Number 2 Pencil

chuting themsevez in the fut

Massachusetts public school officials don't want new charter schools in their state, and they allegedly put their students up to a letter-writing campaign. Unfortunately, these "educators" either didn't bother to spell-check the letters, or didn't know how to spell themselves:

All the proof state Board of Education member Roberta Schaefer needed to OK controversial new charter schools were the letters before her from public school students. Schaefer ridiculed the letters against a proposed school in Marlboro for their missing punctuation and sloppy spelling - including a misspelling of the word "school'' in one missive.

"If I didn't think a charter school was necessary, these letters have convinced me the high school was not doing an adequate job in teaching English language arts,'' Schaefer said.

So these are letters from high school students who can't even spell "school"? Who helped devise their language arts curriculum, Gayle Cowley? And could there be a more effective refutation of Ms. Cowley's insistence that spelling is not a "critical skill?"

Despite the letter-writing campaign, which Schaefer said was orchestrated by school officials, the Marlboro-based Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School as well as new charter schools in Cambridge, Lynn and Barnstable were approved yesterday.

Opponents vowed a renewed campaign against the controversial public schools, which compete with traditional districts for state education dollars.

"We're going to pursue this legally and through the Legislature,'' said Kathleen Kelley, president of the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers.

Ms. Kelley, please put that time and energy into teaching kids to spell. We'll all be better off. Kids who can't spell turn into lawyers who can't spell, and that makes everybody crazy.

(Found via Best of the Web.)

Elementary schools that teach history

Adorable columnist James Lileks is choosing schools for his adorable toddler. Lileks is a history-and-architecture buff, so his standards for choosing a preschool are rather unique:

Visited two pre-schools today, looking for New Educational Frontiers for Gnat. The first one made me slightly weak in the knees when I entered: a 1922 office building rehabbed for tots. Most of it had been gutted and done over, but the lobby had been restored to its original glory...

The building’s maintenance man drifted by, and my guide introduced us. I was looking at the rehab of the ground floor, trying to see where the original hallway had been...I pointed to a light-colored rectangle on the stone wall – tenant directory? “Nope – the mail box,” he said. Then he said the magic words. “I got it upstairs. Want to see it?”

Went back to the room where wife and child were enjoying a sample of the school’s program. “She has to go here,” I whispered. "It’s a history-drenched 1920s office building with some original fixtures!”

Hee hee hee. I remember when I first transferred to Lexington Elementary School (SC), in the 3rd grade. My mother, most definitely not an old-building nut, cried the first time she saw the place. It was a teacher's college, circa 1880, that was being used in the 1970's as a school for 1st- through 4th-graders. I don't think they renovated it, or even did any maintenance, other than to lash wire fencing across the second-story balconies so we wouldn't all plummet to the concrete below (we could still spit on people, though).

The pillars out front were massive, changing classrooms involved a dash across many buildings, and the staircase banisters were huge slabs of ornately-carved wood, where you could see the wear from many hands (and probably butts) that slid across the ends of them every day. And the bathrooms were modern - for the 1910's, I think. No stalls, few sinks, just toilets attached to the walls. Creaky, no AC, probably no central heat, etc.

I loved the place. Eventually they tore it down. The campus was so humongous that the new, large, modern elementary school they built fit entirely into what had been the bi-level playground for the old school. Lexington had to have lost a few kids out on that massive playing field each year. If you were way on the outer edge of the playground grabbing at honeysuckle plants when the warning bell rang after recess, God help you. You'd never make it back to the classroom on time.

Shocking Chicago

The Chicago school board plans to "shock" some schools into realizing their shortcomings:

The school board has adopted a strict new accountability plan that would place nearly half the city's 600 public schools on academic probation, a move decried by critics as extreme but embraced by officials as necessary to shock the system into higher performance...

The new rules, passed late Wednesday, require elementary schools to have at least 40 percent of students meeting state and national testing norms, up from 25 percent; the standard for high schools increases to 25 percent from 15 percent. Under those rules, 293 of the system's 602 schools face probation, up from 82 now. A school can get off probation by reaching the 40 percent or 25 percent cutoff on tests given in the spring, or showing substantial progress -- 10 percentage points -- on the tests.

Duncan said that over the past 10 years, the number of students scoring in the bottom quartile on standardized tests has been halved, from 48 percent in 1993 to 24 percent now. The problem is that too many students are now stuck in the mid-range...

Critics, of course, say that these increased standards aren't fair because they're accompanied by no extra funding. But recent score increases have happened despite greater fiscal restraint, so it doesn't follow that test scores only rise when more money is pumped into the system:

...Duncan said there is plenty of evidence that the system continues to move away from where it was when Bennett embarrassed the city with an insult that is still raw for many Chicago educators.

The impact was immediate and Daley, and his new management team, structured like a corporation, quickly became darlings of the education world. They achieved labor peace, balanced the budget, eliminated millions in waste, and instituted more after-school and preschool programs, while dramatically expanding summer school and ending the practice of advancing students simply because of their age.

And scores have improved, although they also seem to have plateaud. Hence the tighter standards.

I checked out the website of the PURE folks, who were mentioned in the article as being critics of these new tougher standards. They sound like devoted parents who supposedly support tougher standards and true school reform. But they can't get over their testaphobia. This is what they want for accountability measures:

Sound, high quality methods of determining student academic progress which include true multiple measures such as classroom-based assessment, grades, and other student work products created over time, and which use standardized tests as a secondary factor in the overall assessment.

I read this and I think: What happens when standardized test results wildly deviate from class grades, which has been happening all over the country lately? Doesn't this compound the issue of grade inflation? Does PURE know how difficult it is to develop "high quality" student work products that measure longitudinal development? Does PURE know how much more that costs than regular standardized tests, and how much more classroom time is involved? Just how secondary are standardized tests supposed to be?

Another conundrum is that PURE wants "High quality performance standards for teachers beyond administrative certification which support capable teachers and allow effective remediation of poor-performing teachers," but they also want students to suffer no sanction if taught by unqualified teachers. If that's the case, what motive is there to become qualified? And where are the demands to get rid of poor teachers who fail to respond to remediation?

PURE also regurgitates the standard anti-testing lines:

[NCLB flaws are that it is] misusing standardized tests resulting in increased student push-outs and drop-outs, more students denied promotion or graduation status due to test errors, and a narrowing of the curriculum to focus on tested subjects...

1. There is no solid evidence that standardized tests cause higher dropout rates (or push-outs). There is research to suggest that higher dropout rates correlate with exit exam use, but correlation is not causation. States with large numbers of poorly-performing high schools, that most likely have high dropout rates, are probably the states that were most likely to implement early exit exams, in order to identify and support struggling students.

2. While recent test scoring errors have been lavishly described in the media, there is no evidence that tests are routinely miscored.

3. Schools that already teach basic skills in an effective manner won't find themselves narrowing the curriculum. Schools that can't teach third-graders to read English will find themselves with less time to teach art, music, and self-esteem. No one has yet demonstrated that narrowing a school's curriculum to include solid reading and math instruction for all students is damaging to education.

What's really on trial here?

I'm trying to figure out why this article about a San Mateo (CA) county's mock trial program includes so much anti-testing sentiment:

A dramatic trial that unfolded in a Redwood City court room last night determined the fate of dozens of students across San Mateo County and sent a powerful mock trial team to a statewide competition.

“One of the tragedies of this whole testing movement is that it tends to eliminate some of the most valuable learning experiences students can have,” said Hillsdale High teacher Greg Jouriles. “We don’t want to deprive kids of those deep learning experiences.”

Um, you aren't. Your school's students have won this competition 11 years running. I would not be surprised to see that your school's students also do well on standardized exams.

Participating in the intensive mock trial competition hones skills like public speaking, improvisation and critical thinking, Jouriles said. “Those are the type of things that aren’t necessarily going to be on a test,” he said.

No, but then the goal of testing is not to measure every single thing taught in school. It's to measure basic skills that schools must teach. If a kid can't read or write, how good of a "critical thinker" will they be?

High schools in the county have been participating in the event by the Constitutional Rights Foundation for more than 20 years. Preparation for the trial is intense...Presiding judges from San Mateo County oversee the competition and two attorneys serve as the jury pool...It’s definitely a different type of classroom than the ones students are now accustomed to.

“Academics are one thing,” Mehl said. “Education is something much larger that encompasses developing the social and emotional aspects of a child. These are the kinds of experiences that frankly we’ve lost over the years.”

Guess what? You've lost the ability to teach them to read, write, and do math as well, or there wouldn't be such a need for standards. It's ludicrous to assume that schools have been excelling at teaching academic skills while letting "social and emotional" aspects slide. This kind of comment reflects the typical educrat reaction to the fact that we're trying to put more importance on those academic skills now.

Ongoing budget troubles in recent times have slowly worn away at the “extra” instruction like music and the arts in many county schools, Mehl said.

And this is related to a criticism of standards-based instruction how? Is the assumption here that money should always be reserved for art class, even if kids are reading three grades behind?

Hooray for the kids who participate in mock trials - it sounds like a great experience. But it's bothersome to see that the educrats involved can't compliment this system without insulting tests.

Spelling bees on the way out

Florida's teachers insist they just don't have time to do spelling bees anymore, because every second is needed for FCAT preparation:

In Orange County, more than half of public elementary and middle schools did not participate in the county bee last week, about 10 fewer schools than last year. Interest also has fallen off in nearby Volusia County, where 43 percent of schools chose not to send students to show their skills at spelling sometimes-complicated words.

"We just can't afford the time -- that's really it," said Jody Adkins, a fourth-grade teacher at George W. Marks Elementary in DeLand. The school hasn't signed up for the county bee in years. "It really is unbelievable how little time during the day we have. We try to use every single second."

I've no doubt they try to use every second, but I wonder how efficiently they're using it. What's more, these kind of comments make me very suspicious:

Despite the state's argument that bees can help children prepare for the FCAT, and after decades of holding the contests, school officials are saying they don't think the bees are worth the time.

"Spelling is one of those skills that is not as critical as it used to be because of all the aids we have for spelling," Cowley said. "But even more than that, the focus has moved from those kind of automatic memorization skills to critical thinking and analysis skills, which I think most of us believe should be the focus of our instruction."

The head of a Language Arts council believes that because Word has a spellchecker on it, kids don't need to practice their spelling. And they've moved beyond "automatic memorization skills" to teaching kids to "think critically." Think critically about what, I don't know, because the kids haven't memorized any facts.

This is part of the standard, asinine pedagogical ideology that states that basic skills are inherently bad, and "higher-level thinking" is inherently good. Since Word has a grammar checker as well, doesn't this mean the rules of grammar are also "less critical than they used to be"?

Attitudes like this make me discount the cries of teachers who claim that FCAT preparation time is all that's holding them back from teaching kids the joys of learning how to spell words. What they're hearing from educators in positions of power is that these little "memorization" skills aren't worth the time.

NYC's wiggling third-graders

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is offering "wiggle room" for NYC's third-graders who flunk the state's standardized reading test:

The new promotion requirements, announced last month by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would force any child scoring at the lowest level on the annual citywide reading or math tests to repeat the third grade. But at a public forum on the new policy, held yesterday evening by the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, the chancellor said that parents would be given a chance to plead for their child's promotion...

Numerous studies of such policies around the country have found no benefit in forcing students to repeat a grade and instead show that those held back are far more likely to drop out before graduating high school.

Again, the chicken-and-egg problem. This doesn't mean retaining causes them to drop out later; what it most likely means is that kids who are struggling enough with early grades to be retained are more likely to drop out later.

Students who still scored at Level 1, the lowest of four rankings on the standardized tests, would be able to enroll in an intensive summer-school program and to retake the test. Those still at Level 1 would be forced to repeat the third grade. Under the city's policy, children scoring at Level 2, which is still considered failing to meet academic standards, could be promoted.

"We're talking Level 1 - which is far below standard," Mr. Klein said. "So even with the fallibility of testing, there is a wide margin in there. But as I said, that being so, we will have a process whereby students through their teachers - if their teachers think it's warranted - can make an appropriate appeal."

I'd like to hear more about the standard error of the test, and to know how far below proficient the ranking of Level 1 is. If it's very far - say two standard deviations or so - below what would be considered proficient, then Mr. Klein has a point here. Students scoring at Level 1 are unlikely to have true abilities at or above the proficient level.

On a related note, Jay P. Greene, writing in the New York Post, praises Klein:

The reforms being championed by Chancellor Joel Klein could finally lead to significant improvement of the city's schools after many frustrating years of spending increases and academic stagnation...

Klein's proposed addition of 50 charter schools should be music to reformers' ears. Not only would it expand education options in the city, but it gives the chancellor leverage in his union contract negotiations...

Followup on the Potty War

An update to the potty parity war in Lawrence, NJ:

A policy limiting students at a middle school to 15 bathroom breaks a month has gone down the toilet. Administrators at the Lawrence Middle School revised the rule Wednesday to allow kids to make up to 30 visits a month to the restroom, according to Saturday's editions of the Times of Trenton...

Under the new policy, students may use all 30 passes each month. With about 20 school days a month, that is about 1 1/2 visits each day. Students with health problems or with an emergency must see the school nurse.

School Principal Nancy Pitcher said the policy was not changed in response to parents' complaints, but after a review by administrators.

And that's a good thing why? Why wouldn't parental complaint have had an effect, when this idea of discipline was essentially a public health issue?

"I think the revised policy is baloney," resident Lisa Everson told the newspaper. "Administrators still haven't changed their overall philosophy with dealing with students."

Devoted Reader Regin sent along an example of an alternate philosophy that sounds more effective. This is cut and pasted from alt.tasteless on Usenet (identifying information and profanity deleted; also edited for length):

As the story goes, the school had a severe problem last fall with bomb threats scrawled on the bathroom walls in marker, most likely by a single student. True to military-style discipline, the school board elected to punish all the students in the hopes that the students themselves would ferret out the artist and and correct his behavior.

THAT, my friends is MANAGEMENT. That's how you motivate and/or de-motivate, whatever the case may be. I will never forget that little precursor to boot camp and I'm a reasonably thoughtful adult because of it. This namby-pamby "suspension" crap and all this "zero-tolerance" policy is just a mask for managerial laziness and a lack of vision.

Amusing. I remember in our high school most infractions were punished with the dreaded "lunchroom duty" - having to go around and clean the lunch tables, empty trays, and so on. It was humiliating, messy, and cut into the free time at lunch; hence, it was a very useful punishment.

Locking every kid out of the bathroom - not a useful punishment.

WASL going to happen now?

Someone on the editorial staff of the Seattle Times is aggravated with a state senator's proposals for the Washington exit exam:

State Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Kent, should stop messing around with a well-crafted House bill that clarifies state high-school-graduation requirements, and work instead to pass it without major changes.

Johnson would limit students to two retakes of the WASL. Those who fail both times could take what's known as a norm-referenced standardized achievement test. Both changes would undermine the intent of the state's ongoing standards-based education reform.

I see no point in switching to an alternate assessment after two retakes, most especially not to a norm-referenced assessment. Not only does that, as the author points out, defeat the purpose of setting objective standards, but if only those who fail the WASL twice take the alternate test, how are the norms going to be set? If the norms are set by the general population, kids who fail the WASL will fail the alternate test, because they've already been defined as being below all the other students. If norms are set by the population who takes only the alternate test, then the message being sent to students is, if you can prove you're the smartest of all the dodos who failed the WASL twice, you get a diploma. Ridiculous.

As for how many retakes, yes, one could argue that more than two retakes should be allowed. But schools should also be prepared to set a limit on retakes, or give unlimited retakes but insist that a student doesn't graduate until they pass the test, whether it takes one administration or ten.

Slightly more than one-third of the state's 10th-graders passed the reading, writing and math portions of the WASL last year...

Johnson questions the reliability and validity of the WASL.

I have a feeling these two sentences are not unrelated. The assumption that a test that gives politically-incorrect results must be unreliable or invalid is often made by those who fear (or are ignorant of) tests. This doesn't mean the WASL is reliable or valid, of course, but a third of the 10th-graders flunking doesn't mean it isn't, either.

I also think Johnson's comments are not independent of what was said in this meeting:

Superintendent Dolores Gibbons, Marcie Maxwell, Board Member and Legislative Representative and Dimmitt Middle School principal Kathleen Heaton-Bailey hosted a meeting today with state legislators to discuss the state and federal government’s reform efforts including the WASL...

Kowalis explained that although the goal to fully educate every student is laudable, the reality is children are individuals with very individual needs and cannot all be expected to perform at the same level.

Fine. But if you admit that some 17-year-olds cannot be expected, ever, to perform on the same level as most others, you also have to be prepared to deny diplomas to those students. There's a difference between saying, "Kids may perform at different levels," which is absolutely true, and "No matter what level a kid is at at age 17, they should get a diploma if they stayed in school," which is highly debatable.

“We’ve built an entire education system on a ‘no cookie cutter’ model,” Kowalis said. “Now we present this one test [WASL] as a way to measure their competence.”

Hedeen asked if an alternative test or other form of assessment could be considered for students who could not pass the WASL. In 2008 high school students will be required to pass the WASL before graduating. Hedeen noted that, for students who do not pass the test in the 10th grade, teachers in 11th- and 12th-grade classrooms would have to spend all their time helping them meet that goal. That, said Hedeen, could cause districts to restructure curriculum and possibly exclude subjects important to those students who did pass the test.

All their time? Really? Wouldn't ability tracking negate a lot of this? This wouldn't affect those kids in AP classes, I'm sure. And can anyone explain to me why the material normally be taught in an 11th- or 12th-grade classroom would not help a kid on a 10th-grade exam? The implication here is that teachers will have to "dumb down" 11th- and 12th grade material for everyone, but if that's the case, why are these 10th-graders being promoted to the higher grades? If they're so clueless that teachers will have to spend all their time helping them, why promote them?

These teachers and administrators want it both ways. They want agreement with their declaration that all kids are different, but they want diplomas to be "one-size-fits-all" - awarded to kids regardless of their achievements. They want to focus on those 11th- and 12th-graders that pass the WASL by not dumbing down the material, but they want to promote into those grades kids who can't pass a 10th-grade test. No wonder the idea of an exit exam aggravates them.

The cause of Marin's high test scores

The Marin Independent Journal celebrates the test scores of local children, but misstates the relationship between test scores and SES:

Marin students performed better in standardized tests than students in other Bay Area counties and were more likely to take Scholastic Aptitude Tests than their peers, according to a report to be released today...

In the past, national studies have shown that high test scores are, more than anything else, the product of socio-economic status of families, with students from the high end of a continuum consistently scoring higher on standardized academic achievement test than those from the low end. This is borne out in Marin, where a high percentage of parents of students tested are educationally and economically on the high end of the scale, compared to the rest of the state, as well as the nation.

Correlation does not imply causation. Simply because, overall, students who come from wealthier families may do better on tests, that doesn't mean that, as stated above test scores are caused by the wealth of the parents.

It is logical to draw that conclusion in our society, because kids from wealthier families have more opportunities and tend to go to better schools. But their parents might be wealthy because IQ and income tend to be correlated in our society as well, and it might be that intelligence - and learned traits like self-discipline and competitiveness - account for both parental income and child test scores. How many parents in Marin County had to work long hours at hard jobs to earn the money to live there? Who's to say their kids didn't inherit or learn those traits from them?

This might seem like a nitpicky point, but it's not. One of the most important concepts taught in Stats 101, is that correlation between A and B does not imply that A causes B or B causes A, because a third factor C might cause both to occur. This concept is essential for research because missing that third factor can lead to totally erroneous conclusions like "Poor kids have no chance of making good test scores" or "Tests don't measure anything other than parental income," both of which assume that money in and of itself is the most important factor affecting test scores.

At least the article avoids the truly boneheaded statements, and it doesn't go into the nonsense about how it's not "fair" for some kids to have more money than others, but the author still gets it wrong by assuming that correlation implies causation. Congrats to Marin's students, though (who I bet would be rather offended if you told them they only scored well on tests because of Mommy and Daddy's money).

Update: As Devoted Reader Jeff W. points out, I missed the real story:

Marin is the wealthiest county in California. Kids there enjoy advantages that most kids in this country can only dream of.

Yet only 45% were proficient in English and algebra. That's the real story.

According to Wikipedia:

The median income for a household in the county is $71,306, and the median income for a family is $88,934. Males have a median income of $61,282 versus $45,448 for females. The per capita income for the county is $44,962. 6.60% of the population and 3.70% of families are below the poverty line.

Can't blame poverty for poor school performance, can they? Here is the county's STAR score report for 2002. According to this, the scores for Language Arts breaks down as follows:

Grade ----- % scoring Proficient or Advanced
2 ---------- 56
3 ---------- 61
4 ---------- 67
5 ---------- 61
6 ---------- 60
7 ---------- 66
8 ---------- 63
9 ---------- 58
10 --------- 55
11 --------- 52

For each grade, the percentage scoring only Proficient (not advanced) is anywhere from 24% to 43%. So I'm a little confused. Is the 45% for 2003 reported in the article above for only the Proficient category (which would reflect a small increase) or for both Proficient and Advanced together (which would reflect a large decrease)?

Either way, Jeff is right. I missed the real story, which is (a) that in 2002, with the data I'm reporting here, only 52% of 11th-graders in a very wealthy county scored at or above Proficient in Reading, and (b) sad as that is, they're still doing better than the country at large, because 57% of Marin's 11th-graders scored above the national 50th percentile mark.

California's adjustments to NCLB

California's doing some retooling to the NCLB regulations:

California education officials took a screwdriver Wednesday to some rigid rules regarding the controversial federal No Child Left Behind Act, saying the policies are potentially unfair to thousands of schools.

One of the changes proposed Wednesday would allow schools to count students who opt out of testing as "not proficient" instead of as a non-test taker. By doing so, schools would still have incentive to encourage students to take the test, but they wouldn't be punished in the head count if the parents decide to opt out.

If the state law allows parents to oppose testing by keeping their kids home, I agree that schools shouldn't be punished for this. There should be some way to distinguish between schools that fail to test kids and parents that refuse to have their kids tested.

At first, I thought the schools would still suffer thanks to those not-proficient scores for the opt-outers. But it's possible that, if the kids whose parents keep them home are kids who would have scored non-proficient anyway, the school's average remains where it would have been with those kids testing, and the school doesn't get punished for not testing enough kids.

A new kind of accountability needed in Philly

Even in a city like Philly, where political connections are paramount and it's who you know that matters, this is ridiculous:

Members of a recently formed school-safety task force have learned that the process of assigning crossing guards isn't based on any objective criteria. Instead, guards are assigned based on pressure from politicians.

"No one seems to know" how guards are assigned, Dougherty said. "I'm amazed."

Eleven million dollars to assign crossing guards, yet there are none near some Philly schools on busy streets, and more than one in areas where schools have long been closed. And a horrific number of students have been hit by cars since the beginning of the 2003-04 school year.

So far this school year, 56 public-school children across the city have been hit by cars around schools, according to school district records. Most of those accidents have occurred right outside schools. Two recent accidents injuring students outside school occurred at corners where the guard was absent, and in May 2001, a 5-year-old boy was killed at an intersection where the crossing guard was absent.

No one could explain why two crossing guards are assigned to corners near a school that has been closed for 21 years...

When no one can explain why a system works the way it does, even after children have been killed, heads should roll. I hope the Daily News repeated coverage of this problem prompts investigations and reassignments.

The battle over NYC's third-graders continues

A top New York education official has squared off against NYC Mayor Bloomberg and his plan to retain third-graders based on test scores:

Board of Regents Vice Chancellor Adelaide Sanford said the state Education Department's guidelines advise against basing promotional decisions on a single test for elementary and middle-school students.

"Test scores should not be used in isolation because low test scores can often result from low motivation and other factors that are independent of a student's knowledge," Sanford said during a hearing sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields.

If the test is that high-stakes, I'm not sure if motivation is an issue. However, one can certainly argue that the test is not a good enough measure of reading ability to judge whether a child should be promoted, and one can also argue against ever using a single test score to make such a decision. All test scores contain error, and while they may contain less error than subjective grades, that doesn't mean that supplemental information shouldn't be used in conjunction with scores.

Sanford argued the policy punishes students who lag academically because they have inexperienced or incompetent teachers.

Well, but if students are lagging behind academically, then it's reasonable to argue that they should be held back to retake the grade with a different teacher. After all, if no students of an incompetent teacher get retained, when will we discover the incompetency?

Such a policy doesn't take into account if children are struggling because of undetected health problems, including those that affect vision or hearing, she said.

Students with visual or hearing handicaps would, I assume, be struggling with all the grade-level material. There's no reason not to provide test accommodations for kids who already receive such help in the classroom, but if a kid hasn't learned the material (whether due to the handicap or not), I don't see where it follows that promotion to the next grade is required.

And she stressed that all the data she's seen shows that children who are held back are more likely to drop out. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein staunchly defended the tougher policy, arguing that troubled kids are worse off later in life if they're passed along.

Chicken-and-egg problem. Smart kids aren't likely to be held back. If kids who are retained one year in the lower grades then go on to drop out later on, where's the proof that it's the retention itself, rather than the lack of intelligence/motivation/discipline that led to the retention, that is the cause of that? I have no doubt that retention is correlated with dropping out, but that doesn't mean that retentions cause later dropouts. Correlation doesn't imply causation.

The chancellor stressed he's talked to numerous teachers who say their students are lost because they're years behind. And he said half the city's kids leave the schools without basic skills.

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be a sixth-grader teacher who realizes that her class is at the fourth-grade level. I agree with Bloomberg that social retention can do much more harm than good, especially if it's done in great numbers. But I disagree with using one test to decide whether a child should progress or not. Perhaps the test scores and grades could be combined, where test scores are weighted so that grade inflation won't help a kid pass.

The "sponges" in their schools

In an amusing and acerbic article about "Britain's laziest women," Mark Steyn puts the blame on the British school system for its tendency to produce "sponges" instead of disciplined and motivated competitors:

The other day the Sun bestowed the title of "Britain's Laziest Woman" on Susan Moore of Burythorpe, North Yorkshire...as Alastair Taylor explained: "Super-sponger Susan, 34, has not done a day's work since dropping out of college in 1988."

Despite receiving "Jobseeker's Allowance" for 16 years, she does not seek jobs, and never has.."I just haven't been given a chance," says Susan. But when the space on your CV for the period from adolescence to early middle-age is one big blank, no one's ever going to give you a chance. It's hard to think of anything capitalism red in tooth and claw could have done to Susan Moore that would have left her worse off than the great sapping nullity in which Her Majesty's Government has maintained her for her entire adult life.

Primary schools have given up on the egg-and-spoon and sack race because, under the great Cult of Self-Esteem, it's too much to ask a child to endure the sting of defeat. A third of London schools play no competitive sports. Teachers are uncomfortable with the notion of an "opposing side" one must strive to "beat" - just as, in the war on terror, many grown-ups are uncomfortable with the notion of "the enemy": to the progressive mind, there are no enemies, just friends whose grievances we haven't yet fully acknowledged.

Where did this idea that children are irreparably harmed by any competition whatsoever come from? And why didn't anyone foresee that instilling a fear of competition into children is much more likely to produce a gaggle of Susan Moores than a country full of productive citizens?

The responses to the story on Ms. Moore, by the way, are heartening. The following is a typical example:

THERE is never an excuse for not working except in recognised cases, such as for health reasons. So it makes my blood boil to see people like Susan Moore.

If you are not employed but are employable, surely stacking shelves in a supermarket or something similar shouldn’t be beneath you?

When kittens attack

Why I'm not blogging from home as much anymore...

9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney

Bomb threats and potty parity

One of the changes I've made lately to improve my health (which IS much improved, thanks) is to drink between 8 and 10 glasses of water a day. My face is clearer. My itchy dry skin is resolving itself. My system feels nice and clean and, well, flushed.

And if I had a kid at this school, I'd be outside with a picket sign reading, "Potty Rights for All!"

Under a new policy at the Lawrence Middle School (NJ), seventh- and eighth-graders are allowed to leave class for the bathroom a maximum of 15 times a month. As a result, some are afraid to use up their bathroom passes too quickly and end up with a full bladder and nowhere to go.

The pass system went into effect last month as a way to monitor the school restrooms and stop students from skipping class. It is the latest in a series of disciplinary measures school administrators have taken in response to behavioral problems that have included bomb threats.

I got news for that school. The way my bladder is now, I don't think I'd hesitate to call in a bomb threat if that cleared the way to the bathroom for me. And what on earth does regulating bathroom usage have to do with halting sociopathic behavior? It's unhealthy, and it's insulting to those students who aren't acting out.

"When my son Matthew used all his passes, he was then told he couldn't go to the bathroom," parent Susan Gregory told The Times of Trenton. "We called the school and were told the bathroom is a privilege, not a right. Then we were told if a child has to go to the bathroom more than three times a day, we need (to bring them) a doctor's note...

"Common sense tells you the policy doesn't make any sense," said Dr. Christopher S. Cooper, an associate professor of urology at the University of Iowa who specializes in pediatric urology.

The good doctor mentioned "common sense." Get the feeling he hasn't had much contact with public school systems lately?

"I see lots of junior high kids every day who have problems with urinary tract infections from not voiding frequently enough," he said. "There is also an epidemic of constipation because kids are not consuming enough fluids."

While Cooper acknowledges teachers need uninterrupted time to teach, and that some students ask for a bathroom pass to skip class, he says a student who sits in class trying to restrain the desire to urinate will be distracted and won't be able to pay attention to the lesson.

No kidding. Let's see, they've already locked up the bathrooms between clas periods and are limiting to kids to gym, lunch, and those 15 passes per month. What are they going to do next - take out all the water fountains so that kids don't try to do anything disruptive like replenish themselves between classes?

Principal Nancy Pitcher thinks the policy offers students ample opportunities to use the bathroom. She said it was a necessary step to guarantee the safety of her students and encourage learning. The high school implemented a similar system the previous year.

Does Ms. Pitcher follow the same constraints? No? Then it's not ample. Schools can control discipline without draconian control over this most personal of needs. There are ways to control bathroom misbehavior without making the restrooms off-limits.

Ms. Pitcher claims some kids just don't want to follow "rules." Parents are countering that locking kids out of bathrooms would be illegal in other public places (not to mention something that Child Services would investigate in a home), so why should it be allowable in a public school?

Devoted Reader Regin sent this my way; Joanne Jacobs posted on it as well. The comments on her site are great. This one from "Jon" was my favorite:

It is abusive to not allow someone to use a bathroom. The authorities should be ashamed of themselves. Justifying their cruel actions as necessary to combat the actions of a few jerks is just the kind of zero-tolerance nonsense that will probably result in Ziploc bags of urine being left on their automobiles during the next school board meeting.

I wonder if it was the thought of this kind of retaliation that prompted this followup letter from Principal Pitcher at the Lawrence Township Schools website:

Our main goal at Lawrence Middle School is to provide the best possible education for your child during their middle school years. As you may know, we had a problem the first part of this year with constant interruptions to student learning because of bomb threats which necessitated evacuating the building for as long as 2.5 hours at a time. These bomb threats were usually written on bathroom walls...

Although this pass system has virtually eliminated bomb threats and kept students in classes in our building, it has not been popular with some of our students and their parents...

To say the least. And can I ask a question? Sure, there are no more bathroom walls on which to write threats, but the kids who wrote those threats are still walking the halls. Was anything done to find out who they were? Wouldn't that have been more productive than closing the bathrooms? What's to stop these kids from writing a threat on a wall during class hours? My kid would be no "safer" just because you removed the element on which a little jerk could write his threats...

On Tuesday of this week Mrs. Biggs and I met with interested parents and staff members, talked about issues at the school and listened to their concerns. As a result of that meeting, we are making revisions to the hall pass system. The pass will no longer specify the number of trips to the bathroom but, instead, will allow the student to determine how he or she uses the 30 slots on the pass during the 20 days in a given month. Of course, we will also continue to allow any student to make additional trips to the bathroom if it is an emergency...

There will be a meeting for all Lawrence Middle School parents next Tuesday, February 24 at 7:30 PM in our school library to hear your ideas, discuss our shared vision for Lawrence Middle School and talk about next steps. We hope you will attend.

Principal Pitcher is patting herself on the back for reducing the number of bomb threats. But if I were a parent there, in a small NJ town like Lawrenceville that is most definitely NOT a deprived community, I'd still be worried. What else is being done to find the kids who would do such things?

Calling a foul on SAT rankings

Based on the raw numbers, the state of Georgia ranks 50th - last - when it comes to SAT scores. But ranking states by SAT scores is not a wise thing to do:

Mark Musick, the president of the Southern Regional Education Association, agreed. “Georgia has a problem, it’s just not that we’re 50th.”

In North Dakota and about half the states, the ACT is the dominant test for college-bound students. Colleges can convert ACT scores to SAT scores, and once converted, according to a Southern Regional Education Association list, Georgia ranks higher than 11 other states.

Psychometricians know this, but the general population doesn't hear it enough in the media. In many southern states, all 10th- and 11th-graders are encouraged to take the SAT, whether or not they plan to go to college. This practice helps fulfill the original purpose of the SAT - to identify those kids who might not otherwise know they're college-material - but it's guaranteed to drag the averages down.

The important question is not, "What is a state's mean SAT score?" The important questions are who takes the SAT in that state, how many take the SAT, and what the plans are of those who take the SAT. That doesn't guarantee an apples-to-apples comparison, but it does prevent the comparison of Georgia's general population with the kids from North Dakota who plan to go to Harvard.

(Thanks to Devoted Reader Jim P.)

Pot-planting principal should be a perp

When a principal shows up on The Smoking Gun, it's never pretty. I just can't improve on their summary of the hapless pot-planting principal:

Here's a bit of advice for high school administrators everywhere: If a drug-sniffing police dog somehow misses the pot you planted in a troublemaker's locker, just let it go. Patrick Conroy, however, felt the need to tell Michigan cops about his harebrained attempt to frame a student he believed was selling drugs at L.C. Mohr High School.

The dog, named Herbie, did not cooperate, however, failing to detect the weed. For his part, Conroy repeatedly steered the K-9 team past the bank of lockers, to no avail. Conroy is now the subject of a criminal probe.

Conroy's local newspaper, the Herald-Palladium, has more juicy details, and has been bombarding Conroy with phone calls, to no avail:

Conroy told police he had been collecting the drugs, which he said had been confiscated from students, ever since he came to the high school as assistant principal in August 1999. He claimed he kept the drugs in his office so he could bring them to school board student expulsion hearings to show as evidence if necessary.

Herald-Palladium attempts to telephone Conroy at home on Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful.

I'll bet. Not only did he try to frame a student, but he's been illegally hoarding drugs in his office for five years. That police dog needs to be retired; his nose should have exploded when he came anywhere near Conroy.

As Best of the Web notes, there's a hilariously-supportive letter by one Abby N. , on the website of an nearby highschool newspaper:

Many students have taken notice that Mr. Conroy is not at school. Rumors of drugs, sex, and violence have been flung through the air all week long. Many students have been questioning what’s happened. According to Mr. Hadden, he is on leave with pay, and the reason has nothing to do with sex, drugs or violence. The press release that was given to teachers stated the reason is procedural, administrative...

He admits to having drugs on campus and then using them to frame a student and he gets put on leave with pay?!?

Many students have made wild accusations; saying that Mr. Conroy was arrested and even some parents claimed the he was in jail. Mr. Conroy has not been arrested and he has not done anything illegal.

Bullspit, honey. It was illegal for him not to call officials and surrender any drugs that he confiscated from students. As the Herald-Palladium noted:

South Haven Police Chief Rod Somerlott said earlier that when drugs are confiscated from a student, by law police must be contacted immediately to pick up and dispose of the illegal substances.

Mr. Conroy has been a great help to this school over the years...

Mr. Conroy was gold in a school full of nickel and his absence has left a void in both the school and in the hearts of many students...

I can't improve on BotW's rejoinder - "He was gold, all right--Acapulco gold."

And what does that say about the rest of the school administrators and teachers, if they are "nickel" to Conroy's "gold"? Do you think they should feel good about Abby's comment?

The punishment doesn't fit, but the bathing suits sure do

Sixth-grader Justin Reyes is on a three-day suspension for bringing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition to school. The alternative punishment was two days at an "alternative school" full of miscreants; Justin's mother rejected that punishment.

Any administrator with any sense would have just confiscated the silly magazine, which is inappropriate for a sixth-grader but hardly worthy of punishment. (Except for, maybe, being locked in a classroom for an hour with a teacher who minored in Women's Studies in college; the resulting lecture on objectification would be punishment enough.)

Then again, any administrator with any sense would not, as Superintendent Tim Swarr did, admit to not ever having seen the swimsuit issue that SI publishes each year. That makes him sound awfully naive.

(Found via Sharkblog).

Philly's Avenging Angel

Philly's a tough city with a soft (and strange) heart. In the last week, two schoolkids have been killed by gunfire. Eleventh-grader Raymond Dawson was shot to death during a robbery attempt while walking home from helping his family sell flowers. And Faheem Thomas-Childs, a third-grader, was caught in the middle of a drug war while walking to school.

In response, a "hard-boiled businessman," a Sicilian named Joe Mammana, is putting a $10,000 bounty on the heads of the “cowards and thugs” responsible for each of these killings, which raises the reward money to over $100K:

“These losers can kill each other and it would be a public service, a thinning of the herd,” said hard-boiled businessman Joe Mammana, putting a $10,000 “bounty” on “the heads” of the “cowards and thugs” who killed Faheem Thomas-Childs, 10, in a crossfire outside T.M. Peirce Elementary School...

“I’m Sicilian,” he said. “My children are half Spanish. I don’t see color. I don’t see race. We’re all human beings. And we’re all subject to the streets. These bums who shoot children — I want them off the streets forever.”

One charter school's existence hangs in the balance

What happens when a "good" school has "bad" test scores?

It's a Friday like any other here [at the John A. Reisenbach Charter School] - a weekly "Color Day," when students celebrate school spirit by wearing the hues of their floor - orange, green, and blue - rather than their usual oxford shirts and gray pinafores or slacks.

The threatened closure has parents and experts both raising questions about a school's less tangible aspects - qualities no standardized test can measure. How, for instance, do you quantify the environment here - the safe, carefully monitored hallways, or the eager confidence of the students?

Well, those things can indeed be quantified. Safe environments will have fewer incidents of violence, disruption, bullying, and the like. There are assessment to measure self-confidence. But the question in my mind is, if the school is safe and kids are confident, why are test scores still low?

Both Craig Cobb and his daughter, Brittan who is a third grader, have fallen in love with Reisenbach.

Like other parents with children at Reisenbach, Mr. Cobb is smitten with the high level of parental involvement. Others rave about the safe, courteous atmosphere, an eighth-grade curriculum that includes reading Shakespeare and newspapers, and extras like drama class and a choir as reasons to keep the school open.

Shakespeare is good, courtesy is good, but I think it's strange that reading newspapers in eighth-grade is considered to be an outstanding part of the curriculum.

There is no doubt that the school has not delivered on its promise to raise test scores...Last year, however, only 13 percent of Reisenbach's eighth-grade class met state standards in English; only 7 percent in math.

Yeah, that's pretty low. How are those eighth-graders reading Shakespeare yet not demonstrating knowledge of the current form of the English language?

...[to some] hard numbers protect a school and should be relied upon. Benjamin Chavis, principal of the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, Calif., is a firm believer in scores, and skeptical of "feel good or other less quantifiable" measures of success.

In 2000, its fourth year, his school nearly had its charter revoked. But by 2001, a year after Dr. Chavis arrived, he'd turned the school around. Now, its scores are among the best in the state. "You can't win by saying, 'This is a safe school,' " he says. "That's a ridiculous argument."

However, the argument that some kids had been at the school only five months before being tested isn't ridiculous. And the school's administrators have offered to resign in order to keep the school open. Parental support is high. Perhaps the school just hasn't had enough time to prove how well it can educate its students:

Some argue schools with low test scores but high community support deserve more time to prove themselves.

In 1998, California's Oakland Charter Academy was in a position similar to Reisenbach's. One of the first charter schools in its district, it squeaked through its first renewal. Test scores were bleak, faculty turnover high. But parents rallied to support the Latino educators who understood their Spanish-speaking children and their community's values. Since then, the school has made modest gains in scores - and received its third renewal.

Update: Fellow blogger, teacher, and all-around tough guy Charles does some investigating. Conclusion? A conditional renewal, perhaps - and no more excuses about those eighth-graders:

It's quite possible a good portion of the 8th grade class in question had been at that school for years, as we shall explain.

The "transient students are pulling our scores down" appeal is largely a myth, but makes for a handy excuse.

I should bribe Charles' to catch this kind of stuff (and, you know, do the online research that I skipped) before I post. (I hear he works cheap - for buffalo-chicken sandwiches.)

Also don't miss his post on Diane Ravitch's Left Back, which he gifted me with recently. I'll get to it soon, Charles, I swear...

Sarasota's dropouts

Students in danger of dropping out of school in Sarasota (FL) will soon be routed to a new school:

A special school will open this fall for 240 students in eighth through 10th grades at risk of dropping out because of poor standardized test scores. Plans call for small classes, individualized instruction, and counselors to work with community organizations and students on non-academic issues.

"We'll build a relationship between adults and the students," said Peggy Wiggins, the district's director of academic intervention. "We'll give the students services and support, and if outside help is needed, a social services worker is there to make the connection."

Apparently, all the existing in-school dropout prevention programs are not useful. But Sarasota's dropout rate is between 3.1% and 3.6% for students 16 and over. This seems, well, low (although it's higher than the state's reported 3.1%). It's hard for me to understand why this justifies $3 million dollars for a new school, when Florida is allegedly doing a good job of preparing students who stay in school for college. And the plan is to identify younger students, put them in the special school - then transfer them back to the regular high school after they complete 10th grade. If there are still problems at the regular high school, won't the incentive to drop out remain?

Success and failure in NYC

New York's elementary school students seem to be thriving - but the results haven't yet translated to middle-school success:

Nearly half of [New York City's] elementary schools made Albany's honor roll of "most improved" schools - but most of its middle schools flunked, according to new state Education Department statistics.

Statewide, about one-third of New York's 2,500 elementary schools made the state's honor roll as most improved in math and reading. That's more than 800 elementary schools - 322 in the city - showing dramatic improvement on the fourth-grade English and math exams since 1999...

By comparison, when it came to the middle schools, only six of the city's 390 sites made the list for English. Even more stunning, only nine other middle schools in the rest of the state improved enough to make the list.

The middle schools in NYC also "bombed" the math tests as well. City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is disappointed with the scores, which I assume are the result of more intensive reforms at the elementary school level. If these students are being tracked over time, hopefully we'll continue to see gains as they progress through the school system.

One NYC middle school has done well by discovering the obvious:

One city middle school bucking the trend was MS 340/North Star Academy in Brooklyn, which made both the English and math honor rolls...

All instructors at the Park Slope school are trained to be "reading teachers" regardless of the subject they teach. The philosophy is that students can't master any subject unless they can read and write - and that has paid off, Principal Gloria Dupree said.

And this philosophy isn't in place in every NYC middle school because...?

Defining terrorism down

I'm no fan of teachers' unions, but this is just ridiculous:

Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" Monday, taking on the 2.7-million-member National Education Association early in the presidential election year.

The education secretary's words were "pathetic and they are not a laughing matter," said Weaver, whose union has said it plans to sue the Bush administration over lack of funding for demands included in the "No Child Left Behind" schools law.

Allegedly it was a joke, but it was a pretty poor one (though not "hate speech"). As Joanne Jacobs puts it:

I fear that "terrorist" is joining "Nazi" as an all-purpose word meaning "someone of whom I disapprove." There are real terrorists out there.

Update: Joanne is more right than she knows. Drudge notes that presidential hopeful Kerry has lobbed the terms at Republicans in the past:

As Democrats express outrage over comments made by Education Secretary Rod Paige [he called the the nation's largest teachers union 'a terrorist organization'] a DRUDGE REPORT flashback can reveal Democrat presidential frontrunner John Kerry Has Called Republicans 'legislative terrorists'... MORE... In Jan. 1996, commenting on the federal government shutdown, Kerry called the House Republicans 'legislative terrorists,' who used federal workers as pawns and disrespected them. Asked about his terrorist comment, Kerry explained, 'Terrorists hold hostages, and the Republicans are holding the government hostage'...

That was pre-September-11th, but still. There should be a moratorium on anyone using the word "terrorist" so lightly.

Who is to blame when kindergarteners bite?

Fark.com labeled this story, "Cincinnati Public Schools expels kindergartners for stabbing classmates in face, bringing weapons to school. "Experts" blame everything under the sun except terrible parents."

Fark is exaggerating, though; "fractured families" are on this list of causes - after TV and video games:

A student at Quebec Heights School in Price Hill strikes his classmates and kicks a teacher. A student at Princeton's Woodlawn Elementary stabs another kid in the face with a plastic fork. A student at New Burlington Elementary in Springfield Township urinates in a garbage can.

Experts blame many factors: Sex and violence on television and in video games, undiagnosed mental illness, poverty, fractured families and zero-tolerance for trouble at school. Kids are stressed out. And many kindergartens did away with naptime a decade or more ago.

Hard to believe that removal of naptime alone is responsible for an upswing in violence in the ABC's set. And if five-year-olds are watching violent videos, um, whose fault is that?

And the violent kindergarteners do have some defenders - their parents:

But others, including some parents and child advocates, say biting, kicking and temper tantrums are normal behavior for 5- and 6-year-olds. This group says that expelling or suspending kindergartners just sets children up for failure - at a far too tender age.

"If a child does something extreme, you have to look at why," says Rochelle Morton, former vice president of education and youth development at the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati. "Putting a child out of school is not going to help."

Yes, but is a school permitted to say, "We looked at why this child is biting everyone withing teething range, and we decided it's the parent's fault?" If schools don't have the power to say that anymore - and I bet that power is diminishing every day - why should they look for root causes instead of applying discipline?

Pass the test in order to teach

In Texas, they're debating whether to allow uncertified teachers to enter the classroom based on test scores:

The State Board of Education is scheduled to vote Wednesday and Friday on the proposal, which would make it easier for uncertified college graduates to take up teaching.

According to the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, there's no research that supports taking untrained college graduates, testing them and placing them in classrooms...

Unfortunately for the NCATE, there's also little research to suggest that education degrees, or classes in education, are useful:

The Department of Education argues that the research linking traditional education programs to teacher quality is thin, according to Michael Petrilli, a senior aide at the department. Instead, he said, studies show that teachers' cognitive ability and content knowledge matter most.

Based on that, the department backs proposals like Texas' that eliminate formal programs from the certification process.

Okay, all you teachers out there - what do you think?

Mamma mia, so that's what a spicy meatball is

Teachers in Florida are using field trips to help their students on the FCAT:

Some Martin County schools place such importance on field trips that they've secured thousands of dollars in grant money to pay for impoverished students to visit places they normally would not see.

"They're fluent at a third-grade level, but their comprehension is maybe at a first-grade level because they don't have the cultural background," he said. "Things unique to America they just don't see. Something I've become a lot better with over the years is not to assume anything."

When tests reveal bad news

The Heartland Institute wonders why exit exams are so unpopular in some circles, when the test scores seem to be of direct use to students:

The advent of high-stakes testing is revealing more than just information on what American high school students know and are capable of doing; it is also revealing a significant shortfall between that assessment of actual skills and what schools have been telling students about their achievement and ability.

For some students, the failure to pass a high school exit exam is the first warning signal they may be sorely unprepared for the demands of college.

A group named the Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, along with the UMass Donahue Institute, completed a study last October entitled, "Seizing the Day." It's a longitudinal study of kids on the "front line" of education reform, and some of the study's conclusions are very interesting; namely, that the high-stakes exit exam (in this case, the MCAS) is what forced many students to work harder and improve their academic performance:

The researchers found most of the 32 percent of students in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester who failed the state’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam on their first try--in 10th grade--were more than a little surprised: Almost 90 percent of them had a C average or better at the time.

By their senior year, 94 percent of these students from the class of 2003--the first required to pass the MCAS to graduate--received a diploma. The study found 82 percent of students who need extra help are now taking steps to get it; juniors are committing earlier to passing MCAS; and at-risk students are putting more effort into their school work because of MCAS.

Sounds great. Who could oppose this?

But the increased effort and success may occur almost in spite of the students’ teachers, who, in addition to inflating grades, are sending mixed signals to the students about the test. Seventy-one percent of the students surveyed perceived negative attitudes towards the MCAS on the part of their teachers...

It makes sense that any teacher who inflates grades will mistrust the test, either because they genuinely believe every kid deserves an "A," or because they believe their classroom grades capture something ineffable that the basic-skills exam misses. Other teachers might oppose the tests because they were taught standardized tests were uniformly bad, or biased; some teachers may resent the time taken away from classwork for testing.

But when grades alone are used to determine which students are ready for college, the results are decidedly mixed:

For example, in Georgia, 40 percent of high school graduates who receive that state’s Hope Scholarship are losing it after about a year because they can’t keep up their good GPAs in college.