Data and surprises.

The mother of a fifth grader spoke before the LISD board of Trustees Monday, 4th December. This is the second month in a row she's spoken.

This is the second year her daughter's taken fifth grade in LISD schools.

She has a number of issues with the district. The elected officials whom she addressed, later went to great lengths to assure each other that her issues could not possibly be true. And having satisfied themselves, the board could go home assured that they "care". The parent, on the other hand, went home feeling that nobody either cares or is competent to help.

And most of the community willl never learn of the problems. Certainly these issues will not make the local news. Discussions of left lane lopers, global warming and the evils of Exxon may appear in our finest publications, but the actual lives and future of the kids in our community are too mundane for most writers to waste time and column space with.

But not this writer. And not here, not now, and not again.

Let's read the history. Let's look up the data. And let's do the math.

Texas state law changed in 1999 The so-called "Student Success Initiative" was intended to track kids from that year forward, and those whose TAKS scores were below standard in progressively higher grades would not, themselves, progress. Not "flunked out", mind. But "held" as in warm and incubating arms, while the lessons appropriate to the child's age and grade began to "sink in". Sound commpassionate, right? No Child Left Behind ... all that.

The Kindergarteners of 1999 were the 3rd graders of 2003. Those who took their first TAKS test, and demonstrated mastery, were promoted. Those who did not demonstrate such mastery ...

Well, there's the problem.

In Texas as a whole, the "retention" rate for 3rd graders increased from just around 2.percent prior to 1999 and the SSI, to 2.5 percent in 2003.

LISD got an even bigger shock. In 2002 the retention rate for 3rd graders was 0.8 percent. In 2003, the SSI impact hammered 2.3 percent of the cohort.

Note this is already a smaller fraction than the state as a whole. But those kids were identified and were eligible for help.

The following year, 4th grade TAKS scores for Texas overall, reading and math, were up. The kids who had advanced from third having mastered the material were more likely to succeed in 4th. And the retention rate for 4th graders, in Texas overall, reflect that .. falling, for the SSI cohort, from 2.5 in third to 1.7 percent in 4th.

In LISD, though, the retention rate fell thru the floor. Zero. No kids at all were retained between 4th and 4th grade for the school year 2004-05. This is particularly interesting given that both reading and math scores lagged behind the Texas average. Only 28% of LISD students failed the 4th Grade Reading TAKS compared to only 14% for the state overall. Fourth graders in LISD saw 31% of their cohort fail math, compared to 13% of their peers overall. But fewer LISD fourth graders were required, (or had the opportunity) to repeat the grade, or attend summer make up classes.

Now the state mandates that the SSI cohort pass math. Fifth graders find it a hurdle, and state wide 3.8% of them are repeating 5th grade. But in LISD, where no fourth grader was left behind last year, 14.6% (a retention rate exceeding the state's by 384% , for those of you Harvard men following along...) of fifth graders got notice they would not be advanced to sixth. This retention rate is more than double the previous record ( 6.9% of LISD first graders were retained in 1997).

It wouldn't seem to matter much if the source of the disaster is poor students, incompetent teaching, bad textbooks, bird flu, or hurricane Katrina. When nearly 15% of a population is affected by ANY sort of disaster it's generally newsworthy, and a community pulls together to discuss the problem and search for solutions.

But not in Lancaster. Thru spring graduation of 2006 and the back-to-school autumn of the next school year, the district has been touting only their accomplishments. "Test scores are up". "Bond funds have been well spent." "The girls' track team has done it again!" Oh, and did they mention test scores were up?

Perhaps no one should be surprised that the district, during two political campaigns where rosy scenarios are perceived to be necessary to victory, that the general public didn't learn of the problem. But in their zeal to keep the bad news under wraps the district seemingly neglected to inform some of those most affected: the families.

This is Doris Allen's complaint about her daughter Dencia's treatment. Only after the end of the school year did she learn, she tells the board, that her daughter failed 5th grade math. And adding insult, the district belatedly adds her daughter has failed the math portions of 3rd and 4th grade TAKS, as well. Where is the communication, she wants to know.

How come, Ms Allen asks, a child's regular grade cards can be acceptable, even good, if the child doesn't know the material well enough to pass the tests? What do the grade cards mean? And how is a parent supposed to track a child's progress if the grade cards don't mean what the public expects them to mean?

Is a five week program of summer school really enough to help any child who is three years behind? And if a regular classroom with a regular teacher could not advance the student in an entire year at the first attempt, is another attempt using the same methods, textbooks, tools, classroom and maybe even the same teacher supposed to be really better? If so, how?

For the school year ending 2006, 82% of Texas fifth graders passed the Math TAKS. Exactly half that percentage passed in LISD. Black students did better than whites. Hispanics performed better still. Boys scored better than girls. The score and the breakdowns are all publically available -- although not at the LancasterISD.org website, even though the district's failure to publish such data is a violation of state law.

Do not mistakenly get the impression that math is the only arena in which our fifth graders are struggling. In reading, 81% of all Texas 5th graders can read at TAKS standards, but only 51% of ther LISD peers can do so. On this measure, white students do better than Hispanics, who do better than blacks. LISD girls read better than boys. In "Science" the TAKS results show 76% of Texas 5th graders passing, but only 42% of LISD's. Hispanics lead in this category, followed in a near-tie by blacks and whites. It's not about math. It's not about race. It's not about gender. It's about all kids of all genders and races struggling to extract any education from the system we've provided them.