Education is more than just test scores

June 14, 2006

By GARY RAVANI

Recently the Petaluma Board of Education approved an addendum to a document called the Local Education Agency Plan (LEAP). This document outlines various strategies that the Petaluma City Schools district has implemented to respond to sanctions if the district is identified as being in "Program Improvement" (PI) status. These strategies are presented as solutions to poor test performance at some district schools. The key to the success of any "solution" is the correct analysis of the "problem." Let's look at those schools.

One is a junior high school that is a very high-performing school. It ranks as an 8 (out of a high of 10) on California's API system. This school has been labeled PI because a small number of students didn't take the state tests one year and then a small number of students in one category had low scores another year. In both cases the entire school has been labeled because of the performance of a tiny number of students.

Two others are (PI) elementary schools toward eastside Petaluma that average 67 percent students designated as Economically Disadvantaged (ED) and 56 percent English Learner (EL). For a point of reference, elementary schools on the west side of Petaluma average 16 percent ED and 11 percent EL. The most casual observer can see that test success closely tracks English language proficiency and parental income levels.

Again, we must identify real problems if we are going to design real solutions. We are not dealing with schools in Petaluma that need to have their instructional programs "improved." We are dealing with one school caught in a statistical trap designed into No Child Left Behind. And, we are dealing with two elementary schools that are linguistically, economically, and socially segregated.

A well known educational writer, Jonathan Kozol, in his new book, "Shame of the Nation," writes: "Segregation is a bad thing, and it doesn't matter if the segregation comes by way of Jim Crow laws or by way of housing buying patterns."

This is a community as well as an educational issue. What is to be done to mitigate these conditions?

One of the strengths of any school district is the experience and skill of its teachers. And yet I hear reports of schools where teachers, because of efforts to deal with test preparation requirements, can't use their experience or apply those skills. Teachers report that some of the adopted reading programs leave no room for a student to read a real book for a good part of their elementary education. Trying to develop real literacy without literature is pretty much an oxymoron.

In an attempt to head off possible NCLB sanctions, there are proposals at the junior highs and high schools that will require some students to spend the entire regular school day in remedial reading and math classes with a break for PE. Another group would get the same with an hour of science or social studies in the afternoon.

That is not education. It's all about test scores. There are national concerns about the public's lack of knowledge of the Constitution, geography, and the sciences. These concerns will become self-validating if we in the education community abandon instruction in those areas because test scores are weighted toward math and reading. When does the weight of our responsibility to provide a balanced education get counted?

We have known for a long time that many students who struggle with academics stay in school because of their elective classes. The consequences of expanding remedial classes will be the elimination of some electives. The impacts are already being felt at a number of our schools.

I suggest the public ask the school board what is going on in their child's school. I recommend that parents talk with the classroom teachers and get their opinions about the LEAP and the testing mania imposed by NCLB. Education is more than just test scores.

(Gary Ravani is the president of the Petaluma Federation of Teachers.)