Every Child Counts:
Citizens Tackle the Achievement Gap in Louisville, KY

A Forum — November 2, 2001

This forum, co-sponsored with the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE), was the third in the AYPF/NCPIE Urgent Message series, highlighting the importance of parent and community engagement in education reform and renewal.  Forum participants heard from leaders from the Community Accountability Team (CAT), and the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership (CIPL), a program of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, an independent citizen group that promotes improved education across Kentucky.

The Prichard Committee represents citizens with a stake in the Jefferson County public schools and focuses on the improvement of local public schools with the goal of increasing student achievement and reducing the achievement gap, especially for children of color.  The Prichard Committee advocates for excellence in education reform for all students.  It organizes town forums and seminars to help parents understand what their children are expected to learn, discuss the social conditions of education, and encourage the local media to present the true condition of education in Kentucky.  CIPL helps parents and community members look critically at the progress of reforming the Kentucky education system by disaggregating data on student achievement and addressing the root of the continuing achievement gap between white and African American students.  Many CAT members are CIPL graduates.

Anne Henderson, co-author of Urgent Message: Families Crucial to School Reform, provided background on the Jefferson County schools.  Thirty years ago, the dual systems of Louisville City and Jefferson County merged under court order for the purpose of racial integration.  Now, the Jefferson County public schools (JCPS) command a national reputation as an integrated urban school system that works.  “But works for whom?” asked Henderson.  Currently the school system is about one-third African American, a percentage that according to Henderson, appears to be the tipping point beyond which whites will elect out of a public system.   Despite efforts to improve opportunities for minorities through desegregation, Henderson stressed that the achievement levels for African Americans have not changed.  Many parents and citizens complain that the schools are failing to provide a quality education to all students, and that efforts to satisfy integration guidelines, such as the creation of magnet and gifted and talent programs, focus more on retaining white students in the system than improving the achievement of minority students.  White students predominate in honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses while lower level or remediation classes are populated primarily by low-income and students of color.

Louisville parent and citizen activists, supported by the Prichard Committee, have begun to actively investigate the problem and propose actions to fix it.  Henderson cautioned that school officials may see these efforts as ominous and interfering, but these efforts are empowering for communities and necessary to effect change for children “touched most deeply” by inequities in the public school system.

Beverly Raimondo, Director, Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, provided an historical perspective on the Kentucky reform movement, including the sweeping changes put into effect in 1989 when the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled the state’s public education system unconstitutional and required the legislature to redesign public education. This radical move prompted the General Assembly to pass the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990, which ushered in standards and high stakes accountability measures, required publishing of student achievement data and school report cards, provided additional funds for social and academic supports, and significantly leveraged the power of parents and citizens through local school-based councils.

In 1998, the Prichard Committee, with funding from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, created the CAT to explore district achievement data and press for better results in the middle grades. CAT organized an army of parents, researchers, business people, community activists and educators to advocate for higher achievement for all children.  Forty-five parent volunteers were ultimately trained in interviewing techniques and visited five JCPS middle schools to observe classrooms and interview principles, teachers, parents and students to collect data and investigate what the district was doing to improve student achievement.  They began by asking: What should students be learning? How well are they learning? What’s getting in the way of learning? Are some students doing better than others? Why? What are some promising developments? What needs to happen next? How can families and community members help?  The CAT team also reviewed education research, read about high-performing middle schools, and talked to national experts on the middle grades.  They then talked among themselves about what should happen in Louisville, concluding that “every single student must achieve at high levels—no excuses, no blame.”

Lynn Rippy, Director of CAT, organized volunteer meetings and interviews with leaders from JCPS, in order to “create a safe environment to allow the District to open up and let us in.”  The data collected reveal, among other things, that black students are not accessing many of the special programs that often support high achievement and are being segregated in dumbed down classes in comprehensive schools.  Information received confirmed that there are indeed low expectations for children of color within the district.  Obstacles to achievement include: low expectations, low student motivation, and low parental involvement.  The findings from the study resulted in the report, Every Child Counts: Raising Student Achievement in the Middle Grades.  Data on the achievement gap has been shared with the schools, which have been asked to develop plans to address the problem.  The following recommendations have been made to the district:

1. Hold high expectations for all students at all achievement levels. Solutions proposed include: prepare all students well in elementary school; expect them to master a challenging curriculum and be assessed on the same standards of performance; focus staff development on helping teachers to manage “blended” (multiple ability) classes and how to “bring up” lower performing students while challenging “quick learners” to reach even higher levels; and adopt a positive school policy on discipline in every JCPS middle school.
2. Individualize instruction so that all students can reach their full potential.  Solutions include: offer more staff development to help teachers reach students with different talents and learning styles; use diagnostic testing to find weaknesses and address them in in-school and after-school settings; explore flexible scheduling and group strategies; and hire part-time resource teachers to assist in the classroom so students can be placed in smaller groups for instruction.
3. Build strong partnerships with families and community groups for raising student achievement.  Solutions include: encourage the district to work with community groups to educate the community about the benefits of blending students and to understand the damaging effects of low student achievement to the community; develop a coordinated strategy among JCPS, the United Way, and other community organizations to raise student achievement; study other schools that successfully engage families at home and school; and focus family activities on ways to support learning.

According to Rippy, not everyone is excited about this approach of empowering parents and communities. The district was not receptive and people who have students in the better programs are “near hysterical in their concern over admitting lower achieving students.”  There were many phone calls and “reams of data put forth that say these kinds of changes will not work.”  But, there are also cheerleaders. CBOs are now getting involved to support low performing schools to help raise academic achievement and the larger community is beginning to get the message that it is only as strong as its least well served and educated citizens.

An executive summary of Every Child Counts is available online at www.prichardcommittee.org.  Urgent Message: Families Crucial to School Reform is published by the Center for Law and Education, 1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 510, Washington, DC 20009, 202-986-3000.

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