Let’s not be confused when we talk about educational reform
in the state of Louisiana.
Even the nationally recognized Brown Center on Educational
Policy has been hoodwinked by Governor
Jindal’s slick use of P.R. into thinking that his administration has created
real educational reform in our state. They recently praised Jindal’s
reform for:
1) Offering lots of
choice through charter schools and voucher programs.
2) Providing good
information to help parents compare schools.
3) Providing an easy
centralized application process for enrollment in the various schools.
4) Ensuring taxpayer
funds follow the students into the schools and courses of their choosing.
It's kind of a ridiculous recognition! Instead of
providing a long range, adequately funded school improvement paradigm for ALL
students, Louisiana continues to limp along with in-state developed testing
programs which deceive the public, and apparently our legislative
representatives, into believing substantial educational reforms are occurring
among the public students it is obligated to serve.
While the Louisiana Department
of Education brags that the most recent test score data indicates that 3 out of
4 fourth graders have achieved ‘Basic’ in reading on the Louisiana
assessment measures, the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) reports
that only 1 in 5 are rated at the ‘Proficient’ level when measured on more
realistic national (NAEP) assessments. Since NAEP’s standards for “Proficient” in grade-level skills are
considered lower than those at “Basic” on LEAP, skepticism surrounds the
Louisiana assessment scores. Additionally, Louisiana was recently
rated an ‘F’ for student achievement by Education Magazine. If one
examines last year’s ACT results, a national test of college readiness, only
17% of students in Louisiana met the benchmark for college readiness.
Meaning they scored just well enough to have a 75% chance of earning a ‘C’ or
better in college courses. Additionally, according to a recent study
reported by CABL , 1 in 3 college freshman who graduated from a public
school had to take non-credit remedial courses to make up for their
educational deficiencies.
Furthermore, the 2011 National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) results indicated that while
the average marks for both reading and math Louisiana fourth and eighth-graders improved slightly, and in two
of the four categories gained a little on national averages, the change
from two years ago, when the test was last administered, was not big enough to
qualify as statistically significant. Overall, scores in Louisiana still rank
near the bottom among other states.
But Jindal continues to mask these harsh realities with the
expertise of a magician’s sleight of hand by passing off ‘educational vouchers’
as ‘educational reform’. He has been so successful in this
deception that now he is even receiving acclaims from prestigious national
organizations. He claims that his ‘educational reform’ provides "an
opportunity for individuals that have limited resources to
enroll their child in a NON-PUBLIC school that is performing
well, as opposed to the poor performing PUBLIC school in their
neighborhood."
Jindal’s voucher system is not educational reform, but
simply an avoidance mechanism of the real issues impacting public education in
this state. It will do LITTLE to elevate the educational achievement of
most children in the entire state.
Who
will unmasked this great deception? Certainly not the Board of Elementary
and Secondary Education (BESE), since most members were handpicked by Jindal. Will our representatives expose this deception and finally propose real educational reform? l suspect they also will just follow along with the master magician, as most always do. Just who will stand up for the children?
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