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Snap Schott:
Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates |
Study Cites Dire Economic Impact of Poor Schools
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ WASHINGTON — The lagging performance of American schoolchildren, particularly among poor and minority students, has had a negative economic impact on the country that exceeds that of the current recession, according to a report released on Wednesday. The study, conducted by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, pointed to bleak disparities in test scores on four fronts: between black and Hispanic children and white children; between poor and wealthy students; between Americans and students abroad; and between students of similar backgrounds educated in different parts of the country. The report concluded that if those achievement gaps were closed, the yearly gross domestic product of the United States would be trillions of dollars higher, or $3 billion to $5 billion more per day. This was the second report on education issues by the firm’s social sector office, which said it was not commissioned by any government, business or other institution. Starting in fall 2008, the researchers reviewed federal and international tests and interviewed education researchers and economists. In New York City, an analysis of 2007 federal test scores for fourth graders showed strikingly stratified achievement levels: While 6 percent of white students in city schools scored below a base achievement level on math, 31 percent of black students and 26 percent of Hispanic students did. In reading, 48 percent of black students and 49 percent of Hispanic students failed to reach that base level, but 19 percent of white students did. The New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was not poverty or family circumstances, but subpar teachers and principals. He pointed to an analysis in the report showing low-income black fourth graders from the city outperformed students in all other major urban districts on reading (they came in second in math). “Schools can be the game changer,” he said. “We are able to get very, very different results with the same children.” On Tuesday, Mr. Klein was in Albany attempting to persuade legislators to leave control of the city’s schools in the hands of the mayor, a governance model adopted by the state in 2002 that is due to expire in June. A crucial measurement of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s seven years at the helm will be Mr. Klein’s progress in narrowing the achievement gap in a city where 32 percent of students are black and 40 percent are Hispanic. While state test scores have shown improvement since Mr. Klein took office, eighth-grade scores on federal math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have not shown significant increases since 2002. In an interview after the speech here, Mr. Klein said he would be the first to acknowledge that the city was not where it needed to be in closing the gap, particularly in middle schools. But, he added, there have been signs of progress among younger students, and he believed the city’s four-year graduation rates — 69 percent for white students, 47 percent for black students and 43 percent for Hispanic students — could reach state averages within five or six years. He said it would require a focus on finding ways to recruit high-quality teachers. Nationally, the gap in test performance between white and Hispanic students grows by 41 percent from Grade 4 through 12, and between white and black students it grows 22 percent, the report said. Students educated in different regions also showed marked variation in test performance, despite having similar demographic backgrounds. In Texas, for instance, schools are given about $1,000 less per student than California schools, but Texas children are on average one to two years of learning ahead of their counterparts in California. The Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Klein’s partner in leading an alliance that is attempting to electrify the cause of making radical changes in education, criticized those who opposed their efforts. “There are no sacred cows in this,” Mr. Sharpton said to the audience of 200 education leaders at the press club. Arne Duncan, the federal secretary of education, told the audience that the report showed the need for robust data systems to track student and teacher performance; for alignment of American standards with those in other countries; and for incentives to keep good teachers and principals. “In many situations, our schools are perpetuating poverty and are perpetuating social failure,” he said, adding that the federal education bureaucracy had often hindered past efforts. He expressed support for the idea of radically restructuring the bottom 1 percent of schools in the country, possibly by closing and reconstituting them. The writers of the study pointed to signs of optimism amid the dreary numbers. Byron G. Auguste, the director of the social sector office at McKinsey, which produced the study, said there was evidence that two dozen countries over the past two decades had significantly overhauled their educational systems and closed achievement gaps. He also pointed to high-performing systems in the United States, like those in Massachusetts and Texas. The trick, he said, would be to share effective strategies.
Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates
By SAM DILLON It is no surprise that more students drop out of high school in big cities than elsewhere. Now, however, a nationwide study shows the magnitude of the gap: the average high school graduation rate in the nation’s 50 largest cities was 53 percent, compared with 71 percent in the suburbs. But that urban-suburban gap, which in part is due to hundreds of failing city schools that some researchers call dropout factories, was far wider in some areas. In Cleveland, for instance, where the gap was largest, only 38 percent of high school freshmen graduated within four years, compared with 80 percent in the Cleveland suburbs, the report said. In Baltimore, which has the nation’s second-largest gap, 41 percent of students graduate from city schools, compared with 81 percent in the suburbs. New York also had a large gap, with 54 percent of freshmen graduating within four years from schools in the city, compared with 83 percent from suburban high schools. The report, titled Closing the Graduation Gap, was commissioned by the America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit group that works to reduce the nation’s dropout rate. The alliance is headed by Alma Powell and her husband, Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state. The graduation rates cited in the report were for the class of 2005, the most recent year for which Department of Education data were available, said Christopher B. Swanson, director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the Maryland-based group that produced the study. The report builds on research begun in a previous study released a year ago. Some big city school districts that have worked to improve their graduation rates have made significant progress since the middle of the last decade, Dr. Swanson said. Philadelphia public schools, for instance, raised the graduation rate to 62 percent in 2005 from 39 percent in 1995, the report said. As a whole, the nation’s graduation rate improved by a few percentage points over the same decade, to 71 percent from 66 percent, the study said. But Marguerite Kondracke, the executive director of the alliance, said the pace of progress remained disappointing. “We don’t have time as a nation for incremental change,” Ms. Kondracke said. “Just over half the students in our big cities are graduating from high school, and that’s unacceptable.” For decades, high school graduation rates were routinely overstated in official statistics, with the Department of Education putting the nation’s rate above 80 percent and some states reporting rates above 90 percent. Behind the false data were a host of faulty reporting methods, including labeling dropouts who obtained G.E.D. certificates as graduates. The No Child Left Behind law signed in 2002 did little to improve the problem, allowing states to use dozens of different reporting methods. New Mexico, for example, was allowed to define its rate as the percentage of enrolled 12th graders who received a diploma, a method that grossly undercounted dropouts by ignoring all students who left school before 12th grade. In 2005, the Department of Education joined a trend toward standardization by publishing an official federal estimate of state graduation rates, and governors agreed to adopt a uniform calculation method. In one of her last official acts last year, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings ordered states to calculate their graduation rates using the formula the governors had agreed upon by 2013. Several provisions of the economic stimulus law signed in February may help improve graduation rates, including one that requires states to ensure that all schools, city or suburban, rich or poor, have equal access to qualified teachers, Ms. Kondracke said. “This urban-suburban graduation gap has developed partly because teacher quality is not the same from classroom to classroom,” she said. “So improving teacher quality is crucial to raising graduation rates in these inner-city schools.” The study found that the Indianapolis public schools had the lowest graduation rate of any large American city in 2005, with only 30 percent of freshmen graduating on time. Several large Western cities, in contrast, had graduation rates that exceeded the national average. The Mesa Unified District in Arizona had the highest graduation rate of any large city, with 77 out of every 100 freshmen there graduating four years later, the study found.
Schools Panel Is No Threat to the Mayor’s Grip
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ A vocational school teacher in East New York, Brooklyn, accused bureaucrats of manipulating college enrollment data. Parents protested a plan to move their school to East Harlem from Midtown. And Olaiya Deen, the mother of a third grader, deplored the proliferation of charter schools and “Madison Avenue” marketing blitzes to promote them in her neighborhood. “What happens if a majority of those charter schools fail — where will these low-income children now go?” cried Ms. Deen. Then she stopped, and blurted: “I don’t know why I’m speaking to you guys, because if you guys have any dissent, you’re not going to be sitting there tomorrow.” It is a ritual that unfolds monthly around the city at each meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, the oversight group that replaced the independent Board of Education when the State Legislature handed New York’s mayor control of its sprawling school system in 2002. In designing the mayoral takeover, lawmakers viewed the panel as critical to maintaining a “balance of authority,” and promised it would have a “meaningful role” on citywide education policy and approve major contracts, according to the authorizing language that accompanied the bill. But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — who controls 8 of the panel’s 13 seats — made plain during the negotiations that he preferred no panel at all, and over the past seven years, he and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, who doubles as the panel’s chairman, have eased it into irrelevance. The volunteer panelists — an investment banker, a lingerie store owner and an expert on electromagnetics among them — rarely engage in discussions with those who rise to address them. They do not debate the educational issues of the day, but spend most sessions applauding packaged presentations by staff. Some have barely uttered a public word during their tenures. Edison O. Jackson, president of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, has missed 15 of the 27 meetings held since he joined the panel in 2007; over all, the mayor’s appointees have an attendance rate of 75 percent. The board has cast 98 votes over 79 meetings — the vast majority of them unanimous. It has never rejected an administration proposal. The most contentious discussion came in 2004, over the mayor’s plan to hold back third graders who scored poorly on standardized tests, and resulted in the ouster of three dissenting members in what is known in education lore as the Monday Night Massacre. “When people say, ‘How could you have devised a system that gave total authority and absolute autonomy to the mayor?’ My answer to them is, ‘Well, we didn’t,’ ” said former Assemblyman Steven Sanders, who was chairman of the Education Committee at the time the change was made and now is lobbying for major changes in mayoral control for the New York State School Boards Association. “It was supposed to provide a place where there would be real vetting of important issues, where there would be meaningful dialogue and debate and a vote that was not predetermined,” Mr. Sanders said. “It is certainly clear to anyone who looks at the system that that is not the case.” Now, as the Legislature considers whether to extend mayoral control, which expires in June, the panel’s composition and role are crucial elements in the debate. People who feel shut out of decision-making want to make it a hedge against the mayor’s power, something the Bloomberg administration sees as erasing the very essence of mayoral control. Betsy Gotbaum, the city’s public advocate, has proposed fixed terms and a chairman other than the chancellor. William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller — and mayoral candidate — suggested an advisory board to nominate candidates for the mayor to choose from, a system used in Boston and Cleveland. The teachers’ union would give the public advocate, the comptroller and the speaker of the City Council seats. The mayor, however, would sooner disband the central board altogether — as Washington, D.C., did in 2007 — than tinker with its composition. He and Chancellor Klein say that an independent school board would only bring back political infighting and chaos. “We don’t want to create all these layers of checks and balances,” explained Dennis M. Walcott, the deputy mayor who oversees education, who described the three decades of school board rule as “dancing to multiple masters.” “When the mayor knows it’s time to make a decision, it’s time to make a decision,” added Mr. Walcott. “And he’s the one who should be held accountable.” As the nation’s cities increasingly turn to their mayors to run public schools — an approach the Obama administration strongly endorses — experts on school governance differ on the appropriate role for a school board. “The challenge is to reform mayoral control in a way that doesn’t lose the coherence, but does ensure more opportunity for transparency and tough-minded debate,” explained Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Thomas L. Alsbury, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, said boards controlled by mayors may improve efficiency, but can have “a chilling effect on the function of democracy and the control of our schools from the local citizenry.”
DeLeo 'open-minded' on sales tax
By Matt Viser House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said yesterday that he is "open-minded" about raising the Massachusetts sales tax to help the state cope with a historic economic downturn, a sign that representatives will seriously entertain at least a one-cent hike in the sales tax in an upcoming budget debate. "I'm open-minded towards it, as I am with the others," DeLeo told reporters yesterday, after being asked how he felt about increasing the sales tax. DeLeo said the only tax increase he has ruled out is a boost in the state income tax, an idea he called "dead on arrival." On all other taxes, he said, "I'm willing to talk." The House is scheduled to begin debating its budget Monday, a spending plan that is loaded with deep cuts that have drawn protests from social-service advocates, as well as unions. Business groups and state residents have said a recession is the wrong time to raise taxes. The tax increase that appears to have the most backing is to increase the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent, which would raise about $750 million, according to some estimates. So far, DeLeo and others in his leadership team have avoided taking a strong position. The new speaker, who replaced former speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi in January, appears reluctant to use the full leverage of his office to stake out a position and push it through the House. Next week will provide some of his first big tests. "There has not been any decisions made," DeLeo said. "But I am meeting constantly . . . to try to formulate some ideas of where the membership lies. This is going to be a very, very interesting debate." DeLeo also said yesterday that dedicating tax increases to fix the state's transportation problems could be on the table next week during the budget debate, but he would not elaborate. He also refused to say if he is ready to embrace Governor Deval Patrick's call for an increase in the tax on gasoline. Patrick has said the tax should be raised by 19 cents a gallon, but lawmakers have been cool to the proposal. "Right now there's the income tax, the sales tax, hotel-motel, meals, and everything else in between," DeLeo said after a speech to business and community leaders at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "You could take any one of those and say a certain portion [of the revenues] would be dedicated to transportation needs." The speaker's refusal to rule out higher taxes was another indication that a tax vote is on the horizon. Lawmakers have filed a slew of proposed amendments to the House budget that would increase taxes. Liberal lawmakers and social-service advocates are pushing for tax increases, saying that the budget cuts unveiled by the House Ways and Means Committee are intolerably deep. Another sign tax increases are on the Legislature's agenda is a discussion of unpaid furloughs for lawmakers, which would demonstrate that lawmakers are willing to share residents' economic pain. DeLeo said yesterday that he had asked House personnel to examine putting lawmakers on three to five days of furloughs. It is unclear whether lawmakers would be forced to take the days off, or if they would have to volunteer. The amount of savings that would be produced by furloughs was not available. "We're working on that now," DeLeo said. "I've already worked with House personnel today, trying to get a feel for savings and what we can do, what's feasible." The Senate has also been looking at taking furloughs. "It's a cost-saving option that's on the table," said Senator Steven Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat and chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. "It was just broached but hasn't gotten into detail yet." Senate President Therese Murray declined to comment. Lawmakers make a base salary of $61,440. Losing a week's salary would cost each lawmakers about $1,200, and if all 200-members of the Legislature took the hit, it would add up to nearly $240,000. Some lawmakers have rejected a 5.5 percent pay hike this year, although most decided to take the raise. Patrick announced last week that he would furlough 5,000 executive branch employees for up to five days in response to the state's rapidly declining revenues. Patrick and many in his top staff said they would still come to the office and work for free, rather than take vacation days. House budget writers released a $27.4 billion budget last week that included drastic cuts across state government, which has prompted public health, social services, and other advocates to call for new taxes to restore some of the funding. Rank-and-file lawmakers have filed 978 budget amendments, with most of them going toward funding pet projects. The requests include $20,000 to update the sound system at a school auditorium in Hopedale and $250,000 for the eradication of invasive aquatic species in Lake Cochituate State Park. There is $90,121 to have 14 officers from the State Police Bomb Squad trained by Israeli security services, and $50,000 so that Leicester can study whether it needs a new fire facility. Other proposals include requiring the state to distribute free transponders, and establishing toll booths on Interstates 93 and 95 at the New Hampshire border. But the most vigorous debate is expected to be around a wide array of tax-raising amendments, including raising the meals tax from 5 percent to 8 percent, raising the gas tax by 25 cents-per-gallon, and increasing the state's income tax from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent.
Patrick frosty on sales tax increase
By Matt Murphy, Eagle Boston Bureau BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick signaled Wednesday that he is still reluctant to support an increase in the sales tax to offset deep cuts to government services, despite growing momentum in the House for the tax hike. "That's not where I am," Patrick said at an Earth Day press conference to announce the formal launch of the Green Communities Program that seeks to help cities and towns save money through energy efficiency and renewable power. Patrick, who announced his own slate of tax increases in January, said he still believes his budget proposal is the right way to proceed. "We're asking an awful lot of the people of the Commonwealth, and it's a tough time to ask for anything else," Patrick said. The governor's budget calls for lifting the sales tax exemption on soda, candy and alcohol. He also asked the Legislature to approve state and local option meals and hotel taxes and lifting of the property tax exemption for telecommunication companies on poles and equipment. Legislators, however, appear to be growing more comfortable with a "one-and-done" approach to tax increases with the idea of raising the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent quickly becoming the consensus pick. It is possible that House lawmakers will not raise any taxes when they begin their budget debate week, but facing a proposed $24 million cut to local aid next year and deep cuts to public safety and health and human service programs many agree some new source of revenue is needed. Senate President Therese Murray, standing next to Patrick on Wednesday, said a sales tax increase is still on the table. Both she and House Speaker Robert DeLeo have said they are open to hiking the sales tax, but have ruled out calls that would increase the income tax to as high as 6.3 percent. "I think people have to be very realistic," Murray said, cautiously choosing her words as she fielded questions about taxes. Increasing the sales tax to 6 percent would generate an estimated $750 million in new revenue for next year. Both Patrick and Murray said they had not talked "in depth" about broad-based tax increase, but pledged to work together as the budget process unfolds. Patrick would not say whether he would veto a sales tax increase if both the House and Senate approved the tax hikes in the coming months.
School closings pose a big risk
By Christine Legere School officials in Hingham and Milton are considering closing school buildings next fiscal year so they can save jobs by eliminating costs related to running those facilities. But as voters in both towns consider tax-limit overrides to raise additional revenue, much of it to be used for local education, the officials are learning that closing a school to address an expected budget shortfall could cost the community more than it would save. Both the Hingham and Milton school systems were warned recently by the Massachusetts School Building Authority that they could be forced to return any state assistance grants used for school construction costs if they decide to close a school or change its use. In letters to the two districts, the state agency said it has the power to demand some or all of the grant money back. Most schools in the state have obtained reimbursements for their school building projects, in some cases at a rate of 90 percent. Closing a school to ease budget problems is a trend starting to appear in various parts of the state, said the School Building Authority's executive director, Katherine Craven. And it's one her agency doesn't like to see. "When you have to close an older school to have the money to open a new one, it's a situation SBA doesn't want to create," Craven said. "You see it more in towns that lack a broad tax base, like Milton, where there's not much of a commercial base. That's a structural problem and they need a long-term solution." In Hingham, where voters will consider a $1.1 million override at tomorrow's annual Town Meeting and on Saturday's ballot to cover the cost of opening a new $27 million elementary school next fall, local officials concede the state may pursue the town if it reneges on keeping all its schools open. The new elementary school, under construction since last year, is nearly finished. The state will eventually reimburse the town for 40 percent of the cost. So far, it has contributed $6.7 million. David Killory, business director for the school district, said if the override initiative fails, one of the town's four elementary schools will most probably have to close for the upcoming year, although it won't be the new one. That may not matter, in terms of the financial consequences. "Hingham vaulted to the top of our priority list a year ago, due to overcrowding," Craven said. "What's changed since last June that would allow them to close a school? We have sort of a contract with Hingham that the conditions they said were there existed. If everything Hingham said was true, closing a school would result in severe overcrowding of the new building, which isn't why it was built." Killory said local officials realize that closing any school may violate its agreement with the agency, because of the continued overcrowding. He called the situation "problematic." Meanwhile, Milton officials were still working on their override amount, but expect it to be around $3.3 million, with $1.3 million earmarked for the schools. The Milton School Committee has been considering closing either the Tucker or Cunningham elementary school if the override fails. "Although the town of Milton owns these recently built schools, the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and the taxpayers that fund the authority statewide, have paid a grant of $114 million to the town for substantial capital construction at the Tucker, Pierce, Collicot/Cunningham, Glover, and Milton High schools," Craven said, adding that the agency has the authority to recover some or all of a grant made for a school if it closes or its educational use changes.
Teachers to vote on pay raises
To help reduce that number, unions who have workers at the schools are being asked to accept a one-year freeze in their negotiated 3 percent raises, which could save the city around $1.1 million next fiscal year, McGlynn said. Unions for secretaries, custodians, and carpenters have already voted to accept the freeze, with the teachers' union, the school department's largest union, scheduled to take a vote Thursday. In issuing the pink slips on April 13, McGlynn said he was "telling the 160 that somebody is going to lose their jobs. We're giving you a couple of month's notice so you're not getting a letter June 15 and realize you don't have a job the next day," McGlynn said. "It tells them you're going to be laid off, but if circumstances get better, like on Thursday if the teachers vote for the [pay] raise rollback, the 160 will be lowered. It will save $1 million worth of jobs." In a similar move last year, McGlynn asked all city unions to accept higher health insurance premiums to help the city save around $1 million, but took the idea off the table after the three largest unions, representing teachers, police officers, and firefighters, voted against it. He said he hopes the wage freeze stands a better chance. "All they have to do is look around them," McGlynn said. "Thousands of employees have been laid off this year throughout the state. Last year we eliminated 48 jobs from the schools. Everyone understands the severity of it." Medford Teachers Association president Maryellen Trane declined to comment, but confirmed that the union would be taking a vote Thursday. The 160 potential layoffs represents all Medford teachers with fewer than three years and a day of consecutive service. The decision to issue the pink slips was made to meet layoff notice guidelines and in response to an estimated $11.5 million budget deficit expected next fiscal year, which begins July 1, McGlynn said. Not all 160 will be laid off, McGlynn said, adding that the city is still waiting on key budget aspects, such as final state local aid numbers, and hoping for legislative approval of Governor Deval Patrick's so-called Municipal Partnership Act, which would allow communities to levy their own meals and hotel tax increases, creating new revenue. McGlynn said state legislators have indicated they may have an answer regarding the partnership by early May. He added that the city has been working with the state on this issue since October. "We know how much we're off [in the budget], but we don't know how we can make it up until they act," McGlynn said. "The Legislature is putting us in a position where by not acting, they're forcing us to act now, because the longer you wait [to lay off] the more in unemployment you have to pay." Superintendent Roy E. Belson said that putting an entire subgroup of teachers on notice sent shock waves throughout the district. "Normally, in most years, I would send [layoff notices] out to a select group who are in the bottom end of everything, but this year the possibility for cuts is so much deeper, I had to cover all the bases," Belson said. "We're at a point where we're having to do things we don't want to do. . . . Without new help from the Legislature or an increase in local aid, there's going to be serious, serious pain inflicted." In her 19 years as a member of the School Committee, Paulette Van der Kloot said she has "never seen anything like this. This is a devastating year. "We can't run the school district if we lay off 160 people," Van der Kloot said. "My big concern is it sends such a negative message to our very valued employees. Those beginning years of teaching take a lot of time, energy, and commitment and the message is, 'Go seek employment elsewhere.' . . . When I was speaking to the young teachers who received pink slips . . . it was heartbreaking. They felt they weren't being valued and that's not true." If all of the unions approve the pay freeze, it would allow the city to hold off paying the raise until June 30, 2010. Other payment obligations the city hopes to delay to lessen their impact next fiscal year, depending on Legislative or Department of Revenue approval, include pushing its full pension funding deadline from 2028 to 2031. Also, spreading this year's $1 million snow and ice deficit payments throughout the next three years, if allowed by the Department of Revenue, would save the city about $600,000 next fiscal year, McGlynn said. And if the Legislature approves the partnership act, he estimates the city would net another $600,000 in new tax revenue. "If we can spread it out, we can save jobs," he said. "So my goal is to hustle for new ways of revenue in order to offset some of these cuts."
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The Snap Schott is distributed by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. For more information, please visit www.schottfoundation.org. |
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