By Loyd Eskildson
The staff presentation on pupil achievement at the June 6, 2023 Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board meeting was meant to give lots of favorable impressions. However, in doing so it left out a considerable amount of important data and spent too much time on unimportant details.
1)The emphasis (volume of data) is on lower-grade results – despite NAEP national 4th- and 8th-grade improvements NEVER working their way up to 17-year-old results in 50+ years! Focusing on lower grades is mostly a waste of time – except for minorities. There it’s been obvious for years that SUSD minority students score only about half as well as Asian/Whites – and it’s getting worse.
Look at SUSD 8th-grade ELA and Math scores because 8th-grade results are the highest grade level (representing the cumulative effect of 9 years of schooling) at which ‘Proficient/Not-Proficient’ judgments were made by ADE staff per State standards. (ACT classifications were NOT made in that manner.) That data, summarizing the % Passing, by race, are as follows:
SUSD scores for Afr-Am, Hisp, and Nat-Am are not even close to competitive/equitable compared to those for Asian and White SUSD students, nor is there credible evidence of improvement. As for the impact of COVID-19, the gap data are still credible. Overall, the achievement gaps between SUSD minority students and Asian/Whites in the years covered WORSENED from 50% overall in 2018-2019 to 45% in 2021-2022.
These terrible minority achievement levels have gone on for years, ignored by SUSD, Menzel and the Board. Why?
2)There are no longer-term comparisons than two years, even of ACT results that use the same/equivalent tests from one year to another. Why? SUSD is hiding that its Math/Science scores per AzMERIT have fallen for about a decade, and SUSD continues to do nothing about it. Member Hart Wells – you said your concern/reason for running for the Board was poor U.S. Science scores vs. other nations. When are you going to do something about SUSD? That’s what a School Board is supposed to do!!!!
3)Supt. Menzel wrote in his SUSD application that it was important to be competitive with other nations. (‘I believe it is important to benchmark performance at the regional, state, national, and international level to ensure our students are prepared to be successful in the global economy.’) Yet, he hides that data (never reported or discussed) and sets childish goals for boosting pupil achievement (eg. ‘3 percentile points’)!!! When are you going to fire him for lying and malfeasance?
4)The presentation suggests a need to focus on boosting pupil attendance, while ignoring the elephant in the room – variations in teacher effectiveness. Two points:
a)What has SUSD done to boost pupil attendance? LAUSD uses administrator home visits. Ans: Nothing significant.
b)’The present value at the beginning of high school for a 75th percentile teacher with a class of 30 students is $430,000 (student expected future earnings) vs. an average teacher, while that for a 25th percentile teacher with the same class size is -$425,000. . . . although there may be some error in particular teacher personnel policies, having no personnel policy at all cannot be the correct answer.’
http://hanushek.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Hanushek%202013%20Focus%2029%282%29.pdf#:~:text=A%20one%20standard%20deviation%20increase%20in%20the%20value,measured%20by%20projected%20average%20earnings%20at%20age%2030 . – pg. 25. Why doesn’t SUSD evaluate teacher effectiveness and reward accordingly? That’s been shown to be far more objective and effective in boosting pupil achievement than the Index. (Ans: The SEA doesn’t want real teacher effectiveness evaluations, so pupils suffer. Not at BASIS or in China!)
Bottom-Line: The SUSD Board and Menzel don’t give a damn about pupil achievement, or the future success of any pupils, black, brown, or White! That’s why almost half the parents of school-age pupils living within SUSD refuse to enroll their children at SUSD! And that’s why Menzel/Cienawski don’t want to even discuss that topic either – simply misrepresent the data as ‘Market-share of 75%,’ instead of the real 57%. This theft and fraud has been going on for decades.
Legislators: You’re enabling this fraud/theft. Please take action. No – more loosely/non-regulated charters aren’t the answer. Arizona charters are probably the worst in the nation, Boston’s the best – per CREDO. Charros, Scottsdale City Council, Media, Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce – quit sucking up to this criminality.