Discrepancies in school funding in Illinois

I read an interesting article titled "Illinois School Funding Failure:  A Continued National Embarrassment" (http://www.aplusillinois.org/documents/IllinoisFundingFailure-EdWeek.pdf).  I think it was the title that drew me to it in the first place when I was looking for information on funding in Illinois.  The first sentence states that Illinois fails to ensure that every child gets a high-quality education supported by adequate resources.  We are one of the worst states when it comes to spending money in our high-poverty districts, second only to New York.  On average, the states with high-poverty districts have fewer resources, spending on average $907 less revenue per student than a low poverty school district.  Illinois spends $2065 less per pupil in high-poverty districts compared to low-poverty districts.  Illinois received a D+ for resource equity in 2005 (the most recent year I could find) but had received an F for the four previous years.  This is amazing.  Although this gap is unbelievable, what's truly amazing is that it requires more spending and resources to educate our students in these high poverty areas and yet they receive the least amount of money.  When I think of the out of school factors that affect our students in the poorest neighborhoods, it is no wonder that these kids are so far behind their peers from wealthier districts.  And as these kids advance in school, so does the achievement gap.  "Per-pupil spending gaps add up to drastic resource inequities at the classroom and school level. According to the “Funding Gap 2005” report, Illinois spending gap equates to a difference of $51,625 between a classroom of 25 students in a low-poverty district and a class of 25 students in a high-poverty district (no adjustment for low-income students). Illinois spending gap translates to a difference of over $3 million dollars between a high-poverty and low-poverty district high school of 1,500 students."  And yet, 'unsatisfactory' teachers are still blamed for out students performing below grade level in our poorest areas.  When will funding become equitable across the state?  In my opinion, I would say never.  There is too much money and politics involved for any real change to take place.  Legislators will just continue to blame the schools for not educating our students instead of trying to correct the gap in resources for our schools.  

Standardized testing and NCLB

Does anyone else see a problem with the NCLB law and standardized testing?  I definitely see a huge drawback to standardized testing and NCLB.  It does seem like standardized testing and accountability are here to stay, but at what cost?  Teachers want to educate their students in the most productive way possible and teach higher level thinking skills but principals and district administrators only see the bottom line:  Did the students make adequate yearly progress?  And who can blame them?  Students' promotions to the next grade level, school funding, and even the decision to keep a school open make standardized testing the highest stakes game around.  In the article, Testing Expert Sees 'Illusions of Progress' Under NCLB  Cech states that according to Harvard University researcher, Daniel M. Koretz, standardized test scores are inflated because we have become a nation that teaches to the test.  If teachers are held accountable for AYP according to some random test score, then teachers will make sure that students hit that number when taking tests. "If you tell people that performance on that tested sample is what matters, that's what they worry about, so you can get inappropriate responses in the classroom and inflated test scores," Koretz said.  Koretz would like to have studies performed on assessment systems but realizes this is a political taboo.  No one wants to see their systems analyzed and open themselves up to the possibility that their system is flawed.  In other words, the government is holding teachers and students accountable to a system that is not accountable to anyone.  Although, it seems like NCLB will never go away, there is a group of business and educational leaders calling for a complete overhaul of our nation's current assessment practices.  The article, The Fourth Way of Change by Hargreaves and Shirley,  discusses how educational policy is undergoing a global transformation and "the United States is not only losing - it's not even playing the right game".  I found it especially interesting that the Nordic countries do not even have a term for 'accountability' but instead have collective responsibility and yet they are the highest performers on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).  The Finns have a high teacher retention rate.  In fact, they only have a 1 in 10 chance of acceptance in a teacher education program.  Further more (which I found the most interesting), teachers are free from excessive paperwork (I can't even imagine that), receive generous specialist support as needed (again, another dream in the land of CPS), and it is unheard of that someone from some central office would hand them the curriculum and be expected to teach it.  All of this so that they can teach each individual student.  At my school, we are expected to teach the exact same curriculum and give the exact same assessments to students across the grade level.  This does not take into account individual teaching styles or learning styles of the students. Their principals also must teach at least two hours a week (my students could go weeks without seeing my principal) and it is illegal to recruit a principal from outside education.  Principals are also responsible for all students in their district or town, not just their school.  And what does all this do for their students?  "Finland is the number one performer in literacy, math, and science in the PISA rankings for 15-year-old students."  NCLB needs to be revised.  Our current system of accountability through standardized testing is just not working.  

April 13

I found the article titled Poverty and Potential:  Out-of-School Factors and School Success by David C. Berliner informative.  He believes these seven outlying factors that affect student success in school:  1) low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences on children 2) inadequate medical, dental, and vision care, often a result of inadequate or no medical insurance 3) food insecurity 4) environmental pollutants 5 family relations and stress and 6) neighborhood characteristics 7) extended learning opportunities such as preschool, summer school and after-school learning.  Berliner also suggests that efforts be made to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, reduce pollutants in our cities and move people away from toxic sites, provide universal and free medical care for all citizens, insure that no one suffers from food insecurity, reduce the rates of family violence in low-income households, improve mental health services among the poor, more equitably distribute low -  income housing throughout communities, reduce both the mobility and absenteeism rates of children, provide high-quality preschools for all children, and provide summer programs for the poor to reduce summer losses in their academic achievement.  I did not find it a surprise that all of these factors affect student achievement in school.  I also agree with his suggestions on how to help the students achieve success.  As a teacher for over twenty years, I have seen how the outside factors have affected student performance in my own classroom.  I have met students that had problems with all of these outside factors except for possibly living near a toxic site.  And of course, some students come to school with multiple factors affecting their performance.  I think many schools (especially CPS) already try to address some of these factors.  We provide breakfast, lunch, and often dinner, depending on the length of the after school program.  We have before and after school programs for kids to help with academic achievement.  We offer a preschool program at the school for three and four year olds.  We have the local counseling service at out school during the regular school day to counsel at-risk students.  We also recommend families to these services that we feel need them, such as families with alcohol or drug problems.  As for insurance, CPS offers Kid Care to working families.  Of course, there are limitations to this program.  It is not for children that are in the country illegally and does not cover families with more than three children. So many of my students arrive at school with multiple strikes against them, there is not just one solution to help these students achieve in school.  NCLB, in theory, is a good idea but not enough is being done to make it really work.  Until the government takes into account all of these outside factors that affect student achievement and comes up with a viable solution to address these factors, there will continue to be a gap in achievement between low and high income areas.  According to Berliner, "the accountability system is fatally flawed because it makes schools accountable for achievement without regard for factors over which schools have little control".  Nothing could be truer.  Teachers can only do so much with students that arrive at our door with so much other baggage.  There is an interesting article in the following link that describes how a school with students that have to deal with many of these outside factors have been negatively affected by NCLB.  They were making strides with various programs but not enough according to NCLB standards. In my opinion, NCLB often works to the detriment of affective programs in schools because of unrealistic demands on students and teachers because it does not take into effect the outside factors that students come to school with.  
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=108&sid=71ce68e9-5565-4645-b2d9-35ba03e1ee7d%40sessionmgr102

This next article also describes how policy makers make it difficult for schools to succeed by punishing them when they are making successful strides but just not enough according to their unrealistic standards.  
http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.nl.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=23&hid=101&sid=b2c8455d-bac3-4ba3-8f99-1bfdf82d282a%40sessionmgr103