Test Scores Show a Racial Divide: White students are the only subgroup that met federal standards this year
September 4, 2008
By Michael Lee Pope
Alexandria Gazette Packet
As students head back to the classroom for a new school year this week, administrators are grappling with an age-old question: how to solve the achievement gap in Alexandria. School Board members campaigned on closing it, and a generation of city leadership has advocated its importance. Yet statistics released by the Virginia Department of Education last week show that the divide between those making the cut and those falling behind is increasingly drawn along racial lines.
An analysis of standardized test scores indicates that white students are the only subgroup that met federal standards this year under No Child Left Behind. Every other subgroup failed to meet the minimum standards, including black students, Hispanic students, disadvantaged students, students who speak limited English and students with disabilities. When asked about the disparity, Superintendent Morton Sherman said school districts across the country are dealing with similar issues.
"For a long time, people in the education community pretended like this problem wasn’t there," said Sherman while visiting Jefferson-Houston Elementary School on the first day of school this week. "We were afraid of how to ask questions about race."
The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act put an end to those fears. By requiring schools to collect racial, social and economic demographics, the legislation has prompted a national discussion about how these issues influence public education in America. And as a result of how the data is organized, race-based disparities have become more evident with each new crop of standardized test results. One of the most dramatic manifestations of disparity this year was at George Washington Middle School, where 89 percent of white students passed the math test yet only 48 percent of black students were able to make the grade.
"I think there are probably a lot of reasons for the racial disparity, but we’re not going to solve this problem by focussing on the numbers," said School Board member Blanche Maness. "In my opinion, we’ve got to get parents involved in reading to their children at an early age. Then I think we’ll start to see some movement in the statistics."
LAST YEAR, a controversial report titled "Obstacles to Opportunity" concluded that the city school system as a "two-track system," in which a privileged white minority receives an education that sets them on a path for college while blacks and Latino students are marginalized or ignored. The report was conducted by Tenets and Workers United, the Advancement Project and George Mason University Sociology Professor Tony Samara. It documented lingering disparities in test scores, discipline practices and counseling directives in the city school system.
"While a small number of students are actively prepared from an early age for college and successful careers, the majority of students are not expected to excel and encounter substantial obstacles to achieving their goals," the 54-page report concluded. "The structure of these tracks has dramatic racial implications, as white students dominate the high-level track while students of color comprise the majority of the low-level track."
Using standardized test score data from the Virginia Department of Education, the report’s authors demonstrated that white students in Alexandria outperform other students statewide while black and Latino students consistently scored lower than their counterparts in other parts Virginia. The report made 13 recommendations, including hiring more guidance counselors at T.C. Williams High School and increasing the number of black and Latino students in Advanced Placement classes. Although the report prompted a great deal of discussion in the city, School Board members have yet to put any of its recommendations on a docket for discussion.
"We must do better to help our black, Latino and ESL students prepare for college," said Eileen Cassidy Rivera, who has encouraged School Board members to consider the recommendations outlined in the report. "I will work hard this year with my School Bard member and Superintend Sherman to meet these challenges."
STANDARDIZED SCORES from tests taken earlier this year show a mixed picture for Alexandria City Public Schools. Although the numbers indicate racial disparities within the school system, they also showed improvement over last year’s scores. Ten schools were deemed to have met "adequate yearly progress," the gold-standard under No Child Left Behind: John Adams Elementary School, Barrett Elementary School, Jefferson-Houston Elementary School, Cora Kelly Elementary School, Lyles-Crouch Elementary School, MacArthur Elementary School, Mason Elementary School, Maury Elementary School, Polk Elementary School and Tucker Elementary School.
"I am extremely pleased with our progress," said Deputy Superintendent Cathy David in a written statement announcing the standardized-test results. "Our dedicated students, teachers and administrators work hard throughout the year to help all students achieve at their highest potential and this is one indicator that we are moving in the right direction."
At Jefferson-Houston, where 66 percent of students are black and 81 percent of students live in poverty, closing the achievement gap has become the focus of an ongoing effort that has included school officials, central administrators and state bureaucrats. Although their efforts have been able to raise standardized tests scores, black students and disadvantaged students both failed to meet minimum standards in math and reading. Despite this, the school was designated as having met the "adequate yearly progress" under the "safe harbor provision" of No Child Left Behind because of the dramatic improvement over last year’s scores.
"Safe harbor is a way to reward schools, even when they don’t meet the benchmarks," said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.
THREE ELEMENTARY schools failed to make "adequate yearly progress" this year: Mount Vernon Elementary School, Ramsay Elementary School and Patrick Henry Elementary School. Both middle schools failed to meet expectations, as did the city’s high school. Yet only schools that receive money under "Title 1" of the legislation are eligible for sanctions. As a result, Mount Vernon will now receive a sanction under No Child Left Behind for failing to meet federal standards for two years in a row.
But it won’t be the controversial vouchers that allow parents to abandon low-performing schools. Last week, central administration officials announced that the city school system would be participating in a pilot program under the United States Department of Education known as the Education Supplemental Educational Services. Because of the city’s participation in the federal pilot program, the Del Ray elementary school will be able to offer tutoring as a sanction in lieu of sending vouchers.
"Participating in the SES pilot is great for the Alexandria City Public Schools because more families have signed up for SES than public school choice over the past three years," said Assistant Superintendent John Grymes in a written statement announcing the pilot program. "SES affords each eligible student an opportunity to get additional academic help at a time that works best for the family."
According to the language of No Child Left Behind, the bar for meeting "adequate yearly progress" is raised each year, with the goal of 100 percent of students passing both the English and math exams by 2014. This year, for example, the minimum standard for English was raised from 73 percent last year to 77 percent this year. Similarly, the minimum pass rate for math was raised from 71 percent to 75 percent. Although Superintendent Sherman described No Child Left Behind a "flawed law," he said Tuesday that he agrees with the concept of raising expectations.
"We will not accept differences by race, gender, religion or disability," said Sherman. "Here we are 50 years after Brown v. Board and yet these differences still exist. But now the conversation has shifted from access to achievement."
Filed under Quality Education
