Schools may be testing poverty as much as learning

"It will take a village to reform schools."

- Lorie Smith Schaefer

"Thousands of studies have linked poverty to academic achievement. The relationship is every bit as strong as the connection between cigarettes and cancer."

- David Berliner, Arizona State University

Our American egos like to think we are always number one. We think we should be the strongest, richest, the best at everything. Unfortunately, being first when it comes to the percentage of children living in poverty isn't anything to be proud of.

According to UNICEF (2005), these are the childhood poverty rates in a few of the world's wealthiest countries.

Denmark 2.4%

France 7.5%

Germany 10.2%

Japan 14.3%

United Kingdom 15.4%

USA 21.9%

Mexico 27.7%

Only Mexico had a higher percentage of poor children that we did. Shame on us.

David Berliner, professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, writes that if our poor "were set off in their own country, it would be largely a black and Latino nation." They would score near the bottom of any international academic ranking, just above Mexico. On the other hand, "White and wealthier students ... would score up at the top end with the likes of Japan and Sweden."

It should come as no surprise that poor children do worse in school than middle class children. Nevertheless, policy makers continue to focus all of their attention and energy on schools. Think about a year in the life of a school-age child. In one year, he may spend 1,000 hours in school while spending 5,000 hours in the neighborhood. All the efforts of No Child Left Behind or any other school-focused reform can be subverted and negated by what happens to children outside of school.

Berliner, in his report "The Impoverished View of Educational Reform" (Teachers College Record, Aug. 2, 2005, www.tcrecord.org), makes these key points:

• Compared with middle-class children, medical problems more severely affect impoverished youth, limiting school performance and life chances. Poor medical care results in more frequent and longer school absences due to chronic ear infections and asthma. Often vision and hearing problems go untreated.

• Small reductions in family poverty lead to increases in positive school behavior and better academic performance.

"A 'good' zip code can make a bigger difference than good parenting ... The difference can be as much as the gap between the 10th and 90th percentile!"

- David Berliner.

We did not need NCLB to tell us where the failing schools were. We've known that for decades. Our neighborhoods are highly segregated by social class, race and ethnicity. William J. Mathis, superintendent of schools in Rutland, Vt., questions the validity of NCLB's tests.

"Perhaps our state tests measure poverty rather than the quality of our schools .... The accountability system doesn't measure whether schools are efficient, have high-quality teaching, are pleasant places to be or whether the teachers care about children." The tests merely show us which schools have the poorest children.

There is research to support the idea that schools in poor neighborhoods are actually doing a better job, bringing children farther along than their middle class counterparts. Nevertheless, poor children start further back. Even when teachers and schools are exceptionally good, they are still labeled as failing because the students don't meet the arbitrary standard set by Washington, D.C.

"Attempting to fix ... schools without fixing the city ... is like trying to clean the air on one side of a screen door."

- Jean Anyon, political economist

The achievement gap will never be closed by reforming schools alone. We must look outside the walls of the school. What can communities - city officials, chambers of commerce, business owners, everyone - do to raise America's children and improve education?

• Weave low-income housing into neighborhoods that are more middle class. Poor children who attend middle-class schools and live in middle-class neighborhoods test and behave more like middle-class children.

• Ensure that poor parents have access to better paying jobs. Insist that employers offer a living wage, not just the minimum wage. Simply put, when income goes up, scores go up.

• Demand higher qualifications for teachers of the poor. Put the best teachers with the children who need them most. Provide incentives to attract and keep good teachers instead of the guilt, shame and public humiliation currently offered.

• Whenever possible, stop supporting companies that refuse to provide adequate pay and medical coverage for their employees.

• Demand that school quality be judged by more than just test scores. Any accountability system should be consistent with our cultural values---democracy, equality, opportunity, fairness and justice.

In conclusion, we must remember the old adage, "It takes a village to raise a child." Whether we have children in school or not, we all must accept responsibility for improving children's lives and their education. All of us. We are the village.

n Lorie Schaefer teaches kindergarten at Seeliger School.