Good News About Good Schools
May 21, 2006 Closing the gapMinority students lag behind. Why?By LINDA TRIMBLE
News-Journal Education Writer"Sit up straight, hands in your lap, eyes on the book. Get ready." With those instructions, repeated all morning, Gladys Murphy gathers her first reading group of the day for a highly scripted lesson on sounding out letters and blending them into words. Andrea McGray, meanwhile, previews a book about baby animals her kindergartners will read together by seeing how much they already know. The children have no trouble identifying a baby dog as a puppy and a baby cat as a kitten, but McGray gets a surprise when she asks what to call a baby horse. "A miniature," blurts out one little girl. The morning routines are as different as the children Murphy and McGray teach and the schools -- Westside in Daytona Beach and Sweetwater in Port Orange -- where they work. As different as black and white. Beneath the different teaching approaches lies an issue -- the unequal academic performance of white, black and Hispanic children -- that is getting extra attention in Volusia and Flagler counties and across the nation as schools are increasingly held accountable for ensuring all students learn. The academic achievement gap between minority children and their white counterparts starts early -- most often rooted in poverty -- and is clear from the first day of kindergarten in Murphy´s and McGray´s classes. About half the children in Murphy´s class at the mostly black, high-poverty Westside had no preschool experience before they walked through her door. Murphy can spot them a mile away -- they have trouble sitting still or following directions, hold crayons like weapons and don´t know the letters of their first names much less the alphabet. Only a few children in McGray´s class at Sweetwater -- a predominantly white school with the most affluent student population in Volusia elementary schools -- didn´t attend preschool. Although the class spans a variety of learning levels, some children are already reading by the time they start kindergarten, and many have visited museums or traveled with their families. While the contrasts are magnified in those classes because the children come from opposite ends of the economic spectrum, the differences between the academic achievement of white and minority children are seen throughout Volusia schools and across the nation. And there´s a growing imperative to do something about the disparity, said Harvard University researcher Ronald Ferguson, who has studied the achievement gap for about a decade. The nation´s future depends on closing the gap, Ferguson said, as minority populations -- especially Hispanics -- continue to grow more rapidly than the white population. He maintains the nation´s economic and social health are at risk unless black and Hispanic youth get the education they need to be productive members of society. That, Ferguson said, is everyone´s responsibility. "It´s not a matter of pointing a finger at some part of society and saying, ´You´re the problem.´ In a way, we´re all part of the problem," he said in a telephone interview. "Every one of us needs to do a better job." For Volusia County School Superintendent Margaret Smith, that starts with the philosophy underlying everything that happens in local classrooms. "We´ve said for a long time all students can learn," Smith said. "I want to change that and put the focus on the teacher and say: Each child will learn." WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY The differences between Volusia´s black, white and Hispanic students show up in many ways: White students consistently score best on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, on average, with black students turning in the worst performance and Hispanics falling somewhere in between. The gap, which has narrowed some over the last five years while overall FCAT scores have generally improved, is smallest at elementary schools and widens in middle and high schools. Graduation and dropout rates follow the same pattern, with white students most likely to earn a diploma in Volusia, Flagler and Florida. Blacks, again, fall at the bottom, with Hispanics doing a little better than them. White students tend to score better on college admissions tests, with Hispanics falling second and blacks, third. Black students are more likely to be placed in programs for students with mental or emotional handicaps and far less likely to make it into the program for gifted, or exceptionally bright, students which has an 82 percent white enrollment in Volusia schools. After analyzing those statistics, Smith made increasing student achievement overall and closing the achievement gap her top priorities when she took over as Volusia superintendent two years ago. Under her leadership, the school district has adopted a wide-ranging strategy for closing the achievement gap that touches on many of the factors researchers have identified as causes of the difference in performance between white and minority students. THE CAUSES "It isn´t skin color that has anything to do with achievement; it isn´t income per se or what the father does at work," said Paul Barton, a researcher with the Educational Testing Service who distilled findings from hundreds of studies in a 2003 report on causes of the achievement gap. Barton identified 14 factors that play a role, including rigor of the school curriculum, teacher preparation and experience, class size, parent involvement, child health and nutrition and the amount of time young children are read to or watch television. "There are rich families who haven´t paid much attention to seeing their children have rich cognitive experiences, and there are poor families who have been able to make it happen," Barton said. "It´s the reading that makes the difference rather than the income that gets reported to the IRS." While that may be true, getting parents and the community involved is often easier at schools serving better-educated, financially secure families. Some schools, like Sweetwater, have very active PTAs and so many parent volunteers that teachers like McGray have to schedule them carefully to make sure they´re not tripping over each other in the classroom. "You´ll have two or three moms fighting for time," said Sweetwater PTA President Tammy Owens. "We have the luxury at Sweetwater that a lot of our moms don´t work and a lot who do can adjust their schedules to drop off their children at school and pick them up. "Without parental support, kids just flounder," said Owens, who has a doctoral degree in education and teaches part-time at Embry-Riddle and Stetson universities. "A lot of parents at Sweetwater are educated and know how important it is to be there." Schools like Westside often have to work harder to recruit volunteers and promote parent involvement. With many Westside parents working two or three jobs and many of the school´s pupils being raised by grandparents, it can be a challenge. "Parents want to help, but they don´t know how to help," said Westside Principal Judi Winch. "Lots of times, school wasn´t a good experience for them growing up." So, teachers like reading coach Shannon Hay, the Westside PTA president, fill the leadership positions in that organization while depending on parents to volunteer at activities the group sponsors such as a recent carnival and talent show. "When they can´t be here during the day, they are here at night or on weekends," said Janice Mallory, volunteer and family center coordinator at Westside. "We have great parent turnout." The family center provides workshops on how parents can help their children with schoolwork at home and lends them books and other materials to make it happen. As an incentive, parents can earn "family center bucks" for such things as attending a parent-teacher conference or school event or chaperoning a field trip. They´re redeemable for such items as dishwashing liquid, paper towels and deodorant. Both PTAs sponsor similar programs, such as helping teachers with classroom materials or sponsoring a "Santa´s Secret Shop" so children can buy Christmas gifts for their families. But the richer parent and community base at Sweetwater means the PTA there can easily raise money for its projects, while Westside has to make do with much less. Sweetwater´s PTA sold pies and miscellaneous items through a catalog to raise $24,000 -- which meant Leap Pad learning computers for one class, among other things. Hay said it´s rare for the Westside PTA to make any more than $1,000 on a fundraiser. No matter what the racial and economic differences between Westside and Sweetwater, the educators who work there are determined to make sure the children at both schools are learning. "I have a beautiful group of children. Some of them are a challenge, but that´s why we´re here," said Murphy, the Westside kindergarten teacher. "I don´t give up on any of them. You never know when something is going to click." "The bottom line is we´re here for the children," said Sweetwater Principal Pat Miller. "It doesn´t matter where your school is located. Every child needs love, guidance and direction, and that´s what we´re here to provide."
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