Analysis Finds Graduation Rates Moving Up

Strong signs of improvement on graduation

By Christopher B. Swanson | Ed Week
May 31, 2011

For more than two years, average Americans have followed reports on unemployment, the housing market, commodity prices, consumer confidence, and the daily fluctuations of the markets for signals that the economy has finally, and firmly, entered a period of renewed growth and stability. So too have education-watchers been on the lookout, for the better part of a decade, for signs of an educational recovery.

At the heart of the reform agenda lie commitments to combat the U.S. dropout crisis and propel the nation’s schools and its economy at full speed into the 21st century, by ensuring that all students have a chance to earn a meaningful diploma that prepares them for further education and training and a successful adult life. The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have espoused such goals, as have major philanthropies, leading nonprofit organizations, prominent business leaders, and state and district policymakers from coast to coast. Even with this high-profile attention and a host of new policy efforts, gaining traction on graduation has been frustratingly difficult.

Read on...

Report reveals uptick in graduation, dropout rates

Report reveals uptick in graduation, dropout rates

2010-12-17 / Schools
Study analyzes high school students in California

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has released the annual report on dropout and graduation rates for the 2008-09 school year.

In 2008-09, 70.1 percent of public school students in California graduated from high school, up from 68.5 percent last year.

The adjusted four-year derived dropout rate for the same school year is 21.7 percent, up from 18.9 percent last year.


The graduation rate among Hispanic students is 59 percent, a 4.9 percentage point increase since last year. Among African American students the graduation rate is 59.6 percent, a 1.4 percentage-point increase.

The estimated dropout rate among Hispanics is at 26.9 percent and among African Americans it is 36.9 percent. The percentages for both subgroups are up by approximately 3 percentage points, mirroring the percentage increase in the statewide results.

Right now the California Department of Education is collecting the student-level exit data for the class of 2010.

All public school students were assigned non-personally identifiable codes called Statewide Student Identifiers by June 2005 that follow the child throughout his or her academic career.

The use of SSIDs increases accountability for districts to find students who stop coming to school.

SSIDs also help districts identify students who were considered a dropout from a school they left but who were actually enrolled in a different district.

The data also allows the department of education to identify students who have been reported by a school district as transferring to another California school district but who cannot be found subsequently enrolled. These students are now properly counted as dropouts rather than transfers.

The dropout rates are calculated for high school students, grades nine through 12. Significant numbers of students dropped out of school during the middle school years.

Although dropouts for middle school grades are counted, middle school dropout rates have never been calculated.

CDE staff is working on developing the rates for middle schools that will be released at a later date.

Traditional high school dropout rates will tend to be lower than the state rate and graduation rates will be higher because many students at risk of dropping out are placed in countyrun dropout recovery or educational option programs. So if students drop out, this would be attributed to the county-run or educational option program, rather than to the traditional high school.

These programs would often have inflated aggregate dropout rates because the aggregate dropout calculation is based on a single day of enrollment. These schools have very high rates of students moving into and out of the system.

Therefore, dropout-rate calculations are not posted for schools that are operated by county offices of education because of constraints in interpreting these calculations with highmobility students.

To view the complete data, go to http://dq.cde.ca.gov/Dataquest.

Q&A: Minority, low-income students need to aim higher

By Mary Beth Markein, USA TODAY
9/10/2009

William Bowen, Matthew Chingos and Michael McPherson had already begun their study of graduation data at public colleges and universities when President Obama this year challenged America to lead the world in educational attainment by 2020. Now, they hope findings, published today in Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities by Princeton University Press, will help achieve that goal.

The authors found that minorities and students from poor or less educated families have markedly lower graduation rates and take longer to earn degrees than their more privileged peers. That's true even when other variables, including academic qualifications, are taken into account. Their bottom-line advice: Students should enroll in the most selective college that will admit them. But the authors also argue for improved transfer and financial aid policies and better efforts to help students identify colleges that will challenge them. They spoke with USA TODAY about the findings.

GRADUATION RATES: If graduation is assumed, students don't want to fall behind
HIGHER ED: More on grad rates at public universities

Q: You use the term "undermatch" to describe a student who appears to be eligible for a more selective college than the one where they enrolled. Why is undermatching a problem?

Bowen: It is sort of counterintuitive. You would think a student with reasonable qualifications would be more likely to graduate by going to a school where they're not up against super-prepared kids, where there's less competition. One argument against affirmative action has been that African-American students get discouraged at places that are too tough for them and drop out. But we found no evidence to support that. Going to a place where you're challenged increases outcomes. Now, there may be good reasons for undermatching, but this should not be the norm. Yet data in North Carolina suggest that 40% of students undermatch by going to a less selective four-year university, to a two-year college, or to no college.

Q: You argue for better advising for high school students. What about cost? Selective schools tend to have higher sticker prices.

McPherson: If you look at the net price, after allowing for loans and grants, it turns out that in many cases the flagships, for example, may be cheaper for low-income students than less selective institutions in the state. But financing has to be in place and unambiguous. Some relatively vague promise that families will be able to afford a particular school is probably not a message that most lower- and moderate-income families are going to believe. One answer is to make the financial aid system simpler and more reliable. Another is making sure you get the money to the right people. If this country wants to have more college graduates, we have to do better for low- and moderate-income students.

BEST VALUE COLLEGES: Top 100 for 2009

Q: Why do you recommend that financial aid focus on need rather than merit?

McPherson: We simply don't find evidence that merit aid helps people graduate. Our data suggest money matters a lot to low-income people. Affluent people may feel the pain, but they still enroll and graduate. Still, you do need to design programs that are responsive to the genuine need that's out there, and it's perfectly reasonable to say that plenty of families (with high incomes) have need that should be met by a combination of grants and loans. But there's no way to sugarcoat the fact that people who really can afford to pay for college need to be asked to help pay for it.

Q: The message on community colleges seems mixed. On one hand, you say students who earn a two-year degree and transfer to a four-year school are more likely to graduate than similarly qualified peers who began their studies at the four-year institution. But you encourage students who want to earn a bachelor's degree to start at a four-year university.

Bowen: We're not trying to toot the horn of the most selective places. But if you're a well-qualified student who wants a bachelor's degree, the data are just relentless in showing that your chances of getting a degree are much higher if you start at a four-year college. What we're trying to say is, 'Let's give poor kids who are qualified, who have done very well, the same array of choice that a comparable kid from a wealthy family gets.' That's, to me, fairness. That's what social mobility is all about.

REPORT: More must be expected at 2-year schools

This is not to say we shouldn't do more for community colleges. We should. But we should not expect those efforts to solve the problem of raising the number of people with bachelor's degrees. At the same time, states need to do a better job of helping students transfer from two-year to four-year schools.

Q: Critics of standardized tests will love your finding that high school grade point averages are better predictors of college graduation rates than SAT or ACT scores.

Bowen: We're not saying get rid of the tests. If you don't have a lot of knowledge of the high school from which you're admitting students, they can be helpful. But what is so striking here is that while high school grades are a better predictor within every set of public colleges and university they're a vastly better predictor at the less selective ones. We now think we actually understand why. Even at high schools that are not very demanding academically, getting a 3.8 GPA tells you that the student can persevere, has got some motivation, some time-management skills and some cognitive skills, and aren't those things going to relate to graduating? Of course they are. We all know intuitively that stick-to-it-iveness matters.

Crucial Data on Graduates Is Elusive

By ELISSA GOOTMAN | NY Times
Published: July 15, 2008

The Class of 2008 has already tossed aside caps and gowns for swimsuits and tank tops. The Class of 2009 has begun dreaming of proms, diplomas and exit strategies. But the public has yet to learn what percentage of New York State’s Class of 2007 actually graduated from high school.

Blame the state’s new data system, which is expected to cost $39.4 million over six years. Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the state’s Education Department, acknowledged that the system had been “not completely successful” in uploading and processing information from New York’s 695 school districts. He said the move to a single data repository had “caused a number of problems.”

“Those problems are being corrected now,” Mr. Dunn said, adding that the state was in the process of verifying numbers with school districts and expected to release 2007 graduation rates by the end of the month. (Rates for 2008, he said, would be released in February.)

Of all the statistics that increasingly figure into public debate about schools, graduation rates are widely considered among the most crucial indicators of whether a system is working. They are watched with particular urgency in New York City, where the low but slowly climbing graduation rate was a contentious topic during the 2005 re-election campaign of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

For years, the city and state have used different criteria to calculate the graduation rate, and the discrepancy has caused tension among city and state officials and confusion among parents. In 2006, the state said that 50 percent of the city’s seniors had graduated, while the city said 59 percent.

(The state announced 2006 graduation rates in April 2007 — just as the Class of 2007 was suffering late-stage senioritis.)

The new data system was supposed to resolve those differences, with officials in Albany and New York City agreeing to release a single number. Or, as it has turned out, to not release it for a long time.

“Asking the public to be patient here is simply not an answer,” said Merryl H. Tisch, a member of the State Board of Regents, who described the delay as “frustrating and intolerable.”

“I think the public should frankly demand more timely testing results and more timely graduation data,” she said, “because, after all, they’re being asked to invest an enormous amount of money in the system.”

Ms. Tisch said she faulted the state’s Education Department, some local school districts that failed to properly report their data, and McGraw-Hill, whose Grow Network subsidiary is responsible for part of the new data system and is expected to receive $13.3 million over six years for that work.

Kelley Carpenter, a McGraw-Hill spokeswoman, said in a statement that the Grow Network was primarily responsible for the “reporting part of this system” but was “not involved in data entry and collection.”

“We will continue to work with the state to generate reports as data is made available,” she said.

David Cantor, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, said the city had given the state the required information in a timely fashion. “Obviously, we’d have liked the numbers sooner,” he said of the graduation rates, adding, “It’s very tough to run a data system of this size smoothly the first time.”

New York, which began creating the new data system several years ago, is among a number of states that have invested millions recently to computerize school information, to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law and, more broadly, as part of an increased focus on educational accountability.

New York’s new system assigns every student in the state an identification number so they can be tracked throughout their educational careers, even if they switch schools or districts. The system keeps track of test scores and attendance as well as graduation numbers.

Mr. Dunn, the State Education Department spokesman, said that the problems leading to the late release of the graduation rates were not specific to McGraw-Hill’s Grow Network, but that the company had “a share” of responsibility.

“There’s just an enormous amount of new information that’s moving through here at all areas,” Mr. Dunn said. “The new volume has created challenges, from people having to fill out different forms to different verifications and all of the multiple steps involved.”

In an e-mail message to school superintendents this month, Jean C. Stevens, an associate state education commissioner, pointed a finger at school districts, saying that while calculating graduation rates, the state had identified many districts with possible data-reporting problems. “Many districts may have misreported graduates,” she wrote. “In some cases no graduates were reported.”

Betsy Gotbaum, the New York City public advocate, noted that the city Department of Education’s own $80 million data system, developed by I.B.M. and called ARIS, has been criticized by principals and teachers as cumbersome and difficult to use, even as parents have questioned its hefty price tag.

“We have already seen with ARIS here in the city how expensive and flashy computer systems are turning out to be clunky and flawed,” Ms. Gotbaum said in a statement. “The longer we have to wait for these data systems to produce results, the more skeptical people become.”

Mr. Cantor said the city was improving ARIS. “While it did not come out of the box perfect,” he said, “we got an awful lot of information to a large number of people.”

Jane Hirschmann, the founder and a co-chairwoman of Time Out From Testing, an antitesting group, said the information delay was “just typical” of how the city and state education departments “are spending our taxpayer money with absolutely no results.”

“It would be much better to put money in the classroom and keep track of what’s really important,” Ms. Hirschmann said. “This is the administration of testing and data collection. As far as parents are concerned, we don’t buy it. We don’t think our children are better because of it.”

Ore. students set to get choice of graduation test

By JULIA SILVERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
June 21, 2008

PORTLAND, Ore. -- When Oregon education officials set out to devise a graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other states for inspiration - on what not to do.

In neighboring California, dropout rates soared the first year the state required high schoolers to pass a test to get their diploma. In Texas, 40,000 disgruntled students were dispatched to summer school in 2007 after not passing the state test. And in Washington state, lawmakers simply canceled plans to require exiting students to pass a single, comprehensive math test, after fears surfaced that thousands wouldn't measure up.

"We didn't think any one test should determine whether someone gets a diploma," said Duncan Wyse, vice-chairman of the Oregon Board of Education.

So board members chose a different route. This week, they approved a a plan that lets students pick from three options: a national test, state assessments or a local version, such as a student portfolio, to show colleges and employers they have mastered reading, writing, applied math and speaking skills. Passage on any one of the three, along with fulfilling course requirements, would guarantee a diploma.

The plan makes Oregon one of several states moving past the "one-size-fits-all" high-stakes testing that became commonplace in many U.S. high schools in the 1990s. In Pennsylvania, the Board of Education is considering a three-pronged approach similar to Oregon's plan, while in Maryland, students who can't pass the state tests could be allowed to do a senior project instead.

But some say such choices allow some students - and states - to take the easy way out.

Daria Hall, assistant director for K-12 policy at Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for poor and minority children, points to New Jersey, where up to 80 percent of students at high schools in poor cities like Newark and Camden receive alternative diplomas after not passing the state tests. The number falls to about 3 percent in wealthy areas like Princeton, N.J., she said.

In most states, she said, the exit exams test skills students learned in ninth and tenth grades. That's basic enough, she said, that there should be no need for the safety net of alternate assessments, which can be put in place for political cover.

"These young people want to walk across the stage with their friends and their classmates," she said. "But why isn't there the same level of outrage that students were not able to pass these basic competency assessments in the first place?"

Oregon school board members, though, say they'll work hard to ensure that the local option, with local teachers judging their own students, doesn't become an easy way out.

"We will provide a common scoring guide, and review students' work to make sure there is consistency," with periodic spot-checks, Wyse said.

The trend is definitely moving away from a single, high-stakes test, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center for Education Policy in Washington, D.C., especially in states that have long traditions of local control for school districts.

There's also the No Child Left Behind factor, he noted. That's the Bush administration's education reform law, which has required yearly testing from grades 3-8 and in grade 10, with consequences for schools where enough students don't make progress. The law is unpopular with many teachers and principals, and has sparked a backlash against testing that didn't exist a decade or so ago when most states were considering exit exams, he said.

That's not to say that high stakes tests are totally out of fashion. Twenty-three states required the class of 2008 to pass tests to graduate from high school. Most states give students multiple chances to take the tests and many, including California, have set aside millions of dollars to pay for remedial coursework aimed at getting more students to pass the tests.

Still, John Warren, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, who has done extensive research on exit exams, said his research has proved few tangible benefits and suggested that testing requirements will result in more dropouts.

"There is no empirical evidence about whether alternate formats will result in better outcomes than one-size-fits-all," he said. "Unless there are additional resources for things like summer school, you are still relying on motivation alone."

Graduation rates declining in L.A. Unified despite higher enrollment, study finds

Check out the full report: " What Factors Predict High School Graduation in the Los Angeles Unified School District?"

-Patricia

Experts say the exit exam is having a huge effect on dropouts. The UC-led report showed that middle school experiences and teacher quality were also major factors.

By Mitchell Landsberg | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 21, 2008

The number of students graduating from Los Angeles public schools has declined for two straight years even as enrollment in the 12th grade has been rising sharply, new state data show. The graduation slump began when California started requiring students to pass an exit exam before they could receive a diploma.

The data caught educators by surprise after they were quietly posted on the state Department of Education website. Separately, new research released this week indicated that only 48% of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District graduate on time.

The latest figures are sure to stir new concerns about the ability of Los Angeles schools to serve the needs of the majority of their students, and revive a debate about the wisdom of mandating an exit exam, even one that has been described as requiring only about an eighth-grade education to pass.

The Los Angeles Unified School District officially declared a 64% graduation rate in 2005-06, the most recent year for which a rate is available. District leaders have long disputed studies that have shown the rate to be under 50%.

But district officials did not reject the findings of the latest study, released Thursday by the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara. Perhaps the most in-depth study ever done of Los Angeles dropouts, it examined individual student transcripts for the class that began ninth grade in September 2001 and should have graduated in June 2005.

"It's a good methodology," said Esther Wong, L.A. Unified's assistant superintendent for planning, assessment and research, who reviewed a draft of the study. "It's certainly better than trying to calculate it and do a best estimate."

Wong did question whether the study might have understated the graduation rate by not accounting for students who transferred to other districts. But Jeannie Oakes, a professor of education at UCLA who oversaw the research, said such students were removed from the count of incoming ninth-graders, so they could not have tainted the findings.

The study concluded that the low graduation rate for L.A. Unified can be explained in large measure by the quality of students' middle school experience and the quality of teachers at their high schools.

"We've learned from this that middle school is just hugely important," said Oakes, who runs UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education & Access. Although the dropout project is based at UC Santa Barbara, it relies on researchers at several institutions, and the study was conducted at UCLA.

The study found that differences among schools -- for instance, the percentage of highly qualified teachers, the percentage of English learners and the status of the school as a magnet -- played a stronger role in predicting whether a student would graduate than "student factors," such as race and socioeconomic status.

Magnet schools had a major effect on success. Nearly three-quarters of the students attending an L.A. Unified magnet high school graduated on time, compared with just 45% of those who didn't. Magnet schools typically offer specialized, theme-based instruction and were mandated by a court order to attract students of different races.

The dropout study and the recently released state data foreshadow the release of new and potentially explosive statistics on the state dropout rate that are expected in mid-July. Because California has begun assigning new, statewide identification numbers to all public-school students, the dropout data are expected to be far more accurate than in the past, when there was near-universal acknowledgment that the numbers vastly understated the problem.

Statewide, 12th-grade enrollment has been rising for several years, the result of a baby boomlet in the late 1980s. Meanwhile, the number of high school graduates has stayed stagnant.

In Los Angeles Unified, the rise in enrollment has been steeper than for the state overall, yet the number of graduates declined from 29,744 in 2005 to 27,438 in 2007.

The high school exit exam, often referred to by its acronym, CAHSEE, became a requirement for a diploma beginning with seniors who graduated in 2006. State and local officials widely agreed that it was the most likely cause for a decline in graduates.

"I can't think of any other reason," said Keric Ashley, director of data management for the California Department of Education. "The CAHSEE does have some impact, not as much as some people thought it would."

John Rogers, a UCLA professor who has studied the exit exam's effect on graduation rates, said he believes the state has downplayed its impact. The exam will hit the class of 2008 especially hard, he said, because for the first time, special education students had to pass the test.

"In 2008, far fewer students will graduate than probably any year over the last 25 years," Rogers said.

Figures for 2008 graduates aren't expected until next spring.

Debra Duardo, the director of dropout prevention and recovery for Los Angeles Unified, said there were no surprises in the new data, and the dropout project study confirmed what district officials have assumed about the barriers that keep students from graduating.

For instance, as others have done previously, the researchers pointed to algebra as a tripwire for many students.

Seventy percent of students who passed Algebra 1 by the end of ninth grade went on to graduate on time.

But the majority of students did not pass it in eighth or ninth grades, and roughly two-thirds of them failed to graduate on time.

The study found that students who changed schools during either middle or high school had much lower graduation rates, including students who switched between the sixth and seventh grades.

Duardo said the district is responding to those problems.

She also said the study overlooked the district's recent success in keeping students in school, and on track to graduate, after they miss their normal graduation date.

"If they don't do it in four years, maybe they can do it in five years," she said.

Cities in Crisis Report

Check out this report [pdf] file on the graduation rate in our U.S. cities.

Angela

Program offers help to students falling behind

This is such a positive benefit for the students who are still in school, a definite sign of caring. -Patricia

CCISD officials hope to enroll 100 in Horizons

By Adriana Garza (Contact)
August 28, 2007

About 100 CCISD high school students who are more than two grade levels behind are getting a new chance at academic success through the district's new Horizons Program.

Corpus Christi Independent School District trustees received an update on the district's newest program based on smaller classrooms and individualized instruction at the Solomon Coles High School and Education Center at Monday night's regular school board meeting.

The program focuses on providing students, many repeating one grade level more than twice or several grade levels once, with the opportunity to catch up on course work through accelerated and condensed individualized instruction.

Once the students are caught up, the goal is to get them to graduate, possibly with their originally assigned graduating class, said Bernadine Cervantes, assistant superintendent for school leadership.

"Solomon Coles will shine like a beacon of hope for these students who need a change," Cervantes said.

This spring school administrators reviewed enrollment information to identify ninth- and 10th-grade students who were between 17 and 18 years old -- the age of an average graduating senior.

For the majority of the students, earning high school credits hasn't been easy. Most have earned fewer than five, Cervantes said.

As of Monday, the first day of school for CCISD, about 70 of the 100 students identified were enrolled at Coles.

"We are the last hope, last option, for many of these students," said Monica Bayarena, principal at Coles.

Students in the Horizons program can expect different, hands-on instruction, with an emphasis on reading, writing and math.

Students also will have a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, which will allow teachers and counselors to have a better understanding of individuals needs.

Other goals include improving Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores, increasing attendance rates and making key connections to local colleges.

"We want to make our students feel welcome and give them an education environment where everyone knows their names," Bayarena said.

A Study Finds Some States Lagging on Graduation Rates

August 2, 2007
A Study Finds Some States Lagging on Graduation Rates

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Dozens of states accept any improvement in high school graduation rates as adequate progress, and several set a goal of graduating fewer than 60 percent of their students, according to a study released yesterday by the Education Trust in Washington.

While the No Child Left Behind law has created a national focus on reading and math proficiencies, it has done little to raise expectations for the number of students graduating from high school, the report said.

Because the law allowed states wide latitude, the goals for graduation rates vary widely. Nevada, for example, says its goal is to graduate 50 percent of its students; Iowa sets a target of 95 percent.

Under the federal law, states must also set targets for annual improvements, but several states say that any progress at all — even just one more diploma — is good enough, according to data collected from the Department of Education.

The report found that state-set goals for raising graduation rates are “far too low to spur needed improvement.”

“The high school diploma is the bare minimum credential necessary to have a fighting chance at successful participation in the work force of civil society,” it said. “Yet current high school accountability policies represent a stunning indifference to whether young people actually earn this critical credential.”

But the report also found that the states’ goals are too modest to raise frequently mediocre rates of graduation. In Wisconsin, a high school can be considered to be making enough progress even it improves to just 60.01 percent, the report said.

The expectations for improvement “serve as an alarming indicator of an unwillingness to address the critical need of our high schools,” wrote Daria Hall, the author of the report. “We need targets that provoke action on behalf of the students, not ones that condone the status quo.”

In a speech this week, Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, chairman of the House Education Committee and an architect of the original No Child Left Behind legislation, said reauthorization of that law should include changes so that graduation rates were used as a key measure of performance.

The report praised New York City schools for making sizable improvements in the past three years. But while New York has raised its graduation rate by six percentage points over the last three years, it still hovers around 50 percent. For the class of 2006, just 41 percent of Latino students graduated in four years.

Ross Wiener, vice president for policy and practice at the Education Trust, a research group in Washington, said that states should aim to have 90 percent of students graduate in four years and that schools that did not meet that goal should improve their graduation rate by five percentage points over two years.

The report criticized states as not doing enough to track low-income and minority students.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

No cap and gown for TAKS refugees

See earlier post. We definitely need a change. I applaud the Statesman for their reasoned concern for our high-stakes testing environment. -Angela

EDITORIAL
No cap and gown for TAKS refugees
EDITORIAL BOARD /Austin American-Statesman
Monday, May 14, 2007

Legislators should keep in mind the 39,095 public school students who won't graduate with their senior class this year as they consider what to do about the state's high-stakes testing system. That is 16 percent of the state's 244,346 senior class for 2007.

Many of those students earned the right number of credits, passed all their courses and had good attendance. Yet, their future opportunities for college and the work force will be limited because they won't have high school diplomas. Those students were tripped up by a single test — the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills.

State law requires that students pass an exit TAKS in four subjects to graduate — math, language arts, science and social studies. Failure to pass any of the four tests means no diploma.

Everyone agrees with the goal of setting high standards and ensuring that students can read, write and compute on a high school level before they get diplomas. Colleges want to know they can do that. Employers want to know they can do that. Mom and Dad want to know they can do that.

But in too many instances, high-stakes testing undermines an equally important goal of education — teaching students how to think and analyze. Teachers spend too much time teaching the test — what kind of pencil to use, techniques to pass multiple choice and standardized tests and so on.

We share parents' and teachers' disappointment and frustration with the state's TAKS system. It is rigid, narrows the curriculum and places too much emphasis on a single exam. The TAKS has created a class of students in Texas who are neither high school graduates nor dropouts. They are what we call TAKS refugees. It's time for the TAKS barrier to come down.

Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, passed a bill through the Senate that would maintain high standards and accountability while de-emphasizing high stakes testing. Senate Bill 1031 would greatly improve the system by placing the emphasis on testing what students learn in the classroom, and free teachers to teach subjects rather than tests. It requires high school students to take end-of-course exams to test their knowledge in English, math, science and social studies. Students still would have to pass with a 70, but the tests would make up only 15 percent of their overall grade.

Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, is shepherding Shapiro's bill through the House, where it could come up this week for a vote. His substitute plan for Shapiro's bill has two key changes: Schools would shift to end-of-course exams in 2011 instead of 2009, as Shapiro's bill stipulates. That seems reasonable because it would give the state or districts more time to develop new exams. Eissler's measure also would require students to pass four tests to graduate in upper-level high school courses in language arts, math, science and history.

In that regard, Shapiro's bill is better because it allows students to score an average of 70 on all tests so that no one exam prevents them from graduating. So a gifted math student who makes a superior score in math and science but a lesser score in history or English won't be denied a diploma.

We know that hundreds of students in Austin and across Texas won't graduate because they failed the TAKS this year. The Legislature can and should remove the TAKS barrier so that public schools are not limiting opportunities for students.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/05/14/14taks_edit.html

TAKS keeps 40,000 from graduating

"A record number of high school seniors -- 40,182 -- who took the exit-level exams last year as juniors will not graduate this spring because they still have not passed one or more of the TAKS tests. That's 16 percent, up from 13 percent last year."

The public really does deserve to see these numbers broken down even further. Which students are the most adversely impacted? Might they be poor children? Or English language learners? Do males still perform less well than females? All this data that the state has an a clearer picture isn't provided.

Children should not have to bear the burden of unequal opportunity in our schools through such mechanisms as underfunding, tracking, or poor testing practices.

Plus, just becauses kids do poorly doesn't mean that someone doesn't profit from all of this. More failures equal more testing equal more money for the testing companies. And, student failures engender both public relations, and real education disasters, that pave the way for the privatizers who want to convert public spaces into corporate ones.

I'm reading a manuscript today on the politics of disaster written by Kenneth Saltman. It'll be out soon. Mainly, it considers how both natural and human-made disasters provide opportunities for the profiteers. One of his chapters in this vein is on NCLB. Powerful! Overall, his book demonstrates insatiable and predatory greed that drives neoliberal capitalism to feed on both natural and human-made disasters for profit. He cogently demonstrates how today's form of age-old class struggles is legitimated by deceitful and self-serving corporate values and high-sounding rhetoric (e.g., "No child left behind") that seek to privatize all aspects of human existence.

My thoughts for today. -Angela


Monday, May 14, 2007
Posted on Sat, May. 12, 2007
TAKS keeps 40,000 from graduating


By KATHERINE CROMER BROCK
Star-Telegram staff writer

Sophomores struggled, and seventh-graders improved on this year's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
The Texas Education Agency released passing rates Friday for the state's high-stakes assessment tests, which were given this spring.
Statewide, 70 percent of students passed all tests taken, up from 64 percent last year.

But the number of seniors who won't graduate this year because they failed at least one exit-level TAKS exam has reached an all-time high -- more than 40,000 students, or about 16 percent of those who took the tests as juniors last year.

The TAKS was given to about 3 million Texas students in grades three through 11.

The state administers 27 exams covering five subjects -- math, science, social studies, writing and English/language arts/reading.

Students who fail a test can take it again. Students must pass the third-grade reading test to be promoted to the fourth grade, and the fifth-grade reading and math tests to move up to the sixth grade. High school juniors must pass tests in English/language arts, math, science and social studies to graduate. They can continue taking those tests through their senior years.

Sophomore slump

Statewide, the percentage of 10th-graders who passed the English and science tests dropped.

English passing rates fell to 84 percent from 85 percent. Science test passing rates fell to 58 percent from 60 percent.

The trend held in area districts, too. In Grapevine-Colleyville, the passing rate for sophomore English tests dropped 2 percentage points to 95 percent. Sophomore rates dropped to 82 percent from 83 percent in math and to 82 percent from 85 percent in science.

In Hurst-Euless-Bedford, 10th-grade passing rates climbed to 79 percent from 73 percent in math, but fell to 91 percent from 94 percent in reading.

Seventh-grade strides

This year's seventh-graders were the first group of students who had to pass the third-grade reading test to be promoted to the fourth grade, and fifth-grade reading and math to move to sixth grade. Next year, they will be the first group who must pass the eighth-grade reading and math tests to go to ninth grade.

Passing rates for Texas seventh-graders jumped 6 percentage points in both math and reading, and 3 percentage points in writing.

"We are so proud of these students," Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Neeley said in a release. "They have indeed benefited from the reforms enacted during this decade."

In the Birdville school district, seventh-graders increased their passing rates by 10 percentage points in reading and 7 percentage points in math.

Exit level

A record number of high school seniors -- 40,182 -- who took the exit-level exams last year as juniors will not graduate this spring because they still have not passed one or more of the TAKS tests. That's 16 percent, up from 13 percent last year.
"I know the immediate concern deals with commencement activities, but students also need to keep their eye on the ultimate goal: earning a high school diploma," Neeley said. "I encourage all who still need to pass one or more parts of the TAKS to retake the test this summer."

But this year's juniors have improved over last year's. Passing rates increased on the exit-level English, math and science tests. Social studies held steady at 94 percent.

Staff writers Eva-Marie Ayala, Jessamy Brown, Sarah Bahari, Martha Deller and Terry Webster contributed to this report.

TAKS in area districts

Northwest Students improved in 22 of the 27 testing areas from last year. Every grade improved in math. Science scores, however, declined for 10th and 11th grades. Science will be a target area next year, Superintendent Karen Rue said.
Carroll Every student passed reading tests in the third, fifth, sixth and eighth grades, the seventh-grade writing tests, and exit-level social studies.

Keller Ninety-eight percent of third-graders passed the reading exam. Of Keller sophomores, 89 percent passed the English test, and 72 percent passed math and science.

Mansfield Schools saw gains in reading and social studies. The district continued to have mixed results in math and science. The passing rate for sophomore science dropped 6 percentage points from last year to 58 percent, and the rate for juniors dropped to 80 percent from 84 percent. In math, the ninth grade passing rate dropped to 59 percent from 61 percent, and the 10th-grade rate fell to 60 percent from 61 percent.

Westlake Academy Reading passing rates were 100 percent for fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and ninth-grade students. Every eighth-grader passed the science test. Eighty-five percent of seventh-graders earned commended performance designations in writing.

Castleberry Fourteen seniors will not graduate until they pass at least one more TAKS test, Superintendent Gary Jones said. But those seniors will participate in an August commencement if they pass the summer TAKS tests, he said.
Aledo Superintendent Don Daniel said only two of 276 Aledo High School seniors -- a foreign-exchange student and a mid-year transfer student -- will not graduate because of TAKS. That does not include students in the dropout recovery program, whose data was not available Friday, he said.

Azle Spokesman Ray Ivey said officials are generally pleased with the TAKS results, which show improvement in most categories. Eighteen seniors still need to pass at least one TAKS test to graduate, but they will be allowed to participate in commencement by signing a contract to pass the remaining TAKS, he said.

Everman Superintendent Jeri Pfeifer estimated that 30 seniors will not graduate because they still must pass at least one TAKS test.

Fort Worth and Arlington The districts did not release the results of their TAKS exams Friday.

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