Reading results from NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) have been released, and the news for Cleveland fourth and eighth graders isn't much better than when math results came back last December.
There are several ways to summarize the results, but unfortunately most are discouraging for Ohio's only TUDA-participating city.
- Cleveland vs. all large cities. Cleveland is among a few cities whose fourth and eighth graders scored lower than students in large US cities on the 2009 reading test.
- Cleveland vs. Cleveland. Among the 11 districts that have participated in TUDA since 2002, Cleveland is one of the few whose scores have not budged at all (in a statistically significant way) in either grade. These stagnant scores mirror what is happening statewide (according to Ohio's 2009 NAEP scores), but this is still bad news, especially considering that several TUDA-participating cities have experienced significant growth over the decade.
- Cleveland vs. TUDA cities. The average score for Cleveland fourth graders is second to lowest, next to Detroit. (This happened in math, too.) Cleveland eighth graders did slightly better, ranking above Detroit, DC, Fresno, and Milwaukee, but still fell into the bottom-most rung of those cities scoring below the large city average.
- Cleveland's minority students vs. other cities' minority kids. Again the results are bleak. Whereas Black fourth graders in Austin, Charlotte, and Boston outperform the national and large city average, Blacks in Cleveland perform lower than students nationally and in large cities. Among eighth graders in Cleveland, every racial group, as well as students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch, score lower than both averages.
A recent report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation reminds us that how well a child reads by the end of third grade predicts how well they will do later in life. This is terrible news for Cleveland, where 66 percent of Cleveland fourth graders fail to achieve?even a basic level of proficiency.
Cleveland realizes it has a problem. District CEO Eugene Sanders plans to implement a district transformation plan to dramatically improve student achievement, shutter or relocate low-performing schools, and raise graduation rates. But the city faces the incredible challenge of trying to pay for this plan (it has a price tag o$70 million over three years) while reducing a $53 million budget deficit and laying off 545 teachers.
But while lots of US cities are facing similar challenges, not all of their schools are languishing as badly. DC, for example, has experienced student growth in both reading and math over the last several years. Several others have achieved growth in fourth or eighth grades and in one or both subjects. This inspires hope that some strategies exist for improving student achievement in urban centers, but how to translate this impact to Cleveland still remains elusive.
As for Lebron, speculation about where he should go is best left to the sports commentators. As Ohioans who realize the revenue he brings to the city, we might be inclined to join in on this plea to keep him. ?But from an education perspective, we think LeBron ? who's got two kids ? should probably think about the Washington Wizards.
-Jamie Davies O'Leary
