Spotlight on racial inequities may increase with school plan
Oklahoma’s future system of measuring student and school performance has been labeled by some opponents as a racially insensitive evaluation tool that holds minority students to lower standards than their white counterparts.
But the accountability system, which will serve as the basis for the state’s A through F school grading formula and meet new federal K-12 education standards, could bring more attention to institutional racism in the state’s public schools, proponents believe.
“There’s a lot of talk about the racial differences in (educational) achievement and how they are due to socioeconomic variables,” said Marianne Perie, director of the Center for Assessment and Accountability Research and Design at the University of Kansas. “But what the new (Oklahoma) system allows us to do is take away the statistical mumbo jumbo
and offers a much cleaner comparison between students.”
Perie, who worked closely with the state Department of Education in creating the new assessment system, said one of the most common complaints about student evaluation is current systems don’t adequately credit low-performing schools for improving if the improvements still don’t equal proficiency.
The state’s proposed new assessment plan, which cleared the Legislature and was signed by Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday, establishes a starting point for various student sub groups (Hispanic, English language learners, black, economically disadvantaged, etc.) based on current performance.
While the goal remains to get every student group to the same level of proficiency, the new system would allow schools with high populations of nonwhite or impoverished students to be judged on growth from where they are starting from, rather than expecting them to start at the same level as a school with an affluent population.
Critics of the plan have said this is a racist system that holds nonwhite students to a lower bar than white students.
But State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said the proficiency bar is the same for all kids, “So I think it is very important to recognize that this is not changing standards or expectations for any sub group.”
Oklahoma’s public school system tipped to majority nonwhite this year, according to the latest student demographic data.
Other states are unveiling similar assessment plans as Oklahoma that use different starting points for different student subgroups, while seeking to bring all students to proficiency at a later date.
“I think those conversations are uncomfortable,” Perie said about looking at student subgroups. “I understand why some would feel uncomfortable about looking at different starting points, but that’s where we are at and we have to understand that in order to improve.”
But while some have criticized the breakdown of starting points by race and income, the new assessment plan could also better reveal shortcomings of student subgroups, especially in affluent school systems.
Each student is placed in only one subgroup, meaning a black student, or any other ethnicity, who is also living in poverty will only be counted in the economically disadvantaged group, as it takes priority.
That means the performance showed for black, Asian, Native American, Hispanic and specialneeds students will not include students in poverty.
If black students are under performing at a specific school then income level won’t be a viable excuse, Perie said.
In a review of student performance in 2015, Oklahoma City Public Schools found its black students who were not economically disadvantaged were still underperforming white students, which indicated a cultural shortcoming in how the district was educating its students.
In a letter to the Legislature in support of the new assessment system, Cecilia RobinsonWoods, who is superintendent of Millwood Public Schools in Oklahoma City, said the new system would help “instill growth mindsets in our children,” rather than making proficiency the only marker of success.
She also said its focus on student subgroups helps to address systemic problems that are too often ignored.
“Medical researchers’ public reports often identify concerns about how a disease or diagnosis disproportionately affects certain groups,” Robinson-Woods wrote. “It is wholly appropriate and right to apply that same principal to education. I am concerned that doing so is being labeled as racist or improper when our goal is to ensure that all students succeed.”
Hofmeister said the breakdown in student subgroup data will be easily available for review, preventing systemic issues from being ignored.
“This is information that has been gathered for many years under No Child Left Behind, but will now be public facing,” Hofmeister said. “That means ... those in the community, journalists, as well as parents are able to understand the way different students that have historically been underserved are performing compared to those who are part of a student average that don’t fall into a sub category.”