Achievement gap? No excuses, please

"We reject any and all attempts at genetic explanations for achievement gaps, leaving differences in education policy and culture as possible sources for achievement gaps," Matt Ladner and Dan Lips write.

We note, however, that the control of culture is precisely the mission of schools. The school staff controls the school culture and keeps the focus of students on academic achievement. Ineffective schools fail to control school culture. In the worst cases, students seize control of school culture and stigmatize academic achievement through peer pressure and/or violence. 

We do not believe anyone has ever seen evidence of a "racial combat effectiveness" gap in the United States Marine Corps because it doesn’t exist. The United States Marine Corps enlists people from all states, races, and classes of American society, but because it is an organization with a strong culture and mission, it transforms people of all backgrounds into Marines. Likewise, the job of schools is to transform ignorant children into numerate and literate young people with at least the minimum skills to succeed in the world.

'Poverty a factor, not an excuse, in education'

Good column today by Oklahoma schools superintendent Janet Barresi.

Any Oklahoma child can learn

"KIPP and Ryal prove that any child can learn," the state's largest newspaper observes. "Poverty isn't what's preventing educational achievement."

Rethink, restructure, reform

"We face a crisis in education in Oklahoma," says our new state superintendent. It appears she's ready to get to work.

Que los padres elijan

Let the parents choose.

Demography is not destiny

[Guest post by OCPA intern Taylor Stair]

"The needs of Oklahoma children have become more complex and more difficult … In 1990 Oklahoma’s student poverty was 35 percent, overwhelmingly Caucasian and schools were educating 577,000 students. In 2010, schools served about 650,000 students with a poverty rate of 60 percent. Caucasian students now have a slight majority in the Oklahoma student population and the numbers of students who are homeless, speak English as a second language and/or are in foster care/state custody are astonishing."

-- Superintendent Sandy Garrett, State of Education Address, July 2010

Disadvantaged students have typically performed at lower levels on standardized tests, have lower graduation rates, and as a result are ill-prepared as they enter the workforce. This, according to state Superintendent Sandy Garrett, is a primary challenge facing Oklahoma’s educators as the demographics of Oklahoma’s students become increasingly diverse.

Yet despite the challenges of a shifting demographic, good news comes from the Sunshine State. Thanks largely to the leadership of then-Governor Jeb Bush, Florida has seen remarkable improvement among its students' standardized test scores, especially among disadvantaged students. How is this so? The answer lies in Florida’s embrace of comprehensive school reforms, including school choice.

Compare the education policies of Oklahoma and Florida over the past decade and the difference is clear. While Florida got innovative and expanded its use of charter schools, vouchers, and virtual education (Florida has the largest virtual school in the nation), allowing the unique needs of disadvantaged students to be met, Oklahoma resisted needed reforms to education and instead created a lottery.

The figures below show the results of each state’s efforts in education. And they help to illustrate that demography isn't necessarily destiny.

Jeb Bush touts education reform in Oklahoma

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (pictured here at a press conference in the Governor's Blue Room) was in Oklahoma last week touting school reform. In conjunction with his visit, OCPA teamed up with the Foundation for Educational Choice and the Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition to release this study.

The Associated Press report of Gov. Bush's visit is here, and the CapitolBeatOK report is here.

New study compares Florida's academic boom with Oklahoma's drop

Oklahoma not only is trailing most states in fourth-grade reading scores, but when compared with one state’s students its results look even worse, according to a new study released yesterday by the Foundation for Educational Choice, the Oklahoma Business & Education Coalition, and the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

The study, Reforms With Results: What Oklahoma Can Learn from Florida’s K-12 Education Revolution, compares the educational gains made by Florida students over the past 10 years with the progress of Oklahoma students. Examining data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s (NAEP) fourth-grade reading test, the study finds that Florida, and 35 other states, are outperforming Oklahoma. In addition, Florida’s Hispanic students, who for years were lagging in academic performance, are now scoring higher than the average of all Oklahoma students on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading exam.

“Fourth-grade reading is a critical measurement of student performance and a great predictor of students’ futures,” said Dr. Matthew Ladner, the study’s author. “If students can’t learn to read how then can we expect them to read to learn in their later years? Florida understands this, and so should other states.”

In 1998, Oklahoma students outscored Florida students, on average, by 13 points on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading exam. In 2009, however, on the same test, Florida students scored 9 points higher than Oklahoma students, almost a grade level ahead according to NAEP. In addition, between 1998 and 2009, Oklahoma’s Hispanic students improved their average score by 3 points on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading test. Florida’s Hispanic students, meanwhile, increased their average score by 25 points.

“Contrary to what some might think, Florida’s progress is not a product of more money but rather the result of an aggressive series of educational reforms,” said Bill Price, chairman of the Oklahoma School Choice Coalition. “Recently, Oklahoma has adopted some of these reforms, and if Florida is any indication it would be wise to expand them.”

Price is referring to several recent reforms including an alternative teacher certification path that will enlarge the potential pool of quality teachers in Oklahoma, which the legislature enacted in 2009. In addition, the state improved its charter school law and created a private school choice program in 2010—the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program—for students with special needs. However, according to the study, Oklahoma’s state testing, school choice opportunities, and accountability measures still need to be strengthened.

“Florida’s experience shows that a number of strategies must be employed to raise student achievement levels, especially among disadvantaged youth,” said Phyllis Hudecki, executive director of the Oklahoma Business & Education Coalition. “Just as Florida did, we must look at our own areas in need of improvement and make necessary changes to ensure our students are receiving educations that prepare them for life.”

No excuses, please

In 1998 Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pushed through a comprehensive set of education reforms, including school choice. Today Hispanic students in Florida outscore or tie the statewide reading average of all students in 31 states, including Oklahoma.

Saints among us

[This is the text of an ad sponsored by the Marlin Oil Corporation appearing in the current edition of The City Sentinel.]

Monday of this week, an Oklahoma City principal who manages a high school where 82 percent of the students are Hispanic won the Milken Family Foundation’s Educator of the Year award for 2010. Pat McGuigan's report in this week's edition of The City Sentinel captures the wonderful spirit of the event.

Chris Brewster deserves all the praise he is getting. In less than a decade, he has taken a school with some of the lowest achievement scores around and turned it into the second-highest achiever among Oklahoma City public high schools with open admissions. Already, his graduates are working their way through state junior colleges and universities, aiming to join the professions and, in some cases, to become teachers themselves.

A couple of things make this wonderful achievement especially notable. First, the school is excelling even though it has an Hispanic population that is twice that of the percentage found in the school district as a whole. The staff is intensely dedicated to producing students who are proud of their heritage and also able to function in the English-speaking economic mainstream of our state and our country.

Second, Santa Fe South is a charter school, able to operate outside many of the mandates and bureaucratic strictures that limit teaching and creativity at so many regular public schools. Brewster has been a leader in the association of charter schools, which now has a little more than a dozen institutional members.

There are no charter high schools in Tulsa, due to the wasted time of 10 years of litigation the public school district there wasted while charter schools in Oklahoma City steadily improved. Only this year did the Tulsa district reluctantly agree that charter schools are here to stay -- after losing a silly lawsuit and wasting lots of money trying to crush these innovative sites. Yet, the highest achieving tax-funded elementary school in T-Town is a charter school. Think how much more can be achieved by adding upper grades to this dynamic school model.

The students at Santa Fe South are achieving notable things on the athletic fields, as well. The Saints, as they are known, won the boys Class 4A soccer championship last spring. This year they added the state title in cross country. Accepting the Milken award, which was a surprise to him, Brewster was a study in statesmanship and dignity, insisting on the excellence of all those surrounding him.

Every now and then in life, we catch of glimpse of the saints among us.

Improving performance among Hispanic children

President Barack Obama recently delivered a speech on education reform to a national conference of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In a panel discussion later that day, Heritage Foundation analyst Dan Lips, co-author of an OCPA report on school choice, told the conferees of successful reforms in Florida.

"Over the past decade, no state has been more aggressive in reforming its public education system than Florida," Lips said. "And after 10 years, students in Florida have made dramatic gains in academic achievement." Indeed, on the NAEP 4th-grade reading test, Hispanic students in Florida now outscore the statewide average of all students in Oklahoma (something OCPA has pointed out before).

And we expect them to excel

The Oklahoman reports today that "Hispanic students account for the largest jump in enrollment in Oklahoma schools this year." But before anyone goes to making excuses for poor student performance, let us recall that demography is not destiny.

So much for that excuse

The Associated Press reported yesterday that

Poverty and a growing population of minority students, including non-English speaking Hispanics, are presenting major challenges to public schools in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, a state school official said Monday. Sandy Garrett, state superintendent of public instruction, ... said whites now make up only 22 percent of the student population in Oklahoma City. Hispanics are the biggest minority at 40 percent, followed by blacks at 30 percent, American Indians at 5 percent and Asians at 3 percent.

The more cynical among us might suspect that Sandy is trying to make excuses for poor student performance in Oklahoma. But I have confidence that's not the case. For surely Sandy recalls what OCPA pointed out in the November issue of Perspective ("Demography Is Not Destiny"):

Educators sometimes imply that we shouldn’t expect too much from low-income and minority students. Florida proves them wrong. Thanks to abundant school choice and systemic education reform, Hispanic 4th graders in Florida now have higher reading scores than the statewide average of all 4th-grade students in Oklahoma.