School officials to address racial achievement gap

Palm Coast Observer
News

In response to concerns raised during public comment of a Flagler County School Board meeting last week, district officials are looking for a solution to an achievement gap between white and minority students.

Just 40% of black students are reading at a satisfactory level, compared to 60% overall in the district. Some community members asked that schools address this during a March 12 meeting, just moments after the Flagler school district received glowing praises in its accreditation report from AdvancED.

This achievement gap has long been on the minds of local- and state-level officials, said Shawn Schmidli, assessment coordinator for the district, but last week’s comments catalyzed the efforts within Flagler’s schools.

Officials are meeting Wednesday to discuss an action plan for shrinking the gap.

The problem is not unique to Flagler County; it is a statewide issue. To help measure the extent of the achievement gap, last year Florida launched an annual report called Annual Measurable Objectives that shows test scores by racial subgroup.

That information, coupled with information supplied by College Board about students who take Advanced Placement courses, helps to define the problem, Schmidli says. But it doesn’t explain why the problem exists.

Linda Sharpe Haywood, the branch president of the Flagler County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she can’t explain where the achievement gap springs from either.

Often, lower scores stem from economic reasons, she said, especially if students who are economically disadvantaged do not have adequate access to transportation to take them to and from school programs.

“Socioeconomic status is a big driver for achievement,” Haywood said. “Kids who come to school hungry are not going to concentrate as well.”

Disadvantaged families are not all black, Haywood said, nor are all black children poor. However, the U.S. Labor Department reported last year that while unemployment was falling at similar rates for whites and Hispanics, it was increasing for blacks. Haywood said that could start to explain the problem, but not all of it.

“We have got to take note of the awesome responsibility of taking note of the African American students in the school district,” said John Winston during the School board meeting. “Right now, their accomplishments in reading and math are pretty deplorable. They’re not going up; they’re going down.”

Schmidli said the district has already launched efforts to close the gap. One of those is the African American Mentors program, which is led by Winston; another is an effort to encourage greater participation in Advanced Placement courses.

“College Board has supplied us with some pretty troubling data when it comes to equity,” Schmidli said. Of students who score high enough to be considered qualified for Advanced Placement courses, 3 of 10 black students enroll. For white students, the figure is only slightly higher, at 4 out of 10, but the white students also score higher.

With the new state report and the goals for individual Flagler schools, Schmidli said he is hopeful the district will make progress toward a more equitable school environment, especially with the district’s meeting on Wednesday to develop an action plan.

“I don’t think there’s any one answer,” Schmidli said. “I think this is an ‘all hands on deck’ kind of problem. We always say change starts with one person. If any one person or any administrator in our school district can do anything to help, that’s progress.”

The following is a comparison of test scores of white and black students in Flagler's schools, as reported in the 2012 AMO report provided by the Florida Department of Education:

School	Subgroup	Satisfactory scores: reading	Satisfactory scores: math
Bunnell Elementary	White	67%	66%
	Black	28	26
Rymfire Elementary	White	70	63
	Black	47	37
Wadsworth Elementary	White	65	59
	Black	55	46
Old Kings Elementary	White	73	66
	Black	49	49
Belle Terre Elementary	White	77	76
	Black	62	50
Buddy Taylor Middle	White	58	57
	Black	40	39
Indian Trails Middle	White	63	66
	Black	45	48
Matanzas High	White	60	77
	Black	36	55
Flagler Palm Coast High	White	56	62
	Black	24	43
Statewide	White	69	68
	Black	38	40