Gee, Ya Think??

Is local school performance linked to poverty?
2006-09-11
By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor

Just because you're poor doesn't mean you can't do well in school, but it sure makes it a lot harder.

A close look at the recent Ohio School Report Cards for Athens County shows that in every district in the county, the students who are economically disadvantaged generally do worse than the students who are not.

The report cards also show that in several of the school districts, the female students overall did better on the proficiency tests than the males (see related story).

Several factors contribute to the discrepancy in test results between students living in poverty and those who don't, but the size of the gap is still surprising.

In the Athens City School District, 31 percent of the students are classified as "economically disadvantaged," in the state report-card rankings. This means that the students are eligible to take part in the free or reduced-price lunch program (meaning their family income levels are at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level), or the students or their parents or guardians are recipients of public assistance.

In the Athens district, test results for the two groups of students are fairly even in the third and fourth grades, but in the fifth and sixth grades the test results show a large difference.

For the sixth-grade math tests, for example, 82.1 percent of the non-economically disadvantaged students passed the test compared to just 50 percent of the economically disadvantaged students. In the seventh grade, 65.8 percent of the non-economically disadvantaged students passed, while 48.1 percent of the economically disadvantaged students passed. Not all of the gaps in these grades are this large, but several are.

In eighth-grade reading, the economically disadvantaged students did better on the test, with 80 percent of these students passing compared to 77.4 percent of the non-economically disadvantaged students.

In the 10th grade, the economically disadvantaged students scored higher in reading again, but in most tests the economically disadvantaged students did worse. On the 10th-grade science test, for example, 72.9 percent of the non-economically disadvantaged students passed, compared to 51.2 percent of the economically disadvantaged students.

The report cards also break down test results for each individual school building. In the Athens district, 28.4 percent of the students at Morrison Elementary School are listed as economically disadvantaged, while 67.3 percent of students at Chauncey Elementary School are listed as such. The two schools were both listed as "Effective" on the state report cards, and both finished at or above the state requirements in most categories. The two schools finished close together in many of the results, with Morrison finishing ahead in five categories and Chauncey in four. Morrison was far ahead in two of the categories -- fifth-grade reading (92.1 percent to 74.1 percent) and sixth-grade math (85.4 percent to 47.8 percent).

. . .

The goal of education should not be to help the students do well on proficiency tests, but to provide the best learning environment possible, Glascock argued. The proficiency tests do not take into account how students learn differently, or how students are proficient in areas other than the basic subjects, she added.

"Does it really matter to us if Picasso passed his 10th-grade assessment test?" Glascock asked.

Good schools give students opportunities to be exposed to cultural programs and activities, Glascock said. She added that this region does have many good schools. Standardized testing can take time away from these other programs and experiences, however, and actually hurt how students learn, she said.

"We have to accept that human beings are very complex beings, and the interaction between human beings are very complex," Glascock said.

The Children's Hunger Alliance states on its Web site that research has shown that children living in poverty also have a harder time learning because of the lack of food in their homes. Children without enough food at home are sick more often, are hospitalized more frequently, and miss more days of school, the Web site states. In addition, children who suffer from poor nutrition during the brain's formative years score lower in vocabulary, reading comprehension, math and general knowledge, according to the Web site. Hungry children are also less likely to interact with other people or explore or learn from their surroundings, the Web site states.