If Maryland education were a student bringing home a report card like the latest achievement test results, we the taxpayer parents would not write another tuition check. State educators can?t check the “shows marked improvement” box.
National tests results released Tuesday show Maryland students improving in both reading and math.
But the wealthiest state in the nation is squeezing $3.5 billion from taxpayers over six years upon a promise to not just raise average scores but to narrow the gap between low- and-high performing public school students.
That isn?t happening at a $3.5 billion pace. Maryland scores continue to rank in the middle among students across the nation. And the percent of Maryland students considered “proficient” on the national tests is 40 percent or lower in reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades. That compares to about 70 percent of students state tests label as “proficient.” Even those of us educated in public schools can calculate the 30-point discrepancy even if state officials can?t explain it.
They say we should not factor the extra dollars from the legislation, known as Thornton, into how Maryland students performed on National Assessments of Educational Progress because teachers do not prepare students for the tests. Huh?
Public schools must not teach logic, either. If the extra money is supposed to improve students? knowledge, it should affect their performance on all tests, right? If the money was only supposed to make students smart for state assessments, what?s the point? Deceiving taxpayers?
It certainly won?t deceive college professors and bosses who expect reality-based performance from these students no matter how they did on state tests.
Besides, scores show some of the students Thornton funding proponents exploited as alleged beneficiaries of the extra dollars ? minorities ? made little headway in closing the achievement gap. African American students taking the fourth grade math test last year scored an average 29 points lower than white students. That?s only five points better than in 1992, when math scores of black fourth graderswere an average 34 points lower than their white counterparts. In reading, black fourth graders have showed a one-point improvement against white scores in 15 years. And the gap between the performance of Hispanic students and white students in eighth-grade math worsened by 10 points over the last 17 years.
Students living in poverty, another group supposed to benefit most from extra taxpayer dollars, showed small gains against those students not in poverty over the past 10 years.
As we pointed out last week in our two-part series on how the Thornton funds affected student performance, the extra dollars haven?t translated to superior scores on either state or national tests ? especially for those supposed to benefit most our money.
Are we supposed to break out smiley face stickers for scores rising overall and the fact that now only 60 percent of students fail reading and math.
Put educators on probation until they prove spending more of our money actually had anything to do with it. Aggregate improvement is so slight as to call into question whether they could have achieved the same results with less than $3.5 billion.
And the primary intended beneficiaries haven?t gained enough to justify further taxpayer investment.
One thing absolutely clear is the $1.7 billion “structural” deficit looming for Maryland taxpayers ? and threats of higher taxes to pay it down ? demands state legislators explain precisely why schools should siphon more hard-earned dollars from residents for reforms that don?t work.
