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National education news
October 14, 2009
Texas ranks 18th among eighth graders and 27th among fourth graders on national math test
Texas eighth grade African-American students tied Massachusetts for first place in their performance on a national mathematics test, according to results released Wednesday.
Known as the nation’s report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAPE), is used to compare state’s performance. The test also compares achievement over time both at a national and state level. In 2009 the test was given to about 330,000 in public and private schools in all states.
Overall, Texas ranked 18th among 50 states on the eighth grade test. It ranked 27th on the fourth grade test.
In a statement, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott said: “Today’s results describe the strong performance Texas students have consistently shown on NAEP mathematics tests. Our rigorous state standards in math provide a solid academic base for our students. Texas teachers are preparing more students to earn the Commended Performance level on the TAKS. These high expectations helped Texas students perform well on NAEP and compare very favorably to their peers in other states.”
In Texas, math scores in 2009 for both fourth and eighth graders were unchanged compared to 2007. Nationally, fourth grader’s scores remained flat after a two-decade-long climb, but eighth grade scores did go up slightly.
In contrast to the Texas commissioner’s assessment, national leaders took the lack of progress as a call to action.
“None of us should be satisfied,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “We need reforms that will accelerate student achievement. Our students need to graduate high school ready to succeed in college and the workplace.”
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September 8, 2009
Students listen to Obama speech
At the International High School, on the Eastside Memorial High School campus, social studies teacher Kyle Olson prepared his class for President Barack Obama’s speech by asking his students, all of whom are recent immigrants to the United States, to think about what they would say if they were president.
“Maybe you could you think back to your home country and what you would say to students there,” Olson said. “Maybe there’s similar things that need to be said to students around the world.”
Olson projected the Webcast on a screen in the front of his classroom and had students stand when the president was about to speak.
Obama challenged the nation’s students to take pride in their education — and stick with it even if they don’t like every class or must overcome tough circumstances at home.
“Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer,” Obama told students at Wakefield High School in suburban Arlington, Va., and children watching his speech on television in schools across the country. “And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.”
Presidents often visit schools, and Obama was not the first one to offer a back-to-school address aimed at millions of students in every grade.
At Garcia Middle School in Northeast Austin, about 19 students in teacher Laurie Pena’s American history class watched Obama’s remarks. A handful of reporters and camera crews joined them.
When Obama started talking about the hardships in his own life, growing up poor and without his father, most of the teens focused intently on the television monitor.
The students laughed softly when he told them to wash their hands a lot. In the last third of the President’s speech, several were talking among themselves.
Toward the end, campus officials announced over the intercom that the bell would not ring so students in the classes watching the President’s speech could continue to watch.
Obama’s address, which was billed as a direct speech to children on the importance of education, set off a nationwide wave of phone calls from parents who were concerned their students might be forced to watch. (The Statesman wrote about the hullabaloo last week in stories that ran Friday and Thursday.)
The address was Webcast on WhiteHouse.gov and on C-Span.
Locally, some school districts said they would not show the address live. Others said they would leave it up to teachers to decide whether to show it.
The school he chose as the setting for his talk — Wakefield — is the most economically and racially diverse school in Arlington County, according to the Department of Education. Nearly 40 percent of graduating seniors pass an Advanced Placement test. That’s more than twice the national average. Upon arrival at the school, Obama’s motorcade was greeted by a small band of protesters.
One carried a sign exclaiming: “Mr. President, stay away from our kids.”
Obama didn’t mention the uproar in his speech.
After the address, Pena spoke to her students about it.
“This is rare,” she said. “I think the only other president (to address students) in our recent time was Bush, senior. W’s father. That was the only time that a president spoke to the young people of the nation.”
“Hopefully, you guys, it made an impression on you. It’s up to you whether it affects you or not. It’s your opinion,” Pena said.
After those remarks, Pena began regular classroom assignments without asking for students’ thoughts of the president’s remarks. But 13-year-old Richaundra Hervey told the Statesman that she was moved by the speech.
“It was great that he spoke about his past,” Hervey said. “I didn’t know about his father walking out. That’s important to me.”
Hervey said she’s had a “rough” upbringing, too. She said she also hopes to rise above the difficulties in her life.
“It’s inspiring,” Hervey said. “It’s going to get better. Most of the kids at home will probably get better in school.”
In Olson’s class, once they got past some initial technical difficulties, the students watched the speech quietly and intently after being told to listen for instances where Obama discussed responsibility, persistence and goals.
“What’s he saying: If you fail at something, you keep going. You try again,” Olson whispered to students during the speech.
After it was over, one student, Shufi Bhuiyam clapped.
“I like how in his speeches he challenges people,” Bhuiyam, a 15-year-old 10th grader said.
Olson went on to discuss the speech with his students asking them to respond to Obama’s challenge to set goals for themselves and giving them the option to make a video with him after school about how education would help them fulfill their dreams.
“I think his message to everybody was very positive, upbeat and beneficial,” he said. His students speak four langauges and come from Burma, Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bangladesh and Mexico. For about five years, the Austin school district’s International High School has been a tool to help immigrant students overcome the hurdles of learning a new language, a new culture and coursework.
“I thought (watching the Obama speech) would be a great way to kind of introduce our government and our democratic principals,” Olson said.
Olson said he was aware of the controversy surrounding the speech and said he sent letters home to parents and spoke to administrators about what he was planning to do. He said neither parents nor administrators had issue with him showing and discussing the speech — something he attributed to the student’s and their family’s recent immigrant status.
“I think it was one of the benefits that they weren’t all wrapped up in that,” Olson said. “U.S. party and politics doesn’t carry as much weight with them yet.”
Student Erismel Estrada said the thing he took away from the speech was a new confidence. After the speech, when prompted by Olson to say what his goals were, Estrada said that he wanted to learn English and graduate.
“It helped me think about what my dreams are and let me be comfortable with my ideas,” Estrada said.
Bhuiyam, when asked what he would have to do to realize his dream of getting into an Ivy League school, he said he would try to get into the top 5 percent of his graduating class.
“It changed me to know what I have to to do improve myself,” Bhuiyam said.
To read the full text of the speech, click here.
To see local districts’ decisions on showing the address, click here.
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