thanks, George, for posting this article:
I think this paragraph by the CBEE guy is particularly revealing:
"The defenders of the status quo argue that more money is needed to raise
student
achievement. The best way is to raise expectations. Instead of meeting
minimal
API growth targets annually, schools should focus on raising every
student's
academic achievement to grade-level proficiency. Parents would strongly
agree."
These are the talking points that the BRT and allies pound again and
again:
1. teacher opposition to high stakes testing equals "defending the status
quo" -- a status quo that has never served poor and working class parents
of color, a status quo in which an achievement gap was built in -- so
"parents ...agree" that the status quo must go, and therefore, necessarily
agree with the only vision of fundamental reform being put forth -- high
stakes testing. the more teachers argue about how HST is "destroying
public schools" that we must "defend public schools" the more the are
associated with defending the historic achievement gap. (notice the
parallel to: opposition to the war in Iraq = supporting the terrorists,
democrats oppose the war, so dems support terrorists -- this syllogism has
the parallel just so: public schools produce an ach gap; teachers support
public schools; teachers support an ach gap).
2. HST justifies underfunding of schools -- all you need are "high
expectations" and "high standards"
until teachers stop talking about HST as destroying public schools and
start talking about the need to fundamentally transform schools so they
promote social justice, they will lose the propaganda battle with the BRT
and fail to win the support of parents and other community members that
they so desperately need to stop the high stakes testing juggernaut.
even more, teachers need TO ACT (and not just begin to talk) in a way that
impresses parents. right now, they are doing neither.
kathy
Kathy Emery, Ph. D.
SF Freedom School
www.educationanddemocracy.org
4828 19th Street
SF CA 94114
415-703-0465
mke4think@hotmail.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>
Reply-To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
To: CA Resisters <ca-resisters@interversity.org>
Subject: [ca-resisters] CBEE Calls for tougher school accountability
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:32:16 -0700
Review of study about school accountability misses the mark
By James S. Lanich -
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/135491.html
Published Sunday, March 11, 2007
Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E3
SPECIAL TO THE BEE
The review of our study of the California school accountability system
misses the
mark for accuracy and honesty. We proved the state's Academic Performance
Index
is a failure and should be abandoned. It's confusing, goals for student
academic
improvement are minimal, and worse, the API hides achievement gaps. Our
students
are on the losing end.
The defenders of the status quo argue that more money is needed to raise
student
achievement. The best way is to raise expectations. Instead of meeting
minimal
API growth targets annually, schools should focus on raising every
student's
academic achievement to grade-level proficiency. Parents would strongly
agree.
Focusing on grade-level proficiency as the minimum standard for success
works.
The article failed to review the bulk of the report that explained very
clearly
that the "cavalry" is made up of the high-performing schools throughout
the state
identified by California Business for Education Excellence, many with
large
numbers of low-income, minority and English-learner students. These high
performers should serve as role models. These schools don't focus on
meeting
minimal API requirements. Instead they work to ensure every child is
reading and
doing math at grade level each year.
Here are the problems with the API.
The API improvement asked of schools each year is set way too low. For
example, a
school with a starting API score of 500 or lower -- there were 425 schools
with
this API or lower in 2005 -- could successfully meet its minimal growth
targets
each year, but it would take somewhere between 42 to 53 years for that
school to
reach an 800 API. That is simply too long. Our children don't have a shelf
life.
The API hides achievement gaps. A school's API score is one number that
averages
the test scores of all students in the school on the statewide standards
test. A
few students, usually the white and Asian students, raise the average
enough so
the school meets its API growth targets but, at the same time, that school
still
often has subgroups of students -- usually poor, ethnic minority students
--
stagnating or even declining in academic proficiency.
While API scores rise, six out of 10 students in grades 2 through 11 score
below
grade-level proficiency in English and math on state tests, while more
than seven
out of 10 African-American and Latino students score below grade-level.
California's school accountability system is an illusion. The focus must
be on
getting all students to grade-level.
About the writer: James S. Lanich, president of California Business for
Education
Excellence, is responding to the Feb. 14 op-ed article "Saving state's
weak
schools: Where's the cavalry?"
George Sheridan
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Thanks in advance!
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