key measure of overall academic performance under President Bush's sweeping public school overhaul, No Child Left Behind.
Several schools missed the mark for multiple years in a row, triggering sanctions ranging from allowing students to transfer to higher-performing schools to replacing school staff or extending the school year.
Twelve schools in the San Antonio Independent School District failed to make adequate yearly progress, the most of any of the city's school districts. The SAISD schools failed for a variety of reasons, including reading and math performance, percentage of students tested and graduation rates.
Sam Houston High School missed the mark for a fifth year in a row, so officials must now come up with a plan to restructure the school, as the federal law requires.
Options include reopening Sam Houston as a charter school, replacing staff or turning the school over to the state. If the school fails again for the same reason next year, the district would have to put the plan into effect.
A district spokeswoman said SAISD plans to appeal the federal rating for five of the schools, which were dinged because of their graduation rates. Superintendent Robert Durón did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The federal results come just two weeks after the state released school ratings under its accountability plan. The vast majority of the San Antonio schools that failed the federal standard were ranked academically acceptable under Texas' system. At least one was ranked "recognized," the state's second-highest rating.
Richard Middleton, superintendent of North East ISD where two schools — MacArthur High and Nimitz Middle — did not make adequate yearly progress, said the incongruence between the state and federal systems is confusing and misleading.
Nimitz, for example, is a recognized campus under the state's system for a second year in a row and won a grant from the state last year to create a new science, math and engineering magnet program.
"No wonder there's such confusion and disillusion among the public and educators," Middleton said. "The state of Texas and the federal government really need to come up with a common system that gives us one message."
Ten other local schools face federal sanctions because they have failed to make adequate yearly progress for a second, third or fourth time: Memorial High in Edgewood ISD; Tejeda Academy in Harlandale ISD; Fox Tech High, Navarro Academy and Wheatley Middle in San Antonio ISD; Somerset High in Somerset ISD; South San Antonio High West Campus and Dwight Middle in South San Antonio ISD; Southside High in Southside ISD; and McAuliffe Junior High in Southwest ISD.
The schools will be required to allow students to transfer to another school in the district and also may have to provide tutoring for low-income students. Depending on how many years the schools have missed the mark, they may be subject to additional sanctions.
Harlandale High School, which failed the federal standard last year, made drastic improvement this year and moved off the so-called "needs improvement list" — the U.S. Department of Education's term for the list of schools operating under sanctions.
Kathy Bruck, Harlandale's executive director of curriculum and instruction, said a new administrative team focused on struggling students, holding tutoring sessions on weekends and during school breaks and meeting with faculty twice a week.
Bruck said Harlandale High's principal, Rey Madrigal visited classrooms 1,300 times last school year and gave teachers feedback within 24 hours. Teachers came in during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks and over Spring Break to tutor students.
"They were incredible," Bruck said. "They did whatever it took to get these kids where they needed to be."
Both the state and the federal rankings are based on scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, the state's mandatory standardized test. But the two accountability systems measure success differently.
The federal law requires that schools make yearly progress, not just in their overall populations, but also in subgroups based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, learning disabilities and English-language ability.
Schools also can fail the federal standard if their graduation or attendance rate is too low or if less than 95 percent of students — in the overall population or in the smaller groups — are tested. The performance of a handful of students can sink an entire school.
The percentage of students that must pass math and reading tests for a school to meet the federal standard goes up each year. By 2014, the federal government expects 100 percent of public school students to pass.
Northside Superintendent John Folks said Stevens High School failed the federal standard because paperwork for six special education students' tests wasn't turned in properly. He plans to appeal.
Folks said the federal goal of getting 100 percent of children to the proficient level is setting schools up for failure.
"It's going to get harder and harder (to meet the federal standard)," he said. "We're going to do what's right for the individual child."
jcaputo@express-news.net
Web Posted: 08/16/2007 12:08 AM CDT
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News
Thirty-three San Antonio schools failed to meet the federal government's standards for the 2006-07 school year, up from 26 last year.
The schools failed to make adequate yearly progress — the key measure of overall academic performance under President Bush's sweeping public school overhaul, No Child Left Behind.
Several schools missed the mark for multiple years in a row, triggering sanctions ranging from allowing students to transfer to higher-performing schools to replacing school staff or extending the school year.
Twelve schools in the San Antonio Independent School District failed to make adequate yearly progress, the most of any of the city's school districts. The SAISD schools failed for a variety of reasons, including reading and math performance, percentage of students tested and graduation rates.
Sam Houston High School missed the mark for a fifth year in a row, so officials must now come up with a plan to restructure the school, as the federal law requires.
Options include reopening Sam Houston as a charter school, replacing staff or turning the school over to the state. If the school fails again for the same reason next year, the district would have to put the plan into effect.
A district spokeswoman said SAISD plans to appeal the federal rating for five of the schools, which were dinged because of their graduation rates. Superintendent Robert Durón did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The federal results come just two weeks after the state released school ratings under its accountability plan. The vast majority of the San Antonio schools that failed the federal standard were ranked academically acceptable under Texas' system. At least one was ranked "recognized," the state's second-highest rating.
Richard Middleton, superintendent of North East ISD where two schools — MacArthur High and Nimitz Middle — did not make adequate yearly progress, said the incongruence between the state and federal systems is confusing and misleading.
Nimitz, for example, is a recognized campus under the state's system for a second year in a row and won a grant from the state last year to create a new science, math and engineering magnet program.
"No wonder there's such confusion and disillusion among the public and educators," Middleton said. "The state of Texas and the federal government really need to come up with a common system that gives us one message."
Ten other local schools face federal sanctions because they have failed to make adequate yearly progress for a second, third or fourth time: Memorial High in Edgewood ISD; Tejeda Academy in Harlandale ISD; Fox Tech High, Navarro Academy and Wheatley Middle in San Antonio ISD; Somerset High in Somerset ISD; South San Antonio High West Campus and Dwight Middle in South San Antonio ISD; Southside High in Southside ISD; and McAuliffe Junior High in Southwest ISD.
The schools will be required to allow students to transfer to another school in the district and also may have to provide tutoring for low-income students. Depending on how many years the schools have missed the mark, they may be subject to additional sanctions.
Harlandale High School, which failed the federal standard last year, made drastic improvement this year and moved off the so-called "needs improvement list" — the U.S. Department of Education's term for the list of schools operating under sanctions.
Kathy Bruck, Harlandale's executive director of curriculum and instruction, said a new administrative team focused on struggling students, holding tutoring sessions on weekends and during school breaks and meeting with faculty twice a week.
Bruck said Harlandale High's principal, Rey Madrigal visited classrooms 1,300 times last school year and gave teachers feedback within 24 hours. Teachers came in during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks and over Spring Break to tutor students.
"They were incredible," Bruck said. "They did whatever it took to get these kids where they needed to be."
Both the state and the federal rankings are based on scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, the state's mandatory standardized test. But the two accountability systems measure success differently.
The federal law requires that schools make yearly progress, not just in their overall populations, but also in subgroups based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, learning disabilities and English-language ability.
Schools also can fail the federal standard if their graduation or attendance rate is too low or if less than 95 percent of students — in the overall population or in the smaller groups — are tested. The performance of a handful of students can sink an entire school.
The percentage of students that must pass math and reading tests for a school to meet the federal standard goes up each year. By 2014, the federal government expects 100 percent of public school students to pass.
Northside Superintendent John Folks said Stevens High School failed the federal standard because paperwork for six special education students' tests wasn't turned in properly. He plans to appeal.
Folks said the federal goal of getting 100 percent of children to the proficient level is setting schools up for failure.
"It's going to get harder and harder (to meet the federal standard)," he said. "We're going to do what's right for the individual child."
jcaputo@express-news.net
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)