Answer: Does it matter?
With government schools, it all comes down to the black-white academic achievement gap, and don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.
Whether it’s the takeover of suburban schools (read: tax base) in Omaha, Nebraska, or the dumbing down of gifted programs in Montgomery County, Maryland, the achievement gap is at the center. If racism were the cause, black-run school districts like Prince George’s County and D.C. Public Schools would fare better, but obviously they don’t. (Ironically, DC’s per pupil expenditure is among the highest in the country.)
By now you’ve read these alarming headlines: “States Omitting Minority Scores,” “Schools skirt ‘No Child Left Behind’ rule,” “Whites Generally Not Left Behind,” “Educators say some Indian children being left behind,” etc. Some schools are not reporting test scores for minority students, as required under the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), which was designed to hold schools accountable for low-achieving students.
You actually need to read such stories to the end to find out what’s going on. But first, let’s “cut to the chase” on NCLB. Feds to states: “States, you must improve minority students’ performance, or else. We don’t care how you do it, just do it. Unfunded mandate, my eye!”
If you prefer convoluted, governmentspeak explanations, knock yourselves out: White House: No Child Left Behind and the Department of Education’s NCLB page.
Back to the “hiding scores” meme. When reporting standardized test scores to the Department of Education as mandated by NCLB, states are allowed to exclude scores of groups too small to be statistically significant, and states decide what’s “too small.” For example, let’s say Florida decided not to report scores from racial groups of less than 20 students. In a school with 1,000 whites and 15 blacks, the black students’ scores wouldn’t be reported.
Sounds reasonable as far as statistics go, but the trend is troubling to some, I suppose. The practice disproportionately impacts black students, and that makes it automatically suspect (at least to social engineers). A few years ago I supported NCLB. I particularly liked that parents have the option of transferring their children to a different school if their neighborhood school fails for two consecutive years to meet a rigorous set of standards. There was no guarantee that the law would work, but I thought it provided an incentive for schools to retain students. It represented a shift toward “competition.”
[Note: A commenter reminded me of something I read but forgot to mention. Blogger Jeff the Baptist wrote: "It is my understanding that these children are not going uncounted. All kids are counted in the summary descriptive statistics. However if a minority population is too small (below 20 or 30) you don't have a sufficient population to form accurate descriptive statistics. Those populations are not required to have their own minority descriptive statistics." Emphasis added.]
But I’ve all but given up on such idealistic notions. Under NCLB, it appears that schools are only as strong as their weakest students. Students from “failing” schools would transfer to a “passing” school and place more pressure on those schools to improve their weak performance. It’s a vicious and confusing circle.
I’m no longer in denial about the persistent achievement gap. There’s more going on than just “some people aren’t good at taking tests.” And transferring to higher-quality schools may help, but they will eventually succumb to the pressure. While focusing on low-achieving students, high-achievers get the shaft.
Based on decades of personal experience, articles, and studies I’ve read through the years, I’m convinced the achievement gap is exacerbated by certain factors in the black American subculture. Of course, all subcultures have issues, but I think the lack of focus on education — not just in the abstract, but as a concrete way of life — is largely absent in many black communities.
At this point I’m tempted to focus only on “poor” or “uneducated” blacks, but I won’t give in to it. The gap exists among all socioeconomic classes, but so-called affirmative action benefits blacks in higher class levels the most.
Families don’t have to make lots of money to supplement a child’s education at home. All they need is a precious commodity called TIME. Even if you don’t have a college degree or didn’t finish high school, you can still read to your child every day and take him to libraries and museums often.
When I was a kid, I LOVED libraries. These days, I usually get free books for review (often unsolicited) or buy them. But back in the day, if you were looking for me, you’d probably find me in the library in a chair by a window with a book.
I was disappointed if I couldn’t check out a fresh stack of books every week. My hometown library’s “bookmobile” used to come to my neighborhood every two weeks. I was always ready to dart out the door, with orange card and books in hand as soon as it parked (with my two younger sisters in tow and eventually, my “baby” brother), which was only several yards from our house. When I turned 12 (or was it 13?), I graduated to a blue adult card. I was proud of that card!
I still visit my hometown’s library whenever I can. Adult cards are no longer blue or wallet-sized. The high-tech, thin plastic squares fit on a key chain. I still love that library. I’ve lived in several different cities through the years, and finding the local libraries was always high on the to-do list.
As you can tell, those early library trips and bookmobile adventures had a profound effect on me. My parents paid for those services through property taxes, so they weren’t free in the strictest sense. But you get the point.
Talking to your child, correcting mispronounced words, reading to him — these things require no money. If he’s at the homework stage, check it every night and make sure it’s done. Stay in touch with teachers and monitor your child’s progress. If there’s a problem, find out what you need to do on your end to help fix it. Join and participate in parent-teacher conferences. Parental involvement in education is crucial.
It’s really sad that some parents believe schools (read: government) should bear full responsibly for their child’s education (or the lack thereof). Tutoring, mentoring, and enrichment programs help, but parents ought to be the child’s primary motivator. It’s a darn shame that many still believe MONEY will solve the so-called educational crisis in America. Believe it at your child’s peril.
Family structure plays an important role in children’s lives. With so many black children living in homes headed by unmarried women, they don’t get the time and attention they need. I’d argue that black children are the most in need of two-parent families and require extra educational support, but they get it least. There ought to be a law…
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, as the cliché goes, but as long as we live in a free, racially and culturally diverse country where some subcultures value learning and excellence more than others, gaps in achievement won’t shrink. To make matters more complicated, some racial groups simply perform better than others in different areas of life. Our country’s persistent problem of skin color discrimination (then, Jim Crow; now, race preferences) may be a big part of the reason; it could be mostly genetics. I don’t have the answers.
To get a better grasp on the “hiding scores” situation, I sent the following questions to the Department of Education’s e-mail address for “press inquiries”:
1) Is the story accurate, that states are helping schools hide black children’s scores, with the federal government’s assistance?
2) If this is the case, why? To follow-up, isn’t that illegal or at the very least in conflict with the intent of the No Child Left Behind law?
3) If the federal government has participated in this practice, what is the justification and how does it help minority children?
I probably should have done more research before I e-mailed, but it was a spur of the moment thing. This is the response:
According to the AP analysis, 93 percent of students are accounted for. While any number is too many, accountability under NCLB represents great progress. Prior to NCLB, only a handful were being accounted for because most states were not disaggregating data for accountability purposes. In the past, accountability was based on school-wide averages where low-income and minority students could be hidden.
When there aren’t enough students to make up an individual group at the school level without compromising the identity of the student (s), districts become accountable for these students. Thus, no student group is ever “lost” or left unaccounted for.
Make of it what you will.
Related posts:
The Achievement Gap And Social Skills
Sources:
- No Excuses
- Fairfax Success Masks Gap for Black Students
- States Help Schools Hide Minority Scores
- Loophole masks achievement gap for black students
- Possible Education Loopholes Exposed in Report
- Check Google News for more stories
- Achievement gap
- Cognitive ability
Note: I can’t possible link to all relevant sources, so I recommend you do your own research about the NCLB law, the black-white achievement gap, etc. Google is a good place to begin:
