Census: Most Children Are on Track in School

By Christina Cooke, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Jan. 11–Most American children are advancing in school on schedule, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on children’s well-being and daily activities released today.

“Child well-being has improved since the mid-1990s, not for every measure or every child, but on average,” said Bill O’Hare, who studies statistical data on children for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count project. “There are a lot of standard measures that show child well-being is moving in the right direction.” A Child’s Day: 2003 is the Census Bureau’s third examination of children’s life experiences based on a survey given to almost 10,000 parents across the country.

Seventy-five percent of American students ages 12 to 17 were on the same grade level as their peers, a measure that is 6 percentage points higher than it was in 1994, the report shows.

In Hamilton County, 90 percent of students in kindergarten through 12th grade are the appropriate age for their grade, according to data compiled by Kirk Kelly, director of accountability and testing. The census report also shows that 25 percent of American teenagers were taking an advanced class or in a gifted program.

In Hamilton County, 10 percent of high school students are taking advanced placement courses that are offered at 13 of the system’s 16 high schools. About 4 percent of Hamilton County’s K-12 students are in the gifted program, which they must qualify for through the special needs office, said Dan Predmore, the gifted program supervisor.

Mr. Predmore said because standards used to determine if a student is gifted vary from state to state, it is nearly impossible to compare numbers of gifted students from one state to another.

“One state might say anyone who gets A’s is gifted,” he said. Census numbers indicate that family income and structure have a substantial effect on whether a child’s education is on track. Children from poor or single-parent families or with less educated parents were less likely to be on track, the report shows.

Using test scores to plan lessons based on where each student stands academically is one measure local schools have taken to reach students with disadvantages, said Ray Swoffard, Hamilton County Schools associate superintendent.

“It’s hard for you to prepare a lesson effectively unless you know where your students fall,” he said.

Local schools have focused on increasing parent involvement and standardized the curriculum used to teach literacy, so students receive the same instruction from school to school, Mr. Swoffard said.

Yolandia Smith, the parent coordinator at Hillcrest Elementary, organizes parent workshops that teach parents how to work with their children at home. The school, like many others in Hamilton County, offers individualized tutoring for students in need of extra help.

“They’re not all on grade level, but they’re reaching that goal with all the extra help they’re getting,” Ms. Smith said.

Hamilton County’s efforts are paying off, Mr. Swoffard said.

“Our test scores have gone up six years in a row, and we have worked to narrow the (achievement ) gap,” he said. “I’m hoping we can sustain those gains and have another year of growth.”

E-mail Christina Cooke at ccooke@timesfreepress.com

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Copyright (c) 2007, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

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