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I thought you would find the article below of interest.

"Work hard to find something that fascinates you.  When you find it you will
know your lifework" -- Richard Feynman

Dennis Schatz
Vice President for Education
Pacific Science Center
200 Second Ave. No.
Seattle, WA 98109
phone - 206-443-2867
fax - 206-443-3631

Pacific Science Center
A non-profit bringing science and kids together
in every county of Washington State


> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> From the October 26th issue of the LA Times
> 
> Parents' Involvement Not Key to Student Progress, Study Finds
> Report on standardized testing in lower-income schools disputes
> conventional wisdom.
> 
> By Jean Merl, Times Staff Writer
> 
> 
> A new study examining why similar California schools vary widely in
> student achievement produced some surprising results: Involved parents and
> well-behaved youngsters do not appear to have a major effect on how well
> elementary students perform on standardized tests.
> 
> But four other factors seemed to count a lot more, at least when combined
> in schools, according to EdSource, an independent group that studies state
> education issues. 
> 
> The study of lower-income schools found that the strongest elements in
> high-performing schools are linking lessons closely to state academic
> standards, ensuring there are enough textbooks and other teaching
> materials, carefully and regularly analyzing student performance and
> putting a high priority on student achievement. The study's authors say
> that these criteria show that poverty and other challenges need not keep
> students from doing well.
> 
> "Similar Students, Different Results," to be released today, was headed by
> EdSource executive director Trish Williams and Stanford professor Michael
> Kirst. The study focused on 257 public schools with substantial numbers of
> low-income, minority students. Typically, 40% of them were still learning
> English. Yet these schools' scores on the California Academic Performance
> Index varied by up to 250 points on a scale of 200 to 1000. Researchers
> promised the schools in the study anonymity.
> 
> The state assigns a single API score to a school based on how its students
> perform on several standardized tests. The score measures progress toward
> the state's goal of 800 for each school and is widely used as an indicator
> of school quality.
> 
> The study provided an unusual look at how some schools, despite the
> challenges their students face, manage to improve, even without spending
> additional money to lengthen the instructional day or hire more teachers,
> according to one of the lead researchers.
> 
> Some of the findings seem to fly in the face of widely held beliefs that
> parental involvement is among the most important reasons for school
> success and that academic achievement depends largely on a family's
> education and income level.
> 
> "Lots of people believe that demographics determines achievement,"
> Williams said. "This shows that is not true."
> 
> The study also found that enforcing high student behavior standards did
> not have much of an effect. 
> 
> Williams noted that some of the highest-performing schools in the study
> had some of the most challenging demographics; 19 of the 44 schools with
> the highest scores are in urban neighborhoods in or near Los Angeles. 
> 
> The study did not include schools serving largely middle-class or affluent
> families, which generally tend to score higher, experts say, in part
> because well-educated parents are better able to help their children
> succeed.
> 
> Nor did the study include charters, which are public schools independent
> from school districts, and the lowest-performing district schools.
> 
> Kirst, the principal investigator on the study, said it turned up
> practices that schools could implement without spending extra money, such
> as putting more effort into analyzing test data and rearranging budget
> priorities to ensure that every student has an up-to-date textbook.
> 
> "These are not high-spending schools ... but they are doing relatively
> well," Kirst said.
> 
> He said he was surprised at how much time principals in the most
> successful schools spent studying test data and making sure the teaching
> was closely aligned with the state standards for each subject and grade
> level.
> 
> "They were really managing instructional improvement," he said. "It
> indicates the state accountability system is filtering down to the
> classroom in the more successful schools."
> 
> Williams cautioned that the study's findings should not be taken as a sign
> that such practices as involving parents or encouraging collaboration
> among teachers should be discounted.
> 
> "We are not saying that parents or professional development are not
> important," Williams said, noting that the study aimed to highlight what
> successful schools were doing differently. "But that is not what is making
> the difference here."
> 
> 
> (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
> 
> What works
> 
> A nonpartisan organization that studies education issues in California
> surveyed 257 public elementary schools to see which practices were most
> closely related to high student achievement.
> 
> Most Effective
> 
> *  Tying classroom instruction to state standards in academic subjects
> 
> *  Ensuring enough textbooks and other teaching aids
> 
> *  Using test data to analyze instructional strengths and weaknesses
> 
> *  Making student achievement a top priority
> 
> 
> 
> Less Effective
> 
> *  Enforcing high student behavior standards
> 
> *  Encouraging teacher collaboration and professional development
> 
> *  Involved and supportive parents
> 
> 
> 
> A typical school in the study had students with these characteristics:
> 
> *  40% were still learning English
> 
> *  78% lived in poverty
> 
> *  32% had parents who were not high school graduates
> 
> *  66% of students were Latinos; 15% white; 8% African American; 6% Asian,
> and the rest Native American or other
> 
> 

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