This big question is whether there is an accountability system that can't get gamed. -Angela
Exclusive: DISD, other districts unlikely to look into suspicious scores
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News
An alarming number of students who graduated from Texas high schools last month probably cheated to get there – and state education officials are in no hurry to catch them.
A state-sponsored analysis found thousands of suspicious scores on the 11th-grade TAKS, the test students must pass to graduate.
The study found 96 Texas high schools where groups of last year's 11th-graders turned in unusually similar answer sheets – suggesting they may have been copying each other's answers. Scores in almost every Dallas neighborhood high school raised red flags.
Eleventh-grade classrooms were more than eight times more likely to have suspicious scores than those in other grades, researchers found.
The study's results don't surprise experts. "Levels of cheating in high school are at astronomical levels," said Tim Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.
But in Texas, state and local officials say that these unusual patterns in data – even those that researchers say are millions of times less likely to occur than your being struck by lightning tomorrow – are not enough to trigger scrutiny.
The result is that many of the most egregious cases of likely cheating will go uninvestigated.
"Yeah, kids cheat," said Devin Gustafson, 2006 valedictorian at Seagoville High School, one of the 18 Dallas schools that made the list.
"If you want to cheat on the TAKS, it's not hard."
The findings are the result of a comprehensive analysis performed, at the state's request, by a Utah company called Caveon. It was hired last summer after a series of Dallas Morning News stories found evidence of educator-led cheating in many Texas schools.
The Texas Education Agency paid Caveon more than $500,000 to examine test scores and search for the sort of statistical anomalies that could indicate cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The analysis looked for a variety of patterns, such as a classroom where students made performance gains of unlikely size, or where students answered very difficult questions with ease but struggled with more simple ones.
But the most common anomaly Caveon found was what it called "very similar test responses." That means, in a particular classroom or grade, an unusual number of students answered all or nearly all questions in the same way – including both wrong and right answers.
In its report to Texas officials, Caveon said it only flagged cases with "a low probability of occurring by chance." While it acknowledges that statistics alone are not conclusive proof of cheating, the report says Caveon used a "very conservative statistical approach."
"The conservative approach ensures that while not every potential instance of a statistical inconsistency is identified, those that are identified will be so anomalous that reasonable explanations of these inconsistencies by referring to normal circumstances become improbable," the report states.
'Anomalies'
State officials say that just because a large number of a classroom's students had identical answer sheets doesn't necessarily mean it's worthy of investigation.
"Caveon is pretty much the national expert on this sort of thing," said Shirley Neeley, the state's education commissioner. "But I look at that list and think these are anomalies. I didn't immediately think the worst."
Is it cheating? Perhaps the key piece of supporting evidence is how much more common the "very similar" anomalies are in 11th grade than at other grades.
Caveon found 486 Texas classrooms with an unusual cluster of "very similar" answer sheets.
If those findings were not the result of cheating – if they were just statistical background noise – one might expect them to be evenly distributed among the nine grades in which Texas tests.
But that's not what Caveon found. In grades three to 10, it identified an average of 29 classrooms where test scores suggest answer copying.
In 11th grade, Caveon found 253.
"That's exactly what you would expect: The higher the stakes, the more likely you're going to have some kind of dishonest behavior," said Jason Stephens, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut who studies high school cheating.
The "very similar" answer sheets were concentrated in the two school districts that have faced the most cheating allegations in the past: Dallas and Houston. Both urban districts had 18 high schools earn the "very similar" flag at 11th grade.
Of Dallas' 21 traditional neighborhood high schools, 17 made Caveon's list. So did one magnet school, the School of Education and Social Services.
That's the district's school for aspiring teachers.
In contrast, none were found in San Antonio or El Paso, and only one was found in Austin, again suggesting the pattern is not random.
Only one school in the Dallas suburbs – McKinney North – had an unusual cluster of similar test scores. Four Fort Worth high schools also had the pattern.
But state and local officials insist there must be some explanation for the 11th-grade scores – something other than cheating.
"We are not going to speculate on the reason that that number occurred," said Susan Barnes, the state's associate commissioner for standards and programs.
"I just believe there's a logical explanation somewhere," Dr. Neeley said. She added that she did not know what that explanation might be.
Inquiries unlikely
It's unclear whether an explanation will ever be found, because many of the schools will probably go uninvestigated.
Initially, TEA chose not to even tell districts that their schools had suspicious score patterns. Dr. Barnes said the agency informed schools only because The News had requested the testing data under open-records law.
"We would not have done it otherwise," she said.
Dr. Neeley informed the districts on Caveon's list in a May 31 letter. But the commissioner did not demand that they begin even a cursory investigation into the suspicious numbers. Instead, she asked districts only to "conduct any investigations you deem necessary to explain" the results.
Many districts are interpreting that to mean it's OK not to investigate Caveon's findings.
The Dallas school district is one.
"We have no investigations planned," said Donald Claxton, the district's spokesman. "This [the Caveon report] just identifies unusual patterns. It's nothing conclusive."
Dr. Barnes said that TEA did not feel comfortable asking districts to investigate Caveon's findings without any additional supporting evidence, such as eyewitness testimony of cheating.
1999 investigation
But TEA has done precisely that in the past. In 1999, a TEA analysis of the erasure patterns on student answer sheets identified 11 districts with one or more schools with questionable results over a period of three years. Based on that data, TEA demanded that all 11 launch investigations. Four concluded there had been cheating by teachers.
Districts on the Caveon list have been told the grade level and subject area in question and what type of statistical anomalies Caveon found.
But they haven't been told other crucial facts. How many students had answer sheets identical to their neighbors? Which students made unlikely gains on the test? Which patterns of answers are suspicious?
"We don't know the parameters that would cause us to be flagged," said Joe Miniscalco, McKinney's senior director of secondary education. "Is it two tests? 200 tests?"
Dr. Barnes said her agency does not plan to give all districts that extra information. "I do believe districts already have the information they would need," she said.
In any case, accurate investigations will be hard at this late date. The report examines scores on a test given more than a year ago. TEA officials said they had draft copies of the report as early as last fall but did not send findings to districts until a few days ago.
By then, most 11th-graders who might have cheated had already graduated.
Cheating common
Teenagers cheating on tests is nothing new.
In 2004, researcher Michael Josephson surveyed nearly 15,000 American high school students and asked whether they had cheated on a test in the previous year. Sixty-two percent said they had – roughly the same number who said they had had at least one beer over the same time span.
Researchers report that public school systems historically have not been particularly interested in uncovering cheating by students or teachers. Don McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who has studied cheating for 15 years, often surveys high school students on cheating. But when he approaches a public school, he usually runs into roadblocks.
"They don't want to know their students are cheating," he said. "They don't want the information, because then they have to deal with it."
Devin Gustafson, the Seagoville valedictorian, said he heard a number of his fellow students talking about cheating on the 11th-grade TAKS test. An example: "One girl, she snuck her cellphone into the test and was text messaging some of her friends to get answers," he said. "She said she only got one or two answers because it was too hard."
He said he didn't cheat, but if he had wanted to, it wouldn't have been hard. "I definitely could have. A couple of times, the teacher left the room and all you would have had to do is turn around and ask somebody for the answer."
Matthew Ramirez, who will be a senior at Skyline High School this fall, said it was easy for students to cheat there. Students who have to turn in their cellphones on test day, he said, are allowed to take them back after lunch – even if they haven't completed the test. "It's not hard to cheat," he said.
Researchers say school systems and state officials don't take their policing responsibilities seriously.
"It's making a mockery of the whole system," Dr. McCabe said. "You invest a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of teacher and student time in a test. And there's evidence there's a problem with the test. And they're not going to do anything about it? They're just going to say, 'Oh, it's just statistics; you can't trust that'?
"It's just going to get worse."
E-mail jbenton@dallasnews.com
Schools where answers were 'very similar'
At several area schools, answers on the 11th-grade TAKS test were similar enough to raise suspicions about cheating.
Math Science Social studies English language arts
Dallas ISD
Adamson X X X
Carter X X X X
Spruce X X X
Madison X X X
Kimball X X X
Pinkston X X
Lincoln X X X
Maceo Smith X X X
Molina X
North Dallas X X X
Roosevelt X X X
Samuell X X X
School of Education and Social Services X X X
Seagoville X
Skyline X X
South Oak Cliff X X X
Sunset X X X
Thomas Jefferson X X X
Fort Worth ISD
Arlington Heights X
Dunbar X X
Eastern Hills X X X
Polytechnic X X
McKinney ISD
McKinney North X
Charter schools
Theresa B. Lee Academy X X
Texans Can! Academy at Paul Quinn College X X X
SOURCE: Caveon
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/061106dnmettakscheat.8606778.html
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Of Texas schools in worst trouble, most are charters
Based on a new law (formerly SB2), "schools deemed academically unacceptable for four years must be shut down or be subject to management by a private, nonprofit company." I guess the private companies--and not the public schools--know better even though 9 of the 11 schools slotted for closure or radical alteration are charter schools. In any case, this is a punishing, rather than a supportive role, particularly in light of the fact that most charters target low-performing student populations. I'm not saying that these schools shouldn't get special attention. They should. It's just the kind of attention they get that concerns me. -Angela
06/10/2006
Jeanne Russell
Express-News Staff Writer
New legislation aimed at ridding Texas of failing public schools will have an outsized effect on charter schools.
While the numbers are small, the percentages make it clear that Texas charters are in for a blow. Nine of the 11 public schools ranked academically unacceptable for three years under the state's accountability system are charters.
The taxpayer-financed, privately managed campuses make up less than 4 percent of Texas public schools but represent 73 percent of the repeat failures.
Three of the schools facing the most serious sanctions — closure or being taken over by a nonprofit — are in San Antonio: the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, the Eagle Academy of San Antonio, and the Career Plus Learning Academy.
"The statistics speak for themselves," said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who designed the provision and is a charter school supporter. "We cannot fund in any way bad schools for our students. If they are not producing for our children, they need to be closed."
At risk schools
Recent legislation mandates that struggling schools in the state must either improve or risk closing permanently or coming under new management. The 11 schools at risk for sanctions are:
Career Plus Learning Academy in San Antonio
San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity
Eagle Academy of San Antonio
*Eagle Academy of Bryan
Eagle Academy of Fort Worth
*Eagle Academy of Dallas
Honors Academy in Dallas
Crossroad Community Education Center Charter
Gulf Shores High
Kashmere High in Houston
Sam Houston High in Houston
*Eagle Academies of Bryan and Dallas were closed by the operator.
Source: Texas Education Agency
The stringent new oversight measures were part of a school finance bill signed by Gov. Rick Perry in May. Now, schools deemed academically unacceptable for four years must be shut down or be subject to management by a private, nonprofit company.
The state will release new school rankings, based on this year's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores, in August. Schools are ranked exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable based largely on test performance.
Because the law was just passed, Education Secretary Shirley Neeley can decide whether to close or take over the flagged schools immediately or give them a year's reprieve, said Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. Neeley is expected to make a decision by August.
This year's scores at San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, which opened in 2000, appear good enough to earn an acceptable rating for the first time and avert state sanctions, said Debbie DeLeon, the school's principal and superintendent.
The school's 220 students in grades kindergarten through 12 were motivated to do well on the test in order to keep the school's doors open, DeLeon said.
"In 2004-2005 it was a 'whatever' attitude," said Shawn White, the school's vice principal and science teacher. "This year it was an uplifting experience."
The Eagle Academy of San Antonio serves about 140 students in grades six though 12. The San Antonio campus, one of four statewide in the chain, has been low-performing three times since it opened in 1999, though it performed better on the TAKS last year.
"Eagle Academy of San Antonio had an academically acceptable TAKS passing rate last year and we have seen a continued increase and even higher preliminary scores this year," said Julie Conde, a spokeswoman for the Lewisville-based Eagle Academies of Texas, which closed its low-performing campuses in Bryan and Dallas. "We are proud to report a continual increase in student performance."
At Career Plus Learning Academy, another repeat low-performer, phone calls seeking comment were not returned. The school opened in 1999 and serves about 40 students in grades six through 12, according to the Texas Education Agency Web site.
Charters grew out of a national movement to reform public education by lifting regulations to allow for innovation and competition. Since Texas awarded its first charter in 1996, lawmakers have struggled to balance oversight with maintaining the freedom that is the hallmark of charter schools.
Flexibility is credited with creative approaches such as those taken by the Knowledge Is Power Program, with which the Aspire Academy in San Antonio is affiliated, leading to impressive middle school achievement.
Mike Lopez, deputy superintendent of the John H. Wood Jr. Public Charter System, echoed other charter boosters who say uncurbed abuses have damaged the reputation and agility of well-run charter schools.
"If a school can't clean up its act in three years, there's something majorly wrong," said Lopez, who is also board president of the Association of Charter School Educators of Texas. "The state has cooperated with the charter school movement on not acting capriciously to close schools."
jeanner@express-news.net
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/stories/MYSA061006.01B.charter_woes.2fa37d1.html
06/10/2006
Jeanne Russell
Express-News Staff Writer
New legislation aimed at ridding Texas of failing public schools will have an outsized effect on charter schools.
While the numbers are small, the percentages make it clear that Texas charters are in for a blow. Nine of the 11 public schools ranked academically unacceptable for three years under the state's accountability system are charters.
The taxpayer-financed, privately managed campuses make up less than 4 percent of Texas public schools but represent 73 percent of the repeat failures.
Three of the schools facing the most serious sanctions — closure or being taken over by a nonprofit — are in San Antonio: the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, the Eagle Academy of San Antonio, and the Career Plus Learning Academy.
"The statistics speak for themselves," said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who designed the provision and is a charter school supporter. "We cannot fund in any way bad schools for our students. If they are not producing for our children, they need to be closed."
At risk schools
Recent legislation mandates that struggling schools in the state must either improve or risk closing permanently or coming under new management. The 11 schools at risk for sanctions are:
Career Plus Learning Academy in San Antonio
San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity
Eagle Academy of San Antonio
*Eagle Academy of Bryan
Eagle Academy of Fort Worth
*Eagle Academy of Dallas
Honors Academy in Dallas
Crossroad Community Education Center Charter
Gulf Shores High
Kashmere High in Houston
Sam Houston High in Houston
*Eagle Academies of Bryan and Dallas were closed by the operator.
Source: Texas Education Agency
The stringent new oversight measures were part of a school finance bill signed by Gov. Rick Perry in May. Now, schools deemed academically unacceptable for four years must be shut down or be subject to management by a private, nonprofit company.
The state will release new school rankings, based on this year's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores, in August. Schools are ranked exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable based largely on test performance.
Because the law was just passed, Education Secretary Shirley Neeley can decide whether to close or take over the flagged schools immediately or give them a year's reprieve, said Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. Neeley is expected to make a decision by August.
This year's scores at San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, which opened in 2000, appear good enough to earn an acceptable rating for the first time and avert state sanctions, said Debbie DeLeon, the school's principal and superintendent.
The school's 220 students in grades kindergarten through 12 were motivated to do well on the test in order to keep the school's doors open, DeLeon said.
"In 2004-2005 it was a 'whatever' attitude," said Shawn White, the school's vice principal and science teacher. "This year it was an uplifting experience."
The Eagle Academy of San Antonio serves about 140 students in grades six though 12. The San Antonio campus, one of four statewide in the chain, has been low-performing three times since it opened in 1999, though it performed better on the TAKS last year.
"Eagle Academy of San Antonio had an academically acceptable TAKS passing rate last year and we have seen a continued increase and even higher preliminary scores this year," said Julie Conde, a spokeswoman for the Lewisville-based Eagle Academies of Texas, which closed its low-performing campuses in Bryan and Dallas. "We are proud to report a continual increase in student performance."
At Career Plus Learning Academy, another repeat low-performer, phone calls seeking comment were not returned. The school opened in 1999 and serves about 40 students in grades six through 12, according to the Texas Education Agency Web site.
Charters grew out of a national movement to reform public education by lifting regulations to allow for innovation and competition. Since Texas awarded its first charter in 1996, lawmakers have struggled to balance oversight with maintaining the freedom that is the hallmark of charter schools.
Flexibility is credited with creative approaches such as those taken by the Knowledge Is Power Program, with which the Aspire Academy in San Antonio is affiliated, leading to impressive middle school achievement.
Mike Lopez, deputy superintendent of the John H. Wood Jr. Public Charter System, echoed other charter boosters who say uncurbed abuses have damaged the reputation and agility of well-run charter schools.
"If a school can't clean up its act in three years, there's something majorly wrong," said Lopez, who is also board president of the Association of Charter School Educators of Texas. "The state has cooperated with the charter school movement on not acting capriciously to close schools."
jeanner@express-news.net
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/stories/MYSA061006.01B.charter_woes.2fa37d1.html
Friday, June 09, 2006
The truth about Gov. Perry's public education non-fix:
Here's an analysis of the school finance legislation from last session. This should concern us. -Angela
By Peyton Wolcott
www.peytonwolcott.com
At the same time Texas Governor Rick Perry is circulating ads promoting property tax cuts ("Homeowners and businesses will save $15.7 billion on school property taxes") achieved during the 79th Legislature's third special session, called specifically to solve problems with constitutionality and funding in paying for Texas public schools, just emerging is that the special session actually created a $6.1 billion shortfall* for which there is no solution save an unrealistic forecast of an unprecedented ten-year cycle of boom--or the more realistic and plebian fixes of trimming government spending and increasing the state sales tax, at $.0625 already among the highest in the U.S.
Because Texas has no state income tax, schools are funded far less by the state (the Texas Permanent School Fund's disbursements are currently at $765 million) and much more by local property taxes ($18.6 billion). Under 1993's Robin Hood, many districts are approaching the $1.50 M&O and $0.50 I&S cap per $100 valuation, which scheme the Texas Supremes found unconstitutional as it amounted to an illegal state property tax, and gave the Legislature a June 1, 2006 deadline to find a cure; hence this last special session.
So the Lege has just passed a series of bills which will lower the maximum property tax to $1.00 in two years for districts already at $1.50 M&O, and make up the difference with a revised business franchise tax meant to close the business-friendly Delaware Sub loophole, with an additional $1.00 cigarette tax along with a new used car tax, all projected to yield a $4.2 billion* revenue stream by fiscal year 2009.
But at the same time, Lege appropriations are projected at $10.3 billion* by FY 2009 and include a $2.4 billion across-the-board teacher pay increase over the next three years, $600 million in teacher awards, and $275 per high schooler for reducing dropout rates and college prep.
Robbing Peter to pay the piper
When questioned about the $6.1 billion shortfall, the governor's spokesman Kathy Walt said yesterday, "The revenue sources you cite [above] represent only those bills passed during the special session. They do not reflect the surplus, nor do they take into account new revenue estimates that will be generated prior to the start of the 2007 regular session. The tax measures passed by the legislature will go into a property tax reduction fund to pay for future reductions of property taxes. Should additional revenues be needed beyond what these taxes generate and is available from surplus, general revenue (GR) funds could be used. The new tax measures represent only a small portion of revenue that flows into GR."
Huh? Public education to be funded by a $23 billion 'hot check'?
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running as an independent against Perry in this November's gubernatorial election, said in certifying HB 1, the largest single piece of legislation this session, "Perry's entire plan is a massive increase in business taxes that will increase the state's budget by $6 billion a year [and] leave a $23 billion hot check."
Another state official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday, "All of this money, this surplus the governor's talking about, is already dedicated. And a $6.1 billion income spike is unrealistic, unless it comes from a combination of further cutting state government expenses and increasing the sales tax. The problem there is that you only get $2 billion per penny of tax, and our sales tax is already one of the highest in the nation. So the 10% budget cut the governor announced yesterday afternoon represents the first element of what we knew had to come in order to fund this boondoggle, and the next will be an increased sales tax. Even though right now we're awash in fuels tax money, how long will this continue? The governor's saying we've got to boom like this for the next ten years."
War of the Worlds
Put simply, while a major conservative premise is that cutting taxes will boost the economy, the corresponding liberal premise is that more money needs to be spent on governmental services. Perry's 79th Legislature's third special called session delivered both a tax cut and increased spending, and appears to not pass the mandated constitutionality threshold. While according to Governor Perry's press release "this is one of the most significant legislative accomplishments for Texas in a generation, because it is one of the most significant steps we have ever taken to improve opportunity for the next generation" and "because of House Bill 1, school finance is now out of the courthouse, and back on constitutional footing,” constitutional law experts such as Charles Rhodes of South Texas College of Law are expressing their reservations. Says Rhodes, "I have questions as to how long the new financing scheme is going to be considered to be constitutional. I think it's another short-term fix."
For the full version
* SOURCE: House Research Organization/Legislative Budget Board
The 79th's 3rd's legacy: You do the math
Appropriations by FY 2009 $ 10.3 billion
Revenues by FY 2009 $ 4.2 billion
Shortfall $ 6.1 billion*
Peyton Wolcott's new school reform website www.peytonwolcott.com has recently been named "The Smoking Gun of American education." She lives in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.
Copyright 2006 Peyton Wolcott - All rights reserved
http://www.educationnews.org/Commentaries/23_billion_hot_check.htm
By Peyton Wolcott
www.peytonwolcott.com
At the same time Texas Governor Rick Perry is circulating ads promoting property tax cuts ("Homeowners and businesses will save $15.7 billion on school property taxes") achieved during the 79th Legislature's third special session, called specifically to solve problems with constitutionality and funding in paying for Texas public schools, just emerging is that the special session actually created a $6.1 billion shortfall* for which there is no solution save an unrealistic forecast of an unprecedented ten-year cycle of boom--or the more realistic and plebian fixes of trimming government spending and increasing the state sales tax, at $.0625 already among the highest in the U.S.
Because Texas has no state income tax, schools are funded far less by the state (the Texas Permanent School Fund's disbursements are currently at $765 million) and much more by local property taxes ($18.6 billion). Under 1993's Robin Hood, many districts are approaching the $1.50 M&O and $0.50 I&S cap per $100 valuation, which scheme the Texas Supremes found unconstitutional as it amounted to an illegal state property tax, and gave the Legislature a June 1, 2006 deadline to find a cure; hence this last special session.
So the Lege has just passed a series of bills which will lower the maximum property tax to $1.00 in two years for districts already at $1.50 M&O, and make up the difference with a revised business franchise tax meant to close the business-friendly Delaware Sub loophole, with an additional $1.00 cigarette tax along with a new used car tax, all projected to yield a $4.2 billion* revenue stream by fiscal year 2009.
But at the same time, Lege appropriations are projected at $10.3 billion* by FY 2009 and include a $2.4 billion across-the-board teacher pay increase over the next three years, $600 million in teacher awards, and $275 per high schooler for reducing dropout rates and college prep.
Robbing Peter to pay the piper
When questioned about the $6.1 billion shortfall, the governor's spokesman Kathy Walt said yesterday, "The revenue sources you cite [above] represent only those bills passed during the special session. They do not reflect the surplus, nor do they take into account new revenue estimates that will be generated prior to the start of the 2007 regular session. The tax measures passed by the legislature will go into a property tax reduction fund to pay for future reductions of property taxes. Should additional revenues be needed beyond what these taxes generate and is available from surplus, general revenue (GR) funds could be used. The new tax measures represent only a small portion of revenue that flows into GR."
Huh? Public education to be funded by a $23 billion 'hot check'?
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running as an independent against Perry in this November's gubernatorial election, said in certifying HB 1, the largest single piece of legislation this session, "Perry's entire plan is a massive increase in business taxes that will increase the state's budget by $6 billion a year [and] leave a $23 billion hot check."
Another state official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday, "All of this money, this surplus the governor's talking about, is already dedicated. And a $6.1 billion income spike is unrealistic, unless it comes from a combination of further cutting state government expenses and increasing the sales tax. The problem there is that you only get $2 billion per penny of tax, and our sales tax is already one of the highest in the nation. So the 10% budget cut the governor announced yesterday afternoon represents the first element of what we knew had to come in order to fund this boondoggle, and the next will be an increased sales tax. Even though right now we're awash in fuels tax money, how long will this continue? The governor's saying we've got to boom like this for the next ten years."
War of the Worlds
Put simply, while a major conservative premise is that cutting taxes will boost the economy, the corresponding liberal premise is that more money needs to be spent on governmental services. Perry's 79th Legislature's third special called session delivered both a tax cut and increased spending, and appears to not pass the mandated constitutionality threshold. While according to Governor Perry's press release "this is one of the most significant legislative accomplishments for Texas in a generation, because it is one of the most significant steps we have ever taken to improve opportunity for the next generation" and "because of House Bill 1, school finance is now out of the courthouse, and back on constitutional footing,” constitutional law experts such as Charles Rhodes of South Texas College of Law are expressing their reservations. Says Rhodes, "I have questions as to how long the new financing scheme is going to be considered to be constitutional. I think it's another short-term fix."
For the full version
* SOURCE: House Research Organization/Legislative Budget Board
The 79th's 3rd's legacy: You do the math
Appropriations by FY 2009 $ 10.3 billion
Revenues by FY 2009 $ 4.2 billion
Shortfall $ 6.1 billion*
Peyton Wolcott's new school reform website www.peytonwolcott.com has recently been named "The Smoking Gun of American education." She lives in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.
Copyright 2006 Peyton Wolcott - All rights reserved
http://www.educationnews.org/Commentaries/23_billion_hot_check.htm
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
The Gilded Age of Home Schooling
June 5, 2006
The Gilded Age of Home Schooling
By SUSAN SAULNY
In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.
Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles.
Lisa Mazzoni's family splits its time between Marina del Rey, Calif., and Delray Beach, Fla. Lisa has her algebra and history lessons delivered poolside sometimes or on her condominium's rooftop, where she and her teacher enjoy the sun and have a view of the Pacific Ocean south of Santa Monica.
"For someone who travels a lot or has a parent who travels and wants to keep the family together, it's an excellent choice," said Lisa's mother, Trish Mazzoni, who with her husband owns a speedboat company.
The cost for such teachers generally runs $70 to $110 an hour. And depending on how many hours a teacher works, and how many teachers are involved, the price can equal or surpass tuition in the upper echelon of private schools in New York City or Los Angeles, where $30,000 a year is not unheard of.
Other parents say the model works for children who are sick, for children who are in show business or for those with learning disabilities.
"It's a hidden group of folks, but it's growing enormously," said Luis Huerta, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College of Columbia University, whose national research includes a focus on home schooling.
The United States Department of Education last did a survey on home schooling in 2003. That survey did not ask about full-time in-home teachers. But it found that from 1999 to 2003, the number of children who were educated at home had soared, increasing by 29 percent, to 1.1 million students nationwide. It also found that, of those, 21 percent used a tutor.
Home schooling is legal in every state, though some regulate it more than others. Home-school teachers do not require certification, and the only common requirement from state to state is that students meet compulsory-attendance rules.
Scholars who study home-schooling trends, business owners who serve home-schooling families and abundant anecdotal evidence also suggest that private teaching arrangements are on the rise. Some families do it for short stints, others for years at a time.
Bob Harraka, president of Professional Tutors of America, has about 6,000 teachers from 14 states on his payroll in Orange County, Calif., but cannot meet a third of the requests for in-home education that come in, he said, because they are so specialized or extravagant: a family wants a teacher to instruct in the art of Frisbee throwing, button sewing or Latin grammar. A family wants a teacher to accompany them for a yearlong voyage at sea.
"Sailing comes up at least once or twice a year," Mr. Harraka said.
Parents say in-home teaching arrangements offer unparalleled levels of academic attention and flexibility in scheduling, in addition to a sense of family cohesion and autonomy over what children learn. To them, these advantages make up for the lack of a school social life, which they say can be replicated through group lessons in, say, ballet or sculpture.
Jon D. Snyder, dean of the Bank Street College of Education in New York, said his main concerns about this form of education were whether tutors and students were a good fit, and whether students got enough social interaction.
"From a purely academic standpoint, it goes back to a much earlier era," Dr. Snyder said. "The notion of individual tutorials is a time-honored tradition, particularly among the elite."
Think Plato, John Stuart Mill and George Washington. Philosopher kings and gentleman farmers. Because of the cost of in-home tutoring, the idea will probably not spread like wildfire, and just as well, Dr. Snyder said.
"Public education has social goals; that's why we pay tax dollars for it," he said. "When Socrates was tutoring Plato, he wasn't concerned about educating the other people in Greece. They were just concerned about educating Plato."
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Krystal and Tiffany Wheeler earn high school credits in adjacent pastel bedrooms after breakfast. The teachers come to them.
Their mother, Charlene Royce, said she wanted her girls to experience the benefits of a personalized education but did not feel comfortable teaching herself.
"I feel that education is better this way, one on one," said Ms. Royce, whose expertise is in finding electronics companies in which to invest. "It was never an option for me to do it — I wouldn't know how."
For help, she turned to a Manhattan business, On Location Education, which took care of the logistics, providing her with curricula and teachers. Ms. Royce gets weekly progress reports and a visit every couple of months from a woman she calls "the mobile principal."
To meet their social needs — and for exercise — Tiffany and Krystal attend dance and piano classes, among other things, and belong to a gym.
Lisa Mazzoni takes acting and dance classes in Hollywood. She is also enrolled in a school for distance learning that provides a curriculum for her tutor, Rob Cox, of Professional Tutors of America, to teach.
"I do love the fact that instead of waking up at 5:30 every morning I get to wake up at 8:30," said Lisa, who is 17 and attended private school until this year.
"It makes life so much easier," Lisa continued. "I don't have to worry about missing tests and if I really wanted to, I could bring the work with me — because it's all in the computer — if I'm in Florida visiting my dad or going to a boat race."
When Nick Niell, an investment banker, and his wife, Sarah, moved to New York from East Sussex, England, for about a year in 2003, four teachers would come on weekdays to Mr. Niell's townhouse on 69th Street near Madison Avenue to teach his three school-aged children. Mr. Niell said he could not find a British school in the city and wanted his children to study the same things they would have studied in England. A floor of the house was converted into classroom space.
"It was quite good fun," said Mr. Niell, whose teachers came through Partners with Parents, a Manhattan in-home tutoring service.
The families embracing the one-on-one home-school model are turning the original concept on its head. Dr. Huerta said the popular notion is that home-schoolers leave schools they see as troubled, certain they can do better as teachers themselves. Hiring teachers for full-time instruction is not typical.
The new and more expansive definitions of home schooling irritate some traditionalists who want to keep the model simpler. "People use the term home schooling for all sorts of interesting things these days," said Celeste Land, a member of the board at the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. "Obviously it's not pure home schooling."
But the growing number of home-school support groups has made it easier for the new model to develop. And tutoring is more in the public consciousness these days in part because of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, which includes a tutoring component, and the vast array of test prep tutoring services being pitched to an increasingly tested national student body.
Companies that supply teachers and curricula are abundant, also making it easier for families to step away from traditional schools, experts say. And though many who follow the new model are wealthy, increasing numbers of middle class families more sociologically and racially diverse have begun to school their children at home, according to education officials and tutor-service companies.
Laurie Gerber, president of Partners with Parents, said she started to get requests for in-home teachers about three or four years ago.
"Our tutoring business started to become a huge percentage of home-schooling clients, as opposed to tutoring," Ms. Gerber said. "We started a whole home-schooling wing."
The teachers who are hired to home school say the job is great.
"I love it; it's a dream come true," said Mr. Cox, who tutors Lisa Mazzoni. He is a former television and radio news reporter as well as an actor and a certified teacher.
"If you want to travel or have some other business to attend to, there isn't a school system dependent on you being there," he said. "It's your own individual school that operates according to your needs."
Tiffany Wheeler's tutor, Nancy Falong, retired a few years ago after 32 years as a teacher in the New Jersey public schools. Now she works for On Location Education. Sitting next to Tiffany last week, their two world history books turned to the same page on the Marshall Plan, she expressed a sense of delight. "This is pure teaching."
And Tiffany, looking relaxed with bare feet under her bedroom desk, said, "It's fun."
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
The Gilded Age of Home Schooling
By SUSAN SAULNY
In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.
Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles.
Lisa Mazzoni's family splits its time between Marina del Rey, Calif., and Delray Beach, Fla. Lisa has her algebra and history lessons delivered poolside sometimes or on her condominium's rooftop, where she and her teacher enjoy the sun and have a view of the Pacific Ocean south of Santa Monica.
"For someone who travels a lot or has a parent who travels and wants to keep the family together, it's an excellent choice," said Lisa's mother, Trish Mazzoni, who with her husband owns a speedboat company.
The cost for such teachers generally runs $70 to $110 an hour. And depending on how many hours a teacher works, and how many teachers are involved, the price can equal or surpass tuition in the upper echelon of private schools in New York City or Los Angeles, where $30,000 a year is not unheard of.
Other parents say the model works for children who are sick, for children who are in show business or for those with learning disabilities.
"It's a hidden group of folks, but it's growing enormously," said Luis Huerta, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College of Columbia University, whose national research includes a focus on home schooling.
The United States Department of Education last did a survey on home schooling in 2003. That survey did not ask about full-time in-home teachers. But it found that from 1999 to 2003, the number of children who were educated at home had soared, increasing by 29 percent, to 1.1 million students nationwide. It also found that, of those, 21 percent used a tutor.
Home schooling is legal in every state, though some regulate it more than others. Home-school teachers do not require certification, and the only common requirement from state to state is that students meet compulsory-attendance rules.
Scholars who study home-schooling trends, business owners who serve home-schooling families and abundant anecdotal evidence also suggest that private teaching arrangements are on the rise. Some families do it for short stints, others for years at a time.
Bob Harraka, president of Professional Tutors of America, has about 6,000 teachers from 14 states on his payroll in Orange County, Calif., but cannot meet a third of the requests for in-home education that come in, he said, because they are so specialized or extravagant: a family wants a teacher to instruct in the art of Frisbee throwing, button sewing or Latin grammar. A family wants a teacher to accompany them for a yearlong voyage at sea.
"Sailing comes up at least once or twice a year," Mr. Harraka said.
Parents say in-home teaching arrangements offer unparalleled levels of academic attention and flexibility in scheduling, in addition to a sense of family cohesion and autonomy over what children learn. To them, these advantages make up for the lack of a school social life, which they say can be replicated through group lessons in, say, ballet or sculpture.
Jon D. Snyder, dean of the Bank Street College of Education in New York, said his main concerns about this form of education were whether tutors and students were a good fit, and whether students got enough social interaction.
"From a purely academic standpoint, it goes back to a much earlier era," Dr. Snyder said. "The notion of individual tutorials is a time-honored tradition, particularly among the elite."
Think Plato, John Stuart Mill and George Washington. Philosopher kings and gentleman farmers. Because of the cost of in-home tutoring, the idea will probably not spread like wildfire, and just as well, Dr. Snyder said.
"Public education has social goals; that's why we pay tax dollars for it," he said. "When Socrates was tutoring Plato, he wasn't concerned about educating the other people in Greece. They were just concerned about educating Plato."
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Krystal and Tiffany Wheeler earn high school credits in adjacent pastel bedrooms after breakfast. The teachers come to them.
Their mother, Charlene Royce, said she wanted her girls to experience the benefits of a personalized education but did not feel comfortable teaching herself.
"I feel that education is better this way, one on one," said Ms. Royce, whose expertise is in finding electronics companies in which to invest. "It was never an option for me to do it — I wouldn't know how."
For help, she turned to a Manhattan business, On Location Education, which took care of the logistics, providing her with curricula and teachers. Ms. Royce gets weekly progress reports and a visit every couple of months from a woman she calls "the mobile principal."
To meet their social needs — and for exercise — Tiffany and Krystal attend dance and piano classes, among other things, and belong to a gym.
Lisa Mazzoni takes acting and dance classes in Hollywood. She is also enrolled in a school for distance learning that provides a curriculum for her tutor, Rob Cox, of Professional Tutors of America, to teach.
"I do love the fact that instead of waking up at 5:30 every morning I get to wake up at 8:30," said Lisa, who is 17 and attended private school until this year.
"It makes life so much easier," Lisa continued. "I don't have to worry about missing tests and if I really wanted to, I could bring the work with me — because it's all in the computer — if I'm in Florida visiting my dad or going to a boat race."
When Nick Niell, an investment banker, and his wife, Sarah, moved to New York from East Sussex, England, for about a year in 2003, four teachers would come on weekdays to Mr. Niell's townhouse on 69th Street near Madison Avenue to teach his three school-aged children. Mr. Niell said he could not find a British school in the city and wanted his children to study the same things they would have studied in England. A floor of the house was converted into classroom space.
"It was quite good fun," said Mr. Niell, whose teachers came through Partners with Parents, a Manhattan in-home tutoring service.
The families embracing the one-on-one home-school model are turning the original concept on its head. Dr. Huerta said the popular notion is that home-schoolers leave schools they see as troubled, certain they can do better as teachers themselves. Hiring teachers for full-time instruction is not typical.
The new and more expansive definitions of home schooling irritate some traditionalists who want to keep the model simpler. "People use the term home schooling for all sorts of interesting things these days," said Celeste Land, a member of the board at the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. "Obviously it's not pure home schooling."
But the growing number of home-school support groups has made it easier for the new model to develop. And tutoring is more in the public consciousness these days in part because of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, which includes a tutoring component, and the vast array of test prep tutoring services being pitched to an increasingly tested national student body.
Companies that supply teachers and curricula are abundant, also making it easier for families to step away from traditional schools, experts say. And though many who follow the new model are wealthy, increasing numbers of middle class families more sociologically and racially diverse have begun to school their children at home, according to education officials and tutor-service companies.
Laurie Gerber, president of Partners with Parents, said she started to get requests for in-home teachers about three or four years ago.
"Our tutoring business started to become a huge percentage of home-schooling clients, as opposed to tutoring," Ms. Gerber said. "We started a whole home-schooling wing."
The teachers who are hired to home school say the job is great.
"I love it; it's a dream come true," said Mr. Cox, who tutors Lisa Mazzoni. He is a former television and radio news reporter as well as an actor and a certified teacher.
"If you want to travel or have some other business to attend to, there isn't a school system dependent on you being there," he said. "It's your own individual school that operates according to your needs."
Tiffany Wheeler's tutor, Nancy Falong, retired a few years ago after 32 years as a teacher in the New Jersey public schools. Now she works for On Location Education. Sitting next to Tiffany last week, their two world history books turned to the same page on the Marshall Plan, she expressed a sense of delight. "This is pure teaching."
And Tiffany, looking relaxed with bare feet under her bedroom desk, said, "It's fun."
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Exit Exam Leaves 2006 Class 42,000 Short
By Seema Mehta
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006
One in 10 California high school seniors will not receive a diploma this month because they failed the state's high school exit exam, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Students who are Latino, black, English learners or poor were disproportionately represented in the failure rates.
State Supt. Jack O'Connell urged the 41,758 seniors across the state who had not passed the exam to continue striving to receive their diploma, in summer school, independent study or community college.
"Their education is simply not complete, but they are still welcome and still part of the public-school family," he said. "We will find a place to help them prepare for their future."
Under state legislation approved seven years ago, the class of 2006 is the first that must pass the exam, which tests basic math and language-arts skills, to earn a diploma.
Beginning in their sophomore year, students have six chances to take the exam. A score of at least 55% on the math portion, which is geared to an eighth-grade level, and 60% on the English, which is ninth- or 10th-grade level, is required.
The passage rates released by the state Thursday include results for students who have taken the exam through March, but do not include May scores. Those results will be available this summer, but not before schools across the state hold ceremonies and award diplomas.
Some districts are allowing students who have not passed the exam to participate in commencement ceremonies if they meet other requirements. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the 2,564 seniors who have not yet passed the exam will be allowed to walk with their classmates if they meet all coursework requirements; took part in a remediation program; retook the exam their senior year; and enrolled in a summer program to prepare for the test in July or October.
About 86% of the district's seniors, or 25,779 students, have passed the exam, according to the district.
"I believe this is a test students should be able to pass," Los Angeles Supt. Roy Romer said in a written statement. "We will now make every effort to provide supplemental instruction in the summer months to those remaining students who will need to pass the [exit exam] to receive diplomas."
Statewide, white and Asian students were more likely than their Latino and black classmates to pass the exam. English learners had the worst rate of passage, with 1 in 4 unable to pass the exam.
"There is an achievement gap in California. We know this, we admit this," O'Connell said.
In Santa Ana, where 60% of the students are classified as English learners, 81% of seniors passed. Of the 529 seniors who haven't, more than four-fifths are English learners, according to district officials.
Supt. Al Mijares said it was vital to find ways to help struggling students.
"Telling your kids to run faster or jump higher or telling your staff to teach better — those are pat answers that are too simplistic and will never render effective results," he said. "If they don't have the right kind of programs in place, they're not going to make it…. It's incumbent upon adults to provide the resources, the time and the staff to help them be successful because the test will mark the rest of their lives."
Critics of the exam, such as attorney Arturo Gonzalez, who has sued the state on behalf of students, said the disparities showed the exam was unfair.
"Whether intended or not, the result is to deny diplomas to thousands of poor kids who have managed to overcome substantial barriers to staying in school and that is a travesty," he said.
The San Francisco attorney filed a lawsuit questioning the exit exam. A lower court initially struck down the exam on the grounds that it posed an unfair hurdle for poor and minority students in subpar schools, but in late May, a divided state Supreme Court reinstated the exam. An appeals court will consider the case in July.
That's too late for students like Ashley Daigle, an 18-year-old Chino Hills High School student who passed the English portion on her first try but learned last week that she failed the math portion for the fourth time. Her principal called her into his office to personally deliver the blow: She received a 346 on the exam, four points shy of passing.
"I bawled," said Daigle, who hopes to become a show business makeup artist or hair stylist. "I went straight home and cried for like an hour."
Daigle had been taking daily classes devoted to the math section of the exit exam, as well as studying at least half an hour every day on Internet coursework and a workbook.
She hasn't decided whether she will take the test again when it's offered in July. "I'm kind of just fed up with it," she said.
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Graduation gap
Almost 10% of the state's 436,200 high school seniors had not passed the California High School Exit Exam as of March.
Class of 2006 students who have passed the exit exam
By percent, as of March 2006
White: 96.9%
Asian: 95.2%
Economically
disadvantaged*: 84.5%
Latino: 84.3%
African American: 83.2%
English learners*:74.0%
All California seniors: 90.4%
*Includes students in ethnic-based categories
Source: California Department of Education
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Article licensing and reprint options
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006
One in 10 California high school seniors will not receive a diploma this month because they failed the state's high school exit exam, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Students who are Latino, black, English learners or poor were disproportionately represented in the failure rates.
State Supt. Jack O'Connell urged the 41,758 seniors across the state who had not passed the exam to continue striving to receive their diploma, in summer school, independent study or community college.
"Their education is simply not complete, but they are still welcome and still part of the public-school family," he said. "We will find a place to help them prepare for their future."
Under state legislation approved seven years ago, the class of 2006 is the first that must pass the exam, which tests basic math and language-arts skills, to earn a diploma.
Beginning in their sophomore year, students have six chances to take the exam. A score of at least 55% on the math portion, which is geared to an eighth-grade level, and 60% on the English, which is ninth- or 10th-grade level, is required.
The passage rates released by the state Thursday include results for students who have taken the exam through March, but do not include May scores. Those results will be available this summer, but not before schools across the state hold ceremonies and award diplomas.
Some districts are allowing students who have not passed the exam to participate in commencement ceremonies if they meet other requirements. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the 2,564 seniors who have not yet passed the exam will be allowed to walk with their classmates if they meet all coursework requirements; took part in a remediation program; retook the exam their senior year; and enrolled in a summer program to prepare for the test in July or October.
About 86% of the district's seniors, or 25,779 students, have passed the exam, according to the district.
"I believe this is a test students should be able to pass," Los Angeles Supt. Roy Romer said in a written statement. "We will now make every effort to provide supplemental instruction in the summer months to those remaining students who will need to pass the [exit exam] to receive diplomas."
Statewide, white and Asian students were more likely than their Latino and black classmates to pass the exam. English learners had the worst rate of passage, with 1 in 4 unable to pass the exam.
"There is an achievement gap in California. We know this, we admit this," O'Connell said.
In Santa Ana, where 60% of the students are classified as English learners, 81% of seniors passed. Of the 529 seniors who haven't, more than four-fifths are English learners, according to district officials.
Supt. Al Mijares said it was vital to find ways to help struggling students.
"Telling your kids to run faster or jump higher or telling your staff to teach better — those are pat answers that are too simplistic and will never render effective results," he said. "If they don't have the right kind of programs in place, they're not going to make it…. It's incumbent upon adults to provide the resources, the time and the staff to help them be successful because the test will mark the rest of their lives."
Critics of the exam, such as attorney Arturo Gonzalez, who has sued the state on behalf of students, said the disparities showed the exam was unfair.
"Whether intended or not, the result is to deny diplomas to thousands of poor kids who have managed to overcome substantial barriers to staying in school and that is a travesty," he said.
The San Francisco attorney filed a lawsuit questioning the exit exam. A lower court initially struck down the exam on the grounds that it posed an unfair hurdle for poor and minority students in subpar schools, but in late May, a divided state Supreme Court reinstated the exam. An appeals court will consider the case in July.
That's too late for students like Ashley Daigle, an 18-year-old Chino Hills High School student who passed the English portion on her first try but learned last week that she failed the math portion for the fourth time. Her principal called her into his office to personally deliver the blow: She received a 346 on the exam, four points shy of passing.
"I bawled," said Daigle, who hopes to become a show business makeup artist or hair stylist. "I went straight home and cried for like an hour."
Daigle had been taking daily classes devoted to the math section of the exit exam, as well as studying at least half an hour every day on Internet coursework and a workbook.
She hasn't decided whether she will take the test again when it's offered in July. "I'm kind of just fed up with it," she said.
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Graduation gap
Almost 10% of the state's 436,200 high school seniors had not passed the California High School Exit Exam as of March.
Class of 2006 students who have passed the exit exam
By percent, as of March 2006
White: 96.9%
Asian: 95.2%
Economically
disadvantaged*: 84.5%
Latino: 84.3%
African American: 83.2%
English learners*:74.0%
All California seniors: 90.4%
*Includes students in ethnic-based categories
Source: California Department of Education
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Article licensing and reprint options
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
L.A. Mayor Sees Dropout Rate as 'Civil Rights Issue'
This certainly impacts the representation of minorities in Colleges as the other piece (posted earlier) on startling African American enrollment at UCLA underscores. I just read a piece by Gary Orfield in his book titled, DROPOUTS IN AMERICA: CONFRONTING THE GRADUATION CRISIS, where he cites the following:
"52 percent of all African American male dropouts in their early thirties have prison records. A 2003 report on the Chicago job market shows that more than half of young adult male African American dropouts in that city have no jobs at all."
As a nation, we've got to stop using prisons as a "remedy" for the failures of our social systems. It's frightening and tragic to see what is happening to our youth and nation.
-Angela
L.A. Mayor Sees Dropout Rate as 'Civil Rights Issue'
By Mitchell Landsberg
Times Staff Writer
March 2, 2006
The high school dropout problem is "the new civil rights issue of our time," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared Wednesday in a speech that drew a line from the efforts to desegregate the South a half-century ago to today's struggles over the performance of Los Angeles students, who are predominantly Latino.
Acknowledging that there is wide disagreement about how many students are leaving L.A. schools, Villaraigosa told a conference on dropout issues that "whatever that number is, we are in a crisis."
The mayor, who is campaigning to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District, insisted that he wasn't "throwing stones" at the school system, many of whose top administrators were in the audience at the Leadership Forum on High School Dropouts at USC. But his speech contained plenty of brickbats.
"Make no mistake: There's a culture of complacency in this school district that's got to change," Villaraigosa said.
Schools Supt. Roy Romer, who was not present for the speech, gave his own talk later, defending the district even as he said he welcomed the mayor's "aggressive" approach to the district.
Ticking off the school system's accomplishments during his tenure - the nation's largest school-construction program, a sharp rise in standardized test scores in elementary schools - Romer said: "That's not complacency, folks. That's change!"
He added: "We have real challenges going forward. But to deny what we have accomplished together would be foolish." He said the reforms the district has set in place would take years to roll out.
The dropout issue has been at the center of local school reform discussions since last March, when a study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University calculated that only 45% of students were graduating in four years from Los Angeles schools. The rate was even lower for Latino students, and much higher for white and Asian American students. African Americans were close to the districtwide average.
The school district cried foul, saying its figures showed that roughly 70% were graduating, a figure that has since risen. The district uses a different formula to calculate its graduation rate, one that the Harvard researchers and other critics say is deeply flawed.
In his repeated calls to take over the district, which is run by an elected school board, Villaraigosa has said more than half of the district's students drop out. District officials have protested, saying recently that the dropout rate had declined to 24.6% for the 2004-05 school year.
Villaraigosa said it doesn't matter; any of the figures being discussed is too high. Charging that more than 60% of Latinos and African Americans were failing to graduate, the mayor said, "These are numbers that should put a chill down your spine…. We have numbers that are every bit as insidious as the National Guard blocking the door in Little Rock" - a reference to the efforts by Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus in 1957 to stop black students from integrating all-white schools.
Villaraigosa is not the first person to frame the dropout problem as a civil rights issue. It has been a major thrust of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard and of other academic and public policy initiatives.
Gary Orfield, head of the Harvard project, told the standing-room-only conference that turnout for the event was evidence that the issue was being taken seriously, especially in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Unified recently proposed a series of changes designed to keep students in school, several of which matched recommendations made by scholars at the conference.
There is widespread agreement, for instance, that schools need to make more personal connections with students, that they need to keep better track of attendance, and that they need to do a better job of enlisting the help of parents.
Several of the L.A. Unified proposals are aimed at accomplishing those goals.
A new survey of dropouts, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, bolsters some of the arguments behind the reforms, as well as the higher academic standards that California schools are mandating.
The national survey of 467 high school dropouts, scheduled for release today, found that a majority of those surveyed thought they would have worked harder if their schools had higher expectations of them, and that the most common reason given for dropping out was that "classes were not interesting."
"The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts" also reached some conclusions that challenge orthodox assumptions. For instance, nearly 90% of the dropouts reported that they had passing grades when they left school.
Orfield, who is considered one of the foremost scholars on the dropout issue, said that figure sounded wrong "by orders of magnitude."
"All the research suggests that academic failure is one of the basic forces" behind dropping out, he said, adding that high school dropouts are not always reliable informants.
John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a Washington-based public policy firm that conducted the survey, said the researchers had confirmed with the schools that the majority of the dropouts had been passing their classes.
The survey was conducted among former students from schools in 25 cities, suburbs and small towns across the country. The respondents were not a nationally representative sample, the researchers said.
One year's class of high school dropouts will cost California $38.5 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes, another Washington-based public policy group estimated Wednesday.
"This is a very conservative estimate," said former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dropout2mar02,1,5830485.story
"52 percent of all African American male dropouts in their early thirties have prison records. A 2003 report on the Chicago job market shows that more than half of young adult male African American dropouts in that city have no jobs at all."
As a nation, we've got to stop using prisons as a "remedy" for the failures of our social systems. It's frightening and tragic to see what is happening to our youth and nation.
-Angela
L.A. Mayor Sees Dropout Rate as 'Civil Rights Issue'
By Mitchell Landsberg
Times Staff Writer
March 2, 2006
The high school dropout problem is "the new civil rights issue of our time," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared Wednesday in a speech that drew a line from the efforts to desegregate the South a half-century ago to today's struggles over the performance of Los Angeles students, who are predominantly Latino.
Acknowledging that there is wide disagreement about how many students are leaving L.A. schools, Villaraigosa told a conference on dropout issues that "whatever that number is, we are in a crisis."
The mayor, who is campaigning to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District, insisted that he wasn't "throwing stones" at the school system, many of whose top administrators were in the audience at the Leadership Forum on High School Dropouts at USC. But his speech contained plenty of brickbats.
"Make no mistake: There's a culture of complacency in this school district that's got to change," Villaraigosa said.
Schools Supt. Roy Romer, who was not present for the speech, gave his own talk later, defending the district even as he said he welcomed the mayor's "aggressive" approach to the district.
Ticking off the school system's accomplishments during his tenure - the nation's largest school-construction program, a sharp rise in standardized test scores in elementary schools - Romer said: "That's not complacency, folks. That's change!"
He added: "We have real challenges going forward. But to deny what we have accomplished together would be foolish." He said the reforms the district has set in place would take years to roll out.
The dropout issue has been at the center of local school reform discussions since last March, when a study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University calculated that only 45% of students were graduating in four years from Los Angeles schools. The rate was even lower for Latino students, and much higher for white and Asian American students. African Americans were close to the districtwide average.
The school district cried foul, saying its figures showed that roughly 70% were graduating, a figure that has since risen. The district uses a different formula to calculate its graduation rate, one that the Harvard researchers and other critics say is deeply flawed.
In his repeated calls to take over the district, which is run by an elected school board, Villaraigosa has said more than half of the district's students drop out. District officials have protested, saying recently that the dropout rate had declined to 24.6% for the 2004-05 school year.
Villaraigosa said it doesn't matter; any of the figures being discussed is too high. Charging that more than 60% of Latinos and African Americans were failing to graduate, the mayor said, "These are numbers that should put a chill down your spine…. We have numbers that are every bit as insidious as the National Guard blocking the door in Little Rock" - a reference to the efforts by Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus in 1957 to stop black students from integrating all-white schools.
Villaraigosa is not the first person to frame the dropout problem as a civil rights issue. It has been a major thrust of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard and of other academic and public policy initiatives.
Gary Orfield, head of the Harvard project, told the standing-room-only conference that turnout for the event was evidence that the issue was being taken seriously, especially in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Unified recently proposed a series of changes designed to keep students in school, several of which matched recommendations made by scholars at the conference.
There is widespread agreement, for instance, that schools need to make more personal connections with students, that they need to keep better track of attendance, and that they need to do a better job of enlisting the help of parents.
Several of the L.A. Unified proposals are aimed at accomplishing those goals.
A new survey of dropouts, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, bolsters some of the arguments behind the reforms, as well as the higher academic standards that California schools are mandating.
The national survey of 467 high school dropouts, scheduled for release today, found that a majority of those surveyed thought they would have worked harder if their schools had higher expectations of them, and that the most common reason given for dropping out was that "classes were not interesting."
"The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts" also reached some conclusions that challenge orthodox assumptions. For instance, nearly 90% of the dropouts reported that they had passing grades when they left school.
Orfield, who is considered one of the foremost scholars on the dropout issue, said that figure sounded wrong "by orders of magnitude."
"All the research suggests that academic failure is one of the basic forces" behind dropping out, he said, adding that high school dropouts are not always reliable informants.
John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a Washington-based public policy firm that conducted the survey, said the researchers had confirmed with the schools that the majority of the dropouts had been passing their classes.
The survey was conducted among former students from schools in 25 cities, suburbs and small towns across the country. The respondents were not a nationally representative sample, the researchers said.
One year's class of high school dropouts will cost California $38.5 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes, another Washington-based public policy group estimated Wednesday.
"This is a very conservative estimate," said former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dropout2mar02,1,5830485.story
A Startling Statistic at UCLA
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-ucla3jun03,0,5025758.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
A Startling Statistic at UCLA
At the school whose alumni include Jackie Robinson and Tom Bradley, only 96 blacks are expected in this fall's freshman class.
By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 3, 2006
This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at UCLA, but only 96, or 2%, are African American ˜ the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern at the Westwood campus.
For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released this week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis.
UCLA ˜ which boasts such storied black alumni as Jackie Robinson, Tom Bradley and Ralph Bunche, and is in a county that is 9.8% African American ˜ now has a lower percentage of black freshmen than either crosstown rival USC or UC Berkeley, the school often considered its top competitor within the UC system.
The 96 figure ˜ down by 20 students from last year ˜ is the lowest for incoming African American freshmen since at least 1973. And of the black freshmen who have indicated they will enroll in the fall, 20 are recruited athletes, admissions officials said.
"Clearly, we're going to have to meet this crisis by redoubling our efforts, which have not yielded the results we'd like to see," said Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who met Friday with a delegation of undergraduates upset about the situation.
In a telephone interview before the meeting, Carnesale described the preliminary numbers for black freshmen as "a great disappointment" and said that UCLA has been trying for years to boost those levels, within the limits allowed by law.
He and other officials at UCLA and elsewhere said the problem of attracting, admitting and enrolling qualified black students is found at competitive universities across the country and that its causes are complex. In California, the problem is rooted partly in the restrictions placed on the state's public colleges and institutions by Proposition 209, the 1996 voter initiative that banned consideration of race and gender in admissions and hiring.
Other factors include the socioeconomic inequities that undermine elementary and high school education in California and elsewhere, with minority students disproportionately affected because they often attend schools with fewer resources, including less-qualified teachers and fewer counselors.
Many students and professors also say the declining presence of blacks on campus discourages some prospective students from attending, thus exacerbating the problem. Some of those interviewed, including UCLA sociologist Darnell Hunt, said the campus could be doing more than it is.
Hunt, who heads UCLA's Bunche Center for African American Studies, and several colleagues have been studying the issue as part of a multiyear research project on the challenges facing black students in California universities.
In a draft of a report to be released this month, the researchers compared the admissions criteria and processes at UC's three most competitive campuses: UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. (At the latter, the incoming black freshman class stands at 52 students, or 1.1%, even lower than the others.)
The report found that UC San Diego's admissions process relied most heavily on numbers, while UC Berkeley's was most "holistic," allowing a single reader to review all parts of an applicant's file, including academic and personal achievements or challenges.
At UCLA, in what admissions officials have described as an attempt to increase fairness and objectivity, applicants' files are divided by academic and personal areas, and read by separate reviewers. The researchers asserted that UC Berkeley's process may be the fairest, because it allows students' achievements to be seen in the context of their personal challenges.
In an interview, Hunt acknowledged the difficulty for a campus like UCLA, which received 47,000 applications this year. Yet he criticized the school for rejecting many black students based on what he described as factors of questionable validity, and that he said may be linked more to socioeconomic privilege than academic merit.
"There's a common misperception that this is a horrible problem but that black students just need to do better," he said. "But most of the black students who don't get in go to other top-notch schools ˜ Harvard, Duke, Michigan. We're losing students who could be here."
Ward Connerly, the conservative former UC regent who was an architect of Proposition 209, countered that the issue was not the law he helped create.
"The problem ˜ and this is an old song, I know ˜ starts with the small number of black students who are academically competitive," he said, pointing out that many also choose to attend historically black colleges or private schools. "But I don't think we solve this problem by tinkering with the admissions criteria to make it easier to get in."
No matter the cause, the effect is apparent on campus.
Karume James, 20, a graduating senior who led a recent student protest on campus over the issue, said he remembered the excitement he felt when he arrived at UCLA for student orientation in the summer of 2003.
Then just 17, James was preparing to transfer to the big-city campus from a community college in Riverside, his hometown. And he recalled what he felt when he looked around.
"That was a real shock. I spent about 14 hours at the campus, and I counted only about 12 black people. I guess I'd had this feeling that UCLA was going to be this truly diverse place, and it just wasn't," said James, who is now the chairman of UCLA's Afrikan Student Union. "Not for black students."
James, who was among half a dozen students who met Friday with Carnesale, called the session productive and said the UCLA chancellor was receptive to the group's views. Carnesale, who is preparing to step down as chancellor this month, promised to release a statement expressing concern about the issue and work with alumni, students and others to raise the numbers.
The new figures were part of an annual report showing that a record-setting 37,000 freshmen plan to enroll at UC campuses in the fall. Overall, across all nine undergraduate campuses, the new class shows a continued trend of slight increases in black, Latino and Native American students. These groups, which are still considered underrepresented at UC, will make up just under 20% of the 2006 freshman class, compared with just below 19% for the current class.
But the picture in the latest release varied by campus and by group, with the underrepresented minority numbers at the system's most competitive campuses ˜ UCLA and UC Berkeley ˜ drawing the most attention, as always.
At UC Berkeley, black, Latino and Native American students are expected to make up 15.9% of the freshman class, up from 14.4% this year. And 140 black students, 10 more than this year, have said they will enroll in the fall, making up 3.3% of the overall class of about 4,200. The number of Latino students also rose, from 449 to 509.
At UCLA, however, the numbers fell for both groups, and for the overall percentage of underrepresented students, despite an increase of more than 300 in the size of the total freshman class.
Of the freshmen who say they will enroll at UCLA this fall, 15.9% are from underrepresented groups, compared with 18.1% of the current freshman class. The figure for Latinos dropped from 683 to 659.
"The critical mass of our African American students is eroding, and we know the quality of our education experience is absolutely affected, as well as our obligation to the citizens of this state," said Janina Montero, UCLA's vice chancellor for student affairs.
Jenny Wood, UCLA student body president, belongs to a student committee drafting recommendations to revamp the admissions process.
"I think it's been really detrimental to see this decline in African American students and, overall, in the number of students of color on our campus," she said.
In Los Angeles County, blacks accounted for 11%, or 9,152, of the 84,677 public high school graduates. Statewide, blacks made up 7%, or 25,267, of the 343,481 students who graduated from California's public high schools in 2004, the most recent year statistics are available.
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Shortage of black freshmen
Ethnic and racial breakdown of UCLA freshmen*
1985 (peak year for black enrollment)
White: 49.7%
Asian/Filipino: 22.2%
Chicano/Latino: 14.8%
Black: 9.6%
Other**: 3.7%
--
2005
White: 33.3%
Asian/Filipino: 41.0%
Chicano/Latino: 14.8%
Black: 2.9%
Other**: 7.9%
Pie charts may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
*Excludes foreign students. **Includes Native Americans, other groups and those who declined to state.
Source: UCLA
A Startling Statistic at UCLA
At the school whose alumni include Jackie Robinson and Tom Bradley, only 96 blacks are expected in this fall's freshman class.
By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 3, 2006
This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at UCLA, but only 96, or 2%, are African American ˜ the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern at the Westwood campus.
For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released this week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis.
UCLA ˜ which boasts such storied black alumni as Jackie Robinson, Tom Bradley and Ralph Bunche, and is in a county that is 9.8% African American ˜ now has a lower percentage of black freshmen than either crosstown rival USC or UC Berkeley, the school often considered its top competitor within the UC system.
The 96 figure ˜ down by 20 students from last year ˜ is the lowest for incoming African American freshmen since at least 1973. And of the black freshmen who have indicated they will enroll in the fall, 20 are recruited athletes, admissions officials said.
"Clearly, we're going to have to meet this crisis by redoubling our efforts, which have not yielded the results we'd like to see," said Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who met Friday with a delegation of undergraduates upset about the situation.
In a telephone interview before the meeting, Carnesale described the preliminary numbers for black freshmen as "a great disappointment" and said that UCLA has been trying for years to boost those levels, within the limits allowed by law.
He and other officials at UCLA and elsewhere said the problem of attracting, admitting and enrolling qualified black students is found at competitive universities across the country and that its causes are complex. In California, the problem is rooted partly in the restrictions placed on the state's public colleges and institutions by Proposition 209, the 1996 voter initiative that banned consideration of race and gender in admissions and hiring.
Other factors include the socioeconomic inequities that undermine elementary and high school education in California and elsewhere, with minority students disproportionately affected because they often attend schools with fewer resources, including less-qualified teachers and fewer counselors.
Many students and professors also say the declining presence of blacks on campus discourages some prospective students from attending, thus exacerbating the problem. Some of those interviewed, including UCLA sociologist Darnell Hunt, said the campus could be doing more than it is.
Hunt, who heads UCLA's Bunche Center for African American Studies, and several colleagues have been studying the issue as part of a multiyear research project on the challenges facing black students in California universities.
In a draft of a report to be released this month, the researchers compared the admissions criteria and processes at UC's three most competitive campuses: UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. (At the latter, the incoming black freshman class stands at 52 students, or 1.1%, even lower than the others.)
The report found that UC San Diego's admissions process relied most heavily on numbers, while UC Berkeley's was most "holistic," allowing a single reader to review all parts of an applicant's file, including academic and personal achievements or challenges.
At UCLA, in what admissions officials have described as an attempt to increase fairness and objectivity, applicants' files are divided by academic and personal areas, and read by separate reviewers. The researchers asserted that UC Berkeley's process may be the fairest, because it allows students' achievements to be seen in the context of their personal challenges.
In an interview, Hunt acknowledged the difficulty for a campus like UCLA, which received 47,000 applications this year. Yet he criticized the school for rejecting many black students based on what he described as factors of questionable validity, and that he said may be linked more to socioeconomic privilege than academic merit.
"There's a common misperception that this is a horrible problem but that black students just need to do better," he said. "But most of the black students who don't get in go to other top-notch schools ˜ Harvard, Duke, Michigan. We're losing students who could be here."
Ward Connerly, the conservative former UC regent who was an architect of Proposition 209, countered that the issue was not the law he helped create.
"The problem ˜ and this is an old song, I know ˜ starts with the small number of black students who are academically competitive," he said, pointing out that many also choose to attend historically black colleges or private schools. "But I don't think we solve this problem by tinkering with the admissions criteria to make it easier to get in."
No matter the cause, the effect is apparent on campus.
Karume James, 20, a graduating senior who led a recent student protest on campus over the issue, said he remembered the excitement he felt when he arrived at UCLA for student orientation in the summer of 2003.
Then just 17, James was preparing to transfer to the big-city campus from a community college in Riverside, his hometown. And he recalled what he felt when he looked around.
"That was a real shock. I spent about 14 hours at the campus, and I counted only about 12 black people. I guess I'd had this feeling that UCLA was going to be this truly diverse place, and it just wasn't," said James, who is now the chairman of UCLA's Afrikan Student Union. "Not for black students."
James, who was among half a dozen students who met Friday with Carnesale, called the session productive and said the UCLA chancellor was receptive to the group's views. Carnesale, who is preparing to step down as chancellor this month, promised to release a statement expressing concern about the issue and work with alumni, students and others to raise the numbers.
The new figures were part of an annual report showing that a record-setting 37,000 freshmen plan to enroll at UC campuses in the fall. Overall, across all nine undergraduate campuses, the new class shows a continued trend of slight increases in black, Latino and Native American students. These groups, which are still considered underrepresented at UC, will make up just under 20% of the 2006 freshman class, compared with just below 19% for the current class.
But the picture in the latest release varied by campus and by group, with the underrepresented minority numbers at the system's most competitive campuses ˜ UCLA and UC Berkeley ˜ drawing the most attention, as always.
At UC Berkeley, black, Latino and Native American students are expected to make up 15.9% of the freshman class, up from 14.4% this year. And 140 black students, 10 more than this year, have said they will enroll in the fall, making up 3.3% of the overall class of about 4,200. The number of Latino students also rose, from 449 to 509.
At UCLA, however, the numbers fell for both groups, and for the overall percentage of underrepresented students, despite an increase of more than 300 in the size of the total freshman class.
Of the freshmen who say they will enroll at UCLA this fall, 15.9% are from underrepresented groups, compared with 18.1% of the current freshman class. The figure for Latinos dropped from 683 to 659.
"The critical mass of our African American students is eroding, and we know the quality of our education experience is absolutely affected, as well as our obligation to the citizens of this state," said Janina Montero, UCLA's vice chancellor for student affairs.
Jenny Wood, UCLA student body president, belongs to a student committee drafting recommendations to revamp the admissions process.
"I think it's been really detrimental to see this decline in African American students and, overall, in the number of students of color on our campus," she said.
In Los Angeles County, blacks accounted for 11%, or 9,152, of the 84,677 public high school graduates. Statewide, blacks made up 7%, or 25,267, of the 343,481 students who graduated from California's public high schools in 2004, the most recent year statistics are available.
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Shortage of black freshmen
Ethnic and racial breakdown of UCLA freshmen*
1985 (peak year for black enrollment)
White: 49.7%
Asian/Filipino: 22.2%
Chicano/Latino: 14.8%
Black: 9.6%
Other**: 3.7%
--
2005
White: 33.3%
Asian/Filipino: 41.0%
Chicano/Latino: 14.8%
Black: 2.9%
Other**: 7.9%
Pie charts may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
*Excludes foreign students. **Includes Native Americans, other groups and those who declined to state.
Source: UCLA
Republican Party Platform on Immigrants
Check out this pdffile from the Republican Temporary Platform Committee in Texas. Among other things, it calls for identifying and expelling of undocumented immigrants. It's worth checking out. -Angela
School a combative place for minority students
Poverty, segregation, violence, and low school performance are inextricably linked as this piece demonstrates. -Angela
School a combative place for minority students
Black and Hispanic students see school as tougher, rougher place to learn
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:51 p.m. CT May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - Black and Hispanic students see school as a more rowdy, disrespectful and dangerous place than their white classmates do, a poll says.
The findings suggest that many minority kids are struggling in the equivalent of a hostile work environment, according to Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research group that tracks education trends.
Minority children in public middle and high schools are more likely than white children to describe profanity, truancy, fighting, weapons and drug abuse as “very serious” problems.
The black and Hispanic children — under pressure to close their test-score gaps with whites — also see more pervasive academic woes, such as lower standards, higher dropout rates and kids who advance even if they don’t learn.
“There is so much discussion about the achievement gap, and we talk about teachers and curriculum and testing and money,” said Jean Johnson, Public Agenda’s executive vice president and an author of the report.
“We need to add something to that list — school climate. For these kids, it has become such a distracting atmosphere,” Johnson said.
Thirty percent of black students said teachers spend more time trying to keep order in class than teaching; 14 percent of white students said the same.
More than half of black students said kids who lack respect for teachers and use bad language are a very serious problem, compared with less than one-third of white students.
Hispanic students also reported worse social and academic conditions in school than white children, although the gaps were not as large as they were between blacks and whites.
Some positives across the board
On the plus side, the poll found positive results that cut across race and ethnicity.
Majorities of children said they are learning a lot in reading, writing and math classes. Most students said at least one teacher who has gotten them interested in a subject they usually hate.
The students agreed on matters of work ethic, too.
About eight in 10 said it is good for school districts to require higher standards, even if that means kids must go to summer school. Almost 60 percent of black students acknowledged they could try a little harder, compared to 53 percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of whites.
In perspective, most students said schools were meeting expectations on most measures.
Yet the minority children were more likely to see students struggling to get by in class, to see unfair enforcement of discipline rules, to say schools aren’t getting enough money.
“Students of color are correct in their understanding that their schools get less in the way of resources, and offer less in the way of high standards,” said Ross Wiener, policy director of The Education Trust, an advocacy group for poor and minority children. “It is a shame that a country dedicated to equal opportunity tolerates these inequities.”
Among students in public schools, 59 percent are white, 19 percent are Hispanic and 17 percent are black, according to Education Department numbers from the 2003-04 school year.
Wealthier schools, fewer problems
In the poll, students in wealthier schools reported fewer serious problems than students in poor schools, but results were not available for racial groups of different income levels.
Minority parents were more likely to see problems in schools, just as their kids did.
Black and Hispanic parents were more than twice as likely as white parents to call weapons and fighting a very serious problem. They reported bigger concerns about crowded classes and low standards.
Most teachers, meanwhile, said academic expectations for students were high regardless of the racial makeup of the school. Teachers in mostly minority schools reported less parental involvement, lower support from their superintendent and poorer grammar among their students.
The findings are based on phone interviews with a random sample of 1,379 parents of children now in public school, 1,342 public school students in grades six through 12, and 721 public school teachers. The interviews were conducted between Oct. 30 and March 7.
The margin of error for the sample was plus or minus 4 percentage points for the parents and teachers and 3 percentage points for the students. The poll was paid for by the GE Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Wallace Foundation.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13053034/?GT1=8199
© 2006 MSNBC.com
School a combative place for minority students
Black and Hispanic students see school as tougher, rougher place to learn
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:51 p.m. CT May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - Black and Hispanic students see school as a more rowdy, disrespectful and dangerous place than their white classmates do, a poll says.
The findings suggest that many minority kids are struggling in the equivalent of a hostile work environment, according to Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research group that tracks education trends.
Minority children in public middle and high schools are more likely than white children to describe profanity, truancy, fighting, weapons and drug abuse as “very serious” problems.
The black and Hispanic children — under pressure to close their test-score gaps with whites — also see more pervasive academic woes, such as lower standards, higher dropout rates and kids who advance even if they don’t learn.
“There is so much discussion about the achievement gap, and we talk about teachers and curriculum and testing and money,” said Jean Johnson, Public Agenda’s executive vice president and an author of the report.
“We need to add something to that list — school climate. For these kids, it has become such a distracting atmosphere,” Johnson said.
Thirty percent of black students said teachers spend more time trying to keep order in class than teaching; 14 percent of white students said the same.
More than half of black students said kids who lack respect for teachers and use bad language are a very serious problem, compared with less than one-third of white students.
Hispanic students also reported worse social and academic conditions in school than white children, although the gaps were not as large as they were between blacks and whites.
Some positives across the board
On the plus side, the poll found positive results that cut across race and ethnicity.
Majorities of children said they are learning a lot in reading, writing and math classes. Most students said at least one teacher who has gotten them interested in a subject they usually hate.
The students agreed on matters of work ethic, too.
About eight in 10 said it is good for school districts to require higher standards, even if that means kids must go to summer school. Almost 60 percent of black students acknowledged they could try a little harder, compared to 53 percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of whites.
In perspective, most students said schools were meeting expectations on most measures.
Yet the minority children were more likely to see students struggling to get by in class, to see unfair enforcement of discipline rules, to say schools aren’t getting enough money.
“Students of color are correct in their understanding that their schools get less in the way of resources, and offer less in the way of high standards,” said Ross Wiener, policy director of The Education Trust, an advocacy group for poor and minority children. “It is a shame that a country dedicated to equal opportunity tolerates these inequities.”
Among students in public schools, 59 percent are white, 19 percent are Hispanic and 17 percent are black, according to Education Department numbers from the 2003-04 school year.
Wealthier schools, fewer problems
In the poll, students in wealthier schools reported fewer serious problems than students in poor schools, but results were not available for racial groups of different income levels.
Minority parents were more likely to see problems in schools, just as their kids did.
Black and Hispanic parents were more than twice as likely as white parents to call weapons and fighting a very serious problem. They reported bigger concerns about crowded classes and low standards.
Most teachers, meanwhile, said academic expectations for students were high regardless of the racial makeup of the school. Teachers in mostly minority schools reported less parental involvement, lower support from their superintendent and poorer grammar among their students.
The findings are based on phone interviews with a random sample of 1,379 parents of children now in public school, 1,342 public school students in grades six through 12, and 721 public school teachers. The interviews were conducted between Oct. 30 and March 7.
The margin of error for the sample was plus or minus 4 percentage points for the parents and teachers and 3 percentage points for the students. The poll was paid for by the GE Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Wallace Foundation.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13053034/?GT1=8199
© 2006 MSNBC.com
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Local rebellion over who gets a diploma
Matters didn't go well with the protest in California. We'll see how New Bedford plays out. -Angela
June 01, 2006
Local rebellion over who gets a diploma
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BOSTON - For students in Massachusetts, MCAS can be a four-letter word. It's the state's high school exit exam, and the rule is simple: If you don't pass it, you don't get a diploma.
But the mayor of New Bedford, Scott Lang, is threatening to disobey that policy by granting diplomas to students June 15, even if they fail the standardized test. In so doing, he's testing the state's will to withhold district funds for breaking regulations. And he's reviving a debate over education reform that's simmering in other states, too.
Last week, California's supreme court reinstated its graduation requirement, which had been invalidated by a lower court just a few weeks earlier. And an Arizona judge this month refused to suspend that state's exit exam for this year's graduating class, the first to be affected by the requirement.
Fueling the legal fights is a philosophical debate about how best to prepare students for the challenges of college and work. For supporters, the tests promote a rigorous academic experience and they provide accountability to teachers and schools. They also act as a guarantee, experts say, of competency.
"A diploma is about effort and achievement, not just attendance," says James Peyser, chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He says passing rates are high - about 94 percent statewide last year, according to the state Department of Education - with students getting multiple opportunities to pass the exam. He wants the state to raise the minimum score needed to pass the test.
But others say that such high-stakes tests intimidate some students, leading them to drop out of school. In New Bedford, for example, the percentage of students passing the MCAS is in line with the statewide rate, but its dropout rate is three times higher than the state average.
Detractors like Glenn Koocher, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, sees such exams as punitive. The Board of Education "think[s] that unless you instill the fear of God in students you won't have their attention," he says. "The culture is regulate and punish, regulate and punish."
A bid for two types of diplomas
Mayor Lang wants the schools to issue two types of diplomas: one for those who pass the state test, called the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, and an alternative for those who don't. But his effort may be in vain because the local superintendent has said he will not sign off on such diplomas.
But experts say the battles here and elsewhere could cause districts to improve access to options for proof of competency beyond a single test score. These could include incorporating grades from core classes or using portfolios to demonstrate knowledge. The battles, they say, could also help shift attention to remedial courses and tutoring to help slower students make progress.
The MCAS, which uses multiple-choice and open-ended questions to test proficiency in math and English, is administered to all Massachusetts high school sophomores.
While states have used competency exams for decades, says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy (CEP) in Washington, many US schools have not traditionally withheld diplomas based on the results of exit exams until the 1990s.
Today, 26 states either require students to pass a standards test or have plans to put such requirements in place. By the year 2012, more than 70 percent of US public school students will live in states that require exit exams, according to CEP.
New Bedford joins a handful of other state communities, such as Cambridge and Falmouth, that have also attempted to grant alternative diplomas after the law went into effect for the class of 2003. But those towns backed down once the state threatened to withhold funding.
Criticism of such tests has most often occurred in wealthier communities, where parents tend to have faith in their schools and see exit exams as a distracting hurdle, says Mr. Jennings. "There is not as much opposition in poorer communities, because, generally, poor parents think schools aren't doing well enough and [see exit exams] as a way to improve that," he says.
In New Bedford, a working-class community, the school committee unanimously supported the mayor's resolution. Mr. Lang has said his protest serves to point out that his schools do not have adequate funding for remedial classes to help slower students pass the exam.
"Without a diploma you cannot go to college, you can't do any continuing studies," says state representative Antonio F.D. Cabral, a Democrat who filed legislation to legalize the alternative diplomas that New Bedford seeks to grant. "It creates a disadvantage for you throughout your life, even though you went through 13 years of school, passed all the courses, but happened not to pass one test."
The movement could have a wider impact if the mayor persuades the state to widen the alternative process, says Jennings. That is something Thomas Scott, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, would like to see. "We believe that there should be more than just the MCAS considered," he says.
Exam alternatives
Like many other states, Massachusetts has an appeals process in place, but it is not widely used. Nationwide, less than 1 percent of students use alternate routes to get diplomas.
In recent years, at least seven states have moved to give students who don't pass their exit exams more choices. In Arizona, students who earn high notes in core competencies can raise their standardized test score by up to 25 percent.
Washington state has developed a multitiered approach for alternatives. Students there can substitute their GPAs, portfolios, or SAT, ACT, or PSAT scores. CEP president Jennings says it could become a model.
Some 40 percent of Washington 10th- graders might have failed this year's test, but only a fraction of students can use those waivers, says Charles Hasse, head of the Washington Education Association. "They are not really, in a meaningful way, providing alternatives," he says.
His union's surveys show that 3 out of 4 Washington teachers disapprove of using the exit exam as a graduation requirement, he adds.
For Mr. Peyser of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Lang's plan "may make people feel better on graduation day, but they are kidding themselves if they think [those] diplomas will ensure lives that include meaningful opportunities."
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0601/p01s01-ussc.html
June 01, 2006
Local rebellion over who gets a diploma
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BOSTON - For students in Massachusetts, MCAS can be a four-letter word. It's the state's high school exit exam, and the rule is simple: If you don't pass it, you don't get a diploma.
But the mayor of New Bedford, Scott Lang, is threatening to disobey that policy by granting diplomas to students June 15, even if they fail the standardized test. In so doing, he's testing the state's will to withhold district funds for breaking regulations. And he's reviving a debate over education reform that's simmering in other states, too.
Last week, California's supreme court reinstated its graduation requirement, which had been invalidated by a lower court just a few weeks earlier. And an Arizona judge this month refused to suspend that state's exit exam for this year's graduating class, the first to be affected by the requirement.
Fueling the legal fights is a philosophical debate about how best to prepare students for the challenges of college and work. For supporters, the tests promote a rigorous academic experience and they provide accountability to teachers and schools. They also act as a guarantee, experts say, of competency.
"A diploma is about effort and achievement, not just attendance," says James Peyser, chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He says passing rates are high - about 94 percent statewide last year, according to the state Department of Education - with students getting multiple opportunities to pass the exam. He wants the state to raise the minimum score needed to pass the test.
But others say that such high-stakes tests intimidate some students, leading them to drop out of school. In New Bedford, for example, the percentage of students passing the MCAS is in line with the statewide rate, but its dropout rate is three times higher than the state average.
Detractors like Glenn Koocher, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, sees such exams as punitive. The Board of Education "think[s] that unless you instill the fear of God in students you won't have their attention," he says. "The culture is regulate and punish, regulate and punish."
A bid for two types of diplomas
Mayor Lang wants the schools to issue two types of diplomas: one for those who pass the state test, called the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, and an alternative for those who don't. But his effort may be in vain because the local superintendent has said he will not sign off on such diplomas.
But experts say the battles here and elsewhere could cause districts to improve access to options for proof of competency beyond a single test score. These could include incorporating grades from core classes or using portfolios to demonstrate knowledge. The battles, they say, could also help shift attention to remedial courses and tutoring to help slower students make progress.
The MCAS, which uses multiple-choice and open-ended questions to test proficiency in math and English, is administered to all Massachusetts high school sophomores.
While states have used competency exams for decades, says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy (CEP) in Washington, many US schools have not traditionally withheld diplomas based on the results of exit exams until the 1990s.
Today, 26 states either require students to pass a standards test or have plans to put such requirements in place. By the year 2012, more than 70 percent of US public school students will live in states that require exit exams, according to CEP.
New Bedford joins a handful of other state communities, such as Cambridge and Falmouth, that have also attempted to grant alternative diplomas after the law went into effect for the class of 2003. But those towns backed down once the state threatened to withhold funding.
Criticism of such tests has most often occurred in wealthier communities, where parents tend to have faith in their schools and see exit exams as a distracting hurdle, says Mr. Jennings. "There is not as much opposition in poorer communities, because, generally, poor parents think schools aren't doing well enough and [see exit exams] as a way to improve that," he says.
In New Bedford, a working-class community, the school committee unanimously supported the mayor's resolution. Mr. Lang has said his protest serves to point out that his schools do not have adequate funding for remedial classes to help slower students pass the exam.
"Without a diploma you cannot go to college, you can't do any continuing studies," says state representative Antonio F.D. Cabral, a Democrat who filed legislation to legalize the alternative diplomas that New Bedford seeks to grant. "It creates a disadvantage for you throughout your life, even though you went through 13 years of school, passed all the courses, but happened not to pass one test."
The movement could have a wider impact if the mayor persuades the state to widen the alternative process, says Jennings. That is something Thomas Scott, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, would like to see. "We believe that there should be more than just the MCAS considered," he says.
Exam alternatives
Like many other states, Massachusetts has an appeals process in place, but it is not widely used. Nationwide, less than 1 percent of students use alternate routes to get diplomas.
In recent years, at least seven states have moved to give students who don't pass their exit exams more choices. In Arizona, students who earn high notes in core competencies can raise their standardized test score by up to 25 percent.
Washington state has developed a multitiered approach for alternatives. Students there can substitute their GPAs, portfolios, or SAT, ACT, or PSAT scores. CEP president Jennings says it could become a model.
Some 40 percent of Washington 10th- graders might have failed this year's test, but only a fraction of students can use those waivers, says Charles Hasse, head of the Washington Education Association. "They are not really, in a meaningful way, providing alternatives," he says.
His union's surveys show that 3 out of 4 Washington teachers disapprove of using the exit exam as a graduation requirement, he adds.
For Mr. Peyser of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Lang's plan "may make people feel better on graduation day, but they are kidding themselves if they think [those] diplomas will ensure lives that include meaningful opportunities."
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0601/p01s01-ussc.html
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Current info/commentary on Dropouts in Texas
Click here to get a New CPPP Study that Examines Texas' Dropout Challenge
This report examines Texas' dropout issue. Among the report's findings:
If every 9th grader in Fall 2000 graduated from the Texas public school
system in Spring 2004, it would have cost Texas an additional $1.7 billion
over four years, just for the Class of 2004. At the same time, if every 16-19 year
old who is not in school and does not have a high school diploma simply graduated,
the state's combined earnings would increase by about $3 billion over four years. In
order to help you assess these economic consequences on your community, we
have compiled a supplemental county-by-county data spreadsheet.
Dropping Opportunities (below) just appeared in the Texas Observer.
As you may have heard, there's a special session going
on, and the elected types up at the Capitol continue
to fight about how to cut property taxes and pay for
public schools. We?ve heard a lot of talk the past few
weeks about tax rates, teacher pay raises, local
enrichment, school-funding equity, and the importance
of educating our future work force. Yet one of the
gloomiest and most widely misunderstood problems
facing our education system the number of kids
dropping out isn't getting much play.
Part of the problem is a lack of agreement on how many
kids are actually dropping out. According to official
state figures, we don't have much of a dropout
problem. The Texas Education Agency reports that only
0.9 percent of students in seventh through 12th grades
drop out of public school. No, that's not a misprint.
The high school dropout rate, the TEA maintains, is
3.9 percent. (Very few middle school students drop
out, which partly accounts for the watered-down 0.9
figure.)
Back on planet Earth, any teacher or principal and
most public interest groups will tell you that the
dropout rate is much higher. Even TEA officials admit
some of their numbers can be misleading. Other groups
say the statewide dropout rate is between 20 and 40
percent. Texas ranked 43rd nationally in 2001 in the
percentage of teens dropping out of high school?a rate
one-third higher than the national average, according
to a report by the Austin nonprofit Center for Public
Policy Priorities.
TEA officials contend, in their defense, that they
have to report dropouts as defined by law. Instead of
harping on the high dropout rates, TEA officials often
point to the cheerier four-year graduation rate,
which, the agency says, was 84.6 percent in 2004. (To
arrive at this figure, officials don?t count students
getting high school equivalency certificates, students
who claim to transfer to another school, or students
who spend extra years in high school.) But even the
graduation rate is inaccurate, according to some
reports. The conservative Manhattan Institute recently
reported that only about 70 percent of Texas high
school students are graduating. Another recent report,
by the more progressive Economic Policy Institute, put
the graduation rate at about 80 percent. Minorities
are much less likely to graduate than white
students?the Manhattan Institute says about 50 percent
of blacks and Latinos graduate. Not surprisingly, the
TEA offers a rosier view on this one, too, contending
that the minority graduation rate is about 80 percent.
Don't expect much action on these issues out of the
special session. The lone proposal dealing with
dropouts was buried in the text of a bill recently
passed by the Senate. If it survives the legislative
process, the provision would allow schools to
establish stronger anti-dropout programs. The effort,
though relatively weak, has been the Legislature's
only real attempt in recent years to stem the number
of kids leaving school without a diploma.
In the Lege's defense, it's hard to enact a policy
solution when you don't really know how extensive the
problem is or what the causes are. As with most
problems, understanding is the first step. That won?t
happen until lawmakers focus on the issue and direct
the TEA to use an agreed-upon method that accurately
counts the number of students who drop out.
Nothing will improve unless we're straight with
ourselves about how many students are really dropping
out. No matter how much money we put into schools, we
can?t help kids who aren't there.
This report examines Texas' dropout issue. Among the report's findings:
If every 9th grader in Fall 2000 graduated from the Texas public school
system in Spring 2004, it would have cost Texas an additional $1.7 billion
over four years, just for the Class of 2004. At the same time, if every 16-19 year
old who is not in school and does not have a high school diploma simply graduated,
the state's combined earnings would increase by about $3 billion over four years. In
order to help you assess these economic consequences on your community, we
have compiled a supplemental county-by-county data spreadsheet.
Dropping Opportunities (below) just appeared in the Texas Observer.
As you may have heard, there's a special session going
on, and the elected types up at the Capitol continue
to fight about how to cut property taxes and pay for
public schools. We?ve heard a lot of talk the past few
weeks about tax rates, teacher pay raises, local
enrichment, school-funding equity, and the importance
of educating our future work force. Yet one of the
gloomiest and most widely misunderstood problems
facing our education system the number of kids
dropping out isn't getting much play.
Part of the problem is a lack of agreement on how many
kids are actually dropping out. According to official
state figures, we don't have much of a dropout
problem. The Texas Education Agency reports that only
0.9 percent of students in seventh through 12th grades
drop out of public school. No, that's not a misprint.
The high school dropout rate, the TEA maintains, is
3.9 percent. (Very few middle school students drop
out, which partly accounts for the watered-down 0.9
figure.)
Back on planet Earth, any teacher or principal and
most public interest groups will tell you that the
dropout rate is much higher. Even TEA officials admit
some of their numbers can be misleading. Other groups
say the statewide dropout rate is between 20 and 40
percent. Texas ranked 43rd nationally in 2001 in the
percentage of teens dropping out of high school?a rate
one-third higher than the national average, according
to a report by the Austin nonprofit Center for Public
Policy Priorities.
TEA officials contend, in their defense, that they
have to report dropouts as defined by law. Instead of
harping on the high dropout rates, TEA officials often
point to the cheerier four-year graduation rate,
which, the agency says, was 84.6 percent in 2004. (To
arrive at this figure, officials don?t count students
getting high school equivalency certificates, students
who claim to transfer to another school, or students
who spend extra years in high school.) But even the
graduation rate is inaccurate, according to some
reports. The conservative Manhattan Institute recently
reported that only about 70 percent of Texas high
school students are graduating. Another recent report,
by the more progressive Economic Policy Institute, put
the graduation rate at about 80 percent. Minorities
are much less likely to graduate than white
students?the Manhattan Institute says about 50 percent
of blacks and Latinos graduate. Not surprisingly, the
TEA offers a rosier view on this one, too, contending
that the minority graduation rate is about 80 percent.
Don't expect much action on these issues out of the
special session. The lone proposal dealing with
dropouts was buried in the text of a bill recently
passed by the Senate. If it survives the legislative
process, the provision would allow schools to
establish stronger anti-dropout programs. The effort,
though relatively weak, has been the Legislature's
only real attempt in recent years to stem the number
of kids leaving school without a diploma.
In the Lege's defense, it's hard to enact a policy
solution when you don't really know how extensive the
problem is or what the causes are. As with most
problems, understanding is the first step. That won?t
happen until lawmakers focus on the issue and direct
the TEA to use an agreed-upon method that accurately
counts the number of students who drop out.
Nothing will improve unless we're straight with
ourselves about how many students are really dropping
out. No matter how much money we put into schools, we
can?t help kids who aren't there.
Where Do Southern Baptist Leaders Go to School?
This is an interesting piece. I wonder how much race/ethnicity and segregation (beyond ethics, belief, and creed--as well as public school characteristics) contribute to this pattern of religious school attendance and homeschooling. -Angela
EDITORIAL
Where Do Southern Baptist Leaders Go to School?
Robert Parham
05-26-06
If you want to know what Southern Baptist Convention leaders really think about public education, follow them to school.
The most visible nominee for the presidency of the SBC is Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark. His church has its own school, Shiloh Christian School. On his blog, Floyd lists the school as one of his three favorite Web sites.
The school has some 650 students from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade. Shiloh Christian School estimates that half of its students belong to First Baptist and its mission, the Church at Pinnacle Hills. Only 3 percent of its students are children of color, compared to the Arkansas classroom average of 10 percent.
The once-rumored presidential candidate, Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, has one son at Oklahoma Bible Academy and another one at Emmanuel Christian School in Enid, Okla.
A number of SBC presidents serve or served at churches with Christian academies.
The 2002-2004 president, Jack Graham, is pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, which has a ministry named Prestonwood Christian Academy. The school has over 1,400 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade with 7 percent students of color, compared to 30 percent average in Texas schools.
Another SBC president (1994-1996), Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., started The First Academy as a church ministry in 1987.
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and SBC president 1998-2000, joined the staff of First Baptist Church in Dallas shortly after it started First Baptist Academy in 1972.
During Pattersons presidency at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he bragged that over 100 faculty, staff and students were homeschooling their children.
The chief officer of the SBC's publishing house, Thom Rainer, sent his children to Christian Academy of Louisville, when he was on faculty of Southern Seminary. The organization he now leads, LifeWay Christian Resources, produces homeschool curriculum, a new product line begun by Jimmy Draper, who was the 1982-1984 SBC president.
At least two of the 10 members of the 2006 SBC resolutions committee have Christian academies connected to their churches.
Forrest Pollock, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., has the Bell Shoals Baptist Academy as a church ministry for students from kindergarten through 8th grade. The academy’s mission statement says that “The Bible is the basic textbook.”
Darrell Orman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stuart, Fla., has the First Baptist Christian School that runs from preschool through the 8th grade. Orman is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and Liberty Baptist Seminary.
Started in 1978, Grove Avenue Christian School is a ministry of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., where many International Mission Board employees attend. Mark Becton, the church's pastor, is first vice president of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia and on the 2006 SBC committee on committees.
Emmanuel Christian School is a ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manassas, Va., another member of the SBCV. The church’s pastor, Rodney Autry, has been nominated to serve on the powerful SBC Executive Committee.
Stephen Rummage, associate pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., is also a 2006 nominee to the SBC Executive Committee. His church houses the Hickory Grove Baptist Christian School.
Calvary Baptist Church started Calvary Baptist Day School with a first grade class in 1971, under the leadership of pastor and SBC leader Mark Corts.
More names could be added to the above list.
Layer after layer discloses that the SBC leadership puts its backing behind Christian academies and homeschools, the de-facto exit-system for fundamentalists from public schools.
Robert Parham is executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
EDITORIAL
Where Do Southern Baptist Leaders Go to School?
Robert Parham
05-26-06
If you want to know what Southern Baptist Convention leaders really think about public education, follow them to school.
The most visible nominee for the presidency of the SBC is Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark. His church has its own school, Shiloh Christian School. On his blog, Floyd lists the school as one of his three favorite Web sites.
The school has some 650 students from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade. Shiloh Christian School estimates that half of its students belong to First Baptist and its mission, the Church at Pinnacle Hills. Only 3 percent of its students are children of color, compared to the Arkansas classroom average of 10 percent.
The once-rumored presidential candidate, Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, has one son at Oklahoma Bible Academy and another one at Emmanuel Christian School in Enid, Okla.
A number of SBC presidents serve or served at churches with Christian academies.
The 2002-2004 president, Jack Graham, is pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, which has a ministry named Prestonwood Christian Academy. The school has over 1,400 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade with 7 percent students of color, compared to 30 percent average in Texas schools.
Another SBC president (1994-1996), Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., started The First Academy as a church ministry in 1987.
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and SBC president 1998-2000, joined the staff of First Baptist Church in Dallas shortly after it started First Baptist Academy in 1972.
During Pattersons presidency at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he bragged that over 100 faculty, staff and students were homeschooling their children.
The chief officer of the SBC's publishing house, Thom Rainer, sent his children to Christian Academy of Louisville, when he was on faculty of Southern Seminary. The organization he now leads, LifeWay Christian Resources, produces homeschool curriculum, a new product line begun by Jimmy Draper, who was the 1982-1984 SBC president.
At least two of the 10 members of the 2006 SBC resolutions committee have Christian academies connected to their churches.
Forrest Pollock, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., has the Bell Shoals Baptist Academy as a church ministry for students from kindergarten through 8th grade. The academy’s mission statement says that “The Bible is the basic textbook.”
Darrell Orman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stuart, Fla., has the First Baptist Christian School that runs from preschool through the 8th grade. Orman is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and Liberty Baptist Seminary.
Started in 1978, Grove Avenue Christian School is a ministry of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., where many International Mission Board employees attend. Mark Becton, the church's pastor, is first vice president of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia and on the 2006 SBC committee on committees.
Emmanuel Christian School is a ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manassas, Va., another member of the SBCV. The church’s pastor, Rodney Autry, has been nominated to serve on the powerful SBC Executive Committee.
Stephen Rummage, associate pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., is also a 2006 nominee to the SBC Executive Committee. His church houses the Hickory Grove Baptist Christian School.
Calvary Baptist Church started Calvary Baptist Day School with a first grade class in 1971, under the leadership of pastor and SBC leader Mark Corts.
More names could be added to the above list.
Layer after layer discloses that the SBC leadership puts its backing behind Christian academies and homeschools, the de-facto exit-system for fundamentalists from public schools.
Robert Parham is executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
School finance mandate dissolved
May 26, 2006, 1:38AM
School finance mandate dissolved
Chance of funds being lost as of June 1 now gone
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - A state district judge Thursday dissolved an injunction in a five-year-old school finance case, removing the threat that schools could lose funding June 1.
Judge John Dietz of Travis County signed the order in response to a motion filed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. The motion said the Legislature fixed constitutional deficiencies in the school finance system during the special session that ended this month.
"This is the end of the road for the injunction," said Mark Trachtenberg, who represents 47 districts that sued the state over its funding system.
The districts did not oppose the motion to halt the injunction. But they warned that their position "should not be construed as a wholehearted endorsement of the legislation or an admission that the school finance system is on firm constitutional footing going forward."
The Legislature finished work earlier this month on a package of bills that will replace one-third of local school property taxes with money from a new business tax, higher cigarette taxes and budget surplus.
The case is known as West Orange-Cove after a property-rich consolidated school district in East Texas. The lawsuit was launched in 2001 by West Orange-Cove and three other school districts that had reached the state-mandated property tax cap of $1.50 for maintenance and operations.
More than 300 districts ultimately joined the lawsuit.
Dietz ruled in 2004 that the system amounts to a state property tax prohibited by the Texas Constitution and also that the overall funding was inadequate. He initially set a deadline of Oct. 1, 2005. The Texas Supreme Court upheld Dietz's ruling on the property tax issue only and set a new deadline.
The June 1 deadline was key to lawmakers reaching agreement on new taxes this year, after four previous failed attempts over the past two years.
The school districts in their motion warned that restrictions lawmakers put on their tax rates could harm the financial "breathing room" they will have in the coming school year. They also expressed concern that the new tax revenue was dedicated to property tax relief.
"The primary focus of the legislation was property tax relief, not putting the school finance system on firm financial footing," the districts said.
janet.elliott@chron.com
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3898638.html
School finance mandate dissolved
Chance of funds being lost as of June 1 now gone
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - A state district judge Thursday dissolved an injunction in a five-year-old school finance case, removing the threat that schools could lose funding June 1.
Judge John Dietz of Travis County signed the order in response to a motion filed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. The motion said the Legislature fixed constitutional deficiencies in the school finance system during the special session that ended this month.
"This is the end of the road for the injunction," said Mark Trachtenberg, who represents 47 districts that sued the state over its funding system.
The districts did not oppose the motion to halt the injunction. But they warned that their position "should not be construed as a wholehearted endorsement of the legislation or an admission that the school finance system is on firm constitutional footing going forward."
The Legislature finished work earlier this month on a package of bills that will replace one-third of local school property taxes with money from a new business tax, higher cigarette taxes and budget surplus.
The case is known as West Orange-Cove after a property-rich consolidated school district in East Texas. The lawsuit was launched in 2001 by West Orange-Cove and three other school districts that had reached the state-mandated property tax cap of $1.50 for maintenance and operations.
More than 300 districts ultimately joined the lawsuit.
Dietz ruled in 2004 that the system amounts to a state property tax prohibited by the Texas Constitution and also that the overall funding was inadequate. He initially set a deadline of Oct. 1, 2005. The Texas Supreme Court upheld Dietz's ruling on the property tax issue only and set a new deadline.
The June 1 deadline was key to lawmakers reaching agreement on new taxes this year, after four previous failed attempts over the past two years.
The school districts in their motion warned that restrictions lawmakers put on their tax rates could harm the financial "breathing room" they will have in the coming school year. They also expressed concern that the new tax revenue was dedicated to property tax relief.
"The primary focus of the legislation was property tax relief, not putting the school finance system on firm financial footing," the districts said.
janet.elliott@chron.com
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3898638.html
Data analysis helping teachers tailor lessons
A good use of computerized systems would be digital portfolios that would follow children from grade to grade, enabling truly holistic and authentic systems. -Angela
Data analysis helping teachers tailor lessons
High-tech systems comb test results to try to boost students' skills
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News
Stacy Kimbriel has been teaching kids to read for more than a decade. But only this year – with the help of a computer – could she quickly discern which skills were eluding which students at Meadows Elementary School in Plano.
And after receiving the year's first round of TAKS results, she reported a success not only for most of the 27 students pulled aside for extra help but also for the new data-management system that combed through test results to single them out for tutoring.
Such systems, according to the U.S. Department of Education, have the potential to help improve education across the nation.
"Schools can analyze student performance today in ways they couldn't have dreamed of a couple of years ago," said Tim Magner, the department's director of education technology. "More importantly, these systems often allow them to analyze data in real time, so they can solve problems as soon as they arise."
School districts across the country are working to roll out new technology. Locally, new systems are being discussed in Coppell, installed in Mesquite and used in Frisco, Highland Park, Irving, Plano and Richardson. Allen, McKinney and Dallas are expanding their systems.
"None of what we do now would have been possible just five years ago," said Jim Hirsch, Plano's assistant superintendent for technology.
"No one was selling the sort of data storage and data analysis systems that schools need to spot trends or to provide customized instruction for each student."
In addition to keeping long-recorded information such as attendance and grades in a single, accessible place, some new systems note each standardized-test question, the skill it measures and each student's answer. By matching student errors with skills tested, the systems show who knows what. Systems can also spot classwide weaknesses, so teachers know when they are underteaching, or misteaching, particular topics.
Individualized teaching
Kathy Hargrove, associate dean of the school of education at Southern Methodist University, said that ideally, improved test scores would be a byproduct, rather than the goal, of more individualized teaching.
And though there is the potential for data misuse, such as teaching to the test, she said she would have relished such a program during her 15 years as a classroom teacher.
"It would make things much more efficient than having whole-class instruction," she said. "You can group and regroup" students according to what they have mastered.
Joan Herman, co-director of the national Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA, said data systems are as good as the tests they analyze.
"Does that slicing and dicing give you a reliable result?" she said. "The first question should always be the caliber of the test."
For example, an awkwardly worded question might trip up students who know the material, she said. But if such traps are avoided, she said, data analysis systems can be an invaluable tool.
System vendors make no claim that data analysis systems can replace good teaching or hard work by students.
"Data systems are not a magic bullet," said Jonathan Harber, CEO of the system vendor SchoolNet. "Our systems are tools. They help teachers and schools measure what kids need and what strategies work. But measuring ... is only the first step down a long road toward improvement."
Computer programs designed to handle high-level math and statistics first became commercially available in the early 1990s. Then it took nearly a decade before companies started selling products tailored for schools. Widespread use of the products is newer still; several vendors sold more systems last year than in all previous years combined.
The systems still are not able to do anything that people cannot do for themselves. Teachers and administrators can track achievement skill by skill, student by student and school by school. They can also give benchmark tests – and many Texas districts long have – to figure out which kids are ready for tests such as TAKS.
Without computers, however, the process is slow. Ms. Kimbriel, the literacy specialist from Plano, used to spend several weekends a year holed up with calculator and graph paper, analyzing test scores. It took her weeks to compile fairly basic information.
The Dallas school district decided two decades ago to compile data and use computers to analyze each school's effectiveness, but only now is it parsing all its data at the individual student level.
"We're working now to bring our system into individual classrooms, so that teachers can view all the data for the kids in their classes," said Bob Mendro, assistant superintendent for research and evaluation.
After testing this spring, the system should go districtwide in the fall, he said: "Teachers should have immediate access to benchmark tests. As time goes by ... and we transfer more data from our old Microsoft storage programs to our new Oracle system, the teachers will be able to see more and more."
With achievement-tracking technology still in its infancy, few districts have used it long enough to gauge its impact.
The largest and longest case study comes from Philadelphia. In 2002-03, just 22 of the district's schools met federal standards for making adequate yearly progress. Last year, after two years of using data analysis to guide teachers' efforts, 132 schools met the mark.
"We have obviously made a lot of reforms recently, but I think our data management is easily the most important," said Gregory Thornton, Philadelphia's chief academic officer.
$17.88 per pupil
To finance its system, which soon will let parents monitor their children's progress, Philadelphia spends $17.88 per pupil. "I think we spend more money on bathroom supplies," said district CEO Paul Vallas.
Basic models can cost less than $2 per student per year, and the most elaborate 10 times as much. But at that price, when new test scores come out, the vendor types them in.
Plano just switched from a system that costs $340,000 a year – about $6 a student – to one that costs $260,000 upfront and $87,000 a year going forward.
Mesquite will pay $342,000 this year to set up its system and $150,000, or just under $5 per student, going forward. Coppell expects to go with a larger system that would cost $15 to $18 a year per student.
Despite the systems' potential, some see peril as well.
"With so many vendors and such rapidly evolving products, school districts are naturally quite nervous about committing to what turns out to be the wrong system," said James Rusk, a former science teacher who oversees Mesquite's installation.
Still, even skeptics are optimistic about computerized student evaluation.
"Things will go wrong," said Todd Oppenheimer, author of The Flickering Mind: Saving Education From the False Promise of Technology. "Some districts will waste millions on lousy systems. Others will use these systems as an excuse to focus even more narrowly on skills that can be measured by standardized testing.
"But these systems are fundamentally different from most of what has preceded them. They don't promise to change the learning process and make life easy for the student. They promise to make life easy for the teachers, to show teachers where students need help and give teachers more time to provide that help. It's hard to argue with those goals."
E-mail asmith@dallasnews.com
THE CANS AND CANNOTS OF DATA ANALYSIS
Given sufficient data, analysis systems can:
Quickly determine which skills individual students have and haven't mastered.
Spot classwide trends such as a consistent problem with certain skills.
Enable administrators to see the strengths and weaknesses of various teachers.
Evaluate the efficacy of textbooks and teacher training programs.
Allow parents to track their kids and measure them against their peers.
Data analysis systems cannot:
Grade essays or short-answer questions.
Devise questions to measure student ability.
Determine why students are struggling or how to help them.
Guarantee success on the TAKS or the SAT or any other test.
Do anything that a person could not do, given time, with the same data.
DATA MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL SCHOOLS
Districts using data management systems:
Frisco
Highland Park
Irving
Plano
Richardson
Expanding their systems:
Allen
Dallas
McKinney
Installing a new system:
Mesquite
Discussing a new system:
Coppell
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-schooldata_30met.ART.North.Edition1.1354bd38.html
Data analysis helping teachers tailor lessons
High-tech systems comb test results to try to boost students' skills
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News
Stacy Kimbriel has been teaching kids to read for more than a decade. But only this year – with the help of a computer – could she quickly discern which skills were eluding which students at Meadows Elementary School in Plano.
And after receiving the year's first round of TAKS results, she reported a success not only for most of the 27 students pulled aside for extra help but also for the new data-management system that combed through test results to single them out for tutoring.
Such systems, according to the U.S. Department of Education, have the potential to help improve education across the nation.
"Schools can analyze student performance today in ways they couldn't have dreamed of a couple of years ago," said Tim Magner, the department's director of education technology. "More importantly, these systems often allow them to analyze data in real time, so they can solve problems as soon as they arise."
School districts across the country are working to roll out new technology. Locally, new systems are being discussed in Coppell, installed in Mesquite and used in Frisco, Highland Park, Irving, Plano and Richardson. Allen, McKinney and Dallas are expanding their systems.
"None of what we do now would have been possible just five years ago," said Jim Hirsch, Plano's assistant superintendent for technology.
"No one was selling the sort of data storage and data analysis systems that schools need to spot trends or to provide customized instruction for each student."
In addition to keeping long-recorded information such as attendance and grades in a single, accessible place, some new systems note each standardized-test question, the skill it measures and each student's answer. By matching student errors with skills tested, the systems show who knows what. Systems can also spot classwide weaknesses, so teachers know when they are underteaching, or misteaching, particular topics.
Individualized teaching
Kathy Hargrove, associate dean of the school of education at Southern Methodist University, said that ideally, improved test scores would be a byproduct, rather than the goal, of more individualized teaching.
And though there is the potential for data misuse, such as teaching to the test, she said she would have relished such a program during her 15 years as a classroom teacher.
"It would make things much more efficient than having whole-class instruction," she said. "You can group and regroup" students according to what they have mastered.
Joan Herman, co-director of the national Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA, said data systems are as good as the tests they analyze.
"Does that slicing and dicing give you a reliable result?" she said. "The first question should always be the caliber of the test."
For example, an awkwardly worded question might trip up students who know the material, she said. But if such traps are avoided, she said, data analysis systems can be an invaluable tool.
System vendors make no claim that data analysis systems can replace good teaching or hard work by students.
"Data systems are not a magic bullet," said Jonathan Harber, CEO of the system vendor SchoolNet. "Our systems are tools. They help teachers and schools measure what kids need and what strategies work. But measuring ... is only the first step down a long road toward improvement."
Computer programs designed to handle high-level math and statistics first became commercially available in the early 1990s. Then it took nearly a decade before companies started selling products tailored for schools. Widespread use of the products is newer still; several vendors sold more systems last year than in all previous years combined.
The systems still are not able to do anything that people cannot do for themselves. Teachers and administrators can track achievement skill by skill, student by student and school by school. They can also give benchmark tests – and many Texas districts long have – to figure out which kids are ready for tests such as TAKS.
Without computers, however, the process is slow. Ms. Kimbriel, the literacy specialist from Plano, used to spend several weekends a year holed up with calculator and graph paper, analyzing test scores. It took her weeks to compile fairly basic information.
The Dallas school district decided two decades ago to compile data and use computers to analyze each school's effectiveness, but only now is it parsing all its data at the individual student level.
"We're working now to bring our system into individual classrooms, so that teachers can view all the data for the kids in their classes," said Bob Mendro, assistant superintendent for research and evaluation.
After testing this spring, the system should go districtwide in the fall, he said: "Teachers should have immediate access to benchmark tests. As time goes by ... and we transfer more data from our old Microsoft storage programs to our new Oracle system, the teachers will be able to see more and more."
With achievement-tracking technology still in its infancy, few districts have used it long enough to gauge its impact.
The largest and longest case study comes from Philadelphia. In 2002-03, just 22 of the district's schools met federal standards for making adequate yearly progress. Last year, after two years of using data analysis to guide teachers' efforts, 132 schools met the mark.
"We have obviously made a lot of reforms recently, but I think our data management is easily the most important," said Gregory Thornton, Philadelphia's chief academic officer.
$17.88 per pupil
To finance its system, which soon will let parents monitor their children's progress, Philadelphia spends $17.88 per pupil. "I think we spend more money on bathroom supplies," said district CEO Paul Vallas.
Basic models can cost less than $2 per student per year, and the most elaborate 10 times as much. But at that price, when new test scores come out, the vendor types them in.
Plano just switched from a system that costs $340,000 a year – about $6 a student – to one that costs $260,000 upfront and $87,000 a year going forward.
Mesquite will pay $342,000 this year to set up its system and $150,000, or just under $5 per student, going forward. Coppell expects to go with a larger system that would cost $15 to $18 a year per student.
Despite the systems' potential, some see peril as well.
"With so many vendors and such rapidly evolving products, school districts are naturally quite nervous about committing to what turns out to be the wrong system," said James Rusk, a former science teacher who oversees Mesquite's installation.
Still, even skeptics are optimistic about computerized student evaluation.
"Things will go wrong," said Todd Oppenheimer, author of The Flickering Mind: Saving Education From the False Promise of Technology. "Some districts will waste millions on lousy systems. Others will use these systems as an excuse to focus even more narrowly on skills that can be measured by standardized testing.
"But these systems are fundamentally different from most of what has preceded them. They don't promise to change the learning process and make life easy for the student. They promise to make life easy for the teachers, to show teachers where students need help and give teachers more time to provide that help. It's hard to argue with those goals."
E-mail asmith@dallasnews.com
THE CANS AND CANNOTS OF DATA ANALYSIS
Given sufficient data, analysis systems can:
Quickly determine which skills individual students have and haven't mastered.
Spot classwide trends such as a consistent problem with certain skills.
Enable administrators to see the strengths and weaknesses of various teachers.
Evaluate the efficacy of textbooks and teacher training programs.
Allow parents to track their kids and measure them against their peers.
Data analysis systems cannot:
Grade essays or short-answer questions.
Devise questions to measure student ability.
Determine why students are struggling or how to help them.
Guarantee success on the TAKS or the SAT or any other test.
Do anything that a person could not do, given time, with the same data.
DATA MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL SCHOOLS
Districts using data management systems:
Frisco
Highland Park
Irving
Plano
Richardson
Expanding their systems:
Allen
Dallas
McKinney
Installing a new system:
Mesquite
Discussing a new system:
Coppell
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-schooldata_30met.ART.North.Edition1.1354bd38.html
Mexican classes offered in S. Texas
This is a novel approach. Binational cooperation for mutually shared concerns and goals like this should be pursued more frequently. -Angela
May 29, 2006, 10:52PM
Mexican classes offered in S. Texas
Online science and math courses in Spanish may aid immigrants
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Some South Texas students soon will be taking online courses from Mexican high schools and could even receive Mexican diplomas under a groundbreaking program designed to help immigrant students succeed.
ADVERTISEMENT
The program beginning this fall in two Hidalgo County school districts is the result of collaboration between the University of Texas and Mexican federal education agencies.
It is designed to reduce dropouts by allowing Spanish-speaking students to use computers to study math and science courses in Spanish, while they learn English and social studies in their Texas schools.
"Generally they drop out because they can't pass courses and get frustrated not knowing the language and sitting in classrooms. This is an incentive for them to at least see something they're passing," said Felipe Alanis, a former Texas education commissioner who helped UT design the program.
Proponents say the program will help not only immigrants, but students whose families are migrant workers or who move back and forth across the border as well, as American students from Spanish-speaking homes.
The students will be able to use the Spanish-language curriculum to supplement courses they are taking in English or even to complete a course, although they must take the final exam in English to receive Texas credit.
Some students could even receive their diplomas from Mexico, which would allow them to attend a community college in Texas.
Alanis said this option likely will only be used by students who are 17 or 18 when they enter a Texas school and have substantial credits in Mexico.
Signed compact
Ofelia Gaona, bilingual director for Donna Independent School District, said the language barrier is particularly difficult for older students entering Texas schools for the first time.
"So what happens is they end up dropping out of school and end up with jobs that pay minimum wage or below," she said. "A lot are very, very intelligent, they are very hardworking and they want to go to college."
William Powers Jr., president of UT-Austin, signed the educational compact earlier this month with Jorge Gonzalez Teyssier, director general of the Colegio de Bachilleres, a high school program offering online courses; and C.P. Ciro Adolfo Suarez Martinez, director general of the National Institute for Adult Education.
Witnessing the ceremony was Tony Garza, the United States ambassador to Mexico.
"This is the culmination of about nine months of intensive talks," said Alanis, associate dean of UT's Division of Continuing Education.
The talks included painstaking work to align Texas and Mexican curriculum in math and science. The alignment was necessary so students will be able to work with online resources from Mexico, as well as Mexican teachers who will help the students in computer labs.
Another key feature of the agreement will help Texas educators place older students in the proper grade by considering their transcripts from Mexico. Alanis said high school-age immigrant students are routinely placed in the ninth grade even though they may have enough academic credits to enter a higher grade.
The districts piloting the program this fall are Donna, where one-third of the 13,000 students are migrants, and neighboring Edcouch-Elsa, with 5,600 students. Each received a $500,000 federal grant to buy computers, pay for the online programs and train teachers.
The Donna district purchased laptop computers so students can study at home or while they are traveling with their families doing farm work. Edcouch-Elsa concentrated its funds on 40 desktop computers that will be placed in labs at several schools and hiring four Mexican teachers to help students with the online course work.
Different learning styles
Minerva Guerra-Gonzalez, special populations director for Edcouch-Elsa, said she believes students will be drawn by the technology.
"We have a lot of children that have very different learning styles," she said. "This program will give them access to the translation of the language. The barrier of the language is what keeps them behind sometimes."
Officials at UT's Center for Hispanic Achievement Program hope that the program will eventually expand to larger districts, such as Houston ISD, with its large population of English-language learners.
Alanis said it is coincidental that the program is launching at a time of great national debate about immigrants. Helping students who are in Texas schools complete their educations will boost the state's economy, he said.
"This is not to encourage immigration," Alanis said. "These kids are in our schools now and schools are needing help with this population."
janet.elliott@chron.com
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3913768.html
May 29, 2006, 10:52PM
Mexican classes offered in S. Texas
Online science and math courses in Spanish may aid immigrants
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Some South Texas students soon will be taking online courses from Mexican high schools and could even receive Mexican diplomas under a groundbreaking program designed to help immigrant students succeed.
ADVERTISEMENT
The program beginning this fall in two Hidalgo County school districts is the result of collaboration between the University of Texas and Mexican federal education agencies.
It is designed to reduce dropouts by allowing Spanish-speaking students to use computers to study math and science courses in Spanish, while they learn English and social studies in their Texas schools.
"Generally they drop out because they can't pass courses and get frustrated not knowing the language and sitting in classrooms. This is an incentive for them to at least see something they're passing," said Felipe Alanis, a former Texas education commissioner who helped UT design the program.
Proponents say the program will help not only immigrants, but students whose families are migrant workers or who move back and forth across the border as well, as American students from Spanish-speaking homes.
The students will be able to use the Spanish-language curriculum to supplement courses they are taking in English or even to complete a course, although they must take the final exam in English to receive Texas credit.
Some students could even receive their diplomas from Mexico, which would allow them to attend a community college in Texas.
Alanis said this option likely will only be used by students who are 17 or 18 when they enter a Texas school and have substantial credits in Mexico.
Signed compact
Ofelia Gaona, bilingual director for Donna Independent School District, said the language barrier is particularly difficult for older students entering Texas schools for the first time.
"So what happens is they end up dropping out of school and end up with jobs that pay minimum wage or below," she said. "A lot are very, very intelligent, they are very hardworking and they want to go to college."
William Powers Jr., president of UT-Austin, signed the educational compact earlier this month with Jorge Gonzalez Teyssier, director general of the Colegio de Bachilleres, a high school program offering online courses; and C.P. Ciro Adolfo Suarez Martinez, director general of the National Institute for Adult Education.
Witnessing the ceremony was Tony Garza, the United States ambassador to Mexico.
"This is the culmination of about nine months of intensive talks," said Alanis, associate dean of UT's Division of Continuing Education.
The talks included painstaking work to align Texas and Mexican curriculum in math and science. The alignment was necessary so students will be able to work with online resources from Mexico, as well as Mexican teachers who will help the students in computer labs.
Another key feature of the agreement will help Texas educators place older students in the proper grade by considering their transcripts from Mexico. Alanis said high school-age immigrant students are routinely placed in the ninth grade even though they may have enough academic credits to enter a higher grade.
The districts piloting the program this fall are Donna, where one-third of the 13,000 students are migrants, and neighboring Edcouch-Elsa, with 5,600 students. Each received a $500,000 federal grant to buy computers, pay for the online programs and train teachers.
The Donna district purchased laptop computers so students can study at home or while they are traveling with their families doing farm work. Edcouch-Elsa concentrated its funds on 40 desktop computers that will be placed in labs at several schools and hiring four Mexican teachers to help students with the online course work.
Different learning styles
Minerva Guerra-Gonzalez, special populations director for Edcouch-Elsa, said she believes students will be drawn by the technology.
"We have a lot of children that have very different learning styles," she said. "This program will give them access to the translation of the language. The barrier of the language is what keeps them behind sometimes."
Officials at UT's Center for Hispanic Achievement Program hope that the program will eventually expand to larger districts, such as Houston ISD, with its large population of English-language learners.
Alanis said it is coincidental that the program is launching at a time of great national debate about immigrants. Helping students who are in Texas schools complete their educations will boost the state's economy, he said.
"This is not to encourage immigration," Alanis said. "These kids are in our schools now and schools are needing help with this population."
janet.elliott@chron.com
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3913768.html
Monday, May 29, 2006
In the U.S. and Europe, Tensions Between a National and Minority Languages
Check out Professors Jim Crawford's and Stephen Krashen's response (below) to Rothstein submitted to the Times. -Angela
May 29, 2006
Connections
In the U.S. and Europe, Tensions Between a National and Minority Languages
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
After the Senate's recent vote to make English the "national language" of the United States, an avalanche of accusations accumulated, suggesting much illiberal villainy. The Senate's enshrinement of English in the immigration bill it approved last week was cautious: the proposed law says the government must " preserve and enhance the role of English," but it leaves intact federal laws requiring multilingual materials and services. Yet some critics immediately attacked it as xenophobic, even racist.
But perhaps, to put things in a broader perspective, it may help to step outside the United States' debates about English and look at a situation that is its precise opposite. A few months ago officials from the European Union scrutinized Germany's compliance with the 1992 European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, a counterweight to the very idea of official languages. It stresses what it calls "the value of interculturalism and multilingualism." It demands that treaty participants "promote regional or minority languages," encourage their use, create political links among their speakers, guarantee access to them in criminal and civil proceedings, and encourage their presence in television and radio. Procedures were established for monitoring compliance with this project.
In March a European Union "committee of experts," as they are officially called, issued a 168-page report (available at www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs) after examining Germany's compliance. The gist of it is that in Germany "more determined measures are needed to encourage the use of regional or minority languages in economic and social life." Germany is, for example, asked to "remedy the existing shortage of Lower Sorbian-speaking teachers," to "develop and implement the educational model for North Frisian proposed by the North Frisian speakers" and "reverse the decline in study and research opportunities for Low German, Sater Frisian and Lower Sorbian." Germany's response in a 50-page appendix did little to mitigate the righteous sentiments of the final verdict.
This is a bizarre situation: treating languages as possessing inalienable rights and entitlements, meriting artificial life-support seemingly in inverse proportion to their importance. The charter justifies this explicit promotion of these languages as a means of preserving cultural legacy but also intends it to be a form of recompense, asserting that these minority languages are victims of "unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference" once intended to "discourage or endanger" them.
On a larger scale, this view was elaborated upon in 1996 in a Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, in which the International PEN club and other organizations, supported by Unesco, affirmed principles like "Everyone has the right to carry out all activities in the public sphere in his/her language."
There are, to be sure, reasons for the accusatory tone of these reports. Minority languages suffered grievous indignities as nation-states came into being. In France, for example, where French has been the official state language since 1539, there were periods when even other native languages, like Breton, were barred from the classroom and treated as obstacles to the nation's unity.
The French language is so central to the idea of France that its status is affirmed in its constitution, which is one reason France signed the European Union minority-language charter but never ratified it. Other nations did the same, selecting remedies they could comfortably endorse. (Twenty nations have ratified the charter; 12 others have signed without ratification.) They know what is at stake. So does the European Union: it seeks to weaken the idea of the nation-state.
But many of these debates are only incidentally about immigration. Low German is not being championed to support immigrant rights; even the challenges posed by Europe's radical Islamic immigrants have little to do with language. Instead, as the European Union language charter shows, linguistic issues grow out of a perception of some social and historical wrong and skepticism about the power of the nation-state.
To a certain extent the issues are very different here, where claims have been made not in the name of linguistic rights but identity rights. The group speaking the minority language feels subject to "unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference." Here too, though, this sense of a wronged past has helped spur linguistic change, including bilingual education (which has proved to be far from the promised panacea). There has also been pressure to expand language education here, not to right historical wrongs, but because the United States isn't considered multilingual enough.
The challenge to the state has also been different here. In the United States national identity has only accidentally been tied to the dominance of English. Slavery and the American Indian past aside, this is a nation of immigrants. While immigration did spur waves of resentment and opposition, the United States offers a profound example of successful integration of immigrant populations, aided by the traditional immigrant desire to adopt the dominant language rather than to insist on alternatives. It is only in the last 30 years, with the onset of identity politics, that there were efforts to promote an opposing view.
But it is ideology, not immigration, that is the deciding issue. In March a poll by Zogby International of 1,007 Americans found that the establishment of English as the "official language" has widespread support among diverse groups, including 71 percent of Hispanics and 82 percent of Democrats. Another Zogby poll, in 2005, found more than 80 percent of first- and second-generation Americans supporting the idea.
So the effort is not a matter of xenophobia. It is an attempt to take a position in the vexing debate over the future of the nation-state: What are the forces that hold it together, and what are the forces that threaten to split it apart? What sacrifices are asked for the sake of unity? And what sacrifices should not be asked for that purpose? These are the same issues that are causing citizenship tests to be scrutinized throughout the Western world. The coherence of the state can no longer be taken for granted when divisions within it are so enthusiastically endorsed; the European Union language charter reflects a problem, not a solution.
But establishment of a national language doesn't provide the solution either. A shared language doesn't promise unity any more than multiple languages promise disunity. France, with perhaps the longest and most established national language, is facing some of the most serious multicultural schisms. The United States has had one of the world's most successful experiences with immigration without having had a national language. Many states have more than one official language without suffering ill effects; others boast multiple languages that reflect persistent schisms, as in Cyprus (between Turkish and Greek), and Sri Lanka (between Tamil and Sinhala).
The outrage over the Senate vote is out of proportion. Meanwhile important discussions about the nation-state, and how it might evolve in the midst of diversity, are barely heard in the din, almost drowned out by the shouting between the nation-state and Babel's growing tower.
Connections, a critic's perspective on arts and ideas, appears every other Monday.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
__________________________________________________________
Sent to the New York Times, May 29, 2006
To the Editor:
For Edward Rothstein and others worried about 'Babel's
growing tower' in the U.S., we have two words of advice: study
history. German Americans, from Colonial times until the early
20th century, were far more aggressive, and more
successful, in maintaining their language and culture
than any ethnic group today. Pursuit of Deutschtum
(German "identity politics") was combined with loyalty
to an American nation-state based on democratic
values.
Linguistic diversity is now on the increase, thanks to
increasing numbers of immigrants. But immigrants today
are learning English--and sadly, losing their native
languages--more rapidly than ever before.
The 1890 census reported that 4.6 percent of New York
State residents did not speak English. The comparable figure in 2004
was 1.8 percent, according to the Census Bureau's American Community
Survey. These numbers are about average for the nation as a whole.
Babel's tower is crumbling in America, now more than
ever.
James Crawford
Institute for Language and Education Policy
Stephen Krashen
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
Note: We are both directors of the Institute for
Language and Education Policy, a newly formed
nonprofit organization.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/29/arts/29conn.html
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