Education and Social Justice :

1
Education and Social Justice

• What Will it Really Take to Leave No Child
  Behind?

2
A Changing Economy Makes Education more Important
3
The Consequences of Under-Education

• A high school dropout in 2000 has less than 50
  chance of getting a job (1 in 5 for African
  American students)
• That job will earn less than ½ of what the same
  job earned 20 years ago
• Wages are increasing only for those with at least
  a college education
• Lack of education is ever more strongly
  correlated with welfare dependency and
  incarceration

4
Education vs. Incarceration?

• Over the last decade, prison enrollments tripled,
  with largest increases for minority males
• Funding for the criminal justice system increased
  600 while funding for schools increased 25
• More than 50 of inmates are functionally
  illiterate
• 40 of adjudicated juvenile offenders have
  learning disabilities never identified in school

5
Achievement Trends for Minority Students

• The achievement gap has widened since 1990
• Average NAEP scores for black and Hispanic
  13-year olds in reading are comparable to white
  9-year olds
• Graduation rates for minorities have declined
  since 1995 (90 of whites, 81 of blacks, 57
  of Hispanics)

6
Common Explanations

• The Bell Curve
• Lack of Effort
• Culture of Poverty
• Families who dont Care
• Community Problems
• Inadequate accountability (I.e. testing)

7
Actual Sources of Inequality

• Nationwide, schools serving minority and
  low-income students have
• Lower funding levels
• Larger class sizes
• Less well-qualified teachers
• Fewer college preparatory or AP courses
• Larger school sizes
• Fewer computers, books, supplies
• Less access to information technologies

8
Education Spending is Unequal and Inadequate
9
Segregation and Inequality

• 2/3 of Black and Latino students attend
  predominantly minority schools these have lower
  levels of instructional resources
• Within integrated schools, most minority
  students are concentrated in low-track classes
  which receive less well-qualified teachers, less
  engaging and less well taught curriculum, and
  lower-quality materials

10
Tracking as a Function of Race
11
Opportunity Creates Equity

• Holding SES constant, minority and white
  students who have equally well-qualified teachers
  and comparable curriculum perform comparably in
  reading and mathematics.

12
Poor and Minority Children Get the Least
Qualified Teachers
13
Influence of Teacher Qualifications on Student
AchievementGains in Math Achievement from 3rd to
5th Grade Due to
14
What Matters Most for Student Learning

• Well-qualified teachers
• Coherent curriculum aimed at understanding and
  performance
• Authentic instruction that supports higher
  order thinking and performance
• Personalization small schools classes,
  long-term relationships
• Connections to families and communities

15
What Kind of Policies Can Help ?
16
Noble Goals and Unintended Effects Contradictory
Choices under NCLB

• Demand for Highly Qualified Teachers alongside
  incentives for alternative certification
• High-Stakes testing tied to school sanctions
• Choice and Supplementary Services rather than
  core investments as primary strategies for
  improving education

17
The Teaching Gap Creates Most of the Achievement
Gap

• Studies in CA, MA, SC, TX, and NY show that
  students whose schools have more uncertified
  teachers score significantly lower on state
  reading and math tests
• A 1 increase in teacher quality is related to a
  3-5 decrease in student fail rates on North
  Carolinas state tests (Strauss Sawyer, 1986)

18
Outcomes of Many High-Stakes Testing Reforms

• Rote oriented curriculum
• Higher rates of grade retention
• Increasing dropout/pushout rates
• --GA, MA, SC, NY, FL, TX
• Loss of good teachers from low-ranked schools
  (FL, GA, TX)
• Continued inequality in resources

19
Chicago, LA, NY, Atlanta, GA, TX results tell a
common story

• Retained students did not do better than
  previously socially promoted students. Over 2
  years between the end of 2nd grade through 3rd
  grade, the average ITBS scores of these students
  increased only 1.2 GEs compared to 1.5 GEs for
  students with similar test scores who had been
  promoted prior to the policy. Also troubling is
  that one-year dropout rates among 8th graders are
  higher under this policy. In short, Chicago, has
  not solved the problem of poor performance.
  (Roderick, Bryk, et al, 1999)

20
Graduation Rates are Declining in Exit Exam
States
Source National Center for Education Statistics,
Common Core of Data Graduates rates of
graduates in a given class divided by the of
9th graders 3.5 years earlier.
21
Rewards or Sanctions?

• 1998
• John 100
• Sandra 90
• Jorge 80
• Maura 70
• Jasella 60
• Francisco 20
• Ave. Score 70

• 1999
• 95
• 85
• 70
• 65
• 55
• Ave. Score 74

22
What Happens to Students?
23
What Kind of Teaching Matters What do we Know
about Teaching People to Read?
24
What Kind of Teaching Matters for Reading
Achievement? Correlates of Reading Achievement
on 4th Grade NAEP

• Students do better when their teachers
• Are fully certified and better educated
• Have stronger preservice preparation to teach
  reading (IRA, 2003)
• Have more preparation in literature-based and
  integrated strategies for teaching reading
• Use texts including trade books, magazines,
  newspapers, not basal readers or reading kits
• Assess reading through extended writing, not
  multiple choice tests (NAEP, 1994)

25
The Nature of Assessment Matters

• Many studies have long found that what tests
  measure drives instruction. The National
  Assessment of Educational Progress (1981) found
  for example
• Current methods of teaching and testing reading
  require short responses and lower-level cognitive
  thinking, resulting in an emphasis on shallow and
  superficial opinions at the expense of reasoned
  and disciplined thought.

26
Side Effects of Standardized Testing

• I have seen more students who can pass the
  test but cannot apply those skills to anything
  if its not in the test format. I have students
  who can do the test but cant look up words in a
  dictionary and understand the different
  meanings. As for higher quality teaching, Im
  not sure I would call it that. Because of the
  pressure for passing scores, more and more time
  is spent practicing the test and putting
  everything in the test format
• --- A teacher in Texas

27
Teachers in States with High-Stakes Testing Feel
Understanding is Harmed

• I believe the test is pushing students and
  teachers to rush through curriculum much too
  quickly. Rather than focusing on getting
  students to understand a concept fully in math,
  we must rush through all the subjects so we are
  prepared to take the test in March. This creates
  very little knowledge in a lot of areas.
• -- A teacher in Florida

28
What Can be Learned from Other Countries?Internat
ional Assessments (PISA) 2003

• Reading
• Finland
• South Korea
• Canada
• Australia
• Liechtenstein
• New Zealand
• Ireland
• Sweden
• Netherlands
• U.S. is 19 / 40

• Math
• Hong Kong
• Finland
• South Korea
• Netherlands
• Liechtenstein
• Japan
• Canada
• Belgium
• Macao (China)
• U.S. is 28 / 40

29
Japans Question What are Finland and South
Korea Doing?

• Massive investments in initial teacher education
  and school-level support
• A lean curriculum focused on higher order
  performance skills rather than multiple-choice
  testing
• Elimination of tracking
• Investments in high-need schools

30
Student Achievement In Reading, 1994-1998
31
State Reforms that Improved Achievement and
Reduced Gaps

• Increased and equalized salaries to attract
  better teachers distribute them more equally
• Raised licensing standards improved teacher
  education
• Provided scholarships for preparing high-need
  teachers
• Ensured mentoring for new teachers
• Gave extra aid to high-need districts for
  preschool and curriculum reform
• Invested in professional development

32
What We Need in order to Achieve Educational
Equity

• Equitable allocation of resources
• Equal access to intellectually rich and
  culturally responsive curriculum
• Well qualified teachers and leaders who know
  their content and how to teach it, who understand
  students learning, and who are willing to
  commit to the profession
• Investments in professional learning
• Schools designed for teaching, learning, and
  caring

33
Frederick Douglass on Change

• Power concedes nothing without a demand.
• It never has, and it never will.
• If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
• Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet
  deprecate agitation are men who want crops
  without plowing the ground. They want rain
  without thunder and lightening. They want the
  ocean without the awful roar of its waters.