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Crawford elementary has demographics that are FAR below state average and
have results far above state average and yet "The affluent areas are doing
even much better"? That's not how averages work. Of course you can find
affluent schools that are doing well too. But the point was that Ravitch
said that poverty is the cause of low performance. Crawford Elementary is
one piece of evidence that she is wrong. There is something else about
schools with a high population of poor students that causes the poor
performance, not the poverty itself. I'd recommend reading the 90/90/90
research and two books entitled, "It's Being Done" and "How It's Being
Done."
Here's the link to the 99%:
http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/tx/other/3378#students
I've been watching this school for years and it has been around 99% for
several years now. I've verified the data with the state of Texas website
and I have spoken with the elementary science coordinator for the Houston
Independent School District who also verified it. After 1998, another
school in the district was closed and many of the students transferred to
Crawford. Their data dipped as a result because it will take several years
to catch those students up.
Being from California, I can speak confidently about our schools. You will
NOT find an affluent school in the entire Riverside or San Bernardino county
that has similar results to Sixth Street Prep. Temecula is the most
affluent city in Riverside California. Here are the results from Temecula
Elementary School:
Hispanic and African American: 50% State: 56% 6th Street: 90%
English Learners: 26% State: 24% 6th Street: 36%
Reduced-Price Lunch: 46% State: 51% 6th Street: 84%
5th grade:
Language Arts: 72% State: 58% 6th Street: 96%
Math: 64% State: 60% 6th Street: 100%
Science: 61% State: 56% 6th Street: 96%
6th street has a more challenging demographic in every category and
out-performs Temecula Elementary in every category. Poverty is NOT the
cause of poor performance in school. There might be a correlation between
the two, but not a causal relationship.
I wouldn't give too much credence to the greatschools.org rankings. The
Crawford Elementary described here is given a "5" rating whereas the highly
affluent Crawford Elementary in Crawford, Texas with slightly better test
scores received a "10."
Thanks for keeping the conversation civil. This topic can get very
emotional.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Clement"<clement@hal-pc.org>
To: "'Forum for Physics Educators'"<phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 10:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Friendship trumps competance Was: Re: WHY
VALUEADDEDTESTING IS A BUST.
Crawford Elementary School in Houston, TexasAccording to the sites I have seen it only has 75% free and reduced-price
CES is 99% Free and Reduced-Price Lunch
CES is 98% Hispanic and African American
CES is 51% English Learners
In 2008, CES achieved 100% proficiency on the state science test where
the
state average was 85% (and the state had much less challenging
demographics). This includes poor, English Learners, special education,
boys, girls . . . everyone.
lunch, so the 99% free& reduced statistic may be overstated.
City-data.com school rating (weighted overall 2006 test average as
compared
to other schools in Texas) from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) is 37.
Read more:
http://www.city-data.com/school/crawford-elementary-tx.html#ixzz0yXILhrpS
It certainly doesn't look too bad. But compare it with West U in a
reasonably affluent middle class area:
http://www.har.com/school/campus-West-University-Elementary-School-101912255
.html
And please read the paper that I re-referenced. While state test scores
have gone up the scores on international assessments have gone down, so
that
teaching to the narrow state tests can raise scores, but on a more
comprehensive test scores will go down.
Crawford may be doing a very good job, but I would have to see more
evidence. The affluent areas are doing even much better, so the disparity
may still be there.
Where did the 99% for Crawford statistics come from?
John M. Clement
Houston, TX