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Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

Livingston's school progress highlighted in pep talk

LIVINGSTON -- Teachers were given a stern lesson on the state education system's major shortfalls just days before classes begin.

The state is failing to teach its black, Latino and poor students, putting them at a lifelong disadvantage with their white counterparts, the Education Trust-West's Executive Director Russlynn Ali told about 300 Livingston Union School District employees Wednesday.

"This is the most important civil rights issue of our time," she intoned. "When you started as a teacher, you didn't know you were a soldier in this."

Refusing to help academically elevate California's black, Asian, Hispanic and poor students will only doom the state and country, she said.

Ali, a national authority on education who's testified in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., spent about an hour deconstructing the "achievement gap," the statistical chasm that exists between races in academic testing. She offered stunning statistics showing the disparity between California, the nation and other developed countries. She also gave the teachers lesson plans to bridge the gap.

The only school district in Merced County that has more English learners and poor students than Livingston is Planada, Superintendent Henry Escobar noted while introducing Ali. "They often need more and oftentimes get less," he said. "We know that."

The Education Trust-West reinforces Escobar's beliefs, which he conveys to district principals and teachers.

Her involvement with Merced County's schools goes back four years when they began to organize councils to improve education that included preschools through colleges, County of Education Superintendent Lee Andersen said.

"Once you see the gaps, it makes clear the work that needs to be done," he said.

Escobar asked Ali to be the keynote speaker for the back-to-school meeting because the district has bucked the state's trend by improving student achievement, a message he wanted reinforced by outside experts.

As a result, Sacramento leaders are taking notice of Livingston. What's happening within its classrooms will have far-reaching effects, she said. "I can assure you there will be some folks taking a trip down (Highway) 99," Ali said.

A chart she brought showed the state's fourth-grade reading level near the bottom in the country -- ahead only of Mississippi and Louisiana.

And California only tops Oregon when it comes to the reading level of Hispanic students.

She praised the district for enrolling 76 percent of its eighth-graders in algebra and having a proficiency rate above the state average.

The achievement gap begins early in school and only grows with each grade, Ali said. The education system doesn't expect much from its students and expects less from its disadvantaged ones.

Even worse, schools focus on what they can't change, rather than what they can. Studies are constantly trying to peg the problem to external factors, such as students with single mothers, welfare and low birth weights.

But the problem is inside the classroom, which is also where the solution can be found, Ali said.

Schools must set high goals, constantly assess progress and encourage teacher collaboration and training. They must also recognize that teachers are the most important factor.

Yesterday, they were the students for a tough but needed lesson.

Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.