Re: CA State results shed new light on wealth vs. poverty debate.

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

I just sent this to the Bee. Since I dont live in Sac, they probably 
wont publish it...

> Your article about the just-released test scores rightly points out 
> that income correlates to scores pretty closely; that's why we call 
> the API the Affluent Parents' Index. But research consistently shows 
> that an even more accurate score predictor is mother's education, 
> which is a proxy for class.
>
> California does not collect this information. Instead, it asks for 
> "parent education level", which is either father's or mother's, 
> whichever is higher. There's no way of knowing how truthfully families 
> answer this question, even if the school asks it, and few do. Most 
> schools simply guess.
>
> Whichever predictor we use—parents' education or income—it's clear 
> that it gives us as much information as the test itself. So why do we 
> continue to abuse children with this deeply flawed instrument? If 
> scores roughly match income and education, to close the score gap all 
> families will have to have higher income and education. That is, we 
> will have to abolish poverty.
>
> In the meantime, let's stop pretending test scores tell us anything we 
> don't already know, let's repeal No Child Left Behind, and let's stop 
> the testing madness.
>
> Susan Harman for CalCARE

On Saturday, August 18, 2007, at 11:59 AM, Peter Farruggio wrote:

> Printed in the Sacramento Bee, official house organ for the California 
> corporate standardistas.
>
> They're spinning the test results to divert the focus away from social 
> class and poverty, which is clearly designed to avoid debate on 
> underfunding, especially the criminal underfunding of low income urban 
> schools, which are almost exclusively Black and Latino.  Heavens 
> forbid we tax the rich and the lucrative corporations in CA to raise 
> the revenue to fully fund quality public ed!!!!  At the ports of Long 
> Beach and Oakland alone, huge profits are made from the Pacific Rim 
> trade.
>
> Some questions about the questionable data they use:
>
> Where are all these "poor" white kids in CA, and how many are they?  
> To my observation, they're concentrated in rural areas, certainly not 
> in the devastated inner cities.  If their schools are anything like 
> those in poor rural South Texas, then there is no comparison with the 
> much worse dilapidated monstrosities of truly poor neighborhoods in 
> Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, East Palo Alto, etc  Urban poverty 
> in the US has become a multifaceted horror for child development, much 
> different from rural poverty.  I haven't seen many white kids in the 
> segregated working class urban schools.
>
> Middle class vs poor:  not qualifying for free lunch does not mean 
> you're "middle class"  Research on the Black middle class has shown 
> that few who qualify by higher income are truly as middle class as 
> most upper income whites, as far as having non-job-related wealth and 
> "country club" connections.  I think the "middle class" Blacks and 
> Latinos they discuss in this propaganda piece are just working class 
> families with "too much" income to qualify for free/reduced lunch.  
> For the most part, their kids attend urban schools (low or medium 
> income) that are crappy and doing test prep curricula.  The real 
> middle class is in mostly white, well funded public schools or private 
> schools
>
> Of course, the standardistas don't like to mention that most of CA's 
> Latino kids are English Learners who are being tested in their second 
> language.
>
> Pete Farruggio
>
> > ----------
> >
> >
> > Tests show racial achievement gap
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > State results shed new light on wealth vs. poverty debate.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > By Laurel Rosenhall - Bee Staff Writer
> > Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, August 16, 2007
> >
> >
> >
> > Whether they are poor or rich, white students are scoring higher than 
> > their African American and Latino classmates on the state's 
> > standardized tests, results released Wednesday show. And in some 
> > cases, the poorest white students are doing better than Latino and 
> > black students who come from middle class or wealthy families.
> >
> > The so-called achievement gap -- the difference in performance 
> > between groups of students -- has long been chalked up to a 
> > difference in family income. It makes sense that -- regardless of 
> > race -- students whose parents have money and speak English would do 
> > better in school, on the whole, than students whose families struggle 
> > with employment, food and shelter.
> >
> > But this year's test scores show that the difference in academic 
> > achievement between ethnic groups is more than an issue of poverty 
> > vs. wealth.
> >
> > On the standardized math tests that public school students take every 
> > year from second to 11th grade, 38 percent of white students who 
> > qualify for subsidized lunch scored proficient or above, compared 
> > with 36 percent of Latino students and 30 percent of black students 
> > whose families made too much money to qualify for school meals. On 
> > standardized English tests, poor white students did about the same as 
> > non-poor Latino and African American students.
> >
> > "These are not just economic achievement gaps," state Superintendent 
> > Jack O'Connell said in announcing the test scores from an elementary 
> > school in Inglewood.
> >
> > "They are racial achievement gaps, and we cannot continue to excuse 
> > them."
> >
> > It's a new twist on what has become a common theme for O'Connell -- 
> > the danger the achievement gap poses for California's economic 
> > future. About 56 percent of the state's public school students are 
> > Latino or black, so their academic performance now will have a big 
> > influence on the work force of the future.
> >
> > "I've been pounding this drum and am going to continue to do so, not 
> > just for the moral imperative that we have, but for the economic 
> > imperative," O'Connell said.
> >
> > "We're going to focus on (the achievement gap) like a heat-seeking 
> > missile during my last three years here as the state superintendent."
> > In general, test scores were flat compared with last year, but up 
> > from five years ago. Forty-one percent of students were proficient in 
> > math this year, while 43 percent were proficient in English. Even 
> > though students are doing better than five years ago -- when 35 
> > percent were proficient in math and English -- the achievement gap 
> > between racial groups has remained a constant, with white and Asian 
> > American students scoring higher than their Latino and African 
> > American peers.
> >
> > O'Connell said little Wednesday to explain why the achievement gap 
> > persists.
> >
> > "That is the $50 billion question," said Francisco Estrada, public 
> > policy director for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, one of 
> > several Latino and African American activists who lauded O'Connell 
> > for drawing attention to the issue, even while they criticized the 
> > state government for not doing enough to improve education for 
> > students of color.
> >
> > "Superintendent O'Connell should be commended for not just simply 
> > saying, 'We're doing great and let's keep doing what we're doing,' 
> > which is what we've heard in other years," Estrada said.
> >
> > Russlynn Ali, director of Education Trust West, said state 
> > policymakers are responsible for the achievement gap that has kept 
> > black and Latino students behind because they've done little to put 
> > experienced, well-trained teachers and rigorous high-level courses in 
> > schools that predominantly serve those groups.
> >
> > "Our system takes poor kids and kids of color -- not just the 
> > students of color who are poor -- and provides them less of 
> > everything research says makes a difference," she said.
> >
> > "That is the underlying cause of the achievement gap."
> >
> > While Ali blamed the government for distributing resources 
> > inequitably, others said the gap is due to teachers' expectations.
> >
> > "The expectations are not as high for African American students as 
> > they are for other students," said Anita Royston, an education 
> > consultant who used to work for the Sacramento City Unified School 
> > District.
> >
> > That district's school board president once found the same to be true 
> > in his Latino family. In 1989, Manny Hernandez said, his son was 
> > forbidden from taking college-prep classes in high school.
> >
> > "That kind of tracking took place, not because people were bad or 
> > racist, but because that was the expectation," Hernandez said.
> > When he became a school board member some years later, Hernandez 
> > wanted to change the district's expectations about who goes to 
> > college. The Sacramento City Unified school board increased 
> > graduation requirements, so that more students will graduate with 
> > more of the courses necessary to enter college.
> >
> > Sharroky Hollie sees the achievement gap yet another way. He is a 
> > professor of teacher education at California State University, 
> > Dominguez Hills, who focuses on strategies that help Latino and 
> > African American students learn. Hollie says the achievement gap 
> > reflects a biased education system that doesn't accept behaviors and 
> > learning styles common in African American and Latino communities.
> >
> > For example, he said, an African American student who is talkative 
> > and frequently gets out of his seat will be seen as disruptive and 
> > defiant in most schools. Instead, Hollie said, teachers should 
> > develop teaching strategies that work with the student's social and 
> > kinesthetic nature, a trait that could be attributed to his cultural 
> > background.
> >
> > "The first thing we want schools to do is to change their mind-set in 
> > seeing these behaviors as cultural and not negative," he said. "The 
> > rest of it is: How can the instruction be reshaped to validate and 
> > affirm the cultural behaviors as a segue to standards-based >> learning?"
> >
> > Testing experts said too many factors affect test scores to attribute 
> > the racial differences to any one thing. Jamal Abedi of the UC Davis 
> > School of Education said the test questions use complex language that 
> > may throw students off, particularly those who are not native English 
> > speakers or who speak in the vernacular at home.
> >
> > "Those terms prevent students from understanding the assessment 
> > questions," he said. "Therefore, they may not be able to respond."
> > Wednesday's release shows how students did on the California 
> > Standards Tests they took in the spring. Their scores are divided 
> > into five categories -- advanced, proficient, basic, below basic and 
> > far below basic. The goal is for all students to reach proficient or 
> > advanced. Later this month, the state Department of Education will 
> > use these scores to calculate an Academic Performance Index number 
> > for each school and to determine whether schools are meeting the 
> > requirements set by No Child Left Behind.
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