Apples to oranges

Since I started working in education there has been a general tone in the media and the government that the “problems” with public education are due to teachers who do not do their job well. Well today, America, I prove you wrong.

I’m going to give you a quick breakdown of both the school I work at, and the high school I attended. Just so that we really understand what we are comparing (apples to oranges, if you ask me), the API score for California schools in 2010 was 767.

I work at a school that has an Academic Performance Index (API) score of 649. Our school is 99%* Hispanic/Latino, and is Title I which means that we receive extra funding due to our large number of free and price-reduced lunches (72% of students). Twenty-six percent of our students our English-language learners, and the graduation rate was 82.9% (for the year of 2007-08). In 2010, 66% of students shared their most educated parent’s educational level with the state of California. Of this 66%, 40% of our students’ parents did not graduate from high school, and 34% graduated from high school. As for the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), 59.6% of our tenth graders pass CAHSEE.

Today, I went to observe at my alma mater which has an API of 838. It is a much more diverse school than where I work, although 66% of students are white. Fourteen percent of students are Asian, 4% Black, 5% Hispanic/Latino, and the remainder claim more than one race. Only 4% of their student body receives free or price-reduced lunches, 6% of the students are English language learners, and the graduation rate was 96.8% (for the year off 2007-08). In 2010, 95% of students shared their most educated parent’s educational level with the state of California. Of this 95%, 44% of students’ parents graduated from college, and 32% attended graduate school. I could not locate the CAHSEE pass rate; however, I was informed by a teacher that it was over 90% for tenth graders.

So, I visited a former teacher today. What did I see? I saw very standard, good teaching. I saw the exact same type of teaching I see from my colleagues (who I have gone to observe as well). No difference in pedagogy there. I did see a huge difference, however, everywhere else!

First of all, we have had major cutbacks. I now take out the garbage in my room (I just toss it in the giant garbage cans outside), and I try to sweep my classroom floor at least once a week (and I know it needs to be more than swept—it needs to be cleaned). The classrooms at my alma mater, however, were spotless. Gorgeous. There is not one student who seemed hesitant to put their backpack on the floor (I’m lucky if I get five). I have forty students enrolled in my core English classes. I counted the students I observed today, and there were 30 or fewer who were present in each class. It felt so intimate compared to my classroom!

And I know what life is like at my alma mater. When I was not successful in my physics class, my parents hired a tutor. When it was time to prepare for the SATs (tests were my downfall), my parents hired a tutor. When my students are not successful in their physics class, well, figure it out. When it comes time to prepare for the SAT, a handful of students check a prep book from the library, or borrow one from a teacher, or, maybe, they purchase one.

And so, media and government, get it together! You cannot compare apples to oranges. They are not the same color, texture, flavor. They are completely different! To standardize a test and assume that apples are being compared to apples is absolutely ridiculous. Can my students achieve at higher levels? Yes. Do they deserve it? Definitely. Is it a level playing field simply because they take the same test as kids at another school? Definitely not.

As I’ve said before, back off, people! Calm down with your tests and measurements. Calm down with your mandated curriculum and ridiculous standards. Let me get in there to do the job that my students deserve.

*Data is from 2009-10 school year unless otherwise noted; almost all of the data was gathered from the California Department of Education (graduation and CAHSEE pass rates excluded).