U.S. students need more exposure to arts and music, test shows
When it comes to music and visual arts, American teenagers could use some help. The National Center for Education Statistics reported Tuesday that in 2016, American eighth graders scored an average 147 in music and 149 in visual arts on a scale of 300. Some 8,800 eighth graders from public and private schools across the country took part in the test, which was part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card. Acting Commissioner Peggy Carr said the test shows students have a lot to learn in art and music and that no progress has been made since the same test was administered in 2008. “When I saw the results, clearly there is room for improvement, because clearly there is a lot of content that students weren’t able to interact with correctly,” Carr told The Associated Press. When asked to listen to George Gershwin‘s “Rhapsody in Blue,” only about half of the students were able to identify that the opening solo is played on a clarinet. Students who scored 182 were able to label all the eight notes in C major, students who got 150 were able to label one note. While most students could point to one or two structural differences between two mother-and-child portraits, they usually struggled to explain the technical approach and meaning in an artist’s self-portrait. “The average student does not know a lot of the content that was asked of them on this assessment,” said Carr. “It was a difficult assessment, a challenging assessment.” On the bright side, the achievement gap has narrowed between white and Hispanic students from a difference of 32 to 23 points in an average score in music and from 26 to 19 points in arts since the previous test. Girls continued to outperform boys. The black-white achievement gap, however, remained unchanged. While white students scored an average of 158, black students got 129 on the music test and the margin of difference was similar on the arts portion of the exam — 158 for white students and 128 for black students, “Every student should have access to arts education to develop the creativity and problem-solving skills that lead to higher success both in and out of school,” said Ayanna Hudson, director of arts education at the National Endowment for the Arts. “Arts education can be especially valuable for our nations’ underserved students, leading to better grades, higher graduation rates and increased college enrollment.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said visual arts help develop a child’s creative and critical thinking, and exposure to music can boost students’ graduation rates or academic results. She criticized the Trump administration’s plan to cut funding for after-school and summer programs aimed mostly at low-income families, as well a proposal to eliminate the NEA. “Marginalizing the arts is wrong and will prevent our children from growing up as well-educated, well-rounded citizens,” Weingarten said in a statement. The Education Department did not have an immediate comment on the test. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
National high school graduation rate reaches new high
High school graduation rates have reached a record high of 83.2 percent, continuing a steady increase that shows improvement across all ethnic groups, according to federal data released Monday. The Obama administration said the news was encouraging, and President Barack Obama planned to talk about the gains during a visit to a Washington, D.C., high school on Monday. Increases in the graduation rate for the 2014-2015 school year were seen for all ethnic groups, as well as for disabled students and students from low-income families. The increasing graduation rates, however, come against a backdrop of decreasing test scores. Last year, math scores for fourth and eighth graders declined for the first time in 25 years on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress – also known as the Nation’s Report Card. Reading scores were not much better: flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders compared to 2013. Average scores on SAT and ACT college entrance exams have also shown declines. Secretary of Education John B. King acknowledged worries about sagging achievement. “A higher graduation rate is meaningful progress, but certainly we share the concern that we have more work to do to make sure every student graduates ready for what’s next,” he said in a call with reporters. But the graduation rate “isn’t simply a number,” King said, saying “it represents real students in real cities, towns and rural communities who are better prepared for success in college and careers.” Obama frequently cites the increase when he talks about progress made during his presidency. The administration said the graduation rate has increased by about 4 percentage points since the 2010-2011 school year. There were significant differences among groups. Asian Americans had a 90.2 percent graduation rate, while whites were at 87.6 percent, followed by Hispanics at 77.8 percent, African-Americans at 74.6 percent and Native Americans at 71.6 percent. The growth in graduation rates has been steady since states adopted a uniform way of tracking students. In 2008, the Bush administration ordered states to begin using a formula that is considered a more accurate count of how many actually finish school. The White House said that money invested through a grant program called Race to the Top has helped improve some of the nation’s lowest-performing schools. The administration also said millions of students have gained access to high-speed broadband in their classrooms and that the states and federal government have helped hundreds of thousands more children gain access to preschool education programs. According to the federal data, the District of Columbia made the most progress in 2014-2015 compared to the previous year. The District improved its graduation rate by 7 percentage points. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Joe Morton: Attracting and retaining the “best and brightest” teachers is key
Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, a conservative or a liberal, all of us want to see improved student achievement year after year after year across all grades and in all schools in Alabama. Attracting and retaining talented educators is a key to achieving that goal, so, in 2015, the Business Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA) commissioned a research report titled “Teachers Matter: Rethinking How Public Education Recruits, Rewards and Retains Great Educators.” A key section of our report concentrated upon teacher evaluations and compared Alabama’s methodology to those of other states across the nation. We discovered that virtually every state, including ours, uses student improvement in academic achievement as a portion of their teacher evaluations. In some states, student achievement counts for as much as half of a teacher’s evaluation, while in Alabama the pilot program that has not been fully developed comprises just 25 percent, but our study revealed that all states feel it is integral to the overall score. Any state utilizing student academic growth for teacher evaluations must have quality assessments that are fair, relevant and remove any hints of bias. Alabama currently utilizes three such assessments – the ACT exam given to all high school students; the ACT Aspire given to all students in grades 3-8; and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) funded by Congress and given to a fair sampling of students in grades 4 and 8 in all 50 states. The NAEP is called the “Nation’s Report Card,” and it is the only assessment that measures student progress in every state against a true national norm, but it cannot be used for teacher evaluation purposes since it is a “sampling” assessment. The high school ACT and the ACT Aspire can be used for the student academic growth portion of teacher evaluations, and both are already adopted by the State Board of Education. Alabama has a good student assessment program that provides excellent insight into our areas of strength and areas needing improvement. The latest ACT results from Alabama high schools show that roughly 16 percent of our students were ready for college-level coursework by scoring at benchmark levels in English, Mathematics, Reading and Science. The national average of students making benchmark scores on the ACT is 28 percent. The RAISE Act, which stands for “Rewarding Advancement in Instruction and Student Excellence,” is being sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R – Anniston) and calls for several “firsts” in Alabama while also supporting actions already taken by the State Board of Education. If enacted into law, the RAISE Act will make first year teachers the highest paid in the Southeast and attract more young people to the profession of teaching, provide funding to a first year mentoring program to ensure our new teachers are supported by a veteran teacher, create a rewards program for entire school faculties which gives incentives for either maintaining or improving already high quality results or for schools that show notable improvements in student achievement gains and provide bonuses to teachers who work in hard to staff positions in low performing schools, rural schools or both. It also changes the length of time provided for new teachers to attain tenure from the current three years to five. By combining quality teacher evaluations, a recruitment plan for hard to staff teaching jobs, a program for enhancing first year teacher success with a mentoring program, and a school-based rewards program based upon results, the RAISE Act can build a solid pathway to improved student achievement. If we continue to implement needed education reforms and innovations like the RAISE Act in Alabama’s public schools, every student can one day become career and college ready, and the better prepared workforce that results will allow our state’s economy to continue to grow. Teachers Matter! —- Dr. Joe Morton is a former state superintendent of education and currently serves as chairman and president of the Business Education Alliance of Alabama. He may be reached at jmorton@beaalabama.com.
