School grades and socioeconomic status

We've heard Floridians complain for years that the state's school grading system does little more than commemorate which schools have wealthy, involved families and which do not.

The same concern has emerged in New York City, where the school system employs a grading program similar to Florida's.

The N.Y. Times reports today that its review of New York high school grades essentially points out which schools are the poorest and most heavily minority, "despite an evaluation system that was meant to equalize differences among student bodies."

Of note, the NYT states that black and Hispanic students are more likely to attend a school that scored low in the city's grading system.

New York has been closing down poor-performing large high schools and replacing them with small ones, which generally do better. It's an idea that Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews is coming to support.

What about that? Is the answer for Florida to give up on its four-strikes-and-maybe-you're-out method in favor of starting bad schools from scratch? Let's hear it.

*

Another view on parental (non) involvement

Thanks to being picked up by the Associated Press, this Nov. 9 St. Petersburg Times story about a parent's dinner at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg ran in newspapers around the state over the weekend. It prompted a reply from Gabriel Hillel, a grant writer for a Gainesville charter school.

Hillel summed up a project that school used to engage parents, which you can read in this excerpt from his e-mail. But he also floated this idea about why some parents aren't as involved as schools would like them to be:

It also is vital to get most schools -- and those who propose reading programs -- to understand how limited the capability of some parents might be because of their own educational deficits. Most schools seem to be unaware that many parents who were deprived of educational opportunity themselves are not supportive out of ignorance rather than indifference. The subtle shift of demanding that parents be held accountable for the children's performance at school lets too many school personnel shrug off their own inabilities to reach the youngsters.

(Times photo by Lara Cerri)

*

DOE response to ACLU grad rates lawsuit: We're working on it

Late last week, the ACLU joined with some Palm Beach parents to sue the Florida Department of Education and several other state government leaders over the Palm Beach school district's poor graduation rates.

The claim: The district graduated too few students, and its achievement gap was too broad.

It's not like the state hasn't been trying to fix that, FLDOE spokesman Tom Butler told the Gradebook.

"Improving the state’s graduation rate is a major focus of the Department and we are pleased that some success has occurred in this area over the last several years," Butler said in an e-mail. "However, we still have much more work to do, which is why we have implemented new initiatives such as our Differentiated Accountability program and the newly adopted changes to our high school accountability system. Initiatives like these will allow us to build on our successes and ensure that our graduation rate continues to rise."

Editorial: Bolder vision needed to help black students in Pinellas

From editorial in today's St. Petersburg Times:

The Pinellas School Board made a legal promise in July to help accelerate the learning of black students and start closing the yawning achievement gap. But so far the schools are taking baby steps, not the bold and meaningful leaps necessary right to make a real difference. The goals are commendable, but there needs to be a stronger commitment to reach them.

The various schools' plans are meant to honor a "memo of understanding" requiring the district to carefully monitor black student performance, more equitably spend money to close achievement gaps and hold school-level officials accountable. This past summer's agreement flows from the 45-year-old lawsuit, Bradley vs. Pinellas County School Board, that desegregated Pinellas schools.

But some of the individual school plans are disappointingly vague. One school's plan promises that "technology will be utilized on a regular basis in all classrooms as well as in the computer lab." Another hopes to "create a mentoring program.'' That's not bold vision; that's making general promises to correct shortcomings.

Read the full editorial here.

What's a cow? Or, how can a student answer a test question about something he knows nothing about?

Standardized tests are, as their very name states, standard. Which means that they'll have questions that go to urban kids and rural kids, rich kids and poor kids.

The notion is that their school will educate them the same, and so no one should be at a disadvantage.

But what about their real life education?

Here in Dade City, we've reported on students who needed to take a trip to Tampa just to learn what an escalator was, after their teachers discovered they had trouble answering an FCAT practice question that included the term.

Now the New York Times offers a story of field study (as opposed to field trips) for Harlem 5-year-olds who don't understand some of the terms about rural life that appear on New York's assessments. The goal: To improve future test scores by visiting a farm.

Explains teacher Abigail Johnson: "They're good at reciting and remembering things, but they can't make the connection unless you show it to them."

Two questions for you. First, is anybody even going on field trips anymore in this economy? And, if so, what kinds of things are our Florida students needing to see on them? Cows?

*

Are you smarter than a first-grader?

In years of writing about education, I've always heard that most children learn to read through second grade, and then read to learn beginning in third grade. So this first-grade math problem, which appears as part of Hillsborough County's tailored curriculum designed by Metropolitan Teaching and Learning, confused me (and more than a few first-graders I know).

Perhaps the gifted among us quickly came up with "You can't tell from the information provided." But most adults I've posed this first-grade math problem to answered "six." Which would be the right answer if the school asked "How many marbles did Tom give to Luis?"

Which leaves me with some questions that perhaps you could weigh in on:

• Is this supposed to be a trick math question aimed at teaching first-graders who are learning to read, to read more carefully? (Would that be fair, anyway?)
• Or, is this just a poorly done math problem that made it through all the editors and into the hands of confused first-graders and parents? (If so, should Hillsborough taxpayers demand their money back?)
• And, if a rooster lays an egg on the peak of a roof, will it roll to the right or the left?

*

Crist headed to voucher rally

Gov. Charlie Crist will be in Fort Lauderdale Friday for an annual rally touting Florida's tax-credit vouchers. For most of his term, Crist has not been out front with most of Jeb Bush's education agenda, but he has been a consistent and visible supporter of vouchers.

Among those who will join him at the rally: Rev. H.K. Matthews, a civil rights icon from Pensacola.

National report shows states narrowing achievement gaps

Achievement gaps in most states have narrowed slightly since No Child Left Behind became law, according to a new report out this morning. But in many states, including Florida, the gaps between white and minority students remain massive.

The report from the Center on Education Policy is based on results from state tests between 2002 and 2008. It is somewhat at odds with recent results from the long-term National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed, at the national level, no significant reduction in gaps between 2004 and 2008.

CEP stresses this finding: Most of the state gaps are narrowing because lower-performing kids are improving – not because higher-performing kids are doing worse.

If you’re a data nut, the way CEP sliced and diced each state’s data – including Florida’s- offers plenty to chew on. For instance, the number of Hispanic students scoring at proficient or above on the math FCAT has grown by an average of 3.2 percentage points a year in grade 8 and 2.7 percentage points a year in grade 10 – in both cases vastly outpacing the average gains for white students.

*

An education challenge for St. Peterburg's next mayor

From this morning's op-ed by Jim Verhulst, editor of the St. Petersburg Times Perspective section:

So here's a challenge for Kathleen Ford and Bill Foster. One of you will be St. Petersburg's next mayor, and you both proudly had children graduate from the IB program at the city's namesake school. Make it your mission to raise black student achievement so that at least one-quarter of the IB students are African-American. That would roughly equal the percentage of south Pinellas high school students who are black.

Use the bully pulpit of the mayor's office to make this promise and then provide the support to make it happen by midway through your first term. Don't do this by making exceptions or changing the standards. Do it by working with students, parents, community groups and schools to prepare younger African-American kids for the challenge of the toughest high school program around.

In real terms, this means helping 30 black students or so a year rise to this high standard. Shouldn't students, parents, citizens, the city and the district be able to accomplish this much?

*

South Pinellas schools resegregating faster

The latest enrollment counts show the resegregation of south Pinellas schools is continuing and in some cases accelerating. That's no surprise, given the return to neighborhood schools, but it puts an exclamation point on the challenge the district faces in keeping its legal promise to black students.

Here are 3-year trend figures for 14 Pinellas schools that now have a majority of black students. The percentage of black students increased at all but one of them this year.

Why aren't more parents involved in their kids' education?

The St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP wants to know. And it hopes to ask parents themselves in focus group discussions.

It’s often said that “parents don’t do this, parents do that,” Martin Rainey, the NAACP’s education chairman, told the Gradebook. “My question now is, what have you done to ask the parents? What’s the issue? Why aren’t you (parents) involved? Nobody has asked them.”

Rainey said the answers are many. “There’s a large population (of parents) that want to do, but do not know how to do,” he said. Some are unfamiliar with the system, and can be overwhelmed by say, trying to find a good tutor. Some are confused by school jargon and edu-speak. Some are swamped by more pressing issues like housing and jobs. Some may not trust school systems that didn’t provide equal opportunity in the past (and, some would argue, still don’t).

The details on the focus groups haven’t been worked out yet, but we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, Rainey said if you have any constructive suggestions on beefing up parental involvement, you can e-mail him at education.comm@gmail.com.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*

Are Florida minority students scoring high enough in math, science?

If minority students need to score at the highest levels of the FCAT to have a fighting chance of becoming physicists and engineers, then Florida is making progress. But. Oh. So. Pain. Fully. Slow.

In math last year, only 5 percent of black third-graders scored at Level 5 on the FCAT, while only 1 percent of black 10th-graders did, according to some quick slicing and dicing by the Gradebook. Level 5 is the highest on the FCAT’s 1-5 scale.

Meanwhile, not a single black student in the entire state scored a Level 5 on the science FCAT, at any grade level. Let us repeat that: Not one. In the entire state. On any grade level.

Sending a message about going to college

Tampa-based ENLACE Florida is cooking up an ad campaign to encourage kids to prepare for college.

The target audience: First generation college-going students in grades 8-10.

 "In order to meet the future workforce demands of a knowledge-based society and economy, we are simply going to need more low-income students and students of color entering into and succeeding in college,” said the group's assistant director, Braulio Colón.

Read more here.

*

Pinellas okays legal agreement for black students

As expected, the Pinellas County School Board voted 7-0 tonight to approve a legal agreement that requires the district to put more focus on improving the achievement of black students. The “memorandum of understanding” is a spinoff of Bradley vs. the Pinellas School Board, the 45-year-old case behind the integration of Pinellas schools. It now goes for approval to U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, who is overseeing the case.

By one comparison, nonblack Pinellas students not doing so hot

As the Gradebook noted recently, black students in Pinellas do worse – and in some cases, far worse – than black students in Florida’s other big urban districts. But to a lesser degree, white, Hispanic and Asian students in Pinellas don't fare well against same-race students in those other districts, either.

In FCAT reading, white students in Pinellas are last in five of eight grades when compared to white students in the other six big districts, and next to last in two grades. In math, they’re last in three grades and next to last in three others.

Asian students in Pinellas are last in every grade but one in reading, and last or next to last in every grade in math.

The numbers are from 2008 FCAT scores, the most recent the state has broken down by race. Here are the big-district-to-big-district comparisons for white students, black students, Hispanic students and Asian students.

The Pinellas School Board is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a new legal agreement that will require the district to put more attention, and perhaps more money, on black students.

St. Pete NAACP blasts legal agreement on black students

The new legal agreement regarding black students in Pinellas County is getting harsh criticism from an unexpected source: The St. Petersburg NAACP.

Ray Tampa, the organization’s president, told The Gradebook today that the agreement doesn’t go far enough. It’s too vague on what instructional strategies will be used and too vague on how any changes will be funded, he said.

“We want to attach a sense of urgency to the matter, and we want more specifics,” said Tampa, a former Pinellas teacher and principal. “We need some bold, new initiatives. And there’s nothing new here.”

Will focus on black students mean more teacher scrutiny?

Until Pinellas schools revamp their improvement plans, it’s unclear exactly how the new legal agreement regarding black students will change things. But Pinellas school board member Mary Brown says it should force schools to pay closer attention to classroom-by-classroom results, and to adjust accordingly.

Times editorial: Thumbs up for Pinellas effort to close achievement gap

This morning’s editorial in St. Petersburg Times:

Closing the achievement gap in Pinellas schools between black students and their peers is in everyone's interest. It will take considerably more effort and resources, but the problem is too urgent to ignore. Now a new agreement provides a chance for a renewed commitment to closing the gap, and the School Board should embrace it.

Read full editorial here.

*

Breakthrough in legal dispute over black students in Pinellas

To boost black student achievement, the Pinellas school district will keep better tabs on performance, offer more specific strategies and interventions, and strengthen lines of accountability, according to a memorandum of understanding between the district and plaintiffs in a long-running legal dispute.

The district also promises to spend more money.

Florida closing black-white achievement gap in early grades

Florida is one of only three states that narrowed the black-white achievement gap in fourth grade reading between 1992 and 2007, and one of only 15 that narrowed the gap in fourth grade math, according to a report released this morning by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Maxwell: We need more black male teachers

Writes St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell: “I do not have solid proof, but I believe that the public school experience of my generation of black males in Jim Crow’s South was far superior to most young African-American males in today’s public schools anywhere in the nation. My generation’s experience was better, I am certain, because we had a substantial number of black male teachers as role models.”

Only 2 percent of the nation’s 4.8 million teachers are black men, Maxwell notes. The figure in Florida: about 3 percent. In Pinellas: 1.7 percent.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

*

Black students in Pinellas lag behind black students elsewhere

And in math and science, it’s not really close. Why?

Prompted by this St. Petersburg Times story about an applied math camp for minority kids, we took a closer look at the 2008 math and science FCAT scores for black students in Pinellas and Florida’s six other big urban districts. (The state Department of Education says the demographic breakdowns for the 2009 FCAT won’t be available until later this month.) The results, for Pinellas, are not pretty.

In every grade, in both subjects, black students in Pinellas do worse than black students in those other districts. In almost every case, it’s significantly worse.

Report: Florida's minority and low-income students still lack education opportunities

Black, Hispanic and low-income students don't get the same education offered to them in Florida schools as their white, non-Hispanic peers, a new report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education says.

They have less access to a high-quality early education, highly qualified teachers, instructional materials and a college-prep high school curriculum, the group contends. Of the 50 states, Florida ranks 28th on the report's opportunities index. That's up from 31st a year ago.

“This serves as a wake-up call to Florida policymakers who falsely believe we are getting the job done in our classrooms,” Dr. John Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation, said in a news release:

“According to its own data, 43 percent of Florida’s minority and low-income students don’t have access to a moderately proficient public education system. After a decade of leaving no child behind, we are finding that an entire generation of Florida students is again all but forgotten.”

The group found that 84 percent of states overall fail to provide an equal learning opportunity to all students, using state data and NAEP information. At the bottom are Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Rhode Island, Texas, and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia. Jackson argues that the only way to overcome the achievement gap is to first come to grips with the opportunity gap.

This year's challenge: to do that without dumbing down in an economy that finds public schools scrambling for money and searching for ways to cut spending. In other words, good luck.

*

TV and the achievement gap

Black kids watch more TV than white kids. A lot more.

According to a recent study by the Educational Testing Service, 57 percent of black eighth graders watched four hours or more of TV on an average weekday, compared to 20 percent of white eighth graders.

The ETS study looked at 15 other factors in the achievement gap, both in school and out. Before you go blaming the parents for everything, consider the study also found minority students were more likely to be shortchanged in school, including having larger class sizes than their white peers.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter (NY Times photo)

In Florida, poor schools are kicking butt

Since it's the start of the heart of FCAT season, let's revisit a key point that may have been lost in Sunday's St. Petersburg Times story about Blanton Elementary, the high-poverty school that could.

Blanton isn't alone.

According to FCAT math and reading numbers crunched by Times cruncher extraordinaire Connie Humburg, over the past five years:

• 250 of 602 high-poverty elementary schools statewide (by high poverty we mean schools where 70 percent or more of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches) have seen combined gains of 30 or more in the percentage of kids scoring at grade level or higher in those two subjects.
• Meanwhile, 146 of them have seen combined percentage gains of 40 or more, which means they're progressing as fast, if not faster, than Blanton.

Many of those schools, like Blanton, still don't have much in the way of parental involvement. And yet, they're on the rise.

For those of you who think this is not real progress, and instead the result of "teaching to the test," here's the response from Blanton principal Debi Turner:

"The FCAT test measures the standards that we're taught. You are teaching to the standards. When people tell me you're teaching to the test, I say, 'No, to the standards.' It's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. People who say you're teaching to the test don't really understand."

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*

Should teachers be mandated to make house calls?

To help struggling black male students, a state council is recommending that teachers and principals be required to make quarterly home visits and weekly phone calls.

The suggestion is one of many in the just released 2008 report of the Florida Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, a group whose creation in 2006 was strongly backed by then St. Petersburg state representative and now Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Frank Peterman. The education section begins on page 51.

The report notes that 80 percent of black males in Florida high schools are scoring below grade level on the FCAT, and that by one measure, only about one-third of them are graduating on schedule. The home-visit recommendation specifically targets the "parents of students who are earning less than a C average or are clearly underperforming even if their grades are on average a C or better."

Among other council recommendations:

• Better tracking of student disciplinary actions.
• Hiring more black teachers.
• And the creation of voluntary orientation programs for the parents of black male students entering high school.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*

Sen. Wise scholarship plan plods along

With the state budget being cut and cut and cut again, good education programs are either being whacked or whittled (reading coaches), offered up for a delay (virtual schooling) or starting to look like those snowballs in hell (longer school day). But state Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, says he’s still going to give one of his pet ideas a shot during the upcoming legislative session.

As we reported last year, Wise, who chairs the education appropriations committee in the Senate, wants to set up an endowment that could provide scholarships to every low-income sixth-grader who stays in school, avoids trouble with the law and graduates.

He's looking at lottery, slot machine and Indian gaming money to do it, along with private contributions. He thinks if he can pull it off, the incentives for at-risk kids would change behavior enough to cut juvenile crime by 25 percent.

The budget situation will make it tough to get traction, and a committee staff analysis says as much. But "I'm just going to plod along," Wise told the Gradebook. He said he recently presented his idea to Gov. Charlie Crist and has talked to Stan Tate, founder and former chairman of the Florida Prepaid College Board.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*

Racial bias and irony in retaining third-graders

When Florida kicked off its controversial third-grade retention policy in 2003, critics feared that poor and minority students would unfairly bear the brunt. And in a way, they have, concludes a new study by researchers Jay Greene and Marcus Winters.

But the retained students are also coming out the better for it, the study found.

Florida requires that third-graders who score at the lowest level on the reading FCAT be retained unless they demonstrate proficiency through some other means, such as a high enough score on another standardized test or a portfolio that teachers and administrators deem sufficient. It also mandates that held-back students get extra help, including an additional 90 minutes of reading instruction each day.

Greene and Winters found that black and Hispanic third-graders are less likely to be promoted through those exemptions than white counterparts with similarly low scores, according to the study, which can be found in the current edition of the Economics of Education Review. Black students were 4 percent more likely to be held back; Hispanic students, 9 percent.

Local schools make 'US News' list

Love them or hate them, everyone seems to enjoy looking and and picking apart lists that rank schools. So here's another one for your consideration.

US News and World Report has just posted its 2009 America's Best High Schools edition, evaluating more than 21,000 schools and giving one of four ratings - gold, silver, bronze or honorable mention - to about 1,900 of them.

Three Tampa Bay area schools made the list: Palm Harbor University High and Tampa Bay Tech received silver recognition, and Robinson High got a bronze.

Fifty Florida high schools were included in the group, including nine that were rated gold, with the highest rated being Design and Architectural Senior High in Miami (No. 5).

The ratings are based on several factors, including the success of students in all demographic groups and the level of college readiness that students demonstrated. Are these really the best? Who knows. For some teens, probably yes. For others, maybe not.

But like we said, lists are just the starting point for a conversation. Have yours about America's Best High Schools here.

*

Boys crisis author to speak at SPC

We talk a lot about the achievement gap between white and black students. But do we talk enough about the gender gap between girls and boys? If you think the topic deserves attention, or if you just want to learn more, head to St. Petersburg College next week for a free lecture from a national expert, journalist and author Peg Tyre.

Tyre is the author of The Trouble With Boys, a new New York Times bestseller that describes why boys are floundering more in school than girls. She also wrote this Newsweek cover story on the issue in 2006.

Think the gender gap is a bunch of hooey? Look at the enrollment at just about any college in Florida. At St. Petersburg College, the most recent figures we could conveniently get our hands on (from 2006-07) show 9,020 men (37 percent) to 15,538 women (63 percent).

Tyre's talk begins at 12:45 p.m. Oct. 29. It will be held in the Arts Auditorium on SPC's Clearwater campus, 2465 Drew St. Call (727) 791-2623 for more information.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

*

A weekend interview with ...

... Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust. Haycock recently spoke to the State Board of Education about ways to eliminate the achievement gap in Florida schools. She fielded questions from the audience and then from reporter Ron Matus (his are the last four). Here's what she had to say:

Parents like to see their kids do well, but there's sort of this noise about getting to raise the standards, have the test, test the test, and get the results. And I was wondering if you had any sort of context around some of that. Are parents ultimately more supportive than teachers are initially?

When you raise standards, when you're really honest with the public in advance -- this is coming, right, these are now real standards, right, if your kids meet these it really matters, right -– then people are fine. Georgia recently raised its standards. Its proficiency rates went down substantially. But when you talk to the press and you talk to parents about that, you can weather that if they trust where you're headed, which most of them do, because most of them have seen the data comparing state proficiency rates and NAEP and they're going, "What are you guys doing?" But communication is really important.

No. 2, if I gave you the impression it takes eight or 10 years, it doesn't. I was just showing you these are schools that not only got better, they stayed better. But you basically start seeing results in terms of student achievement within two, three years, no longer. If you're not seeing results in that amount of time, something's wrong with the implementation strategy. You can begin to see real progress, not in all measures, but in what we call kind of a leading set of indicators, in just two or three years.

You mentioned that a number of low-income children come to school, in the beginning, behind from day one. Have you looked at our state and how we're addressing that?

My impression is at least early on –- I haven't looked at in the last year, actually -– is that you got a lot more kids in quickly, but made some compromises around quality of what goes on that you will probably want to go back and revisit. Getting kids in is hugely important, but the quality of what goes on, and the caliber of those who teach, turns out to be huge, huge, especially for low-income kids.

And I want to be clear about what I mean by that. When kids go home, to kind of print rich environments and museum trips and all that kind of stuff, the quality and the coherence of what happens in a pre-K program or another early ed program is not as important, because you get a lot of stuff filled in at home.

When you're not going back into that kind of environment, then what happened during those few hours –- what vocabulary you were exposed to, how you build your kind of understand … Really good pre-K, for example, will spend a couple of weeks on transportation. So everything the kids do –- the stories they read, the games they play –- are about trucks, trains, tractors, whatever. And by the end of that couple weeks … they've kind of mastered vocabulary in that and they can move on to the next one. The reason for that is, in order to continue to learn, you need to know somewhere around 80 percent of the words, right, that you're reading, right. Then you learn new words. This is why this is so important to be coherent about, and methodical about, and not just leave it to individual teachers to figure out. Because kids need to master that vocabulary in order to keep learning.

Here's a concern: If a child knows he doesn't read well in third grade, he's not being remediated, he gets to high school and he still doesn't read well … I would like to see a shift of that kind of remediation some way into career technical or into some course that makes a difference to the kid.

ACLU investigates Lee

A national probe of the way schools treat minorities and students with disabilities has made its way to Lee County.

The ACLU Racial Justice Project has raised concerns about the way schools use their alternative schools and has discovered some hot spots through its research. That's what brought its team to Lee, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

Apparently, the group is conducting similar work in a handful of other Florida districts, too. But the paper didn't have any details. Do you?

Teachers, black males and cultural competence

Maybe if teachers were more culturally competent, fewer black males would be doing so poorly in school. So suggests a provocative draft report from the Florida Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, a group formed by the Legislature last year that is now putting together its first report by a Dec. 15 deadline.

“This issue is critical,” says the draft, which The Gradebook obtained from the Florida Attorney General’s Office. “Just as teachers are tested on their academic/cognitive skills before they enter the profession, they need to also be tested in the affective and psycho-social domain as well. … Cultural competency and its impact on student success are as pervasive as the air we breathe and just as essential to the survival of those who are ‘different’ in the context of majority classrooms.”

Making gains

If NAEP results offer any valid measure, black students actually are showing strong progress in a system that's supposedly failing them, the Economic Policy Institute reports in a release titled "Significant gains in educational achievement by blacks go underappreciated."

Just look at fourth-grade math.

In 1990, the average score for white kids was 220, and for black kids it was 188 - that's a 32-point divide. In 2007, the average score for white fourth-graders was 248, and for black students it was 222 - a 26-point gap.

Even more noteworthy, the EPI points out, the black students' average score rose by 34 points - that's larger than the 1990 gap. And the trend is much the same for eighth graders.

"Educators and policy makers should celebrate these gains in academic performance by blacks and build on this success to improve performance in reading and further narrow the racial gaps," EPI economist Joydeep Roy concludes.

What works for English learners

When it comes to teaching kids who are still learning English, some elementary schools are missing the boat while others are making great strides. What's the difference? A new report looking at 237 California schools points to four key areas that seem to hold the key. And for the first time, the study doesn't just pit bilingual education against English-only or some other approach. Instead, it looks at effective classroom practices, something that Margarita Calderon, a key Johns Hopkins University researcher not associated with the report, called groundbreaking and compelling. What are the successful schools doing that the failing ones are not? Here's the list:

• Using student assessment data extensively to determine whether instruction is working for each students.
• Ensuring access to good teachers and instructional resources.
• Aligning the curriculum with state academic standards, within each grade level and between the grades.
• Setting measurable, ambitious goals for student achievement.

"It's all about what is happening in the classroom," Stanford University researcher Michael Kirst, who worked with EdSource on the report, told the Education Writers Association annual meeting in Los Angeles, where the report was released today.

Florida, which has its fair share of English learners, could learn a lot from this report and its findings. For instance, the study reveals that pull-out English language courses are more effective than having every classroom teacher get a "weak" English Language Learner credential - like Florida requires.

Whittling away the achievement gap

The rate at which minority students in Florida have taken Advanced Placement tests has risen rapidly over the past several years. The numbers, however, remain low in comparison to the overall total of students taking the college-level courses and exams. (Hey, it's pretty easy to get high percentage increases when the base is small - just 8,700 Florida minority students took AP tests in 1999, compared to about 26,000 white kids.) To boost participation even higher, lawmakers want the Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement do more to identify and help teens get into the AP program and succeed. The Senate unanimously approved the bill (SB 108) this morning, and the House is to take up the identical lanugage (HB 403) this afternoon. Once participation rises enough, maybe someone will do something about the the success rates the students find on the AP exams. (Want to see how Florida students did on AP exams most recently? Click here for a report from the College Board.)

UPDATE: The House approved the identical bill unanimously Monday afternoon.

Urban school check-up

Inner city schools are making progress with some of the nation's most challenging students and appear to be chipping away at the achievement gap, according to a report released this morning by the Council of the Great City Schools. The council, which represents 67 of the nation’s biggest school districts, including Hillsborough (but not Pinellas), compared data on state tests between 2002 and 2006 and found more progress in math than reading, more progress in elementary than middle schools, more progress in some districts than others … but progress nonetheless.

Among fourth graders, for example, the council found 55 percent of inner-city fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2006, up from 43 percent in 2002, and that 77 percent of Great City districts narrowed the gap between black and white students over that period.

The reason? "The standards movement," the report says. "Urban schools know that it is not enough to assure people that we are working harder to meet high standards or to say that the public's money is worth the investment, although both are surely true. We must back up those assurances with results - concrete, verifiable documentation that our efforts to improve education in the cities are paying off and that the public's money is being well spent."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Today's news

CARING FOR COWS: St. Petersburg College is looking at a partnership with the University of Florida to create the state's second veterinary school.

HEADING DOWN THE HOMESTRETCH: And the Legislature still has much work to do. One key unresolved issue is whether to increase tuition for the state's universities. Lawmakers say yes, the governor says no.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGE: Florida's promise for high-quality universal prekindergarten is a promise unkept, the editorial board says. Maybe Gov. Charlie Crist can cash in on all the talk about improvement.

A DIFFICULT DEMAND: Florida, like all other states, is trying to fill its classrooms with highly qualified teachers - those who know their content area and have the right preparation, too. It's not proving easy, as nearly half of the state's new teachers don't have a degree in education, the Palm Beach Post reports.

A 'MORAL IMPERATIVE': A suburban New York school district pays extra attention to black boys to ease the achievement gap, offering special mentoring with black teachers, extra homework and cultural activities. Black girls were doing well enough and didn't need the attention, the New York Times reports.

HATE DETENTION? A Milwaukee-area school district lets kids work off their misdeeds cleaning the cafeteria, weeding the garden and performing other "soft labor" instead on Amnesty Day, the Journal-Sentinel reports.

Today's news

HIGH HOPES: Florida A&M stalwarts look to James Ammons to lead their school out of scandal and back to success. He's got a promising track record at North Carolina Central University. Already, Ammons has begun his work, meeting with Florida lawmakers despite not officially taking the reins until July. To read an exclusive interview with Ammons, click here.

WAYNE'S WORLD: Wayne Alexander is Hernando County's new schools superintendent. Coming from Connecticut, he offers his views about education, leadership and the Boston Red Sox.

DON'T SAY 'FAT': Parents, politicians and educators want overweight kids to lose the pounds. One way is to make it fun, rather than punishing. Another is to banish the oppressive words like 'fat' and 'diet.'

THE FIRST TO GO: The saying goes that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So you've got to wonder what it means when schools eliminate recess so kids can prepare for FCAT. That's what is happening in Lee County, the Naples Daily News reports, and parents are not too happy.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: The Palm Beach Post argues that the House bill pushing "world class"  standards does anything but.

A BIG GAP: Black males in Bay County aren't meeting expectations in school. In third grade, for instance, just one black boy was reading at grade level on the FCAT. County officials are now trying to tackle the problem, the Panama City News Herald reports.

MARKETING 'HONORS': The teens are seeking an edge to get into college. The companies? Well, they're selling something that purports to carry significance. Some of them are just scams, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

THEY CALL IT CHEESE: It's really a mix of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM. It sells for as little as $2 a hit. And the drug is becoming a big problem for Dallas public schools, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Today's news

FORGET EQUAL ACCESS: A group of black Pinellas County residents argues that black children deserve special treatment as a group if the district truly intends to eliminate the achievement gap. School district officials contend that a color-blind approach is better. A lawsuit exploring the issue is set for trial July 9.

DO YOU KNOW MAX THOMPSON? Pasco County teachers do. They're training in his teaching methods, which the school district has adopted for everyone to use, at a cost of $4.5-million. Some love the system. Some are so upset they've filed a grievance against its implementation.

DISAPPOINTED AND ANGRY: Students of the Richard Milburn Academy and their parents decry the loss of their charter high school, which closes in June. It had been their only alternative to the mainstream Pasco County school system.

NOT QUITE A DEGREE: The University of Florida finds a way to honor former governor Jeb Bush, after all. The school makes him an honorary alum, even though he couldn't find a way to earn his honorary degree.

TEACHER TALK: Often isolated in their classrooms, teachers increasingly turn to blogs, listservs and other forms of electronic communication to keep up with their peers and their profession, the Miami Herald reports.

CHARTER SCHOOL PAINS: The publicly funded, privately run schools serve a smaller proportion of poor, minority and disabled students now than when the movement began a decade ago, the Orlando Sentinel reports. That despite the state's recent brag that charters help close the achievement gap because of their diversity.

A GOOD TEACHER IS HARD TO FIND: So Duval County is joining a growing list of districts looking overseas to fill the ranks, the Florida Times-Union reports.

A TEST YOU CAN'T STUDY FOR: A growing number of school districts adopt random drug testing for students who want to participate in extracurriculars. The New York Times looks at the pros and cons, noting several studies question whether the policy actually works.

Challenge to educate Hispanics

The National Education Association released a report on the status of Hispanics in education today. Some of its key findings include:

•   The high school and college completion rates among Hispanics, though up from 1970 and 2004, still lag far behind the completion rates of whites.

•   Hispanic student scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 1990 and 2005 improved in math and reading, but not enough to close the large achievement gap. Notably, less than half of Hispanic fourth-graders have achieved a basic level of reading performance on the test.

To make up ground, the group offers some recommendations. These include reducing class sizes; creating new classroom strategies to engage Hispanic students, and enhancing teacher preparation and professional development to better understand the culture of Hispanic students and to help students master English. The group also calls for better relationships between parents, the community and schools, and for more money to support education initiatives for Hispanic children.

This is a big deal in Florida, where the Hispanic population continues to grow. Any thoughts about the best course of action to overcome the gaps the NEA has identified?

Today's news

THEY COME BACK: To lure the most experienced teachers to the neediest schools, Hillsborough County pays "combat pay" - a 10 percent bonus on top of the base salary. The money has drawn some of the county's top teachers and, perhaps more important, kept them at schools that in the past had high turnover rates. The jury is still out on how achievement is affected.

HELPING TO ACHIEVE DREAMS: The High School/High Tech program gives teens with disabilities the education they need to make the transition from school to work. The Orlando Sentinel looks at how it's working at a Lake County high school.

FINDING TIME FOR ART: If it's not FCAT, it's the class-size amendment or something else. With so many demands coming down from Tallahassee, it's not easy to fit in arts education, some teachers tell the Palm Beach Post.

AT HOME, RELAXING: That's where you might find many Duval County high school upperclassmen during FCAT, the Florida Times-Union reports. They don't have to take the test, so they don't show up. District officials are seeking to change that.

IS IT RIGOR? Or just course-title inflation? A U.S. Department of Education report shows that more black students take a high school curriculum of "mid-level" difficulty than do white students, the Washington Post reports.

Today's news

HOMELESS: They live in hotels, cars and borrowed corners. They often have to move at a moment's notice. School sometimes provides the best hours of their lives. Reporter Donna Winchester explores the life of children who have homework, but no home.

TAXING QUESTION: Pinellas County voters approved a special tax 2-1/2 years ago to bolster the teacher salaries. The tax expires in about 18 months, and district officials are wondering whether the community is willing to renew the tax.

SURPRISE CHAMPS: Few expected the Lacoochee Eagles Special Olympics basketball team to go far. But the youngsters have become a source of pride for, this, one of Pasco County's poorest communities, as they head to the state championships on Friday.

READY TO REACH OUT: Looking for new ways to help kids who don't like school, Pasco County education and civic leaders visited the much touted Okaloosa County CHOICE program of career and technical institutes. Their reaction: "Blown away" and ready to jump on board.

GENDERS DIVIDED: And they're just fine, educators at a Fort Pierce middle school tell the Stuart News. "We have found it reduces the number of distractions and increases the time on task," teacher Katie Shook says.

RACES DIVIDED: The principal of a northern California high school split students by race while announcing test results. He said it was to keep harassment down, NPR reports. The decision has sparked some heated debate.

TEACHING THE TEST: Is it right to give extra help to some kids but not to others? Is it proper to ignore regular lessons to teach children how to stay focused on a test? The Washington Post explores the questions behind test ethics amid on Maryland district's efforts to make "adequate yearly progress."

Today's news

FORGET DARE: The days of just saying no to drugs have nearly evaporated, as schools turn their attention to attackers and sexual predators. A Citrus County elementary school is piloting a new program to teach youngsters how to evade people who are trying to harm them.

LIFE AFTER FCAT: Once teens pass the 10th-grade version of the test, they don't have to sit through it again. One Hernando County high school has them attend seminars on college, or volunteer in the community, while the rest of the students take the test.

MORE STAR: The Pasco School Board pre-empts a teacher vote by opting out of the performance pay program on its own. Palm Beach goes the other way, the Sun-Sentinel reports, saying the money is too good to pass up.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH: The ACLU is threatening to sue the Palm Beach County school district over the No Child Left Behind Law, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Their complaint? Some children are being left behind.

RETHINKING FRENCH: Schools are paying a lot of attention to Chinese as the language to learn these days. Spanish remains importante, tambien. But French is losing ground. One Maryland school district is embroiled in a controversy over rumors that the romance language is on its way out, the Washington Post reports.

PARENT IN CHIEF: The New York City school system now has a top parent, appointed by the mayor, to make sure parents' concerns and complaints aren't overlooked, the NY Times reports. The job pays $150,000.

ICKY SCIENCE PROJECT ALERT: A suburban-D.C. teen was fascinated with mud. Now he's experimenting with sewage, aiming to create an alternative fuel source, the Washington Post reports.

MIAMI A MODEL: Surprise. The once infamous school district now greets education reformers from all over the country who are looking for ways to improve their schools, too, the Miami Herald reports.

NEVER TOO OLD: Jean "Grandma" Evans, 61, raises three grandchildren and, in her "spare time" volunteers at Forest Hills Elementary in Citrus County. For her hard work, she's been named outstanding senior volunteer in a 19-county region of northern Florida.

Today's news

FALLEN STAR: Everyone who knows Anthony Giancola, the disgraced now-former principal of Tampa's Van Buren Middle School, expressed shock at his Thursday arrest. They knew him as a top educator and community activist, not a crack smoker who wanted a hit in his office while students took classes outside. Giancola, who resigned Friday, proved like so many others with hidden problems, that you can be both.

REAL STAR: James Gibbs III is Hillsborough County's teacher of the year. He encourages his students to strive for perfection at Burns Middle School in Brandon.

DOWNWARD DOG BEFORE MATH: When stress gets to consuming, a Broward County elementary school turns to yoga for relaxation, the Miami Herald reports. The school kicks it up a notch when FCAT rolls around. Breathe in and stretch.

SPEAKING OF FCAT ... Kids start taking the test Monday. The Sun-Sentinel reports that many educators, parents and children consider this year's stakes higher than ever.

END OF DESEG IN LITTLE ROCK: The case began while Dwight Eisenhower was president, and troops had to escort black children into all-white schools. A judge now says the Little Rock schools have met their burden in providing an equal education in a unified system, the Associated Press reports. Here's the New York Times version.

Today's news

FIX THE HIGH SCHOOLS: The Gradebook reported yesterday about the sorry state of high schools, as evidenced by two national reports. Today, Times reporter Tom Tobin gives a fuller accounting of what the experts say needs to be done. And here's the LA Times story on the issue.

DRUG STING SNARES PRINCIPAL: In his own school, while classes were in session, the principal of Tampa's Van Buren Middle decided it was the right time to buy and try to use $20 of crack. The seller was an undercover cop, and the principal ended up giving his students an up close look at an arrest.

MORE STAR: Hernando County's School Board imposed a plan on its teachers, who had declared impasse. Pasco County negotiators reached an agreement and hope the state will accept it without union and school board ratification. The common theme: No one likes STAR and they are doing it reluctantly. Sen. Don Gaetz, chair of the Senate Education Committee, says he and his House counterpart hear the complaints and want to make changes. Read more here.

EXPANSION PLANS: The growing Pasco County school district wins approval for a needed high school site, over neighbors' objections. The growing Hillsborough County school district explores its options for a needed high school, looking to possibly reuse an old courthouse.

SPELLINGS VISIT: The nation's education chief dropped by Tampa for a visit. For the Department of Education's version of events, click here.

GOVERNOR'S ED BUDGET: Gov. Charlie Crist released his budget weeks ago, but only yesterday did he get around to holding a press conference to talk about what he wants to do for Florida schools. Here's the Fort Myers News-Press report.

RECOGNIZE YOURSELF? PTAs are getting corporate in their efforts to raise cash for schools, the New York Times reports.

OPPOSE NCLB? Lots of educators say they do. But the Fairfax County (Va.) School Board is doing something about it, refusing to test English language learners on reading before they're ready, the Washington Post reports. The district could lose millions. Not quite the same response as all those Florida school districts that are imposing performance pay plans they say they despise.