EdEx Utah's Monthly E-mail Newsletter
EDUCATION EXCELLENCE NOW
August 15, 2002

Welcome to Education Excellence Now, a monthly e-mail newsletter devoted to bringing you the latest news and information on school choice in Utah and the nation. 

With a new school year fast approaching, public attention in Utah turns to educational standards after a steady stream of reported problems with the public education system.  News of 22 failing schools in Utah was followed by accusations that the Utah State Office of Education and local districts were dragging their feet in complying with the new federal law for failing schools.  The announcement that Utah's high school graduation test would be dumbed down to allow more students to pass, and a recent revelation that Utah's teachers are cheating to help their students on statewide tests add to the concern that Utah's public education system is in dire need of reform. 

Amidst these reports, Education Excellence Utah released a study of Utah's national test scores that reveals a surprising trend of below-average performance among students in all ethnic groups, including whites.  Utah's performance is only mediocre at best when compared to other states.  The State Office of Education has ignored student performance on these tests, leading parents into a false sense of security about the quality of their children's education.   

IN THIS ISSUE:

o       NEARLY 3 PERCENT OF UTAH'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAILING according to a Deseret News article  

o       PARENTS ACCUSE SLC SCHOOL DISTRICT OF BLOCKING EFFORTS TO GET OUT OF FAILING SCHOOLS by not notifying them in time to make a change, or not notifying them at all.  Many parents did not know that they had an option to change.

o       UTAH'S HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION TEST TO BE DUMBED DOWN despite opinions that it is already at a junior high grade level.

o       RECORD NUMBER OF UTAH TEACHERS FOUND CHEATING ON STANDARDIZED TESTS LAST YEAR and may be only the tip of the iceberg according to state education officials.

o       UTAH STUDENTS SCORING BELOW AVERAGE on national tests despite claims to the contrary by the Utah State Office of Education.

Below we provide short summaries of these stories and/or links to the full text.  If, for any reason you can't access the links, e-mail us back and we will forward copies to you. 

Education Excellence Utah is a school choice policy research institution.  We are a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization; all donations are tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.  To learn more about EdEx Utah, please visit, www.edexutah.org or call 801-415-2813.

22 UTAH SCHOOLS FAILING

22 of Utah's 802 public schools are failing to meet state standards.  The new federal law requires that students in failing schools be allowed to transfer to other schools within the district with transportation costs paid with federal funds. 

Source: Elyse Hayes, Deseret News Staff Writer and the Associated Press, July 2, 2002.

Read the full article:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,405015496,00.html

SLC DISTRICT LEAVING KIDS BEHIND?
August 5, 2002

By SHINIKA A. SYKES
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    Parents of some students attending two "failing" Salt Lake City schools say district officials are doing little to alert them about their new rights to move their children to other schools as part of President Bush's recent education initiative.

    Parents of students at Parkview Elementary and Glendale Middle School received letters saying those schools failed to show improvement in test scores for the second year. The letters invited them to meetings on June 3 and June 5 to discuss options. However, some of the letters apparently arrived the day before or the same day as the meetings.

    "I attended the meeting at Parkview and asked . . . Cindy Seidel [assistant superintendent for the Salt Lake School District], why were parents called to these vital meetings on such short notice," J. Michael Clara, a Salt Lake City community activist, wrote in a letter to School Board President Joel Brisco.

    Jeanette Gonzales, whose granddaughter attends Parkview Elementary, said her family did not receive any notice and was not aware of the meeting.

    A neighbor who also has a grandchild at Parkview "also did not receive a letter," Gonzales said.
    According to Clara, the school district blamed the Utah State Office of Education, which, in turn, also denied it was the cause of the late notice to parents.

    Salt Lake School District spokesman Jason Olsen said he could not explain the delay or why some parents did not receive the letters sent out a week in advance of the meetings.

    "The letters went out in multiple languages and they included return-mailer cards offering parents the option of transferring their children to other schools," he said.

    The deadline for notifying the district was June 23. However, Olsen said parents who did not receive the letter and want to transfer their children can contact Pat Roberts, who heads the district's student and family services office, at 801-578-8599. Any requests for transferring students will be considered on a case-by-case basis, he said.

    "The feeling we had from the meetings is there is not a large number of parents wanting to move their children from these schools," said Olsen. "There is a groundswell of support for neighborhood schools. We received only 33 [transfer notices] from Glendale and 12 to 15 from Parkview."

    But Clara, a Latino activist, said many parents still do not know of their options and he criticized the school district's efforts in responding to the needs of families who live on the west side of Salt Lake City.

    "That's yet another example of how the district feels that distorting the truth will relieve them of the responsibility of making changes that have positive outcomes for our children," said Clara.

   Under the No Child Left Behind Act, signed by Bush on Jan. 8, parents at schools listed as "not meeting state learning standards" can transfer their children to another school within the district and some of those can have transportation costs paid for by federal funds. By the next school year, those schools must also provide services such as tutoring and after-school and summer programs for students -- all paid for with federal funds.

    Policymakers have pushed education reform since the 1983 report "A Nation at Risk" heightened Americans' concerns about the public education system.

    Bush's No Child Left Behind Act contains the most sweeping changes in public education since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which required schools to measure student achievement in order to get federal funds.

    With No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration seeks to eliminate the achievement gap between students at poor-performing schools and their peers at other schools, give students access to "highly" qualified teachers and allow parents of students at failing schools the chance to send them to better ones or get extra help.

    Utah is working out the specifics in how it will comply with the legislation. The state will receive a little more than $68 million in federal funds this year to help schools meet the No Child Left Behind requirements, said Vicky Dahn, director of curriculum for the state office of education.

    In exchange for meeting the new demands, low-performing schools will receive additional federal funding and all school districts will have greater flexibility in how they use federal funds, Dahn said, expressing concern about teachers who are looking at the No Child Left Behind act as one more addition to the requirements they already face.

    "I hope teachers see this as a way of refocusing and not letting any kids fall behind," she said.
    For more information about NCLB can be found at the Internet site at http://www.ed.gov.
  
© The Salt Lake Tribune

GRAD TEST TO DUMB DOWN?

Utah's high school graduation test is likely to be revised to make it easier for more students to pass.  Legislators received complaints that it was too difficult, though people familiar with the test say that it is already dumbed down to a junior high level.

Source: Jennifer Toomer-Cook, Deseret News staff writer, July 17, 2002.
Read the full article:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,405018370,00.html

TEACHERS CHEATING IN RECORD NUMBERS

About 15 Utah teachers were investigated and disciplined for cheating on statewide tests last school year.  While the number is small in comparison to the total, state education officials warn that this may only be the tip of the iceberg.  Improprieties range from changing student answer sheets to teaching to the test questions. 

Source: Jennifer Toomer-Cook, Deseret News staff writer, August 10, 2002.

Read the full article:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,405023308,00.html

UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION HIDES LOW STUDENT TEST SCORES
July 22, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY - Education Excellence Utah (EdEx Utah)

Despite claims by the Utah Education Establishment that Utah students perform above average, NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) test results show Utah students in almost every ethnic group-including whites-scoring lower than their national peers.  These results appear when the NAEP Utah state averages in each subject are broken down by ethnic group. 

"These scores should be of concern to every parent in Utah," said Jordan Clements, a businessman and chairman of Education Excellence Utah, a citizens group promoting choice in education. "When you peel back these statistics just a bit you see that Utah students are not keeping up with their peers nationally. That's a dirty little secret the education establishment doesn't want you to know."

The Utah State Office of Education posts the 2000 NAEP statistics on its web site, but lists only Utah's overall averages, which show Utah students scoring above average compared to other states.  Yet digging just one level deeper into the NAEP Utah report card reveals some important insights.  When the same statistics are broken down by ethnic group, Utah's scores in almost every subject are actually lower than national averages.  Both Utah whites and minorities continue to score below national averages for the same ethnic groups.  Utah performance is only mediocre at best in comparison to other states. 

Highlights of the NAEP Data:

"       Utah white students scored at or below the national average for whites in math, science, and reading for the last three years tested.

"       Utah Hispanics scored less than half of Utah whites in all categories.

"       Utah Hispanic reading and math scores have dropped from 1992 to 2000.

"       In 2000, Utah Hispanics scored lower than U.S. Hispanics in reading and math, but higher in science.

The cause for such discrepancy between Utah's overall averages and ethnic group averages is the state's unique demographics.  Utah's student population is predominantly white: 86.9 percent Caucasian and only 13.1 percent ethnic minority.  For a variety of factors, minority students typically score lower on academic assessment tests than white students.  Thus larger ethnic minority populations in other states pull down the state test score averages, while in Utah the small ethnic minority population allows the state average to appear higher in comparison.  Consequently, the NAEP state averages for Utah reflect not student performance, but high white demographics.    

NAEP data also reveals declining test scores the longer students are in school.  White students tested in math in the fourth grade in 1996 scored one point lower than the national average.  By 2000, students in the eighth grade in the same subject were scoring 6 points lower than the national average.  The same trend follows in other ethnic groups and subjects.  

"Utah students should be outperforming the rest of the country, not lagging, Clements said.  "Utah ranks among the highest in the country in positive educational inputs-the factors that have been proven to lead to high educational achievement."

Utah has one of the lowest poverty rates, one of the lowest percentages of children living in single parent homes, and one of the highest levels of educational attainment (percent of adults who have earned high school/Bachelor's degrees).  These factors alone should lead to a higher level of student performance than what is currently achieved.  

Increasing spending is not the only solution to this problem.  A recent comprehensive study by The American Legislative Exchange Council found that the level of funding has "no impact" on student achievement. 

Instead of increasing funding, legislators and education leaders must look beyond the traditional answers and find ways to instill true reform.  Innovative solutions that increase accountability, choice, and competition exist, but Utah's leaders must take the steps necessary to make them a reality.  Utah's students deserve more. 

For more information or to obtain a copy of EdEx Utah's complete report, call or e-mail Elisa at (801) 415-2813, elisa@edexutah.org

To view the NAEP Data, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/profile.asp?state=UT

EdEx Utah welcomes your support in the effort to bring school choice to Utah.  If you would like to get involved, please call or e-mail Elisa at (801) 415-2813, elisa@edexutah.org.