Public school picture not as grim as painted
One in four Pennsylvania public schools does not meet minimum academic performance levels or test-participation rates set by the state in accordance with new federal mandates for student achievement. Of the more than 3,200 public schools, including charters, 884 would not comply with the No Child Left Behind Act signed by President Bush in January, the state Department of Education reported last week.
Did that get your attention?
It should, but not for the reason that you might think. The one-in-four figure doesn’t tell the whole story. If anything, it paints a false picture of the state of education in Pennsylvania.
Here are some other things to consider in regard to the state’s report on current compliance with NCLB, whose goals must be reached by 2014:
– Sixteen school districts accounted for half of the schools on the list. The commonwealth has 501 school districts, but only 16 districts, which represent just 3 percent of those in the state, accounted for 49.7 percent of the 884 schools on the list.
– Philadelphia’s public schools, including charter schools, account for more than one-fourth of the schools on the list (27.4 percent).
– Charter schools, vocational-technical schools and special schools (such as George Junior Republic in Mercer County) account for 7.5 percent of the schools on the list.
The misrepresentation of public education is especially evident in the subcategory of schools that are more than 10 percent below the starting point set by the state to comply with NCLB standards in reading and math. This category is important because it does reflect academic shortfalls.
The state reported 327 schools fell into that category, and Philadelphia accounted for almost 60 percent of those schools.
However, the presence of these 327 schools in this category doesn’t necessarily reflect on the quality of the education children who attend them are receiving. Poverty is a good predictor as to how children will do in school, and almost every public school (charters excluded this time) that made this sub-list had low-income enrollments of 60 percent or more.
These schools are a direct reflection of the families and communities they serve – and that doesn’t just apply to the United States. Education Week reports a recent United Nations analysis of educational performance in 24 of the world’s industrialized nations noted that student achievement is linked closely to students’ family backgrounds.
Until so-called reforms recognize the importance of what takes place beyond the classroom, quack cures such as the No Child Left Behind Act are doomed to fail – and public education will continue to get a bad rap.