Study finds one-third in D.C. illiterate

[deadparrot]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia.

Adults are considered functionally illiterate if they have trouble doing such things as comprehending bus schedules, reading maps and filling out job applications.

The study by the State Education Agency, a quasi-governmental office created by the U.S. Department of Education to distribute federal funds for literacy services, was ordered by Mayor Anthony A. Williams in 2003 as part of his four-year, $4 million adult literacy initiative.

The growing number of Hispanic and Ethiopian immigrants who aren't proficient in English contributed to the city's high functional illiteracy level, which translated to 170,000 people, said Connie Spinner, director of the State Education Agency. The report says the district's functional illiteracy rate is 36 percent and the nation's 21 percent.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070319/ap_on_re_us/adult_literacy

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. OMG They are being left behind!

Quick let's draft legislation to funnel money into private and religious schools!!

Oh, never mind. I think we did that already. :)

[JoFerret]

5. Left behind...after the rapture

just occurred to me that perhaps NCLB is a LITERAL policy goal to leave the tested-below-Bush-par behind.
The rest will be raptured along with BushCo.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. If course it is literal

and deliberate.

Bastards.

[Rue]

2. Doesn't surprise me.

Barring the increase in immigration, most residents of the District of Columbia regularly get shafted for funding due to lack of elected representation. That affects education, among other public services. I'm surprised D.C.'s functional illiteracy rate is that low.

And that 20% nationally scares the living crap out of me. :wow:

[Maine-ah]

3. huh, and I was figuring it was because

george was giving high level positions to his little cronies....:shrug:






on a serious note: :wtf:

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Actually, DC spends more per student than any state

Education Revenues Top $440 Billion; D.C. Spent
the Most Per Student, Utah the Least


Public elementary and secondary education revenues from federal, state and local sources reached $440.3 billion in the United States in 2003, up 4.9 percent from the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Again, the District of Columbia spent the most money per student on this level of education ($13,328) of any state or state equivalent.

These findings from the 2003 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances - School Systems show that following the District of Columbia in per-student expenditures were New Jersey ($12,202), New York ($12,140), Connecticut ($10,372) and Vermont ($10,322). Utah spent the lowest amount ($4,860) of any state or state equivalent. Next to Utah, the lowest averages per pupil were in Arizona ($5,672), Mississippi ($5,816), Idaho ($6,034) and Nevada ($6,084). The national average was $8,019.

more: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/governments/004118.html

[Bacchus39]

9. yep, yet the school system in the District is a mess

n/t

[barb162]

59. Maybe the families of the kids in the schools are even messier

I think one if the biggest indicators of success in school is the family life of the kid

[Big Pappa]

10. That

is screwed up. You could send a kid to the most prestigious private schools for 13 grand. Damn.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Yes private schools that don't provide transportation,

pay their teachers maybe half of what the public school teachers make and probably make the students buy their own books.

If you really wanted to equalize expenses between public and private schools, private schools need to throw in transportation, raise their teacher pay and pay for all the 'extras' they currently don't provide. They also have to enroll any kid who walks in the door and they can't expel any students either.

Then when private schools have to double their tuition to cover all these added expenses, maybe people will stop comparing the cost of private schools vs public.

[Freddie Stubbs]

30. How are private schools able to provide quality education if

they are only paying their teachers 1/2 of what public schools do?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

56. I know someone who went from a public to a private high school,

(the most expensive one in Portland) and she loved it because she had an average of 12 students per class and no mickey mouse paperwork or standardized tests. In addition, the students were all healthy, of normal to above-average intelligence, and from families that valued learning.

She said that the pay cut was worth it just for the reduced stress levels.

[MarkR1717]

33. Maybe Private Schools hire...

good teachers, instead of cr*p ones, and have good policies instead of cr*p ones?

[Recursion]

35. They can hire better teachers for less money because they don't have to take just any student

Teachers get absolutely sick of being babysitters for children with behavior problems. Private schools don't have to take those students, and don't have to keep them in once they take them, and don't have to take special needs students that end up costing so much of the school's money, so the private schools are often safer and more rewarding places to work as a teacher. Consequently, good teachers will teach at them for much less money.

[LanternWaste]

53. Or maybe because

Or maybe because private schools can deny any student they want.

Maybe private schools interview parents and can deny a student because they think they'll be babysitting that rather than educating them based on the interview w/ the parents.


Lots of people are quick to blame everyone but the parents... and let's be honest, shall we? The parents can make or break a child's educational performance in the long run-- with more obvious effects and more lasting consequences than a teacher or even a school.

[northzax]

47. this is, of course, the key point

Private schools are self-selecting. they are also size-limiting, and when times are good, have competition for spots so that underperforming (in any way) students are selected out.

your local public school is required, by federal law, to educate to the best of their ability any student in their catchment area. If that child needs 24 hour care in a boarding program for special needs at $150,000/year (which happens) they get it. If they need a tutor to sit with them full time in the classroom, they get it. If they need English as a Second Language instruction, they get it. If they need remedial math, they get it. (well, all of that is theoretical, of course, they are supposed to get it) anyone who uses that many resources in a private school will be sent away, for the most part.

Also, $13,000 is nothing in the DC education market. let's take the relevant private schools in DC and look at their tuition (not their spending per student, which is usually 50% higher, just tuition):

St. Alban's (boys): $26,501. for day students.
National Cathedral School (girls): $24,724
Capital Hill Day School (elementary only): $20,520
Edmund Burke School (high school, co-ed): $24,950
Georgetown Day (k-12 co-ed): $24,303
Sidwell Friends (prek-12 co-ed): $25,990


hmm, maybe the Catholic Schools are better? (remember, St. Alban's and National Cathedral are Presbytarian, attached to the Cathedral)

Georgetown Visitation (girls, 9-12): $18,350
Gonzaga College (boys, 9-12): $13,000

so even at the good Catholic schools, heavily subsidized by the Diocese, charges at least the amount spent on each student in DCPS simply as tuition.

and, full disclosure, my beloved alma mater (the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, a much cheaper city: $20,900.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. Minor correction: St. Alban's and National Cathedral are Episcopal

but your point is correct. A good private school (as opposed to a segregation academy or fundie indoctrination center) charges as much in tuition as a small private college.

[Recursion]

34. DC has a very high number of special needs students, and doesn't have a state to help out

The special needs students take up a whole lot of that money; the amount spent on non-special-needs students is roughly average for a major US city. The private and even charter schools don't have to take special needs students so they don't have to spend all that money on them. Then there's the fact that there are charter schools in the first place, sucking money out of public schools. Then there's the fact that the school board is one of the few things the DC government can control without Congress's mucking about with their decisions, so they tend to do a lot of tinkering there, with the result that we've had IIRC 6 superintendents in 5 years or something like that.

But probably the most important difference about DC schools is that they don't have a state education department or state revenue streams to help them out. That's a crucial area of funding for most cities' schools and one that DC simply doesn't have; consequently, DC has to spend more on its school systems doing things that, in other cities, the state would do.

[Nevernose]

16. DC's kind of an outlier, though

The exception to the rule. Generally speaking, the more spent per student, the better that student will do.

The poor kids in DC have so much more going against them than their schools, though -- it's the shame of the nation.

[Bacchus39]

17. the illiteracy rate is highest among older people in DC

from the originial article, "Adults age 65 and older had the lowest literacy score of any group, the report found."

nevertheless, the DC school system is generally in poor condition.

[AngryAmish]

18. Chicago Latin School's tuition is $18 to $22k

St. Ignatious College Prep is less than $10k

These are some of the most best schools in the country.

WTF is going on in DC where they spend so much money and get such bad results?

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. See my response # 20

It's really not fair to compare private vs public per pupil expenses. It's an apples and oranges argument.

[AnneD]

22. True....

say, haven't we discussed this before, proud2B. It is hard for kids to learn if they are hungry, sick, or homeless. And how enriched is their enviroment if both parents have to work at their barely above minimum wage just to put a roof over their heads. I know that the money we recieve to educate these kids doesn't even begin to touch the real cost.
I believe that we need to moniter student progress and that kids do need to read to function-but I also know that not everyone is a rocket scientist either. Our schools need to do better, need to get more than what they do get, and should be held accountable, but we should also provide trade or craft education too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. I teach in a "full service school"

We have a health and dental clinic and until we lost the funding, we had a social worker. And even with all these services, our kids barely make it. Some kids need far more than others. To compare the achievement of kids in low income areas to those who can afford to go to private schools or to compare the cost for educating them is as fair as comparing their families' incomes and expecting them all to have identical standards of living.

I really agree about the need for trades education. But in this test test test climate, those kinds of programs are being dropped like hot potatoes.

[AnneD]

26. It's a shame ...

isn't it. We really do need it. My mechanic is in dire need of a few young mechanics for his established business. He can't take time off to teach but this would be an ideal first job for a kid with some shop skills.

And as far as testing....hey, if they reassemble the motor and it starts up....they pass as far as I am concerned.

[AngryAmish]

31. Latin pays much, much more than Chicago Public Schools

Ignatious still has some Christian Brothers but those guys are dying off.

I know that one can only get so much with kids that are not so bright and not every kid can or should be going to a college prep school, but to have so many resourcesn and such poor results bespeaks terrible malpractice by the DC schools.

[northzax]

49. I sincerely doubt this

the starting salary for a teacher with a BA in Chicago Public Schools is $42,233 (http://www.cps-humanresources.org/Careers/salary.htm) after 13 years of service, it goes up to $69,000. I would be shocked to learn that Chicago Latin pays teachers fresh out of college $42,233. I mean good for them, but this would be WAY out of range for starting salaries in a private day school. According to the Independant Schools Association of the Central States, the body that credentials Chicago Latin, the average starting salary for a teacher with less than five years experience, with a BA, in the region is $30,707. I don't think Chicago Latin is that far outside that range, frankly, they don't have the cash to do it.

[MountainLaurel]

32. That has much to do with special education

I forget the exact figures, but a huge percentage of DC children qualify as special ed, much higher than the national average. Because the school system is abysmal in general but even worse for kids with special needs, many parents have gone to the courts, as their kids aren't being provided with an appropriate education under IDEA. As a result, many are bused to schools designed for kids with special needs in the VA and MD suburbs. That's where the $30K/year tuition comes into play and the overall costs rise.

[Nihil]

40. I know it can be a touchy subject with some people ...

> I forget the exact figures, but a huge percentage of DC children
> qualify as special ed, much higher than the national average.

How much of this is the "classification" rather than the child?
(i.e., it's easier to put a tick in the "special needs" box that to
take the time & effort with a "borderline" child.)

If a child is pigeon-holed like this at an early age, they are going
to find it almost impossible to climb out of that hole later.
Similarly, it can be used as an excuse for failure (of the educational
system and/or of the parents) but the result for the child is still
the same ... minimum-wage, jail or cannon-fodder ...

Not trying to start a flame-fest here but just wondering what the views
are of people (especially parents) in the DC area as to the "honesty"
of these ratings?

[MountainLaurel]

50. I'd believe it

Although I'm sure that labelling does happen to some extent, there are parts of DC with infant mortality rates that rank right around countries like Bangladesh and Angola. (I can't remember the exact place in the rankings: It was part of a med school lecture I was sitting in on.) So it wouldn't surprise me in the least to think that a lot of the kids in those locales would end up needing special assistance of all levels.

On the flip side, I read an interesting tidbit on the Washington Post Web site today about how prominent parents who live in the VA and MD suburbs are faking DC residency so that their kids with special needs can get their private school education paid for by the DC Public Schools.

[mod mom]

4. and they work in the wh (couldn't resist-sorry)

[StClone]

7. So apt!

The WH kooks warp the infamous Bell Curve.

[Idioteque]

11. To be fair, the literacy rate goes up when Congress is in recess. n/t

[outofbounds]

42. Is that True?

Makes one wonder if they are teaching the three R's or just discussing current events. Teachers really need to get back to the basics.:shrug: Our kids deserve better.

[truthisfreedom]

12. DC should be a shining star, an example to the rest of the country.

Instead, it's a steaming cesspool in every way, shape, and form.

[demnan]

15. When my mother was young in the 1930's

D.C. had the best schools in the country - or at least the white schools were among the best in the country.

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. A lot of the white folks in DC send their kids to private schools

Chlesea Clinton went to private school, and Al Gore sent his son to one as well.

[Recursion]

37. There aren't "a lot of white folks" in DC

Well, there are, but not with kids. West of the park there are I think a few thousand households but even those are getting DINK-ish lately too. You'll find some white families midtown but at least anecdotally all the ones I know send their kids to public school except for one Catholic family who go to a parochial school (which is, itself, majority-minority). There's no non-blunt way to put this: DC is so non-white that what the white people do really isn't the issue.

[wordpix]

44. I grew up in DC, still have family there. Trust me, 99.9% of all upper middle-wealthy politicians &

professionals, no matter what color or creed, send their kids to private schools in DC, MD and VA.

[humbled_opinion]

13. Quick fund No Politician Left Behind... lol... n/t

[humbled_opinion]

14. We already have it... its called the Bush Administration.

[robcon]

19. Sickening results. Where does all the money go?

n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

28. To the creators of tests

which are poorly conceived and poorly written.

[rocktivity]

23. The Capitol Hill area included?

rocknation

[KamaAina]

27. Well, last I checked, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW is in Washington, DC

so yeah, I can believe that. "Is our children learning?" I dunno, we must've misunderestimated the number of immigrants, Hispanically speaking. :dunce:

[Contrary1]

29. Here's a great response I found on another board:

I guess the rest all work in the private sector. :-)

[superconnected]

36. Bush is doing a hellava job. Now fire him.

And I know he is one of the iliterates.

[rec_report]

38. And three-thirds in the White House. n/t

[VegasWolf]

39. This country has an illiterate President. If one has enough money, literacy doesn't

matter.

[qwlauren35]

41. As someone who works with Refugees,

If there are numerous refugees in the city, it will plummet the numbers. Especially those coming from "pre-literate" countries.

However, with that said, I am not surprised by this outcome, nor do I know whether its appropriate to blame NCLB. The DC school system has been a disaster for the last 30-40 years, and no administration has been able to fix it. I think Carter was the last president to seriously pay attention to it.

Here in Baltimore, we have similar numbers, and many literacy programs.

However, map-reading is a complex skill that requires not just the ability to read, but also strong spatial skills. Also, the number of people who don't know left from right or understand North/South/East/West is extremely high. Most people I know learn map-reading in Scouts or ROTC. Maybe driving school;I don't think it's taught in schools. Throwing map-reading in with being able to fill out a form seems unreasonable. I'm not saying that its not a necessary skill, but I don't think it should be a measure of literacy.

[northzax]

48. not so much refugees

but a huge immigrant population, mainly from Africa (especially Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Central America (primarily El Salvador and Guatemala)

[barb162]

60. If a person has good reading skills, map-reading should be

automatic and self-explanatory, similar to a crossword puzzle. I suspect one could figure out what maps are about in a basic geography class. When you start mentioning people who don't know directions or left from right, that is scary stuff.

[wordpix]

43. more evidence of the falling apart infrastructure in the US, thanks to Bushco & Iraq War

[twiceshy]

45. No it's not...

DC has been run by Democratic city administrations for decades. This is a local problem. Not to defend Bush, but let's lay the blame where it belongs, at the feet of the city politicos - does anyone remember DC's crack smoking mayor Barry?

[northzax]

51. no, let's lay the blame where it really belongs:

Congress. You do know, right, that Marion Barry had no financial control over the city? Congress did. The District didn't make it's own budget until about 1997, before that it was administered by a Financial Control Board appointed by Congress (where, you no doubt remember, we have no representation) Oh yes, people in Alaska had more say in how our local tax dollars were spent than we did. until 1998, it didn't matter WHO was the mayor of DC, financially, the Feds controlled everything.

For example: first jurisdiction in the country to pass a domestic partner bill for gay couples? the District of Columbia in 1992. Congress would not allow it to take effect until 2006. in 1998 we voted on medicinal marijuana legislation, Congress STILL hasn't approved the money to count those ballots, 8 years later.

sure, the District has issues, no doubt, but it ain't easy being a colony.

[twiceshy]

52. OK, but who appoints the school Superintendent

and elects the school board? We have already settled the fact that plenty of money is available ($13,000 per student). But the money has been squandered in a massive case of mismanagement and human failure.

[genieroze]

46. Boosh ADDminustatshun?

That's the first thing that came to mind with that headline.

[Exultant Democracy]

54. Well done. The 33% who still support Bus was also an acceptable answer.

[saberjet22]

55. illiteracy in D.C.

Do those figures include George?

[entanglement]

58. And what do they plan to do about it? More standardized tests, I suppose?

n/t