Posted on 05/26/2015 10:10:47 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Some parents in affluent Michigan school districts may be surprised to learn the local school isn’t just failing to give their kids a leg up, it’s holding them back. New research shows that a number of Michigan schools in middle- to upper-income areas are underperforming on state and national proficiency exams.
In eighth-grade math, for example, 58 percent of Michigan students failed to score at the proficient level on the National Assessment for Education Progress.
“We’re trying to lift the stone so parents can see what is underneath,” said Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute. Izumi, along with Alicia Chang, is the author of “Not As Good As You Think: Why Middle-Class Parents in Michigan Should be Concerned About Their Local Public Schools.”
Izumi and Chang began their research in 2007 looking at California public schools in which one-third or fewer of the students were eligible for the federal free- or reduced price-lunch program, the usual school proxy for low-income backgrounds. Students from higher-income homes face fewer socio-economic challenges and typically get more educational support at home, including tutoring.
The expectation is that the schools they attend would be outperforming. But many are not.
Izumi and Chang looked at data in other states, including Michigan, and what they found might surprise parents.
“Of the 677 regular public schools with predominantly non-low income student populations, 534 — 79 percent — had at least one grade level where the subject-matter proficiency rate on the MEAP or MME was below the average performance of schools with the same student-income-status demographic,” said Izumi, referring to Michigan’s statewide student assessments.
Izumi says all it takes is a below-average performance by just one grade in one subject test to indicate there is a problem with the school. That is because an underperforming classroom or teacher can have years of residual effect.
“We’re finding a number of students not prepared for college at the community college level, not even University of Michigan or Harvard,” Izumi said, adding that many college students need remedial math or English to make up for what they didn’t learn in middle and high school.
The report cites a number of schools in higher-income districts not performing at proficient levels, including Grosse Pointe North High School, Scranton Middle School in Brighton, South Lyon High School, Caledonia High School, and Hudsonville High School.
At Grosse Pointe North High School, for example, more than 59 percent of 11th-graders failed to meet the proficient level on the 2012-13 Michigan Merit Exam. The median household income in Grosse Pointe Woods, where the high school is located, is 78 percent higher than the statewide median income of $46,859.
“You think you have it made when you move to these districts. You see the few kids going to Harvard, and you assume the school will get all students to that level, and that’s just not the case,” said Izumi.
Izumi says math seems to be where the biggest deficiencies lie. The reading portion of the MME appears less rigorous than comparable tests in other states, so Michigan students get higher scores on it. Yet 55 percent of higher-income students failed to score at the proficient level in reading on the National Assessment for Educational Progress. Eighth-graders in Ohio scored better on the NAEP than those in Michigan in both math and reading.
Izumi says parents need to dig deeply into the data on proficiency exams before assuming that their children’s educational needs are being met.
Izumi says his findings suggest that kids in attractive but low-performing public schools need options right now, not some time in the future, and that means more school choice opportunities, including more charter schools, digital learning, school vouchers and tuition tax credits.
“The school choice model has worked in struggling urban areas. There is no reason to believe it won’t work elsewhere,” said Izumi.
He noted that when parents have more options they tend to take a more vested interest in where their child attends school and how their child performs. He also mentioned that Michigan needs to look at how much parents are spending on tutoring.
“If we account for that, we may find that schools are doing worse than they should be,” he said.
My guess is there’s a 1 to 1 relationship between parental involvement and academic success. Which proves (if one is willing to admit it) that which schools, teacher to student ratio, and spending/pupil are all irrelevant and actually an impediment to a good education.
Sounds like a unionized staffing problem, not a student problem.
D- to the writers of this story.
Which means money is not the answer to a better education.
Might have something to do with poor teachers, poor curriculum and union and government controls.
My bet in on the smarter the parents the better performing is the school.
We lived in an upper class income area and the parents who were were paying attention hired college student tutors for their children in math and science. These kids did well on SATs.
A lot of smart kids did not perform up to their ability. I know one family who figured out their seventh and eighth grade children did not know how to read! They about died.
My oldest son was not dependent upon the school for knowledge and skills. Somehow he learned on his own and through reading and discussions with me, his dad and cousin and he did extremely well on SATs. He took all the ap courses he could. I had to educate my youngest with his dad and with tutors for most of his schooling,
During the summers, public school parents made their kids read real history books because American history was missing (except in AP courses.) They did diversity, hate whitey, socialism at the school. Somehow the schools became a lesbian magnet.
The funny thing was, everyone was quiet about the school mess because they did not want to harm the reputation of the town (house values).
You have to be careful of high end private schools too because most are dumbed down liberal messes.
OK, guess that means we can stop throwing $$$$$$ at inner city schools.
Well, in that case, we should equalize all per-student funding. Hey, you knew where this was going to go. ;')
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