The Christie administration’s primary rationale for education reform – the so-called “achievement gap” between white and black students in the state’s urban districts – is “a classic straw man,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said today.
“The administration has acknowledged the documented successes of the vast majority of New Jersey’s public schools, because the evidence of our success is irrefutable," Keshishian said. "That’s why the governor is trying to use some of our lower-performing urban districts to make the case for reform.
“There’s only one problem with that strategy,” Keshishian said. “It’s based on a deliberate misuse of the data. Using the ‘achievement gap’ as a basis for a host of unproven reforms is a classic straw man.”
Just last Nov. 11, acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf cited the state’s “shameful, shameful achievement gap” in remarks to educators at the NJEA Convention.
“Here’s the truth: New Jersey has an achievement gap between white and black students, but it is narrowing,” Keshishian said. “And the real story is that both groups out-perform the vast majority of their counterparts across America.”
Results from the 2011 4th grade math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – the benchmark for state comparisons – showed that:
> New Jersey’s white fourth-graders scored third in both math and reading, when ranked against other states’ white students.
> New Jersey’s black fourth-graders scored fifth in math and second in reading, when ranked against other states’ black students.
That point was driven home in a Nov. 30 column by Dr. Howard Wainer, on NJSpotlight.com. Wainer, a research scientist with strong experience in education issues, used the 2011 NAEP 4th grade math scores to explain the issue.
Wainer acknowledged an achievement gap in 2011 (whites outscored blacks 256 to 231, a gap of 25 points). But in 1992 (the first year 4th grade scores were available), whites outscored blacks by 38 points (236 to 198). As Wainer notes, New Jersey’s black students made steep gains over that time period (their scores rose from 198 to 231, a gain of 17 percent), a much steeper rate of improvement than white students (whose average score rose from 236 to 256, or 8.5%).
“What the governor isn’t telling the public is that New Jersey is a national leader in closing the achievement gap,” said Keshishian. “That obviously doesn’t serve his agenda.”
Keshishian cited a 2010 article by noted education researcher Linda Darling-Hammond in which she singled out New Jersey for closing the achievement gap:
New Jersey has succeeded because of its systematic approach to education improvement. Across the state, it invested in quality preschool. It made real investments in quality teacher pedagogy…. The results speak for themselves. Today, New Jersey, a state where 45 percent of students are of color, ranks first in the nation in writing performance on NAEP and among the top five states in every other subject area – competing neck-and-neck with states that have many fewer low-income students of color. It has cut its achievement gap in half over the last decade, and its African American and Hispanic students outscore the average student in California.
“If the Christie administration genuinely cared about the achievement gap, it wouldn’t have retreated from the proven reforms that Darling-Hammond cites,” said Keshishian, using Christie’s cutting of funding for expanded preschool as one example.
Research indicates that while there is an achievement gap between white and black students, the most reliable predictor of test score results is family income.
“There is a clear correlation between wealth and test scores,” Keshishian said, “and it’s not unique to New Jersey. What is unique about New Jersey is the success we’ve had in closing the gap, thanks to the reforms we’ve instituted in our most economically challenged districts.
“Ironically, as the wealth gap in America widens every day, our achievement gap is narrowing,” Keshishian said. “We must be doing a lot of things right, and the goal is to do even more, so that all students can reach their potential.”