Len Cabrera: School Board’s focus on equity wasted time and money, and our kids are no better off than they were in 2018
ANALYSIS
BY LEN CABRERA
Since 2018, the Alachua County Public Schools district has been prioritizing equity above all other educational outcomes. Two of the stated goals were to raise the achievement of black students by 3 percentage points each year and to eliminate the achievement gap within 10 years. Now, six years into the ten-year plan, it’s time for the school district to admit that the plan has been a complete failure.
A recent Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) press release touted “notable year-over-year improvement across the state.” Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr, said, “The substantial gains achieved by Florida’s students on all statewide assessments demonstrate that progress monitoring is working.”
Unfortunately, the statewide standards were changed in 2023, conveniently making it impossible to properly compare the last couple of years with the pre-COVID era (or the implementation of the district’s Equity Plan). At least, that’s what the professional education establishment will tell you.
State measures percentage of students who score 3 or higher on assessment tests
Although the standards and scoring scale have changed, the reporting system is essentially unchanged: results are presented as the percentage of students who score 3 or higher, with level 3 signifying “satisfactory” or “on grade level.” So while the actual standards might be different in different school years, the proportion of students who meet the standards can still be compared to see how well our education system did (or did not) educate students to meet the standards of the time. (Whether the changing standards are appropriate is a matter for a different column.)
State-wide results vs. ACPS results
The FLDOE press release highlighted the state-wide improvement during the 2023-24 school year from the first progress monitoring test (PM1) to the third and last progress monitoring test (PM3): 20 percentage points in English Language Arts (ELA) and 42 percentage points in Math. Despite these gains over the academic year, barely half the students finished the year at grade level or above: 53% in ELA and 56% in math.
Both of those numbers were slightly worse in Alachua County: 52% in ELA and 51% in math, with gains of 15 and 34 percentage points, respectively. That means our students did not progress as well as the rest of the state and nearly half the students are not performing at grade level.
FLDOE claims a state-wide 4 percentage point improvement from 2022-23 to 2023-24 in the PM3 assessments; that’s a slight exaggeration, thanks to rounding. The scores went from 49.2% to 52.9%, a 3.7 percentage point improvement. There’s a similar rose-colored 4 percentage point improvement claim for the math assessment, but the actual increase was only 3.3 percentage points (51.4% to 54.7%).
The Alachua County improvements from 2022-23 to 2023-24 were not as good: a 2.8 percentage point increase in ELA scores (49.4% to 52.2%) and a 1.1 percentage point increase in math scores (50.2% to 51.3%).
Despite these gains, the 2023-24 performance is well below the pre-COVID year, 2018-19. Compared to 2018-2019, ELA results are 2.5 percentage points lower at the state level (55.4% down to 52.9%) and 4.1 percentage points lower in Alachua County (56.3% down to 52.2%). Math results are 3.2 percentage points lower at the state level (57.9% down to 54.7%) and 3.1 percentage points lower in Alachua County (54.4% down to 51.3%).
As stated earlier (and on the FLDOE data portal), we cannot technically compare the pre-2022 ELA and math assessments to the new standards used in 2023-24 (and retrofitted for 2022-23). However, the results are amazingly consistent all the way back to the 2014-15 school year, using data we downloaded after the 2021-22 school year. While overall performance jumps around from year to year (especially after the missing COVID year), there is a statistically significant downward trend, although you could argue whether this has practical significance since performance is only dropping 0.2 percentage points per year for the state and 0.7 per year for Alachua. Educational results by race (including the black-white performance gap) are also remarkably consistent.
Using the missing 2019-20 year as a break point, you could argue that performance was better before COVID. Florida’s average ELA performance dropped 2.2 percentage points from 2014-2019 compared to 2020-2024 (53.5% to 51.3%,) and Alachua County’s ELA performance dropped 4.2 percentage points (55.9% to 51.7%). The state-wide math performance dropped 4.2 percentage points (55.2% to 51.0%), and Alachua County’s math performance dropped 5.9 percentage points (55.5% to 49.6%). Again, these numbers are comparing different standards during different years, and some may not think a 2-4 percentage point drop is large enough to be a cause for concern.
Black-white performance gaps are essentially unchanged
Remember, however, that the School Board’s main focus since 2018 has been equity, not achievement; their top priority has been reducing the black-white performance gap. What did six years of misguided policy buy our students? Here are the black-white performance gaps in ELA and math for both the state and Alachua County.
The gaps are essentially unchanged. The slight improvement (reduction in the gap) from 2022-23 to 2023-24 did not come from raising the performance of black students. The ELA gap was 41.5% in 2023-24, down from the 45.0% average gap between 2014-15 and 2018-19. However, black students held steady, right around 28% performing at grade level. The 3.5 percentage point drop in the performance gap resulted from white student performance falling from 73.2% prior to the Equity Plan to 69.6% in 2023-24. The math result is worse because performance for both student groups got worse (2.8 percentage points lower for whites and 1.1 percentage points lower for blacks). If only someone had warned that the gap would likely be narrowed by reducing the performance of the top students rather than raising the performance of the lowest-scoring students.
Alachua County’s black-white performance gap is the largest in the state because our white students consistently perform better than whites in the state (about 8 percentage points in ELA and 5 percentage points in math). Our black students consistently perform worse than blacks in the state (8 percentage points in ELA and 9 percentage points in math). These gaps are fairly consistent from year to year.
Asian students consistently perform better than white and black students
If you’re tempted to blame “systemic racism,” maybe you should ask whether our system is set up to favor Asian students. Their performance is consistently better than our white students (about 12 percentage points better in ELA and 17 percentage points better in math). They are also better than Asians in the rest of the state (about 7 percentage points better in ELA and 6 in math).
Does Alachua County Public Schools’ focus on equity benefit the students?
Maybe we should look at factors other than skin color that differentiate our Asian, white, and black students from each other and their state-level counterparts. What is our public school system doing differently from the rest of the state? The district’s focus on equity and the performance gap is clearly not narrowing the gap and not improving student performance.
In fact, given the remarkably consistent student performance since the 2014-15 school year, you could argue that all the money and time spent on administrators, offsites, teacher development, conferences, and equity resources were essentially wasted. Parents should demand that the school board focus on achievement and ancillary issues like discipline that affect the learning environment, but we won’t get back the wasted money, and the students whose academic careers (and future earning potential) were sacrificed to progressive experiments have no recourse.
——
To reproduce these charts from the 2018-19 to 2023-24 school years, use this link. Click on “Assessments – Statewide” and accept the acknowledgement that scores can’t be compared prior to 2022-23. This opens the data portal. Click on “Build A Table” in the upper right. Set “Indicator – 1:” to either “(None)” or “Race” and “District:” to either “(All)” or “01-Alachua.” From the bottom menu, click on “Download” and select the “Crosstab” option to get an Excel file for your current selection.
I was a teacher during those horrendous covid years in Alachua County. Despite shutting down in March 2020 my students had to attend Zoom meetings and submit class work. The following year (2020 – 2021) the district allowed digital learning and I taught “hyflex” which meant some of my students were in the room and some were in Zoom. The students in the room greatly outperformed the students in Zoom. The third year (2021 – 2022) when all the students were back in person I could see and feel the impact that the covid shut down and digital learning was beginning to have. Despite loving and excelling at teaching I knew it was time to retire after 35 years and my colleagues tell me it has continued to spiral downward since then.
As the back-Ward Mayor of Gainesville we must achieve equity with our education. Therefore, we must make sure that all of our students are equally dumb, that is the only way to achieve a true equitable outcome. See what a lot of people don’t understand is equity is not lifting the ones at the bottom but instead to bring down the ones at the top. It is very simple for example when I go to the donut shop to get a bag of nutz to put in my mouth, I mean donuts. I select all the donuts off the top three racks and none from the bottom racks (who am I kidding I select them all). Ok so that wasn’t the best example, but what I am getting at is by bringing the top performers in the school down to the level of the lowest performers then everybody is the same and no one is given the appearance of benefitting from hard work and sacrifice.
“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
-Mark Twain
Well said, Len. Until the ‘Progressive’ outlook of the left is reversed, this divide will continue. If you want ‘equity’ as a focus, it must be with teaching the single mothers their responsibilities in raising children, get the fathers involved, and the big one, stop financially encouraging more welfare babies.
In the fifties, 50% of the parents were married (before LBJ’s misguided Great Society). Since then, the continuing, increasing free money has developed at least two generations feeling ‘entitled’ to other peoples money and not be responsible for their personal actions in society. It has also made it financially advantageous to have less than 25% of families married.
School districts today receive more funding per student than ever before in American history, and they have shown nothing from it, aside from perhaps making our children even dumber. Urban schools in metropolitan areas also typically receive more funding per student than rural schools, yet they still underperform. The sooner society addresses the elephant in the room, and “trusts the science” regarding inherent IQ differences and their correlation to cognitive abilities, the sooner we can move forward as a country.
IQs are largely hereditary, but we still need law-abiding employable young adults. Not more lawyers’ golden geese 👹💩👺🤡👿
We need cannon fodder.
We sincerely need new leadership in this district. We need leaders from others districts that are getting it right. Gainesville keeps doing the same things they have always done while expecting different results.
but they want new leadership to focus on socioeconomic diversity in schools….They think a return to busing will fix what ails this district. Instead, more kids will leave the district.
It’s obvious! 💥:
Desantis needs to appoint all Asians to the school board if you want better test results..
All the teaching and curricular rigor in the world will not change the fact that some students are entering school with little to no home training, which IMMEDIATELY puts them behind their peers who have been parented and taught at home. Many kids enter kindergarten knowing how to read. That doesn’t happen by magic. If Johnny comes to school not only not knowing his letters, colors, etc. but also doesn’t know how to sit in a chair, walk in a line, follow simple directions, not throw a tantrum if he doesn’t get to do a choice activity, and how to ask for help, the gap has already begun. The students who have a solid background and whose parents put value on education will always outperform those whose parents don’t. And as the kids get older, the gap widens. It starts at home.
LOL…my daughter only knew the basics (alphabet, etc) when she started kindergarten. Now she’s at the top of the class and has been so since she was 6.
What did we do right? We instilled in her that she was to behave and respect her teachers
We can preach this until we are blue in the face but the fact remains that Alachua County has the largest achievement gap IN THE STATE. It is the duty of the schools to educate and focus on what they CAN control which is good teaching for ALL. Bring back suspensions and discipline. Schools won’t suspend because the district gets on their back about it. So disruptive children suffer hardly any consequences. Lessons can be learned through discipline. Show parents and unruly kids that we won’t tolerate it! We live in soft times and all of this is a result of that.
Starts at HOME is an understatement — my father could hardly read & write & my mother came from a “dirt poor” situation. My brother & I have Masters degrees. I am a retired teacher & he is a multi-millionaire. We worked our way through the state university system & paid off our own student loans. BUT guess what? We were raised by “spare the rod & spoil the child” philosophy. We could watch 1 30 min TV program @ night & went to church when the doors were open. My son & his wife are very liberal, but their child knows her school assignments must be completed & her parents monitor both her phone & social media use. She was failing 2nd grade when schools were shut down for Covid. She completed third grade virtually & has blossomed ever since. So, there is NO single answer that fits every student, but PARENTS must step up & take responsibility.
Thank you for entering the first intelligent comment on this topic. Until parents instill the value of an education in their children, there will not be much change. This has become a decades old issue and teachers only have 6 hours a day with the students, then they go back to an environment that may not support the educational goals that the school provides. It is easy to sit back and make the ignorant comments about teachers and leadership, if you have not been in the trenches. And for an educator to say, I retired because of this, good for you. Maybe if your classes were more interesting and relevant to today’s students, you could have lasted longer. You were no longer relevant in the classroom, that is why you left. It starts with the parents and the way they support the educational system. Parents, start taking more responsibility!!
ACPS needs to take a real look at themselves and stop making about this about race when the numbers show otherwise. Maybe the money spent on divisiveness and political correctness issues needs to go back to the reason kids are in school which is to learn and not be indoctrinated.
Let’s try to make the next generation greater than our own versus the current path of dumbing them down. Show the values that made our society better and the value and function of family & community to teach them how to take responsibility to value morals and perhaps there can be hope. Until then don’t vote for those who want to make this more about PC issues rather than recalling helping our kids achieve. If you don’t you will see continued parents choose leaving the county’s public school indoctrination methods with state scholarships.
I honestly believe that until we stop looking at everything through a race lens this will never be corrected. We have to find a way to start teaching children (regardless of race) to a higher standard that every one of them is capable of. A society that tells children of color they are not capable based on skin or economics does a huge disservice to those children. We can’t keep ignoring culture either because we all have a culture. If you look at the schools alone Asian children typically do better and score higher across the board. The school isn’t teaching them differently, they don’t have extra help, they don’t have a larger grading curve what they do have is an extremely high expectation level culturally (and in individual homes) that exceeds most others and that reflects in the gap and scores. Schools, laws, mandates, ordinances can not change any of that in the academic world. Let me be very clear….I am not saying that one culture is better than another, what I am saying is all the children put their butts in the same chairs with the same curriculum and each child responds differently based on the culture and the expectations set on them(at school and at home). That has not changed and I don’t think it is going to. No matter how much school boards lower the standards and expectations the gap does not change (and sometimes even gets worse) that alone should put everyone on notice that it is not the school. Kids are amazing little beings capable of adapting and accomplishing amazing things regardless of their race, culture or even economics. Maybe if we started treating them like the amazing people they are instead of treating them like some kind of victim that will never accomplish anything without some government mandate, they would begin to take ownership and pride of their accomplishments instead of thinking it only happened because some asshat on a school board made it happen
👀@ 2020:
The face masks 😷 are factor in lowers scores from the fear & stupidity created by ACSB about C19.
I know of no society that tell their Kids what you are SUGGESTING,
Very informative and eye opening article.
Food for thought: if DEI is a good thing, then why is saying someone is “a DEI hire” a bad thing?
Who said DEI is a good thing? It’s dumbing down society.
The new world order commie globalists want everyone to be equally stupid.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) and its great reset plan goal is: you will be equally stupid, own nothing, & be happy…
It’s for the greater good and to stop climate change…the devil is hiding behind the environment.
Proponents say DEI is a “good thing” and Kamala is their poster girl, mattress girl, and chameleon girl…
Don’t worry. These numbers will magically be fixed if the progressive members get their way and bus western students into eastside schools.
If only the state hadn’t given parents options via vouchers. Certain members will continue to push for busing and then complain about loss of revenue as parents are forced to find alternatives when their kids are zoned away from their nearby schools
Public welfare schools are for stone cold losers who can’t or won’t afford to pay for their children’s private educations. When you rely on the government to provide for your basic needs, don’t be surprised when you’re disappointed. Len sounds like an EBT Publix shopper disappointed he’s not getting Wagyu beef.
Maybe he is one of the many Alachua County Taxpayers that is fed up with this inept and prejucice School Board. How about they get paid by student performance. First cut thier salary in half, from that moment on merit based compensation. If student performance goes up they get a increase and if student performance goes down they get a decrease.
It’s the parents job to educate and feed their children…don’t breed em if you can’t educate & feed em.
Parents should have to pay a user fee if they have a child in the public school system.
It takes a village to raise a child is a commi slogan.
WE DO PAY A FEE, HAVE YOU SEEN YOU COUNTY TAXES LATELY
I am a former teacher with this district, I have a very long list of things they did that was a waste of money as well! ACPS is one of the worst districts in this state.
You are a product of your environment.
Households with a mother & father (nuclear) is the best way to raise a child.
Personal responsibility is key.
Genetics of smarter college industry parents, and the family’s culture of education appreciation is a major cause of “inequity”. It’s nobody’s fault, but best practices would be required by indigenous children’s families to fix that gap.
Common sense wins again … go MAGA🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Have they tried this great money saving idea?
Problem: Asian and White math scores are higher than Black scores.
Money saving Solution: Quit spending all money teaching Asian and White students Math, until their test scores DROP to match the Black scores. Equality is achieved, and large amounts of money saved.
Look at the last chart:
Since 20-21, black math performance improved by about 9%.
White and Asian performance improved by about 2%.
Most of the charts show about the same result looking at Alachua County numbers.
How is that a failure of DEI initiatives, unless the result is due to some other factor?
Comparing that to state results confuses the issue.
By the way, what was happening between 2017 and 2020 when all races lost ground?
Q. “By the way, what was happening between 2017 and 2020 when all races lost ground?”
A. The Great Leadership of President Trump.
Trump was running the ACSD? Really?
No, TDS was running the ACSD, still is.
Trump’s probably living rent free in you head right now, just like with my neighbor with their Biden ’24 sign in their front yard. What idiots.
Dude… If you ask why the drop happened, you probably shouldn’t analyze and make claims about this.
Black students had a bigger drop during covid, you are claiming DEI works because after covid, like every other race, they are at their pre-covid levels (and gained more to return).
DEI hasn’t worked at all and your comment reads like intentional ignorance to match your feelings rather than reality.
Covid began in 2020, not 2017.
2019 actually, but AC didn’t start the lockdowns until March 2020, which is probably your point.
I lived in Bay County at the time, and schools only closed for 2 weeks (with a pathetic distant learning attempt). Scores there saw a much smaller decrease and were back to where they were pre-COIVD by the 2nd year (2022 end of year).
Difference? Bay Co isn’t woke, Alachua Co is. Woke = DEI.
They are dumbing down the programs . Can’t you read ?
2018 was a peak for white and black student performance. The next year, 2019, was a retreat towards the standard low performance rate for ACSD, but still above the previous 6 years of testing data. Then the ACSD locked the kids out, and the 2000 and 2021 data speaks for the outcome of the idiocrasy.
As for your since 2020-2021 improvement fallacy, no one is buying that as improvement – because the scores are still trying to catch back up to pre-lockdown levels. It’s the same with the economy in the USA, which thankfully FL is somewhat separated from, thanks to our Governor.
Well…..there you have it….it’s all spelled out in ‘black and white’.
No surprises here considering the huge discrepancy in parental involvement/commitment. And how does the school board plan to fix that???
The school board can’t fix that and that’s why it’s ridiculous to pretend the schools are failing when it is America and parents failing. This is the legacy of slavery and segregation which went on for 350 years, included denying education and even family integrity, and won’t be totally fixed in 60. The percentage of blacks in the middle class has grown since segregation ended, though slowly, and that is what makes for a family that cares about education – an awareness that they do have something to lose and something to gain by education.
I disagree with your causation. I believe the cause of this to be the democrats willful destruction of the black family by incentivizing fatherless homes. 70% of all black children are born to never married mothers. It is so glaringly obvious and so obviously ignored. It’s the elephant in the room that everyone denies is there.
And the irony is that in the 60’s, as the Great Society was being implemented, future senator Moynahan lamented the then shocking statistic that about a quarter of black kids were being raise in single parent households. Some “Great” progress since then, eh?
So the current school board members campaign promises were lies?
Captain, I think everyone running for office promises more than they can deliver – you get that, right?
while they are teaching MARCZISM IN SCHOOL, IT WILL NOT GET ANY BETTER
don’t forget Spelling class !
Until excellence is the goal, irrespective of race, we will keep producing mediocrity.
If you want your kids to get a good quality education with small class sizes, private or parochial school is the way to go.
Great report Alachua Chronical!