Who Are Our Third Graders Who Are Being Held Back?
Who are the nearly 8000 Oklahoma 3th graders who failed Oklahoma's high-stakes reading test? Democratic House Minority Leader Scott Inman notes that 16% of the state's elementary students failed the test required for promotion to the 4th grade. In the high-dollar Oklahoma City suburbs, where students go home to $500,000 houses, all but 5% may have passed. In his district and in Oklahoma City, where children go home to units where the rent is $500, the failure rate was nearly 30%.
Nearly 33% of Tulsa students failed the test. In suburban Jenks, less than 9% failed.
I mention Jenks because it has excellent schools and it is one of the birthplaces of Oklahoma's Opt Out movement. Jenks Middle School principal, Rob Miller, has been one of the bravest and wisest of educators who has supported parents and introduced policy-makers to the realities faced by so many children.
Having established his integrity, Miller was provided a detailed description of results in the Crutcho School System in Oklahoma County. It had the state's highest failure rate, almost 58%. Miller relayed that information in his blog, A View From the Edge.
Crutcho is 100% low-income, with more than 1/5th of its tested students being on special education IEPs. Just over 1/3rd live with two parents. Transience is so high that almost half of the students were new to the district this year, and some have already transferred out in the few weeks since the test was taken.
Almost 1/6th of the 3rd grade class were homeless. Almost 5% were in court-ordered housing. Almost 5% have recently buried their mothers. During the "testing window," one 3rd grader had to be shielded by his brother's body during a "drive-by shooting." Around that time, a Molotov Cocktail was thrown at his house.
The already huge gap between the affluent and the poor in Oklahoma is one of the Who Are Our Third Graders Who Are Being Held Back? | John Thompson: