As I recall, the news about Carol Johnson's appointment as Superintendent in
gomemphis said that under the leadership of Carol Johnson, the Minneapolis
Public Schools have been "closing the gap"?
http://www.gomemphis.com
In recent report cards (since January 1999) the district has reported that
MPS students were making progress greater than the national norm, and noted a
dramatic narrowing of the test score gap for high school students. However, as
I observed in a comment about the 1999 Better Schools Report Card, these
results were obtained by a statistical sleight of hand. Results for all students
tested from one year to the next showed gains for all categories of students
but a widening of the gap between whites and blacks, poor and non-poor students,
etc.
The 1999 Report Card found gains above the national norm and a substantial
narrowing of the test score gap for high school students, but this result was
obtained by tracking the scores of students continuously enrolled in the MPS
since 1990, and showing year-to-year test score averages without dropping the
scores of students who left the district in the year to year comparisons.
Progress is apparent but not real because the test score averages of students who
leave the district are much lower than the averages for students who stay.
Compared to white and middle class students, a much higher percentage of black and
poor students dropout or are pushed out of high school. You get higher test
score averages and a narrowing of the gap from year-to-year for students if you
don't drop the scores of the dropouts from those year to year comparisons.
If the decision by the Memphis public schools to hire Johnson was largely
based on Johnson's alleged success in "closing the gap" here, I think the School
Board in Memphis has grounds for voiding the contract.
Pasted below is a passage from a 1999 commentary that I wrote and published
in a collection of writings entitled "White Supremacy and the Politics of
Apartheid in Minnesota"
-Doug Mann
The establishment of neighborhood schools and an expansion of "magnet"
programs in the Minneapolis Public Schools has in fact caused a precipitous decline
in achievement test score averages for students of color in Minneapolis, which
the Minneapolis School Board tries to conceal by making the claim that, on
average, students of color have been making gains in proficiency at math and
reading above the national norm in recent years (the gains for white students
were greater).
This claim of gains in reading and math above the national norm for
students of color was made in a report to the Minneapolis Board of Education
on November 24, 1998 by Dave Heistad, director of Research, Evaluation, and
Assessment for the Minneapolis Public Schools; and in the 1998 Better Schools
Referendum Report Card dated January 1999 (Minneapolis Public Schools Research,
Evaluation and Assessment).
However, the claim of gains in math and reading scores above the
national norm was based on the trend of test scores for only 37% of the class of
2001 who took the tests in the Spring of 1997 and the Spring of 1998. The
district was not comparing the test score data for all students enrolled and
tested in the Minneapolis Public Schools from one year to the next. Only the tests
scores of students in the class of 2001 who had been continuously enrolled
and tested in the district from the Spring of 1990 to the Spring of 1998 were
counted. (Source: Minneapolis Public Schools, District Wide Assessment results
1997-98, page 29-31).
For students in the Minneapolis Public Schools who were eligible
for free or reduced-price lunches due to low family income, nearly 2/3 of the
total student population, the data shows that only 35% made gains above the
national norm in reading, and 40% made gains above the national norm in math from
the Spring of 1997 to the Spring of 1998. (Source: Minneapolis Public Schools,
District Wide Assessment results 1997-98, page 28)
On the other hand, for students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public
Schools who were tested in the Spring of 1997 and the Spring of 1998, and who
were not eligible for free or reduced price lunches, the data shows that 65%
made gains above the national norm in reading, and 60% made gains above the
national norm in math (i.b.i.d).
--Comment on the "State executive branch response to Plaintiff's settlement
proposal in the NAACP and Xiong cases, [dated 3/19/99]" 30 March 1999
http://educationright.tripod.com/id33.htm
TEMPORARY REMINDER:
1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject
(Mpls-specific, of course.)
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
