“… Without data, without facts, without information, the discussions about public education mean that a person is just another opinion.”
– George W. Bush, Sept. 9, 2003
The data are mounting. The facts are in.
Since 1997, Colorado schoolchildren have been subjected to regular standardized tests and schools have been evaluated based on their scores.
The resulting information speaks for itself. After eight years of testing and emphasizing the importance of student achievement in all schools, the education gap between rich and poor has widened.
Scores in fourth-grade writing illustrate the problem. In 1997, students in the wealthiest schools in the state averaged 57.1 percent proficient or above, compared with 19.8 percent for the poorest schools. The achievement gap was a shameful 37.3 percent.
By 2005, the affluent schools had improved and averaged 71.7 percent proficient or above in writing. Poor schools also showed improvement, averaging 30.4 percent proficient or better. But the gap had grown to 41.3 percent.
In its report, “390,343 Children Left Behind: Who’s Closing the Achievement Gap in Colorado’s Schools?” the Colorado Children’s Campaign exposes one of Colorado’s gnarliest problems:
Class differences here are deeply entrenched, especially in the classroom.
Van Schoales, executive vice president of the campaign, admitted that the findings of the report released Monday are discouraging, but he took heart in the handful of schools that defy the odds.
“We have identified schools and districts that appear to be making significant progress” in bridging the achievement gap. “Now the challenge is to determine what’s going on there,” he said.
Elementary schools in the Pueblo and St. Vrain districts were among those that showed dramatic improvement in test scores for children from poor families, so obviously they’re doing something right. But what works in Pueblo may not be effective in Denver or Alamosa, Schoales said.
“There’s no perfect classroom, school or school system for every kid. We need an enormous amount of flexibility to respond to the challenges,” he said.
He proposed an “entrepreneurial system” in which schools are encouraged to innovate and respond aggressively to the problems they face. “It’s clear we have to move away from the early-20th-century factory model for schools.”
It’s also clear that teachers and school districts have to demand more of parents and students. The worst-kept secret around is that well-educated parents – who often are more affluent – usually help their children learn by teaching them good study habits and preparing them for school. Sure, some parents, regardless of income, do what it takes to help their children excel. But teachers can tell when a child is not getting enough sleep or if there are family problems at home. They know which parents turn off the TV and read to their kids, which ones talk to their children about what’s going on at school and which ones don’t.
The larger issue, though, is not what the Children’s Campaign report says about teachers, parents or schoolchildren, but what it portends for Colorado.
The class divide is inexorable, and it looms large for our future.
Those children who leave school reading at third-grade level and incapable of even basic composition are a giant liability in the competitive global economy. The uneducated underclass we create today won’t go away, but the jobs available to skilled and unskilled workers will.
They already are.
In “The World Is Flat,” Thomas Friedman describes how workers in India, Russia and China compete directly with Americans without leaving their homes.
Friedman says that when he was a child, his mother would tell him to finish his dinner because there were children starving in China. Now he tells his children to do their homework because there are millions of children in China who are starving for their jobs.
That’s not just another opinion. It’s a fact. It’s time we faced it.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
