Opinion: Passing the Blame For Low Test Scores

" What percentage of the 1% send their children to the Chicago Public Schools? I’m guessing it’s about…1%. David Vitale, the former Board of Trade president and current school board president, has a child in the public schools. That qualifies him to represent the 1%’s interest in school reform, which is mainly advocated by people who’ve chosen to educate their children privately -- people like Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Paul Ryan and Rupert Murdoch.

One of the two biggest issues in the Chicago Teachers Union strike is the use of test scores to evaluate student performance. According to teachers, that’s an unfair metric, because test scores are influenced by factors outside the classroom: poverty, homelessness, hunger, students’ inability to speak English, the stress of living in high crime neighborhoods. The public schools have to educate whoever walks through the door, which explains why some teachers produce great test scores one year, and lousy scores the next.

According to a study conducted by Washington State University

Poverty appears to play a major role in depressing ACT and SAT test scores. In a paper presented by Donald C. Orlich, professor emeritus at Washington State University, he and his collaborators found a correlation between students’ scores and parental income.“The .97 correlation is extremely high and illustrates that parental income can account for 80 percent of the variance in those college entry exams. As a child’s parental income goes up, so do the ACT and SAT scores, and vice-versa,” said Orlich. "

Click here to read the whole article