Achievement gap reduced by decrease in white student performance
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
“Closing the student achievement gap among black and white students is not a black thing, it’s a teacher and administration thing,” declared Paul Ruiz, principal partner of the Education Trust, an independent nonprofit organization that encourages colleges and universities to support school reform efforts.
Ruiz was one of two featured speakers Friday at the Missouri History Museum during the St. Louis Public Schools’ “Conversation on Urban Education” and presentation of a new “Education Covenant” to improve schools.
Ruiz’s declaration that equal student achievement “isn’t a black thing” rang true Sunday at the University of Missouri-St. Louis when the St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable handed out its report card for SLPS and 24 other metropolitan school districts that participate in the desegregation program and have at least 30 black students.
Schools succeeded in reducing the gaps at every level in each category, but failed disturbingly in increasing black student achievement.
According to the report, the only reason the achievement gap between black and white students narrowed is because the achievement level for whites declined – not because African-American achievement accelerated. In fact, black student achievement also declined.
The good news in the report was that the dropout rate among SLPS high school students dropped dramatically.
Achievement of black students in participating districts did increase in elementary and middle school math, where black students improved at a faster pace than their white counterparts. And African-American SLPS third graders out-achieved their white peers in communication arts, completely eliminating that gap.
The report card doesn’t surprise Ruiz.
He pointed to districts in St. Louis and around the country where black students are outperforming white students.
Black students in Texas outperformed white students in seven states, Ruiz said, pointing to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data.
Ruiz also pointed to high performances from black students in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia.
The difference, he said, lies in the quality of teachers and their support systems.
“It isn’t like the black students from Boston came from Mars. Same kids, different systems,” he said.
“Folks in the district made up their minds that – regardless of the parents, home environment and the poverty – when those youngsters step into school, they were going to be taught. And the youngsters responded.”
The reasons usually attributed to the achievement gap between black and white students should be dismissed, according to Ruiz.
“We love those covers and excuses as educators, because it’s a great way to distract from our own inadequacies,” Ruiz said.
“Rarely do we say our lesson plans are by happenstance, rarely do we say too many of us are stepping into classrooms shooting from the hip, rarely do we say our assignments are connected to the curriculum which is connected to the state standards. Rarely do we point to our practice.”
Ruiz continued summarily: “We come from a culture where we hide behind our classroom doors and we assume that 3,000 teachers are doing the right things, the same way, all the time.”
He added, however, that teachers must have effective superintendents and human resource offices and principals who designate high-level curricula.
Low expectations for African-American, Latino and poor students convert to low achievement, Ruiz warned, asserting that all students should experience the same challenging courses.
“When we don’t think they can achieve, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Ruiz said. “We teach down and they learn down.”
Ruiz said data show that when students are challenged with high-level courses they fail less often because they’re less bored, more engaged and feel more respected.
A covenant for education
SLPS’s new “Education Covenant,” fashioned in five principles and goals, begins with academic achievement.
Goals for academic achievement include that “80 percent of students will achieve at or above proficiency on the Missouri Assessment Plan (MAP)” and “90 percent of all high school students will graduate and be prepared for post-secondary educational opportunities.”
“The students need and deserve teachers who care about them and believe in their abilities to achieve and hold them to high expectations,” Darnetta Clinkscale, president of the SLPS Board of Education, said Friday at the History Museum.
The Black Leadership Roundtable’s report card noted that only seven percent of black students in the district were enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
This report card is the BLR’s first examination of the schools’ progress over five years and strategies being used to address the disparity in achievement between black and white students.
“The report accomplished what we wanted it to: shed light on a very important subject and have people take a fresh look at student achievement,” said Charles Saulsberry, interim chief executive office of the BLR.
“The next move is make inroads and improve students achievement.”