Ramona Edelin: Invest in our most vulnerable students
Here in the District of Columbia and across the nation, we have upended normal life to combat the coronavirus — insisting on social distancing, for instance, and transferring learning from school to home, much of it online. This should not lead us, however, to give any less thought to the plight of at-risk students in our city, which is still sharply divided by race and class.
In a dated definition that takes account of students’ material circumstances but not socio-emotional challenges, the District government defines “at-risk” as applying to those who are homeless, are in foster care, qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or — in the case of high school students — are over-aged and under-credited students. Despite the limitations of this definition, it may surprise some DC residents to learn that nearly half of the District’s public school students meet these criteria for vulnerability.
At-large DC Council member David Catania first proposed legislation in 2013 that ultimately led to the definition being written into DC law; by passing the bill, the council also directed higher per-student city funding to schools based on their share of such students. While this legislation was intended to address the District’s huge achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers, this gulf — the largest in the nation — stubbornly remains, preventing students who are at risk of academic failure from realizing their potential.
DC’s student-achievement gap is heartbreaking. In English language arts, some 28% of African American students meet or exceed statewide benchmarks for college and career-readiness, compared to 85% of their white peers; the comparable numbers for math are 21% and 79%, respectively. These gaps of 57% and 58% aren’t much different than they were five years ago, when they were 62% and 53%, respectively, according to Office of the State Superintendent of Education data. But even with incremental improvements, it would take decades to close the achievement gap.
Potential scores on the test known as “the Nation’s Report Card” — the National Assessment of Educational Progress — range from zero to 500, and DC’s gap between black and white students stands at 51 points among fourth-graders in math. This is substantially higher than the 31-point gap in nearby Baltimore and those in similarly urban jurisdictions such as Los Angeles (36), Chicago (36), Boston (35) and New York City (33). The same pattern holds for fourth-grade reading scores and eighth-grade math and reading scores, the other grades and subjects tested.
These metropolitan areas wrestle with issues and entrenched obstacles similar to those the District faces, but each is closer to reaching the goal of eliminating the student achievement gap than we are in the nation’s capital.
Public charter schools, which educate almost half of all of the District’s public school students — a higher share than those other urban districts — have done much to help close the gap. In DC’s most underserved areas — wards 7 and 8 — African American charter students are nearly twice as likely to meet statewide college and career-readiness benchmarks as African American students enrolled in the city-run school system.
Despite such progress, however, the current “at-risk” definition used in allocating additional resources fails to help sufficient numbers of students during their formal pre-K-to-12th-grade education. As a result, we live in a city where black students are further behind whites than in any other in the nation. This gap, if unaddressed, follows students into adulthood, wasting lives and potential as well as limiting individuals’ self-development and their potential to contribute to the city and its communities.
Traditional measures of deprivation highlight the socio-economic problems that contribute to the District’s worst-in-the-nation achievement gap: 1 in 6 DC residents lives in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; meanwhile, the proportion of children who live below the poverty level is 1 in 4, according to DC Health Matters data. And DC has the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has found.
The District ought to develop a more holistic definition of which students are “at risk” of academic underachievement, thereby moving beyond just measuring material means — SNAP and TANF, which replaced food stamps and welfare, respectively — as well as homelessness. It should instead take into account less-quantifiable but still-important distinctions.
What aspects ought to be considered in a new definition? In addition to enduring poverty, food insecurity, parental neglect and homelessness, a substantial portion of District students are exposed to trauma at home and in their communities; many also experience poor diet and inadequate access to quality health care.
Students may also require special, differentiated instruction and tutoring. They may miss out on the kinds of enrichment and experiential programs, problem-solving experiences and other learning opportunities enjoyed by their more affluent classmates. Such barriers to educational achievement are every bit as real and corrosive as those metrics currently recognized as at-risk factors by the District government.
Focusing on students’ physical and mental health as well as family income, food security and housing — and ensuring access to opportunities that have long been denied — would enable the District to reach students currently held back by the District’s stubbornly high achievement gap. In conjunction with these steps, DC leaders ought to recognize the role of charters in helping close the gap by allowing them to provide an admissions preference to such students, enabling more to benefit from high-quality charter programs.
Combined with an increase in per-student city funding attached to such students, adopting a modernized, comprehensive definition of at-risk students could be a game-changer as we work to eliminate the achievement gap. As Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office finalizes her upcoming budget proposal, this is an opportune time to focus not only on boosting education funding but also rethinking our definition of at-risk students.
Ramona Edelin is executive director of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools.
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