On Reading & Retention

Indiana Citizens was pleased to see this response from Carole Craig (NAACP) to Sunday’s Star on the Retention Law ( Senate Bill 258).  The Star picked two "experts" who just happened to agree with the policy and apparently the paper's position.  Certainly, we want reading to be a priority but this just shows another punitive effort that ignores focusing on the child.  Craig also points to the clear research on retention and dropout rates (which....we thought was a priority).
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Retention isn't answer to reading problem

Having spent more than 30 years in urban education, currently as a consultant working with the NAACP to promote equity in education, I would never advocate that children be promoted to the next grade without having the appropriate skills. However, as research over the past 30 years shows, retention is not the answer either.

One of the first indicators of who will struggle in school and eventually drop out and be relegated to a life of poverty is the child who cannot read by third grade. However, studies show that a child who is retained is no more likely to be a successful high school graduate with the ability to complete college than the one who was socially promoted.

The issue becomes, instead, how can a child get through third grade without the necessary reading skills?

Elementary principals will tell you that they have no desire to socially promote such a student. They will tell you that they don't have needed resources and that more than likely these children came to school without preschool and kindergarten experiences, which are not fully funded for full day in Indiana.

Principals will tell you that more volunteers for mentoring and tutoring and more business and community partnerships are needed since teachers don't have the time to provide enough one-on-one instruction.

Rather than mandate retention, I would like see a public report from every Indiana school at midyear with the number of students who are not on the path to having reading skills needed to move on to fourth grade. I recommend that schools be required to list the strategies, resources, programs and partnerships being used to eliminate the problem (including a request to the Indiana Department of Education for help). I recommend that the number of staff members not considered proficient through the district performance evaluation process be listed.

If these are resource and personnel issues, how can children be punished through retention only to receive more of what didn't work? Instead, shouldn't proper action be taken by the Department of Education at midyear to ensure that every child be provided with what is necessary to succeed? If these children are suffering from not having preschool and kindergarten, then why not mandate and fund these for all students, as many states have already done?

Craig, an education consultant, is NAACP co-chair for Greater Indianapolis and the state

Failing the Children in Indiana

Indiana Citizens agrees that the Indy Star needs to be congratulated for continuing to push the conversation on public education--long overdue.   This article says that the problem lies in "parents who took too little interest, teachers who were inept, a school district bureaucracy that is unresponsive and a community uncertain how to help" but a piece that is missing is the continued cut to funding for public education which translates to bigger class size, lack of counselors and social workers in schools, and good professional development for teachers.  This is a big gap in the analysis....calling for volunteers and mentors is a good thing of course but don't forget that the city has to do it because the state has left its children out in the cold.

9 problems we must overcome to help save our children

By Andy Gammill and Robert King

Posted: January 31, 2010

1. Children start out behind >and many never catch up.

2. Without the ability to read, their options will narrow.

3. Teachers are key: Two bad ones in a row, and a child may never catch up.

4. Children's basic needs must be met before they can learn.

5. When children change schools or homes, education suffers.

6. For good or for ill, kids will take their cues from parents and neighbors.

7. Without their community, students can't succeed.

8. Children won't have a chance to learn if outside distractions can't be controlled.

9. Children are held back by a sprawling, unwieldy bureaucracy that gets in the way.

Lesson: Failing the children fails the community. It's our future, too.

A New Year & Public Education

A call to action from the Indy Star.....it's about time.  There is a lot of interest now thanks to the ludicrous policy of Daniels/Bennett and the coverage of the realities of urban education at Manuel High School.  Many misperceptions and confusion persists but it does feel like a time to continue to push the conversation on public education in our city.  We've done some things this past year but perhaps its time to bring this beyond the internet and into the actual public sphere--Should Indiana Citizens go public?  What do you think?

Join in bold vision for our children

No issue is more critical for this city and state than to improve the academic achievement of its children. As go our schools in this new year and new decade so will go our economy, our quality of life and a multitude of other key measures.

The year begins on a sour note, with the state forced to make significant cuts in school funding and without money to expand important initiatives such as full-day kindergarten or early childhood education.

Yet, despite the fiscal challenges, the drive to raise cultural expectations and improve student achievement must accelerate. The status quo, let alone sliding backward, is unacceptable.

The Indianapolis Star is freshly committed to leading a sustained effort to improve the educational attainment of this community's children. More details on what forms The Star's campaign will take will come soon.

But this much must be said emphatically now: This city has for far too long stood by passively as the future for thousands of children was crushed because they failed to obtain a solid education.

The reasons why students fail are varied and complex. No easy answers exist. No one program can fix all the problems. No single entity acting alone can make a lasting difference.

What is needed now -- what must be demanded -- is a coordinated and sustained push in this community, and ultimately in the state, to ensure that all children have a realistic chance to succeed in school, no matter the neighborhoods they live in, no matter the families they come from.

Here is a bold vision for a new decade: By 2020, the children of Indianapolis and their peers throughout Indiana will be the best educated in the world.

Is such a future possible? Most definitely yes. But only if we residents of this city and state are courageous enough to take chances; are committed enough to invest our personal resources, including time and money; are honest enough to set aside biases; are patient enough to overcome inevitable setbacks; are passionate enough to enlist the skeptical; are persistent enough to sustain the effort after the first blushes of emotion fade.