Forty-two.
That number - the graduation rate in San Bernardino as calculated by a national study - has come into the limelight as eight candidates compete for four seats on the city school board in the Nov. 7 election.
Challengers point to it as a sign that San Bernardino City Unified School District is performing poorly, with two candidates using the figure in their opening statements at a forum earlier this month.
Incumbents shun the number, noting that a different method of calculating graduation rates puts San Bernardino's percentage close to 76.
Regardless of which figure is more accurate, experts say a number alone means little and that trends and comparisons to similar districts - not a "42" without context - are what matter.
"People are using the kind of information that advances their particular agenda. All of the numbers are right," said Jim Hill, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Curriculum at Cal State San Bernardino. "It's just like, `OK, what do we want to focus on?"'
Marcus Winters, who co-authored the Manhattan Institute study that produced the 42 percent statistic for San Bernardino, said researchers did not calculate San Bernardino's graduation rates in past years, so they can't look at trends.
But they are able to make comparisons. By using the same formula to find rates at the 100 largest urban U.S. school districts, the study determined San Bernardino City Unified's graduation percentage was the lowest.
So the outlook appears grim. Right? Not quite.
A closer look reveals that since the 1991-92 school year, the proportion of high schoolers in the district who drop out each year has fallen from 12 percent to about 6 percent. Those numbers were determined using National Center for Education criteria that track enrollment.
Figures pertaining to student proficiency in math and English/language arts tell a similar story. With more than 55,000 students, San Bernardino compares poorly with other large districts with similar percentages of English-language learners and minorities. It ranks below neighboring Fontana and Rialto.
But proficiency in both subjects, measured by student scores on standardized tests, is at least improving - rising by eight or more points between 2002 and 2005.
Joan Herman, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, headquartered at UCLA, said when looking to see how urban schools measure up to those in other areas, it's important to remember kids in inner cities face temptation - drugs, gangs - that children might not find in suburbia.
"As an extreme example, saying in San Bernardino the kids are not performing as well as Beverly Hills kids is an unfair comparison," she said.
Hill said he believes that as an urban district, San Bernardino is not doing badly.
The average senior's SAT score in 2004-05 in Fontana was 16 points higher than in San Bernardino. But 34 percent of 12th-graders in San Bernardino took the test, while just 26 percent took it in Fontana.
San Bernardino's lower score could reflect its inclusiveness.
Hill said people who reminisce about the high quality of education in decades past often forget that 50 years ago, many youngsters did not enroll in high school.
"In 1950, huge numbers of people didn't make it past seventh grade. Your ninth-grade class was probably academically stronger than it was today," he said.
But he added, "Is it better to have more kids in school? I would think we'd want that. Does that perhaps pull down the average a little bit? It might, yes."
School-board challengers say they remember a time when San Bernardino consistently graduated students of high academic standing.
Candidate Joseph Turner said he believes the district was better a decade ago - around the time three of the incumbents took their seats on the board - than today.
Paul Shirk, the district's assistant superintendent for research, said it's difficult to tell whether schools are better today than they were in 1996. In the late 1990s, California adopted a new set of standardized exams to determine student achievement.
"Those old tests had different questions and different standards," Shirk said.
"What we expect (kids) to know today, there's no comparison," he added.
Hill noted that even from year to year, questions on state tests vary, making the exams less than standard.
And although data on schools is made public in abundance, many measures of success defy numerical definition, Herman and Hill both said.
Herman said districts that harp on test scores can end up with dull curricula that bore children.
Figures can't tell a parent how well their student is learning the value of community service or civic affairs, Hill said.
"Are they learning those things?" Hill said. "I'd want that to be happening. I think a person who's not a parent would want that as well. I mean, these are the kids who when they grow up are going to pay money in Social Security that the rest of us would be living off of."
No comments:
Post a Comment