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Suburban schools not as good as parents think
The Washington D.C. Examiner - PRI in the News
10.12.2007
Washington D.C. Examiner, October 12, 2007
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Well-educated parents often move to expensive suburbs believing that the local public schools are of the same high quality as their new homes. Even though perceived school quality directly affects real estate values, that’s not always the case, according to “Not As Good As You Think,” a new study by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI).
Why do as many as 60 percent of the California State University system’s incoming freshmen need remedial help in basic skills like reading, writing and math, a major predictor for dropping out of college? That number is higher than the combined total population of immigrants, poor families and special ed children. So PRI researchers looked at schools in well-to-do areas like Beverly Hills, where luxury homes sell for millions. Yet only 70 percent of students from Beverly Hills High School in ZIP code 90210 tested at or above proficiency on their state’s standardized English test, and the same results were duplicated throughout the state. And that’s not because state-selected proficiency tests are too hard.
“The Proficiency Illusion,” another study by the Thomas Fordham Foundation, discovered “that two-thirds of children in America attend class in states with mediocre (or worse) expectations for what children should learn.” Many students are still failing to meet even those dumbed-down standards, and they don’t all live in the inner city. For example, Maryland is ranked as the richest state in the nation, with a median household income of $65,144. But Fordham researchers found that the Maryland School Assessments in reading, taken from third to eighth grade, consistently ranked in the lower third in terms of difficulty, as compared with 25 other states studied. So a child considered a “proficient” reader in Maryland might not be in at least half the country.
PRI researchers concluded that some of the underlying reasons for widespread underachievement, even in high-income areas, were mismanagement, collective bargaining agreements and other policies that diminished teacher accountability, and the myth among parents that their own suburban schools were doing a much better job than test data warranted. Even in the nicest neighborhoods, they say, many children are not being taught the basic skills they need to compete in an increasingly complex and technological global economy. Their solution? Break up the public school monopoly using a combination of vouchers, tax credits, charter schools, open enrollment and any other innovations that introduce competition into an educational system sorely in need of it.
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