Detroit teachers and education employees picket at the School Center Building where a state-appointed corporate executive make decisions about public education. Thousands of members of the DFT and other unions participated. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
December 7, 2011 http://detnews.com/article/20111207/SCHOOLS/112070384
DPS gains but still last in math, reading scores for urban districts
JENNIFER CHAMBERS
The Detroit News
Detroit — Detroit Public School students made gains on a national test measuring math and reading proficiency but scored the worst in the nation again among large urban school districts tested, according to results released Wednesday.
The district's fourth- and eighth-graders trailed 21 other large cities that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban Assessment.
The Nation's Report Card 2011 found that 71 percent of eighth-grade students in Detroit scored below basic proficiency in math, which means they lack fundamental skills in math, while 66 percent of fourth-graders did the same.
In the 2009 math test, DPS students scored 77 percent and 69 percent, respectively.
Proficiency rates increased from 31 to 34 percent in math for fourth-graders, 22 percent to 29 percent in math for eighth-graders, 27 percent to 31 percent in reading for fourth-graders and 41 percent to 43 percent in reading for eighth-graders.
In reading, eighth-graders at DPS students scored 57 percent below proficient while fourth-graders scored 69 percent below proficient.
DPS officials on Wednesday touted the results as "substantive progress" on academics.
"Of the factors that impact academic success in this district, I am convinced based on conversations with educators, retired principals, current teachers, administrators and parents that the single biggest factor impacting DPS is instability. We've had far too many changes in administration and far too many leadership changes at the school level," DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts said.
Karen Ridgeway, superintendent of academics, said the DPS had the highest gain among all 21 districts in math.
Test officials said some of the gains were not statistically significant. Ridgeway agreed.
"But they are trending in the right direction," she said.
The Trial Urban District Assessment allows comparisons to large cities and the nation, and achievement gap data by racial/ethnic groups, income level and gender. Other schools include Atlanta, Chicago, District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles and New York City.
The majority of students in the TUDA are black, Hispanic or from lower-economic households, test officials said.
Some test highlights in Detroit include:
— Only 41 percent of DPS fourth-graders answered a test question on four-digit subtraction correctly, compared with 77 percent of fourth-graders in Austin, Texas.
— DPS was among four districts — Dallas, Houston and Miami-Dade — that showed smaller gaps between average scores of higher-income and lower-income students than the gaps for higher- and lower-income students in the nation and in large cities overall.
The test, which measures students in urban cities with populations of 250,000 or more, was taken for the first time by DPS students in 2009, when district officials agreed to volunteer for the test.
In 2009, when the test was given for reading, DPS students registered historically low scores — the worst in the 40-year history of the test. The same happened in math.
In February of this year, DPS students scored the worst in the nation again, that time in science.
Many DPS teachers have said excessive student truancy is at the core of poor learning in math and other subjects. Attendance at DPS dropped below 75 percent 46 times during the last school year.
Roberts said he has begun talking with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office on the issue. Truancy is a crime punishable under state and local laws.
He also said he is investigating a policy in New York City schools, under which students cannot graduate from high school if their attendance falls under 90 percent.
"If we can get kids in school, we can teach them and they can learn," he said.
Roberts said to provide more stability to students and to allow parents to plan for their child's educational future, he will announce in January which DPS schools will be moved into the new Education Achievement System — the state's new recovery school district — and which DPS schools will be closed or turned over to charter operators.
Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, a nonpartisan education policy and research organization, said Detroit's student achievement continues to be devastatingly low.
"Students in leading U.S. urban districts are learning at far higher levels than our students in Detroit," Arellano said. "These data underscore the importance of ensuring education reforms or changes in state law are focused on providing quality schools. … As a state, we've got to focus on building high-performing schools in Detroit — and other urban communities — regardless of governance structure."
Robert Bobb, who was emergency manager for DPS when students took the test between January and March, said the improvement in scores is the result of an academic plan his staff put in place in 2010. The plan called for doubling the time young students study math and reading to 120 minutes every day in each subject and developing the district's Reading Corps program.
"It's always cause for celebration, every small victory should be celebrated despite the fact there are tremendous steps to be taken," said Bobb who led DPS from March 2009 until May of this year. "It's going to take several years for them to get out of the bottom. The key will be the ability to continue with a strong academic plan and not change the program."
Detroit News Staff Writer Mike Wilkinson contributed.
jchambers@detnews.com
(313) 222-2269
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