Around Des Moines

The main agenda item for the April 15, 2008, meeting of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board was student achievement data. Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring stressed that the April report was a breakdown of data from the February 19, 2008, monitoring report related to graduation ends. Several public speakers and board members asked what was meant by being proficient and what caused persistent discrepancies of achievement between subcategories.

Ultimately, the questions left unanswered were what could the school board do to affect change and what result should that change have. This was the theme when Board Member Jonathan Narcisse talked about the recently adopted 2009 budget and the lack of attention given to librarians in it. Board Member Jeanette Woods immediately challenged Narcisse by asking him what proposals he made during the budget discussions to shift funding to allow for more librarians.

Even when there are decades worth of data on particular items, such as reading and math scores as rated by the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), there were questions raised about the value of that data. During public comments, Alan Young, president of the Des Moines Education Association, said that the ITBS measurements from 50 years ago do not necessarily have value as guides for what will help students in the 21st century.

Sebring said that some wild fluctuations in the data for specific subcategories are due to the small number of individuals included in that subcategory. For example, there was a one-year dramatic increase in reading and math scores for the Native American population. Several board members also questioned the worth of standard tests versus teacher assessments of students’ skills when English language learners (ELL students) might have the knowledge but not the English language capacity to do well on the tests. Board President Dick Murphy offered the example of an English word that might have six meanings but an ELL student might only have learned three of them. (Note: I would be more likely to question the ELL challenge as being one of thinking in English versus another native language. This is the same challenge students with dyslexia face. The students must read the test question, interpret it, answer it, and interpret their answer back to English.)

Subcategories include gifted students as well as those coming from low-income households and different racial/ethnic groups. (Note: At a December 10, 2007, Human Rights Day event, Cyndi Chen, director of the Iowa Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders noted that the Asian community is represented by people from many different countries with many different cultures. This includeds Japan with its emphasis on education but it also includes countries in which education for girls is considered unnecessary. In the DMPS data, students from both of those cultures are lumped together) Board President Murphy wondered how well racial/ethnic minority students not included in the free or reduced price lunch program were doing compared to similarly wealthy Caucasians.

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) for 11th grade reading and math show a decrease for both males and females from the 2001-2002 school year to the 2006-2007 year. There was an increase for participation in the ACT tests used in college admission decisions, though. A significant part of this increase came from the decision to make the test available to students who could not afford the test-taking fee and to hold the tests at the schools. Board Member Woods voiced concern that students who did not go to college could still earn a respectable and profitable leaving in the trades.

Several reasons for the discrepancies in achievement were stated by board members, district staff, and public speakers. These included the mobility of students between specific schools and school districts, family history that may or may not emphasize the importance of a scholastic education, parents who need to work long hours, and even students whose work interferes with their ability to get to school on time. District staff reported on programs that have been implemented to help counter some of these problems. These include a grant that follows last year’s 7th grade classes in certain schools through the next few years to help introduce them to opportunities, such as college, that they might not otherwise experience. There is also the 9th grade academy that works with students to keep them attending school and improving their studies.

(Note: I was disturbed by a comment Sebring made that some of the achievement data was collected and summarized for the Des Moines Register. It seems to me as though the Register should be doing its own data analysis if it is to be an independent monitor of the school district. In contrast, district staff ignores me when I make basic inquiries for clarifications for readers of AroundDesMoines.com.)

M.R. Field covers school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com.