Re: LEAP to the Failure Abyss

[PRISCILLA GUTIERREZ <pgutpgut@msn.com>]

It would seem our buddy has forgotten a lady named Katrina who was no lady paid a visit two years ago to Louisiana.  Our school nurse and his wife spent 2 weeks down there recently volunteering their time and skills.  Upon his return, he shared his utter shock and dismay at how little has actually been done to help folks down there.  It's like visiting a third world country where the government has conveniently forgotten their promises of help.  Many of the area's poor are still not attending school because there is no place for them to go.  And let's not forget dear Margaret's insistence that Louisiana would still be held to NCLB's accountability standards, regardless of the disaster and the lack of resources being.  No one can accuse her of soft bigotry - just flat out ignorance.Priscilla Gutierrez Outreach Specialist New Mexico School for the Deaf ...change is inevitable, growth is optional...> Subject: Re: [arn-l] LEAP to the Failure Abyss> Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 08:25:21 -0400> From: jhorn@monmouth.edu> To: arn-l@interversity.org> > idiot> > > -----Original Message-----> From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org on behalf of aburke5054@aol.com> Sent: Wed 8/8/2007 8:23 PM> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Subject: Re: [arn-l] LEAP to the Failure Abyss> > If poor children had better schools, perhaps family income would be > less> predictive of their achievement. In any event, working to improve > schools is far more> constructive than the endless wringing of the hands about how poor > children score> lower on achievement tests or running around saying why bother to > improve> schools because it's all demographics anyway. Get on Louisiana's case > to make> changes that need to be made in schools. Nobody could be against that, > right?> > Art> > -----Original Message-----> From: Horn, James <jhorn@monmouth.edu>> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Sent: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 7:51 am> Subject: [arn-l] LEAP to the Failure Abyss> > > The Louisiana Department of Education is more practiced at bad new than > the> "folks" in the White House. Of course, they have been at it longer. > Louisiana's> war against the poor and the dark-skinned began in 1999 with the LEAP > (Louisiana> Education Assessment Program). Yesterday the State put out a press > release> puffing themselves up for the results on the big Summer of testing that > followed> the big Spring of testing which followed the big Year of preparing for > testing,> etc. Here's the opening to the Press Release:> > BATON ROUGE, La. - More than 9,000 Louisiana 4th and 8th grade > students> succeeded in passing the LEAP test after taking summer school courses > and> retaking at least a portion of the test, according to results released > Monday.> About 25,000 4th and 8th graders participated in the summer retest.> > And here is the way the Daily Iberian reported it yesterday:> > Statewide numbers released Monday show about 9,000 students will > move on to> fifth or ninth grades after passing the LEAP test this summer.> > Sounds great, doesn't it? What the LDE doesn't brag about is down in > the pdf> files made available on Monday. The facst are that 10, 762 8th graders > will> repeat the eighth grade this coming year (if they don't drop out), and > 8,177 4th> graders will repeat the fourth grade this coming year. So while 9,000 > passed the> LEAP re-test this summer, 18,939 did not:> > * 10,762 Eighth Grade repeaters> > * 8,177 Fourth Grade repeaters> > The Graduate Exit Exam (GEE) goes unmentioned in the text of Monday's > glowing> Press Release. Good reason from a PR perspective. The results were even > more> devastating. The GEE is given the first time in 10th grade, and > students must> pass (Approacing Basic) math, reading, and either science or social > studies to> earn a diploma.> > In Spring 2007 41,346 high schoolers took the Math part of GEE and > 8,075 failed> it.> > Of the 8,075 failures, 5,303 took the Summer retest, and 3,524 > youngsters failed> that. With the 2,772 who did not retake the Math part and the 3,524 who > failed> the retest, there will be at least 6,296 students who failed the > mandatory Math> section of the GEE. Those 6,296 failures represents a 15% failure rate > among> 10th and 11th graders, and that does not take into account the > thousands who> dropped out between 8th grade and now.> > Bottom line: Louisiana has a total of 25,235 failures this year in > grades 4, 8,> and 10-11 as a result of a single test that is oh-so-predictably > correlated to> family income levels. This is how Louisiana is getting entirely > color-blind in> the 21st Century.> -------------------------------------------------------> Subscribe ARN-L:> http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/subscribe.html> > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________________> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free > from AOL at AOL.com.> =0> > -----------------------------------------------> Report list problems to listmom@interversity.net