TCLA: Bill of Rights: Features: 5: CEJ Protest: Alex Caputo-Pearl Interview

Whereas LAUSD schools in low-income communities and communities of color are resourced inequitably and suffer from a shortage of high quality academic materials, a dearth of high caliber well-supported certificated teachers and limited availability of college-prep classes;

Whereas many of these schools are further disadvantaged by being overcrowded and on multi-track, year-round schedules;

Whereas these conditions contribute to an achievement gap between inequitably resourced schools and other schools;

Whereas the reliance on high stakes tests such as the Stanford 9 and the HSEE as the primary measures of school and student performance unfairly penalizes students that have not been provided with the academic tools to perform to their highest potential on these tests;

Whereas high-stakes tests such as the Stanford 9 and HSEE discriminate based on language because they are only given in English;

Whereas high-stakes tests such as the Stanford 9 and HSEE promote a narrowing of the curriculum and "teaching to the test" in all schools, and determine how much money schools and scholarship candidates get through the Academic Performance Index (API), and whether or not students will graduate from high school through the HSEE;

Whereas In 2000-2001 HSEE testing, African-American and Latino students were failed at twice the rate of whites, and low-income students at twice the rate of middle-class students (Applied Research Center, Oakland), and the wealthiest 10% of schools in California have received more API rewards than schools in other income brackets (California Budget Project, Sacramento);

Whereas, groups locally and nationally have developed alternative, potentially more equitable and academically constructive tools to measure student learning and school performance;

Be it resolved that the Los Angeles Unified School District authorize the Program Evaluation and Research Branch to conduct a study of alternative assessments that could be used by the District to the benefit of its students and schools;

Be it further resolved that the Program Evaluation and Research Branch undertake the study in partnership with a task force comprised of Board Members, teachers, administrators, university scholars and community-based education reform organizations.

Be it further resolved that the Program Evaluation and Research Branch submit the names of the proposed members of the task force within 30 days, submit an interim report to the Board's Curriculum and Instruction Committee after 3 months and deliver a final report on its findings, including policy implications and recommendations, to the full Board after 6 months.

For the last few years, money has been tied to test results through the API (Academic Performance Index). Schools in the top 10% of income brackets have received disproportionately more income than schools in the lower income brackets. The practice of giving out relatively small amounts of money based on test score improvements covers over and obscures the need for a more expansive infusion of money in low income communities of color.

Also, the high school exit exam will affect graduation for the class of 2004 and beyond. That’s basically going to prevent thousands of students from getting a high school diploma. In the 2000 – 2001 testing exam, Latino and Black students failed at twice the rate of White students. The same was true for low-income students in comparison to middle and high-income students. CEJ doesn’t put out politics that says that any of these test results are the fault of kids. It’s the fault of a system that 1) administers the Stanford 9 and the high school exit exam across unequal schools, 2) gives these tests only in English, and 3) pressures schools with the threat of a state takeover based on test results. What this often leads to, especially in schools that are most stigmatized by low scores, is teachers teaching to the test, which is also a narrowing of the curriculum. This leaves less room to demand things like ethnic studies or other classes. For all these reasons, CEJ believes that these tests have a racially discriminatory and class-biased impact.