Posted on 12/25/2003 9:00:54 AM PST by neverdem
Public schools with diverse student populations are far more likely than those with homogeneous populations to be labeled as failing under President Bush's education law, according to a new California study.
The study examined why 3,000 of the 7,669 public schools in California were designated as "needing improvement" under the terms of the federal law, a category that obligates districts to provide transportation for students wishing to transfer to other schools and brings other sanctions in subsequent years.
The study found that many of the 3,000 schools were designated not because tests had shown their overall achievement levels to be faltering, but because a single student group — disabled learners or Asian students, for example — had fallen short of a target.
As a result, the chances that a school would be designated as failing increased in proportion to the number of demographic groups served by the school, the study found.
"The law penalizes schools that serve more diverse kids," said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at the University of California at Berkeley who is a co-author of the study. "It's not that those schools are less effective for average students. It's just that they have all these targets to hit."
The law, known as No Child Left Behind, seeks to identify inequities by requiring schools to break down test scores for every demographic group.
If any group fails to meet growth targets or simply if its rate of test participation falls below the required 95 percent, the entire school misses "adequate yearly progress." If a school misses the goal two years in a row, it is designated "needing improvement."
The study, which Dr. Fuller wrote with John R. Novak, director of research for the Long Beach Unified School District, identified two schools in Oakland whose students, on average, performed at equal levels on standardized tests. One, Manzanita Elementary, serves a diverse population, including black, Latino, Asian, low-income and limited-English students.
The other school, Golden Gate Elementary, serves primarily black students, some of whom are also in the low-income category, giving the school just two groups under the federal law's accountability system, the study said.
As a result of its diverse population, Manzanita had to meet targets in 18 categories. It succeeded in 17.
Black students narrowly missed their target in math, the study said. Golden Gate, because of its more homogeneous student body, needed to meet targets in only six categories, and succeeded.
Manzanita was designated as needing improvement, and Golden Gate was not, the study said.
Eugene W. Hickok, acting deputy education secretary, said he was not surprised by the results in the study but disagreed with the interpretation.
"There's a certain logic that the more subgroups you have — the more boxes you have to check off — the more difficult it will be to make adequate yearly progress," Dr. Hickok said. "But to conclude that N.C.L.B. punishes diversity is a non sequitur. As a public school, you have an obligation to all your kids. If special-ed kids are not doing well, then you have an obligation to take care of that."
I think there are two main take home points. First is that the Feds have no business getting involved in K - 12 education. The second is that sociological studies only cause useless trouble.
I don't have kids, but I live in a neighborhood of the Bronx that has pretty good public schools. So what are the local clowns whining about here? They are crying about transfers into local schools from deficient, adjacent districts fearing the displacement of local kids. You can't make them happy.
I'm leaving to visit my family. Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah
Talk about fiction...consider the source...The New York Slimes.
They ought to get a Nobel Prize for Fiction...or at least The Jayson Blair Authentic Journalism Medal.
The bigger the gap from top to bottom in a common school, the harder it will be to make it work.
How can anyone be surprised by this?
Note that the story referred to various groups "falling short of their targets." I'd be willing to bet my entire serving of Christmas plum pudding that the "targets" referred to differ by ethnic group, and that the "target" is higher for Asians than for other groups.
In the bizarro-world of modern public education, it's not about achieving success by objective standards, but rather about beating the dumbed-down expectations of your oppressed sub-group. President Bush has spoken often about the "soft bigotry of low expectations," and he is absolutely right.
Clearly Bush is filled with hate for such schools. He has targeted them for failure. Probably did a survey on which US schools were most diverse and then moved all of those on to the list of "failing schools", in an effort to stamp out diversity through relentless government persecution.
I think this is what the NYT is trying to say.
The problem is not that Asian students HAVE difficulty in school, it's that they CREATE difficulty for administrators.
The name of the game in "No Child Left Behind" is not raising academic excellence. The game is closing the "Achievement Gap" in schools. In plain english, the establishment wants to fix the disparity between black/hispanic test results versus white/asian test results. There are two ways to do this: raise black/hispanic scores, or cripple white/asian scores. Gues which is easier to do? Guess which groups is going to fight hardest against thier kids education being crippled?
From the dept of education's own website:
We must test all groups of students, so we can target the achievement gap, define it and attack it with the full knowledge and support of our communities. The president is committed to eliminating the achievement gap, not hiding it within school or statewide averages.Under NCLB, if white test scores go up 0% but black test scores go up 5%, the school passes. If black scores go up 5% but white scores go up 10%, the school is in trouble because the "achievement gap" has increased. This is a big no-no.That’s why he wants each school to examine achievement every year in third through eighth grades by race, ethnicity, economic background and disabilities. That way we won’t leave any group or child behind.
From another page on the ed.gov site:
Failure cannot hide.
Test data will be reported by economic background, race and ethnicity, English proficiency and disability.Measuring progress by subgroups will demonstrate not just that overall student performance is improving, but also that achievement gaps are closing between disadvantaged students and other students.
Holding schools accountable for the academic achievement of all subgroups ensures that no child is left behind.
And where do you want the application for employment sent?
Holding schools accountable for the academic achievement of all subgroups ensures that no child is left behind.
Does someone actually think that this can be accomplished given the parent[s] of some of the children who are being "left behind".? I have my doubts.
Anyway, I'm off to go read the links you provided.
What they will do is allocate a grossly disproportionate amount of resources to "shrinking the gap". In reality what will happen is the allocation of a sufficient amount of money to friends of Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, and the rest so that they stop complaining about the issue. Once the funding is in place, any attempt to cut off the race pimps will result in the Administration being "discovered" to be in non-compliance with "No Child Left Behind", with multiple lawsuits following the discovery
Reading between the lines, a new plan emerges on how to hide the money that will be spent on raising minority scores: ship them to suburban schools, and hold the suburban schools accountable for ensuring that minority test scores improve, even if it robs white/asian kids of resources
disabled learners or Asian students, for example — had fallen short of a target.
What a crock.
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