Catch Up Blog

Over the past two weeks, the CLASS students and I have been studying and discussing the Achievement Gap Report for Tacoma Schools. You can read it at the following web address:

http://www.tacoma.k12.wa.us/information/departments/assessment/Achievement%20Gap%20Documents/Addressing%20the%20Achievement%20Gap%20Report.pdf

Specifically we looked at pages 11 to 17.

The students answered the following questions in their journals:

1. TEACHER QUALITY
Write about a time when you feel you learned more because of your teacher.

Write about a time when you feel you didn’t learn as much as you could have because of your teacher.


2. CULTURAL COMPETENCY
Write about a time when a teacher or staff member at school did or said something racist either purposefully or out of ignorance.

OR

Write about a time when you could relate to what was being taught because it included your culture or something that is unique about you. Did it help you learn the material better because you could relate to it?

3. PROGRAM OFFERINGS
What academic programs have you participated in at school? Which was the most beneficial for you and why? Which was the least beneficial for you and why?

4. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
How do your parents feel about their contact with your school? Have their feelings changed over the years, from elementary to high school?

5. DISCIPLINE
The Tacoma School District Achievement Gap Report says “discipline of African American students is grossly out of proportion. The number of students who are suspended and expelled is cause for alarm.”
From your point of view, is this statement true or false? Explain your answer.

And also these questions:

1. Attendance

The Achievement Gap Report says there is a clear trend of poor attendance for African American students in the 8th grade. Why do you think some students have poor attendance? How can school attendance be improved for all students?

2. Special Education

The report shows that African-American students are over-represented in the Special Ed category of Emotional/Behavioral Disability. The test for Emotional/Behavioral disability is subjective, meaning you are place in Special Ed based on what specific adults think about you, not based on a written or verbal test.

Do you think Black kids are over-represented with emotional/behavioral disabilities because they are just more likely to have these disabilities or because of some bias on the adult making the decision? Explain your answer.

3. Intervention Class Trends

Black students are underrepresented in Honors/IB/AP classes and overrepresented in remedial classes.

In your experience, does this statement appear to be true? What can schools do to encourage more Black students to take Honors/IB/AP classes?

4. African-American students have much lower GPAs than Asians and Whites at the high school level.

Why do you think Black students have lower GPAs?

5. Only 68% of African American students graduate on time. What efforts have you seen in the schools to improve the graduation rate for Black students and other students as well.

6. African Americans are 23% of the student population but only 7% of teaching staff.

Do you think African American students would do better in school if they had more teachers who were African American? Why or why not?

What we figured out is that the cause of these problems is complex. There are certainly things that kids, families,and communities can do to address the problems, but the school district has a lot of work to do also.