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Posted on 11/16/2001 1:23:04 PM PST by GailA

Fogelman urges lower standard for city schools

By Aimee Edmondson edmondson@gomemphis.com

State school board member Avron Fogelman of Memphis said Thursday he will propose that the board set up lower performance standards for Memphis schools than the rest of Tennessee.

He believes you just can't compare an urban district plagued with poverty to other school districts in the state.

After seeing the latest round of school report cards released by the state this week, Fogelman predicted that up to 70 percent of students will not graduate because they will fail the tougher Gateway tests required for graduation starting this year.

He wants to make it easier for students to pass that test.

"It's like a runaway freight train that will hit us in Memphis if somebody doesn't call time out," Fogelman said. "As it's going now, they're not going to have a prayer."

Fogelman said he'll make a motion at the next state Board of Education meeting Feb. 1 to create a separate set of requirements.

Currently the state's performance standard for schools is the 50th national percentile on achievement tests. That means that students should perform as well or better than 50 percent of students across the nation.

Fogelman wants Memphis's standard to be the 40th percentile. Right now, a 40 is an F on the state report card.

Fogelman knows he faces an uphill battle in persuading his colleagues on the state board to buy into his plan.

He brought up the idea briefly in September after the state identified its low-performing schools in jeopardy of a state takeover. Two thirds of those, 64, are in Memphis.

At the time, board members and education commissioner Faye Taylor argued against a separate set of standards for the state's largest city.

Cherrie Holden is the other local member of the state board of education.

"I don't understand how we can set a separate standard and expect all children to achieve the same," Holden said. "Other districts will say, 'If they get a break, we all should get a break.' "

However, Memphis Supt. Johnnie B. Watson likes Fogelman's idea. "I'm all for accountability," Watson said. "But the time has come that we need to stop letting half-baked testing determine what we teach and how we teach. It's controlling the school system."

Watson wants to see a scale created that takes poverty into account when looking at a school's test score data. So it wouldn't just be for Memphis. If other districts are this poor, they have the same weighted scale, he pointed out.

About 70 percent of Memphis students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals, a common indicator of poverty - and student achievement.

Only 13 percent of students in Shelby County Schools do so. The county historically logs much higher test scores in general than the city.

And that is a huge source of frustration for city school teachers and administrators, who brace themselves for the annual parade of D's and F's published in the newspaper.

"We must do something to let this community know that Shelby County and Memphis cannot be compared," Watson said.

The relation of poverty to student achievement has been widely debated for years.

Sociologist James S. Coleman sparked a national debate with his 1966 study concluding that the differences in student achievement had more to do with home life and family wealth than what goes on in the schoolhouse.

Watson also pointed to the ACT test scores, which are used to identify schools for the low performing list starting this year, along with other criteria.

A large number of Memphis' 118,000 students don't have college in their sights, so teachers shouldn't have to spend time preparing them for it. "(We) have to prepare them for the world of work after graduation," Watson said.

Memphis scored a D on the ACT portion of the report card, averaging a score of 17 systemwide. The state and national average is 20. Shelby County scored a 21.2 systemwide.

Fogelman and Memphis educators also are fretting over the new Gateway exit exams, which students starting with this year's freshmen must pass before graduation.

The Gateway tests, consisting of separate algebra I, English II and biology tests, present a much higher bar than the current eighth-grade level competency test students must pass to graduate.

According to this year's report card, 45 percent of Memphis freshman passed that test, giving the city an F.In the county, that number is 77 percent, or a B.

- Aimee Edmondson: 529-2773

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