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Unfair comparison
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Anonymous user Mon Apr 10, 2006 13:04:07 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments On March 22, The Bakersfield Californian listed the “top five” and “bottom five” county schools, making an unfair comparison.

At the “top five” schools, 18.2 percent, 22.8 percent, 14.6 percent, 13 percent, and 18.2 percent of the students qualified for free and reduced-price meals.
At the “bottom five” schools, 98.6 percent, 89.7 percent, 86 percent, 62.5 percent and 99.6 percent of the students qualified for free and reduced-price meals. 

Clearly these schools are working with children from quite different economic
backgrounds.

For high schools in Kern County, the correlation between the percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced meals and the 2005 API Base is -.769. For middle schools, the correlation is -.879. For elementary schools in the Bakersfield City School District, the correlation is -.894. 

All of these correlations are highly significant, and suggest a very close relationship between the degree of poverty and these test scores.

While correlation does not prove causation, the evidencecertainly suggests that the difference between these schools is largely due to a difference in privilege. The students from wealthier families have had advantages which most students from economically poorer families have not had.

When a child in a middle-class family gets an ear ache, the parents take the child to a physician. Impoverished families can’t afford such care. Neither can they afford appropriate dental care, pre-school education or a whole host of other experiences.

Rather than embarrass the teachers and administrators who work in schools with a high percentage of impoverished children, we should thank these professionals for their dedication and encourage them to do what they can to break the cycle of poverty, recognizing that it is a great challenge to teach or administer in a school where virtually every student is coming from a home below the poverty line.

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