Dorsey: Life outside school affects performance
State Sen. Yvonne Dorsey last week told Gov. Bobby Jindal that as a child she could see the State Capitol every morning as she rolled out of her house in the Easy Town neighborhood and headed off to school.
As the Democratic state senator representing much of inner city Baton Rouge, Dorsey had visited the Governor’s Mansion to plead the case of children who grow up in poverty, as Jindal puts together a legislative package that will revamp public school education.
“When you have a kid like me, whose daddy was AWOL, in the house where nobody finished high school and lived without bare, basic necessities, and then you have to go school to compete; you’re hungry when you go to school. You didn’t have anybody to check your homework. You’ve got to have some social component to help these kids along,” Dorsey said on the steps of the Governor’s Mansion after being asked what she said to Jindal during one of the meetings he has held with educators, parents, employers and others during the Christmas holidays.
Jindal said he plans to release details later this month of the sweeping changes he proposes for Louisiana’s public schools. Stressing that no one “silver bullet” exists and that a wide variety of options will be included, Jindal said he expects many tweaks to his bills as they are debated when the Louisiana Legislature convenes on March 12.
Jindal often praises the concepts of charter schools, which pay taxpayer dollars to private administrators, and “scholarship” initiatives, which give parents public money to offset tuition at private schools. But Dorsey said the governor did not push any privatized solution during the meeting she attended. He listened, she said.
“I realize that we have got to do something about education in our state. I went in with an open mind,” Dorsey said. “I just want to make sure that the kids and their parents who have lowest or no voice in this process have a voice at that table.”
The impact of poverty on standardized scores has been known since at least 1961 from the works of John Gardner, the renowned head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Over the years literally hundreds of studies have confirmed that high concentrations of low income students — regardless of ethnicity, race or region — score poorly on ACT, SAT and other standardized tests, such as the basic skills assessments for Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, called LEAP, for 4th and 8th graders.
Dorsey says more than malnutrition, poor health care and inadequate parental supervision contribute to lower performance when compared to students from middle class families.
Even in the majority of low-income homes, where good people strive to achieve, students still live in chaotic neighborhoods with high crime and pervasive drugs, she said. Children are more likely to know someone who has been abused, and are more likely to see violence.
They live in homes that are one illness, one layoff, one car wreck away from losing stability, Dorsey said.
Jindal said he won’t accept any discussion from adults who claim certain students are beyond help. “They say, ‘Well look, if they come from these backgrounds that makes the excuse for why they have lower academics.’ That’s ridiculous.”
Dorsey agrees. But she adds that children from those backgrounds need more than just a system of statistics that measures progress rather than achievement that adults can wave around to claim success. In addition to school choices, any sweeping reform also needs to include guidance, tutoring, after-school supervision and other social programs that help children negotiating a lot of outside obstacles stay on the correct path, she said.
“The ones who fall through the cracks are the 5 percent that we lose, and they are the ones who are killing people in my neighborhood every day,” Dorsey said. “You have to have a social kind of uplifting component.”
Mark Ballard is editor of The Advocate’s Capitol news bureau. His email address is mballard@theadvocate.com.