Education Week - October 10, 2012 - 23

EDUCATION WEEK

OCTOBER 10, 2012

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300

VS. STUDENT PERFORMANCE
DROPOUT RATE

NAEP SCORES

281
8th Grade Math (Average)

15.0%
250

266
Long-term trend data for the National Assessment of Educational Progress show a slight improvement over time in math-and-reading assessment scores for 4th and 8th grade students. Both assessments are scored on a 0-to-500 scale at the 4th and 8th grade levels. Prior to 1996, students were not allowed testing accommodations on NAEP.

243
4th Grade Math (Average)

7.4%
219
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics SCALE SCORES

1970

2010

1973
200

1978

1982

1986

1990

1992

1994

1996

1999

2004

2008

8th Grade Reading (Average) 4th Grade Reading (Average)

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics

255 260

208

220

1971 2008 1971

2008

But are things really this dismal?”
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

29%
SOURCE: Gallup

2015

“

Not only did school physically separate us through our classes, it also encouraged us to think differently about our opportunities.”
of a school enrollment that was only about 50 percent white. We attended “schools within a school”—ability grouping wasn’t just about differentiated instruction. The distribution of students to “lower” or “higher” tracks influenced how we understood our academic prospects, as well as our future place in society. Thus, our school conferred a set of low expectations on J. Not only did school physically separate us through our classes, it also encouraged us to think differently about our opportunities. In turn, it prompted us to develop different dispositions and behaviors—separating us even more. I cannot describe what J was up to during high school; we’d grown too far apart by then for me to notice. My understanding of his whereabouts was limited to fleeting interactions

and secondhand information. My clearest high school memories of J were of him saying “What up” in passing or asking to borrow money. It was through friends that I learned J had been missing from school and had become caught up in drugs. Today, my insight into his life remains limited. Former classmates shared that after I left for college, J spent some time in prison. His Facebook page indicated that he fathered a son at 22, around the same time I graduated from college. Following the exchange of birthday wishes earlier this year, J and I caught up a bit on Facebook. I knew things had not gone great for him following high school but, bound as we are sometimes to convention, I asked him how he’d been. J replied that he had been “working every day, trying to survive.” I knew not to expect a cheerful response, but his answer still shook me. I couldn’t help but think back to our childhoods—to a more innocent time when our lives were similar and neither of us was aware of what the future held in store. J’s chances of academic and professional success should’ve been as good as mine. He did not choose his circumstances, nor did he behave as a child in a way that should have hin-

dered future achievements and success. I know because I was with him. I was with him as we did exercises in our phonics workbooks, filled out coloring booklets, and solved addition problems on the blackboard. I was with him while we waited in line for recess or for rectangular pizza and discolored hot dogs in the cafeteria. Today, there is hardly any similarity between our lives. I am not struggling to survive. I have the time and privilege of writing this from a university library, unconcerned about whether I will make my bills or put food on the table. I’ve been free to move about the world, visiting four of the planet’s continents for personal enjoyment. J and I live in separate worlds. Yet, as children we weren’t that different. It’s not easy to explain exactly how our lives turned out the way they did or why we became so distant, but a number of socialization processes, including those at school, help tell the story—a story that is by no means ours alone. n
DAVID BAMAT is completing a master’s degree in education policy and social analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. He previously taught Spanish and French to middle and high school students.

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Education Week - October 10, 2012

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