Moore County (NC) school superintendent Pat Russo believes the black-white test score gap is closing in his district, and his remarks to parents who are also NAACP members sound like the voice of wearied reason:
Russo acknowledged that the No Child Left Behind program, North Carolina’s ABCs of Public Education, and other yardsticks for comparing schools are based on the progress that students make on standardized tests such as the Scholastic Assessment Test and end-of-grade tests. But he sees nothing wrong with the often-criticized technique of “teaching to the test,” he said in response to a question from the audience.
“What is a teacher doing if he or she teaches to the test?” Russo asked rhetorically. “The teacher is teaching the curriculum which will be tested. Wouldn’t you want your child’s teacher teaching the curriculum?
“I’ve had many teachers — in other places; I don’t think I’ll hear it here — tell me, ‘I just didn’t have time to get through the curriculum. Why did 77 percent of my students fall below grade level on my subject?’” Russo pounded his palm against the side of his head, the equivalent of responding “Duh” to these teachers.
His head must be pretty sore by now. His belief in the closing of the gap is based on reports from school principals in his district, but the SAT data that would confirm his belief will not be released until next Tuesday. On that measure, at least, his schools are ahead of the pack:
The average score statewide on SAT tests is 998, he said. The average for the Moore County Schools is 1044. A perfect score is 1600.
The local school district scores will probably be about the same this year, Russo said. The Moore County Schools have already climbed from an average score of 954 in the 1998-1999 school year, when it ranked 70th among the 117 school districts in the state. It now ranks seventh, and will rank “somewhere between fifth and eighth” for last year, he said.
Impressive numbers. Russo's tried a number of methods to improve education, including a few that would give secular left-wingers hissy fits:
“One of the things that have helped our children most is faith-based partnerships, which provide in-class help, tutoring and mentoring to our students. Right now, we have 27 churches involved. But we have more than 200 churches in Moore County, so we’re right at 12 or 13 percent. We need more involvement.”
Children, he said, “need mentors, role models and faith-based core values.”
It's not surprising that this would be an acceptable method of educational reform in the Deep South, and it's also not surprising that it appears to be working. Moore County has fewer than 75,000 inhabitants spread out over less than 700 square miles - but I still bet that the "200 churches" number is an underestimate. Assuming everyone in the county attends church, which wouldn't be unreasonable, that works out to one church per 375 inhabitants.
Posted by kswygert at August 20, 2003 10:16 AM