Bennett Kew

[William Cala <wcala@ROCHESTER.RR.COM>]

Stephen Krashen is well-versed on Bennett-Kew.  Below is a letter he wrote on the subject.  I am also excerpting a page from a chapter on an upcoming book of his on the topic (attachment).

Bill

Published in the American Language Review
Krashen, S. 2000. A note on Bennett-Kew. American Language Review, 4(5): 8,52.


A note on Bennett-Kew

The ALR's article on Nancy Ichinaga (Sept/Oct 2000) reports on the increased test scores at the Bennett-Kew school in Ingelwood, CA. It should be pointed out that the Bennett-Kew school has a policy of retaining low achieving kindergarten children for an extra year. According to an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on February 9, 2000, 18% of Bennett-Kew first graders are in this category and attend a special all-day "junior first" program "designed to shore up their basic skills." Also, exam preparation is intense at Bennett-Kew. Bennett-Kew children, according to the Sentinel, are tested constantly on small-scale versions of the fill-in-the-bubble standardized exams. One wonders if they are really increasing the temperature in the room, or simply lighting a match under the thermometer. 

Scores in Bennett-Kew drop regularly with each year. Second graders in 1998 scored 60 on SAT9 reading, then fell to 58 the next year, and to 52 the next. Third graders in 1998 also scored 60 on SAT9 reading, and fell to 57 the next year and 49 the next. This pattern is true for all of Bennett-Kew's test results since the SAT9 was introduced. The lowest scores are still very good for a school with Bennett-Kew's profile, but the decline is of concern.

Stephen Krashen
School of Education, USC 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: George Sheridan 
  To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU 
  Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 5:57 PM
  Subject: Bennett-Kew


  Bennett-Kew Elementary School in Inglewood, California has attracted national attention for being an urban school that has successfully raised test scores--a high poverty, high-performing school that has been visited and praised by President Bush, Governor Davis and other dignitaries. The former principal of Bennett-Kew, Nancy Ichinaga, is now a member of the California State Board of Education. In a letter to the editor of the California Educator, a teacher from a nearby school suggests that discipline problems, learning-disabled students and students who speak no English have been transferred from Bennett-Kew to other schools.

  I do not have personal knowledge of the situation at Bennett-Kew. But if true, these allegations cast a different light on the widely-publicized story that Bennett-Kew's success is due to its high expectations and "no excuses" policy.

  *****Forwarded Letter*****

  Bennett-Kew, along with other schools in Inglewood, has undoubtedly achieved high success levels and deserves commendation for this. As a fellow Inglewood teacher, however, I must call into question the notion that the "independent spirit" of this particular school is being unfairly punished by the district. The writer of the article (October 2002 issue) states that Bennett-Kew is not overcrowded and should therefore be allowed to maintain its exclusive single-track system.

  I work in a school within easy walking distance of Bennett-Kew that is desperately overcrowded and has been labeled "underperforming" by the state. The teachers of Worthington Elementary School, rarely recognized, are dedicated, capable and hard-working. So are our administrators, office staff and students. Our school, though, has four tracks that are all full. New teachers must rove each month; this is a highly challenging assignment on top of the other stresses of being new to teaching. Furthermore, all classrooms are roved into by these new teachers, which leaves no teachers in the school any free time to work in their rooms (except for one meeting-free half day graciously provided to us by the district at the beginning of the school year in July).

  On top of all this, we regularly receive students who live in the Bennett-Kew area or who started there, but who can mysteriously no longer fit in the school. The reason given to teachers at my school is that classrooms at Bennett-Kew are full. Many teachers at my school, however, cannot help noticing that most of these children are "problem" students who are hard to handle. We never seem to get any high-achieving, high-scoring test-takes who could not fit at Bennett-Kew.

  Currently, I have a student who cannot go out to recess or play with his peers at lunch time without getting into an extremely violent altercation. He left Bennett-Kew a couple of months ago because they did not have any space. In the past I have had similar students as well as learning disabled students and students who spoke no English who for some reason "could not fit" into the "not overcrowded" Bennett-Kew.

  Rather than question those in the district who could be attempting to make the Inglewood Unified School District a more equitable system, perhaps your publication should look into the truth behind some of Bennett-Kew's legendary success. Perhaps the uncrowded campus of Bennett-Kew could lighten the load at Worthington by taking a few hundred or so students and switching to a multi-track system. At the very least, they could make a greater effort to keep their own "problem" students who began in their school.

  Douglas Mirk
  Los Angeles

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--- Begin Message ---

• To: William Cala <wcala@rochester.rr.com>
• Subject: Re: URGENT
• From: Stephen Krashen <krashen@usc.edu>
• Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 17:50:55 -0700
• In-reply-to: <0a6a01c27187$39a985d0$0200a8c0@monroe.edu>
• References: <0a6a01c27187$39a985d0$0200a8c0@monroe.edu>

This is from a book I am finishing. It will be called Bilingual Education: 90 questions, 90 answers.

--- End Message ---