Minnesota’s Educational Achievement Gap and the Engineering Workforce by Daniel J. Lattier On the heels of RTs announcement, the following may provide some enlightenment. Minnesota’s Educational Achievement Gap and the Engineering Workforce by Daniel J. Lattier If you follow news about the public schools in Minnesota’s local news outlets, you’ll inevitably come across two main narratives. The first is that the schools need more money… in this talk, we won’t deal with whether that is, in fact, the case or not. The second is that schools need to close what’s called “the achievement gap.” Steve Sviggum and Terry Swor have asked me to speak to you representatives of Minnesota’s engineering community this afternoon about the state’s achievement gap, because they believe that the engineering community is feeling its effects, and these effects will multiply in the future if the gap is not effectively addressed. In what follows, I will first give a synopsis of this “gap.” I will then offer some brief thoughts about how the gap is affecting, and will affect, the engineering community. Finally, I will discuss some of the causes and proposed solutions to the gap. When education people talk about the achievement gap, what they’re talking about is race, namely, the difference in academic performance between white students and non-white students. Interestingly enough, in a time when discussions of race are often touchy, the first narrative I mentioned – how the schools need more money – is usually much more controversial than the achievement gap. In general, in Minnesota, white students outperform black, Hispanic, and American Indian students on standardized tests by a large margin. (Nationally, Asian students tend to do as well, and in some cases better, than white students.) In fact – I’m not sure if most of you are aware of this – but Minnesota is notorious for having one of the worst achievement gaps in the country for K-12 students. The numbers for this designation are usually derived from a test called the “National Assessment of Education Progress,” a.k.a., “NAEP,” which is administered every 2 years. But the NAEP numbers are confusing, and don’t usually resonate unless you’re in education reform (and even then, they’re still confusing). And so, I’m going to describe what the gap looks like using the numbers from this year’s MCA (“Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments”) test. (Now, I’m going to throw some numbers at you without visuals, but you’re engineers, so I think you can handle it.) On the reading test, 65% of white students in the state received a score of “proficient,” while only 32% of black students, 34% of Hispanic students, and 34% of American Indian students received a similar score. On the math test, 68% of white students received a score of “proficient,” while only 33% of black students, 37% of Hispanic students, and 36% of American Indian students received a similar score. As you might guess, in the cities, where more of the non-white races are concentrated, the gap widens. In the Minneapolis Public Schools district, for instance, white students outperform these other races by over 50 percentage points in reading, and between 40-50 percentage points in math. The achievement gap is perpetuated in graduation numbers. In 2012 in the state of Minnesota, 84% of white students graduated on-time, whereas only 51% of black students, 53% of Hispanic students, and 45% of American Indian students accomplished the same feat. In Minneapolis, 70% of white students graduated on-time versus 37% of black students, 37% of Hispanic students, and 25% of American Indian students… and these numbers in Minneapolis represented an improvement from past years. When I first began working for Better Ed, I assumed that there are a lot of students who just need extra time, and that these graduation numbers would significantly improve as students took 5 or 6 years to graduate…. They don’t. In reality, just over one-half of non-white, non-Asian students who begin high school in Minnesota actually graduate. In Minneapolis, only one-half of ALL students eventually graduate, and less than one-half of black, Hispanic, and American Indian students graduate. The rest drop out. And, I repeat, these numbers I just gave you are an improvement upon past years. Consequences of the Achievement Gap The consequences of the achievement gap are not just limited to school performance. There are also economic and social consequences. The immediate focus of the Minnesota chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies is toward the economic consequences, but as you know, it is difficult to parse out the economic from the social, and so, I will integrate both in what follows. For better or for worse, the high school degree is considered a bare minimum for many jobs these days. It is not like the early 19th century that Alexis de Tocqueville chronicled in his 1835 classic, Democracy in America. Then, he wrote, “I do not think that there is a single country in the world where, in proportion to the population, there are so few ignorant and, at the same time, so few educated individuals as in America. Primary education is available to all; secondary is within reach of no one… America can devote to general learning only the early years of life. At fifteen, they begin a career; [and]their education ends most often when [Europeans’] begins.” Currently, about 90% of jobs in America require at least a high school diploma. But, as you know, college education has increasingly become the norm for employment [about 60% of jobs require some college education] – and the norm for a middle-class lifestyle – and this is a trend that is projected to continue. And, if you believe some of the projections, the demand for less skilled workers will continually decrease as we continue to automate a lot of the repetitive tasks of low-skill jobs. Thus, the less students that graduate, the less skilled workers a local economy has to draw from on the job market. This is bad news for a sector like engineering, which requires a highly skilled and highly educated workforce. This is also bad news for a Minnesota engineering company that must be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. You will have a smaller pool of qualified potential employees of color to draw from, and thus, may be forced to expend resources bringing new hires up to speed in the interests of meeting the affirmative action requirements. (Add this to the pressure you probably get related to the smaller percentage of women who tend to pursue careers in the engineering profession.) It is also bad news for a local economy that prides itself on having more Fortune 500 companies per capita than any other state. And, it is bad news for a state that ranks 2nd in the need for workers with education beyond high school, according to a recent report. As Senator Amy Klobuchar already bemoaned recently, “We’re turning away business at some of our businesses in Minnesota, because we don’t have people for the jobs…” The achievement gap creates a drain on the local economy in other ways, too, which in turn affects the success of the companies you own or work for. 10% of jobs in America are open to high school dropouts, but by no means are all dropouts working at them. The unemployment rate is higher for high school dropouts, leading to a drain of resources from the economy through unemployment checks, food stamps, and government-provided health care (the latter of which has taken on a new meaning in recent days). Also, in the U.S., 75% of all crimes are committed by high school dropouts. (Think about that when you hear of Minneapolis’ atrocious graduation rate.) 80% of America’s prison inmates do not have a high school diploma – a fact that is the source of the term “public school-to-prison pipeline.” And of the women who drop out of high school, two-thirds give birth out of wedlock, which makes it highly likely that they either are, or will be, below the poverty line. Moreover, all of this has a snowball effect on those communities – namely, the minority communities – where a large percentage of students fail to complete high school. The level of a parent’s education tends to be a determiner of the academic achievement of a child. The children are negatively influenced by living in a culture marked by crime and numerous individuals who do not value education. At school, they are also surrounded by fellow students who do not value education. And, the fact is that the populations of the communities with these negative influences are set to increase much faster than the white communities in the coming years. Therefore, a continuing or growing achievement gap does not bode well for the future of Minnesota’s economy, or your engineering companies. But, the fact is that race is not the only “achievement gap” that the U.S. and Minnesota are facing. There is also an “international” achievement gap. U.S. students have slipped in international ratings, and rank behind 16 other countries in reading, 31 other countries in math, and 22 other countries in science. There is also a “high school-to-college” achievement gap. Around 50% of students who enter a MN public college need to take at least one remedial course – most in math. Even 40% of those who graduate from Southwest High School in Minneapolis – w ich US News and World Report named the top public high school in Minnesota – end up taking a remedial course in college. These remedial courses – which cover material the students should have learned in high school – are a huge drain of the students’ time, money, academic progress, and ability to prepare for their careers. One begins to wonder if the prophecy of the American social critic Christopher Lasch was right, namely, that in the name of equality, American schools would progressively lower the quality of education for all, “bringing about a reign of universal ignorance.” The Causes Before we discuss potential solutions to the problem of the achievement gap, we should discuss the causes behind it. That seems in line with the methodology followed by engineers… and common sense. Strangely, though, a thorough examination of why Minnesota, in particular, has such a large achievement gap is often lacking in higher level discussions about the gap. Oftentimes solutions are proposed without really understanding the problem. From Minnesota’s education leaders, I usually hear 2 causes attributed to the achievement gap between races: poverty and racism. When the cause of “poverty” is proposed, I’ve unfortunately found it to be the case that a nuanced discussion of exactly what we mean by the term “poverty” does not often follow. One ends up getting the impression that simply being below a certain income level dooms one to academic failure. If, by “poverty,” someone means that there are a number of cultural factors that we need to take into account when it comes to those demographics who are not performing well in school – such as family and neighborhood environment, values, aspirations, religious affiliation – then I would tend to agree that poverty plays a large role in the achievement gap. If, as is unfortunately more often the case, by “poverty” someone means that the solution to achievement gap is merely giving more money to the school districts, then I disagree. Minneapolis Public Schools’ spending has continually gone up over the past decade, and now stands at $23,000 per student per year. As even the Superintendent of MPS admitted this past year, “We have made incredible investments with little return.” You’ll also hear that “racism” is at the heart of the achievement gap in Minnesota. Convinced of this, both the Minneapolis and St. Paul public school districts have instituted an “Equity and Diversity” policy “committed to identifying and correcting practices and policies that perpetuate the achievement gap and institutional racism in all forms.” Related to this charge of “institutional racism,” some say that the lack of teachers of color is a cause of the achievement gap. In Minnesota, only 4% of teachers are non-white. As Tracine Asberry, a Minneapolis Public Schools board member has said, “For some students of color, she says, the key might be as simple as making sure the person leading the classroom looks like them.” I don’t wish to deny the existence of racism in the education system, or that it can be a factor in perpetuating the achievement gap. But the tricky thing with the “institutional racism” claim is that it is often hypothesized merely based on the fact that minority persons are not performing as well within a system as white persons, or that more minority students are suspended than white students, or that there are not that enough “teachers of color.” It is difficult (I might say impossible) to measure if these are directly attributable to racism and causes of the achievement gap. What tends to be measured are the proposed solutions to the racism whose pervasive existence has largely been accepted on faith. Schools have a responsibility to not unjustly discriminate against certain classes of people – this should be communicated to students and teachers. But at the same time, schools should not let diligence about this responsibility distract them from the other basic responsibilities they have to educate children. Again… In the future, a more thorough addressing of the achievement gap will have to involve a more thorough examination of the Minnesota-specific factors behind it. Solutions Interestingly, a few local charter schools may have identified some other potential causes of the achievement gap in the solutions that they are successfully accomplishing. Almost 100% of students at Minneapolis charter schools like Harvest Prep, BEST Academy, and Hiawatha Leadership Academy are of those demographics that are at the bottom of the achievement gap. Yet, these schools outperform the combined student #s of the Minneapolis Public Schools, and similar demographic categories across the state. As the motto of Harvest Prep goes, “No gaps here!” How do they do it? For one, they provide a rigorous academic curriculum to students that are usually thought to be incapable of handling it, and the teachers are committed to not letting any students slip through the cracks. They work with students during longer school days and longer school years. In addition, these schools typically place a greater emphasis on character education than in the typical public school, which at least outwardly professes to be value-neutral. But in the history of Western tradition, the education of one’s character went hand-in-hand with the education of one’s mind. Not so very long ago, Martin Luther King said, “Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of a true education.” It is also worth noting that these schools are probably able to more easily pursue these strategies because they are free from the more centralized district structure that has come to dominate the education system today. What these schools show is that the solution to the achievement gaps – racial and otherwise – might not so much involve trying to “close gaps” as calling ALL to excellence. Perhaps Edmund Burke was right when he wrote that “those who attempt to level never equalize.” It tends to be more of a conservative political mantra these days – and so I don’t usually quote it (Better Ed tries to stay non-partisan) – but it seems appropriate here: In order to close the achievement gap, maybe we should seek more to establish “equality of opportunity” rather than “equality of outcomes.” Maybe we should seek to provide all children – no matter what district or neighborhood they’re in – with a rigorous education. The alternative strategy – that we should merely attempt to raise underperforming minority children up to a higher level of academic mediocrity, assuming that’s all they’re capable of – has been perhaps accurately called a form of “soft bigotry.” Raising the rigor of the curriculum involves focusing more on the content of education. Educators and education reformers talk so much about the form of education – how it’s structured, how it’s delivered - that they often fail to talk about the content of education. They deal too much with the how of education and not enough with the what. They need to devote more attention to making the content of education more challenging, and more consonant with the requirements of college, the job market, and life. Conclusion In recent months, the schools have increasingly complained about the unfunded mandates surrounding special education. The federal government requires the state to educate all students, no matter what disabilities they have or obstacles they face. Yet, at the same time, schools say that the government has not provided an adequate funding mechanism for dealing with special education students – and some of them cost a lot… upwards of $70,000 per year. You, the Minnesota Chapter of American Council of Engineering Companies, should make a similar complaint. Except your complaint should be directed at the education system. The fact is that this system is not adequately “funding” you with the human resources necessary to help Minnesota’s engineering sector thrive. In order to compete, and innovate, on the local, federal, and international levels, students of all races and genders need to be better prepared for the engineering jobs of today and tomorrow. But, as the saying goes, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” Schools need help, and the engineering community should find ways to help them… and unfortunately, in many cases, convince the schools that they need help. There is simply too great a divide these days between the business community and the K-12 school system, even though the latter exists in part to provide workers for the former. What can you do? Perhaps you can attempt to partner with schools, districts, or the state, to better, and more visibly, include engineering in the K-12 curriculum. There’s a lot of talk about “STEM” education these days, which, of course, stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.” The idea behind the push for STEM education is that the future job market requires students who are proficient in these areas. But, as one engineer truly remarked, the “E” in STEM education tends to be silent, since it is rarely integrated into the K-12 curriculum in a meaningful way. Perhaps you can throw also your support behind legislation that moves us toward an educational model that effectively prepares a greater and more diverse number of students for engineering jobs… Engineers are known for their creativity… I encourage you to devote some time and resources to examining the state of education today and come up with some creative solutions to the problems currently afflicting Minnesota’s schools – one of which is the achievement gap. We have a systemic problem in education, and we need systemic solutions. Aristotle wrote that “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” What will you, then, the engineering community, do to help the fate of Minnesota?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:18:26 +0000
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