PENNSYLVANIA Officials warn of gap in test scores

Whites and Asians outperformed three other minority groups.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- As Pennsylvania schools work toward meeting federal mandates to boost math and reading test scores, they will need to closely examine the performance of certain pupil subgroups, such as minorities, special-education pupils, and pupils whose native language isn't English, state Education Secretary Vicki Phillips said.
Phillips presented statistics Wednesday to the state board of education showing that in racial breakdowns of the math and reading test results of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, white and Asian pupils outperform black, Hispanic and American Indian pupils.
For example, about 65 percent of whites and 63 percent of Asians achieved scores of "proficient" or better on the 11th-grade reading test; only 28 percent of blacks and Latinos and 52 percent of American Indians had similar scores.
Phillips also noted a similar gap among whites, blacks and Hispanics in the state's 2002 high school graduation rates. Ninety percent of white high school seniors graduated last year, compared with about 69 percent of blacks and 63 percent of Latinos.
And as the state begins to look at the four-year graduation rates for students who enter as freshmen, "I predict the numbers will become significantly lower," she said.
Proficiency emphasis
As the federal government places greater emphasis on making sure all pupils demonstrate proficiency in math and reading by 2014 under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools across the nation are being expected to hold pupils across all racial and socio-economic groups to the same standards.
"We know that averages can be terribly misleading," said Craig Jerald of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit group that advocates for urban and minority pupils.
The department was also scheduled Wednesday to release its first "state report card," which includes more detailed information on the achievement gap and on the percentage of highly qualified teachers in each of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts. But Phillips decided to delay releasing the report because more than 70 school districts said their teacher records were either incomplete or incorrect.
"We do not want to risk misrepresenting a district, a school or a teacher," she said.
Phillips' spokesman, Keith Pierce, did not know when the department would be able to release the report.
Sharing successes
Board Chairman Karl Girton said the board needed to take the lead in helping to share "success stories" of districts that have found ways to bridge the achievement gap so other districts can be motivated to follow suit.
"We do need to change [educational] cultures across this state," he said. "I think there is a pervasive attitude that this too will pass, but I think that is slowly going away."
Jerald told the board that although the achievement gap is a national problem, his organization has found that there is not always a direct correlation between a district's racial composition and affluence and its standardized test results.
"There's lots of variation. There are lots of schools that are performing well despite high levels of poverty, despite high levels of African-American and Latino students," he said.