Hispanic majority schools able to curb low test scores

Federal statistics have shown that test scores are typically low among schools with a majority of students who are Hispanic and poor, but a new Arizona study says that trend doesn’t have to be the rule.

The report “Why Some Schools With Latino Children Beat the Odds” was released Friday jointly by the Center for the Future of Arizona and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy. The think tank authors found a dozen Arizona schools are bucking the low-achievement trend with a businesslike approach to improving students’ academic performance.

Analysts compared the excelling schools that routinely make or surpass the statewide average to 12 others with similar demographics but lagging achievement.

Comparisons were based on a review of eight years of eighth-grade math scores and third-grade reading scores on the Stanford 9 test, plus surveys and interviews with staff and administrators. Schools in the study were considered a representative sample of the high-achieving and lagging, majority Hispanic and high-poverty schools.

Poor and Hispanic students are the majority at nearly 330 Arizona schools.

Four of the successful schools were in Phoenix: Estrella Middle School, Granada East School, Larry C. Kennedy School and Phoenix Magnet Traditional. The other eight were Alice Byrne Elementary, Yuma; Clawson School, Douglas; John F. Kennedy, Superior; Orange Grove Elementary, Somerton; Sierra Middle School and Gallego Basic Elementary School, Tucson; Fairbanks Elementary, Morenci; and Wade Carpenter Middle School, Nogales.

Analysts declined to list the 12 low-performing schools. They had promised the schools that they wouldn’t be identified because the report’s focus was to find the keys to academic success, said Mary Jo Waits, the study’s lead author.

Waits said the 12 schools with third- and eighthgraders surpassing the statewide averages for reading and math had several factors in common. They included:

• Working individually with students to help them overcome their struggles with concepts

• Routinely assessing students’ skills and targeting their weaknesses

• Sticking with a consistent academic improvement plan

• Having a strong principal who works closely with teachers

“These are things that are basically pretty common sense,” Waits said.

Lattie Coor, former Arizona State University president and CEO of the Phoenixbased think tank, said the struggling schools can adapt those methods and raise achievement without lobbying state legislators for additional aid or new policies.

Schools are under more pressure than ever to raise test scores because the federal No Child Left Behind law requires them to monitor their performance in reading and math, and soon in science. Those that receive federal aid for serving high numbers of poor students are especially worried about reaching the bar because their bottom line depends on whether they make “adequate yearly progress,” the federal measurement of academic improvement. Schools that repeatedly fall short could lose their aid, or worse, be taken over by the state.

Coor said that the new report is a follow-up to one released in 2001, “Five Shoes Waiting To Drop on Arizona’s Future,” by the Morrison Institute. It revealed that Hispanic children in Arizona schools suffer from low achievement and high dropout rates.