Leaving Children Behind

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Description

The federal government has based much of its education policies on those adopted in Texas. This book examines how "Texas-style" accountability—the notion that decisions governing retention, promotion, and graduation should be based on a single test score—fails Latina/o youth and their communities. The contributors, many of them from Texas, scrutinize state policies concerning high-stakes testing and provide new data that demonstrate how Texas' current system of testing results in a plethora of new inequalities. They argue that Texas policies exacerbate historic inequities, fail to accommodate the needs and abilities of English language learners, and that the dramatic educational improvement attributed to Texas' system of accountability is itself questionable. The book proposes a more valid and democratic approach to assessment and accountability that would combine standardized examinations with multiple sources of information about a student's academic performance.

1. Introduction: The Accountability Debate in Texas: Continuing the Conversation
Angela Valenzuela

2. Performance-Based School Reforms and the Federal Role in Helping Schools That Serve Language-Minority Students
Jorge Ruiz de Velasco

3. Faking Equity: High-Stakes Testing and the Education of Latino Youth
Linda McSpadden McNeil

4. Texas' Second Wave of High-Stakes Testing: Anti-Social Promotion Legislation, Grade Retention, and Adverse Impact on Minorities
Richard R. Valencia and Bruno J. Villarreal

5. Playing to the Logic of the Texas Accountability System: How Focusing on "Ratings"—Not Children—Undermines Quality and Equity
Kris Sloan

6. Standardized or Sterilized? Differing Perspectives on the Effects of High-Stakes Testing in West Texas
Elaine Hampton

7. California's English-Only Policies: An Analysis of Initial Effects
Laura Alamillo, Deborah Palmer, Celia Viramontes, and Eugene E. García

8. The Centurion: Standards and High-Stakes Testing as Gatekeepers for Bilingual Teacher Candidates in the New Century
Belinda Bustos Flores and Ellen Riojas Clark

9. High-Stakes Testing and Educational Accountability as Social Constructions Across Cultures
Raymond V. Padilla

10. Accountability and the Privatization Agenda
Angela Valenzuela

About the Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 24 novembre 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791484364
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

How “Texasstyle” Accountability Fails Latino Youth

Angela Valenzuela, editor

Leaving Children Behind

Leaving Children Behind: How “Texas-style” Accountability Fails Latino Youth

Edited by Angela Valenzuela

State University of New York Press

Cover Photograph: Getty Images Catalog number

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

N o part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. N o part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 9 0 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Michael Haggett Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

LibraryofCongress Cataloging  in  Publication Data

Leaving children behind : why Texas  Angelastyle accountability fails Latino youth Valenzuela, editor. Includes bibl  iographical references and index. cm. (SUNY series, the social context of education) 1. Education Texas. 2Hispanic Americans  bility Texas.. Educational ISBN 0  7914  6239  0 (hardcover : ISBN0alk. paper)  7914  6240  4 (pbk. : alk. paper)    series, social context of education.  3. Educational tests and measurements Valenzuela, Angela. Texas. I. SUNY 2004

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Contents

Introduction: The Accountability Debate in Texas: Continuing the Conversation Angela Valenzuela

Performance-Based School Reforms and the Federal Role in Helping Schools That Serve Language-Minority Students Jorge Ruiz de Velasco

Faking Equity: High-Stakes Testing and the Education of Latino Youth Linda McSpadden McNeil

Texas’ Second Wave of High-Stakes Testing: Anti-Social Promotion Legislation, Grade Retention, and Adverse Impact on Minorities Richard R. Valencia and Bruno J. Villarreal

Playing to the Logic of the Texas Accountability System: How Focusing on “Ratings”—Not Children—Undermines Quality and Equity Kris Sloan

Standardized or Sterilized? Differing Perspectives on the Effects of High-Stakes Testing in West Texas Elaine Hampton

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Contents

California’s English-Only Policies: An Analysis of Initial Effects Laura Alamillo, Deborah Palmer, Celia Viramontes, and Eugene E. García

The Centurion: Standards and High-Stakes Testing as Gatekeepers for Bilingual Teacher Candidates in the New Century Belinda Bustos Flores and Ellen Riojas Clark

High-Stakes Testing and Educational Accountability as Social Constructions Across Cultures Raymond V. Padilla

Accountability and the Privatization Agenda Angela Valenzuela

About the Contributors

Index

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank all the volume contributors for their contribution to this book and for their support and friendship in our legislative journey in Texas. Special thanks go to Laurie Hammons, Linda McNeil, and Doug Foley for providing me with consistent support and feedback to my own writing and thinking on the Texas case. I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Bill Black, who helped me with the volume throughout its various stages and also for providing helpful, critical suggestions. I also appreciate our editor, Kathy Mooney, who helped us all along with her organizational and substantive suggestions on how to improve the various pieces. Although too many to name, I also wish to acknowledge other friends and colleagues who have lobbied courageously for the children in our state: Enrique Alemán, Mary Armesto, Sylvia Bruni, Senator Gon- zalo Barrientos, State Board of Education member Mary Helen Berlanga, Ernesto Bernal, State Board of Education member Joe Bernal, Oscar Cardenas, David Carrejo, Jere Confrey, Ana Yañez Correa, Albert Cortez, Angelica Cruz, Ray de los Santos, Zoraima Diaz, Deborah Diffily, Jean Ehnebuske, Lewis Ford, Carl Glickman, Michael Guerrero, Rita Haecker, Walt Haney, Will Harrell, Andrea Hinckson, State Repre- sentative Scott Hochberg, Carol Holst, Dottie Hooker, Al Kauffman, Deborah Kelt, Leila Levinson, Vincent Lozano, Johnny Mata, Brendan Maxcy, Betty McAdoo, María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, Monty Neill, State Representative Rick Noriega, State Representative René Oliveira, State Representative Dora Olivo, Gary Orfield, Alba Ortiz, Nina Perales, Alma Perez, Becky Pursley, the late State Representative Irma Rangel, Alejandra Rincon, Ed Rincon, Anna Alicia Romero, Cesar Rossatto, Samantha Smoot, Joe Sanchez, Leticia Saucedo, Becky Stitch, Maricela Urrutia, Senator Leticia Van de Putte, Amanda Walker, Eileen Weinstein, KayDonna Wolfcale, and Senator Judith Zaffarini.

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Acknowledgments

I am blessed to have my mother and father, Helen and Carlos Valenzuela, both of whom remain a constant source of encouragement and inspiration to me. Finally, thanks go to my husband, Emilio Zamora, and two daughters, Clara and Luz, who continue to put up with me and all my projects with such generosity of spirit and grace.

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Introduction The Accountability Debate in Texas: Continuing the Conversation

ANGELA VALENZUELA

The alleged “Texas Miracle” in education (Haney, 2000, 2001), com- bined with the 2002 reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Sec- ondary Education Act (popularly known as the “No Child Left Behind Act” [NCLB]), has shifted what was once an intrastate debate over ed- ucational accountability to a national-level issue. Supporters of ac- countability claim that it promotes equity by making schools teach poor and minority children who have been historically neglected by our pub- lic school system (see Scheurich & Skrla, 2001; Scheurich, Skrla, & Johnson, 2000; Skrla, Scheurich, & Johnson, 2000a, 2000b). Oppo- nents, including the contributors to this volume, argue that the Texas system of educational accountability has failed—and will continue to 1 fail—Latina/o and other minority youth and their communities. We in- terpret Texas-style accountability as exacerbating historic inequities, mainly through the collateral effects of state policy, but also through a systemwide failure to accommodate the needs and abilities of English- language learners (see the chapters by Alamillo, Palmer, Viramontes, & García; and by Ruiz de Velasco). Moreover, as McNeil points out (see chapter 3), the dramatic educational improvement attributed to Texas’ system of accountability is itself questionable. The state’s methods of collecting and reporting educational data, including the critically im- portant high-stakes test scores, hide as much as they reveal. When the focus is shifted to Texas’ students’ performance on nationwide tests such as the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) 1, or when skyrocketing dropout and projected retention rates are factored in (see McNeil and Valencia & Villarreal), the state’s “miracle” looks more like a mirage.

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