Posted on 01/04/2007 10:16:37 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Affluent children score higher than poor children on standardized tests, and Asians and whites do better than blacks and Latinos. The No Child Left Behind Act, an education law signed by President Bush in 2002, was supposed to help change that. But as Congress prepares to reconsider the legislation this year, there are few indications that achievement gaps have been shrinking.
In California, middle-class students' performance on state exams continues to exceed poor students' performance at about the same rate as three years ago, according to a report the Policy Analysis for California Education research center released late last year.
The difference persists at all grade levels in elementary and middle school, according to the report.
Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that across the nation in 2004, white teens outperformed their black and Latino counterparts in math and English at roughly the same rate as they did in 1999.
The No Child Left Behind Act, which Congress will revisit this year, requires schools to report test results for populations within a student body including ethnic groups, poor students, students who aren't fluent in English and students with disabilities.
The law sets a target that rises annually for the percentage of students who must be proficient in math and English. Schools that miss that target for two years for any identified student population must make changes that could include replacing all staff.
Pixie Hayward Schickele, who chairs the California Teachers Association's work group on No Child Left Behind, says the law points out a problem - differences in achievement - without providing solutions.
"I like, on one hand, that somebody is saying, `Look at this, and see this, and how can you address this?"' Hayward Schickele said. "But on the other hand, the punitive piece of this is not particularly helpful because I'm not sure anybody knows how to solve the achievement issue."
Local gaps persist
In San Bernardino City Unified, San Bernardino County's largest school district, test scores for every group of students have risen since 2002, according to the California Department of Education.
But the achievement gap is not closing.
White students' gains outpaced those of blacks and Latinos, and poor children and children whose parents did not finish high school were still doing worse than their peers. Disabled students and children not fluent in English still had the lowest scores.
At the high school level, where differences in achievement are usually more pronounced, the gap between the percentage of whites and Latinos - and between whites and blacks - who were proficient in math and English remained in double digits at four of the district's five largest high schools.
The only exception was San Bernardino High School, which had the lowest overall test scores among the five.
Improving teaching
Though the achievement gap remains wide, some people who work in education say No Child Left Behind has been valuable because it makes public the vexing issue of inequity in education.
With schools now reporting test results, educators feel pressure to do more for those in need - special education students, poor children and some minorities, said Ronald Powell, administrator for an agency that works with area school districts and the county Superintendent of Schools Office to educate disabled children.
Though No Child Left Behind should be more flexible - it says all students must be proficient in math and English by 2014 - teachers can do more to help children learn, Powell said.
Studies show some teaching techniques are more effective than others, but many teachers haven't seen the research or are reluctant to change their style, Powell said.
Instead, especially with regard to students with learning disabilities, educators tend to think, "There's something inside Johnny that's keeping him from learning," Powell said.
"Not until when they start failing for even white kids will they see it as an instructional problem," he said.
Patterns of success
Douglas Reeves, a researcher who spoke to the Senate's education committee in June on how to improve No Child Left Behind legislation, has studied so-called 90/90/90 schools, where 90percent of the students are minorities, poor and yet proficient on standards-based exams.
"Some people use that evidence to say, `Poverty doesn't matter, buck it up, kid.' That would never be my inference," Reeves said. "My inference instead is that (poverty) need not be determinative."
When Reeves and other researchers looked at the 90/90/90 schools, patterns emerged.
Teachers met regularly to compare failures and accomplishments. They collaborated on scoring work, developing uniform guidelines for what constituted a good response. There was an emphasis on nonfiction writing.
Children whose teachers have a minor or major in the subject they teach are more likely to do well, Reeves said.
"You continue to see some of the same things again and again," he said.
Impact of social issues
Hayward Schickele said though 90/90/90 schools do exist, every school has unique needs. The 90/90/90 formula may not work everywhere, and not all schools can afford to implement the measures used in 90/90/90 schools, she added.
She said she and colleagues work hard to help all children learn, but that luring good teachers to urban districts and keeping them there is a challenge.
A study released last month by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning showed that statewide, schools with the highest percentage of minority students still had the least-experienced and qualified teachers.
"There are (90/90/90) schools, and I think it's wonderful," said Hayward Schickele, who has taught for more than 30 years. "But I don't think that there is a silver bullet that's going to work for everybody. ... If they were so successful, why isn't everybody doing it? It's hard and you need the resources."
"All of the school issues are societal issues," she added. "You can't say, `You will learn even though you're hungry. Sit in that chair and learn.' That's the piece of NCLB that people aren't willing to deal with. It's real easy to say, `This school is failing, this school is not meeting the standards,' but not, `This is the community that needs a local grocery store that isn't gouging the people, doctors, housing that isn't moldy.' & All of the things that society has to have, schools are only one measure of all of that. That's the measure that's kind of taking all the heat.' "
Gee, maybe it's because they actually study more.
Maybe they are affluent because they fricken' study? Good grief.
>>Affluent children score higher than poor children on standardized tests, and Asians and whites do better than blacks and Latinos
ABOUT THIS SERIES
Editor's note: Today we begin a three-part series about No Child Left Behind education-related legislation up for review by Congress this year.
TODAY (Thursday, 1/4/07) We examine the achievement gap between affluent and poor children, and between whites and minorities.
FRIDAY We spotlight what local schools are doing to meet the requirements of the legislation. A major challenge has been helping children with limited English skills.
SATURDAY Educators share their hopes for the future of No Child Left Behind, and whether it needs to be fine-tuned or abandoned altogether.
So all students are doing better, but the program is a miserable failure because there is still a gap????? Makes sense to a liberal I suppose.
Just more proof that the government cannot substitute for family.
People with money are simply smarter than people without money. Either that or the students who do better on the tests are the ones studying.
Something like that. 2% genetics and 98% culture.
Conservatives want equality of opportunity. Liberals want equality of outcome.
One of the things that no one wants to talk about on the left is that where you have lots of poor, immigrant Asians, you also have poor, immigrant Asian children in school. And they are usually in the same crappy school as other poor kids, as Asian immigrants live in the inner city like the rest of the poor.
But why do their kids end up doing as well as US-born white kids, if not better?
Could it be (gasp!), the family structure? The culture?
Meanwhile, among black kids, doing well in school is "acting white".
The report whence the articles take is based upon..
http://pace.berkeley.edu/pace_index.html
Snapshots of Reform: District Efforts to Raise Achievement across Diverse Communities in California
PACE's report spotlights the efforts of three districts to address inequities in student achievement, and provides information about a variety of strategies that districts are using to raise achievement across diverse communities of students. We examine a range of approaches in an effort to remind policymakers and educators that no one strategy can be effective for all districts, and that much can be learned from an investigation of a combination of approaches.
Elisabeth Woody, Principal Research Scientist, directs the Public School Accountability and Effective Schools Projects at PACE. She has spent much of her career examining the impact of public school policies and reforms on students' and teachers' daily lives. Her current work focuses on school and district efforts to address inequities in achievement by gender, across race, socioeconomic status, and language.
Snapshots of Reform: District Efforts to Raise Achievement across Diverse Communities in California (pdf)
http://pace.berkeley.edu/reports/WP06-2_Snapshots_of_Reform_OCT06.pdf
or perhaps smarter people just adapt the work ethic and family structure which most leads to economic success.
90-90-90 schools prove that the poor and minorities are capable. The acheivement gap proves that parents with money and education are using outside resources to supplement the poor education most public schools provide, thus masking the problem.
Americans are the wealthiest people on earth -- our incomes and wealth (even for our "poor") are stratospheric.
But it's never enough -- some people only complain, complain, complain.
Congress can't legislate family values.
Some people aren't as smart as other people. Sorry for the way the grouping works out.
I don't know the answer to this question, but you can see the obvious problem of allowing the schools to decide which kids shouldn't take the test. Exclude poorly performing kids from the test, then don't bother teaching those kids.....
Have the results of this study been reported to Osama Obama?
There's an understatement for you. Take away the illiterate, non-English speaking illegals, and you'll have solved a huge part of the problem, and have money to spare.
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