That is, as long as you aren't learning English as a 2nd language, poor or otherwise disenfranchised, or disabled in some way. In that case - whatever.
I promise the political posts are simply coincidence and will stop as soon as it ceases to peeve me royally. In California we employ a little testing system called the Academic Performance Index. All the students in all the public schools (K-12) are given a standardized test for each grade level and the state comes up with a score that they use to measure a school's performance against the rest of the public schools in California. A score of at least 800 is considered passing. Also, they publish these scores in the local paper so you can read about and feel better than everyone else or worse than everyone else. Or good enough, I guess.
Now, this is great for (and I read through the detailed scores on their website for all the schools in our district) the schools with the highest number of wealthy white kids. For example, the desired school in our town for elementary students is Mound. Mound scored 960 (which is very,very high) - but of 377 kids who tested there less than 50 were non-white, poor, ESL, and/or disabled. None of these statistics were considered numerically significant enough to even separate them out of the main score. They did consider the white students score of 962 worthy of noting on the website. Nice!
Next, Serra Elementary - school to my niece and nephew. They tested 361 kids for a total score of 854. But here they have 120 non-white students who scored 805 as a group, 97 poor kids who scored 793, and nearly 60 ESL or disabled kids who were not considered numerically significant. (Notice, it's not about kids or learning - but about the math) The white students (238), as a group, scored 874.
So, between 2 schools with comparable attendance - a school where about 30% of kids are either non-native English speakers, economically disadvantaged, and/or disabled (kids who need assistance taking the test are counted as a failing score and this is added into the total, seriously) - and a school with 15% of kids in these categories (Mound was counted as having 1 ESL student) - are lumped together under one number and printed up in the paper like a competition. It's ridiculous.
G's school is such a mishmash of badly gathered data - hardly worth repeating. Loma Vista is the district magnet school for any students along the spectrum of hearing or sight disabilities. Therefore, 15% of 247 kids tested at G's school are disabled and counted as failing because the assistance they needed to take the test. That 15% doesn't even include another 25-30% of the students who are poor or ESL. They had a total of 834 and 879 among the 170 white students.
What's my problem? I guess it's the way schools with higher percentages of wealthy white kids are being advertised as the strongest academically - when this is not necessarily the case - and stronger students, with more involved parents are being driven to the same school. Then what?
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3 comments:
S and I talk about this a lot. She'd be a much better responder than I to this.
But I think you're on to something. Ever consider going into research? :-)
This is scary stuff indeed. Makes me worried about having kid(s). My reflex is to consider starting our own school/community school, but then of course there's the other shoe to that line of thinking which I won't go on about here. Let's just say I'd like to step back three hundred years and into the woods of North America with my own little Walden school for Children...
But anyway - I like the new blog. You're officially a Blogger!
josh and i talk about this a lot
and i think you are on to something.
i blame the state of our city school on "statics" like this because it does attract people who care about their kid's education, and this leaves the city schools (in my thinking but what i mean is the schools not doing well) without a share of resources like parent involvement which is the one thing that consistently shows a link to a school's success
i could go on but won't
NY has similar standards, except that 3rd graders who don't pass their ELA exams are retained. My friend did a study on third grade retainees, and a crazy percentage of those kids never graduate from the 8th grade.
Anyway, anyone with half a brain knows that standardized test scores mean jack. It's too bad - the policy-makers in our country are ruining the chances of the kids who really need the help. Those populations you were talking about - little parent support (no mention about why parents have trouble supporting them - working 2/3 jobs - not making enough money, etc...)are the kids that end up suffering the most.
It's just a crazy system our schools. The wealthy white kids do well - can afford Princeton prep and get into good colleges and universities - sending their kids on the same path.
Standardized tests are tailored to their experiences - it's all quite ridiculous and it's these very things that will keep me working with my current population as long as I can.
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