Bay Area school districts barely get passing grades for how
well they teach minority and low-income students, according to a report
released by an education advocacy group Thursday.
Of the 147 unified school districts statewide that were
ranked, Palo Alto Unified scored next to last, earning a grade-point average of
1.0 -- a D. The report did not award any A's.
Palo Alto's low grade was one of many startling findings in
the 2011 California District Report Cards put out by the Oakland-based
Education Trust-West. The second-annual report evaluated seven criteria for how
well districts are educating poor, African-American and Latino students. For
the sake of making accurate comparisons, the report focused only on about 15
percent of school districts in the state, those that serve kindergarten through
12th grades.
There has been no significant improvement since the first
report was issued in April 2011 in the Bay Area. The biggest gain was West
Contra Costa, which moved from an F to a D. While the state made closing the
achievement gap a top priority, budget cuts have derailed many strategies --
from summer and Saturday school to tutoring to small class sizes -- to help
accomplish that.
Among the latest report's findings:
In the Bay Area, San Ramon Valley scored the highest, a
C-plus.
Besides San Ramon, only Castro Valley, Gilroy and South San
Francisco scored at least a C, all slightly better than Los Angeles
Unfied.
More Bay Area districts scored a D than any other grade.
Seven earned a D-plus.
Only one in four Latino and black students graduates
eligible to enter the University of California or California State University.
Lake Elsinore in Riverside County earned the highest score
in the state, a B-plus; San Juan in Sacramento County earned the lowest, a
D-minus.
"The report confirms what we know to be true: Too many
kids aren't being served by our current system," said Erica Wood,
vice-president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which invests in
trying to narrow the achievement gap.
Ed Trust's grades equally weigh black and Latino students'
achievement, score improvement over five years, the achievement gap with white
students; and the percentage graduating "college ready," meaning
passing all the prerequisites for the University of California with a C or
better.
Overall, Southern California schools outscored Bay Area
districts, a reversal for Northern Californians accustomed to scoring at the
top in school tests and competitions. The report points out an embarrassing
weakness.
"We got the highest grade of any district in the
county, but it's still a C-plus, and there are gaps," said San Ramon
schools Superintendent Steven Enoch. "We are aware of the achievement gap
and take it very seriously."
Oakland has the widest achievement gap between white and
Latino students, district spokesman Troy Flint noted. "There's no excuse.
We just have to get better." The district did significantly improve in one
area over the previous year: 52 percent of Latino graduates were eligible for a
state university, up 10 percentage points.
In general, Flint said, "We have some of the
highest-scoring white students in the state, so our numbers are going to look
different than in districts that have a large working-class white
population."
But Carrie Hahnel, Ed Trust-West's director of policy and
research, wasn't buying it. "If you're able to achieve high scores for
some students, why are you not able to achieve high scores for all
students?" she asked.
Fremont Unified, whose schools often top state tests, moved
from a D in the previous year to a D-plus in Ed Trust's recent report.
Superintendent Jim Morris said he wasn't sure what accounted for the gain.
The district is taking various measures to boost achievement
among minorities, he said. "We need to be doing a better job educating
parents about standards and communicating with schools."
Palo Alto's low ranking came as disappointing but not
surprising news to groups that have been pressuring the district to improve
teaching for all students.
"No, I'm not happy about my district's rating,"
said Lucas Brooks, vice president of the Student Equity Action Network.
"This gives us something to take as evidence that we really need to make a
change."
Brooks, a senior at Palo Alto High, said he hopes the school
board in May will raise graduation standards by requiring all students to meet
UC-entrance requirements.
The district has been reluctant to address how to educate
students not in accelerated tracks, said Ken Dauber, a Palo Alto parent and
member of the group We Can Do Better Palo Alto. But it's useful to have a
respected outside organization calling attention to the achievement gap in the
district, he said.
"Embarrassment is often a good impetus for
change," said Dauber, a Google software engineer and former sociologist.
School board President Melissa Baten-Caswell acknowledged
the need for change. "We need to teach differently. Just doing the same
thing over and over isn't going to change things."
Staff writers Theresa Harrington, Katy Murphy and Jason
Sweeney contributed to this report. Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775 .
Ed Trust West's 2011 District Report Cards*
C-plus: San Ramon Valley
C: Castro Valley, Gilroy, South San Francisco
C-minus: Pleasanton, Livermore Valley, San Lorenzo, San
Leandro
D-plus: Milpitas, San Jose, Santa Clara, Pajaro Valley,
Berkeley, Fremont Unified, New Haven
D: Hayward, Oakland, West Contra Costa, Alameda, Antioch,
Morgan Hill, Mount Diablo, Palo Alto
* Includes only K-12 districts of 5,000 students or more
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.