Contents

1. Fifteen Years of Social Justice Training in Santa Barbara Schools: Are Student Achievement Gaps Any Smaller? Prepared by Vicki Alger, Ph.D., for the Fair Education Santa Barbara Town Hall, Reagan Ranch Center, April 9, 2019 ,

2. Contents • What are Achievement Gaps? • Dos Pueblos Senior High: Snapshot • Just Communities’ Claims About Achievement Gaps • A Closer Look at Dos Pueblos Senior High • STAR/CST ELA and Math, 2003-2013 • Smarter Balanced ELA and Math, 2015-2018 • California High School Exit Examination, 2002-2015 • Graduates With UC/CSU Required Entrance Courses, 2001-02 -2016-17 • Summary • Concluding Thoughts • Just Communities Claims About Achievement Gaps: Sources • Appendix: About the Achievement Data Sources • About Vicki Alger

3. What are Achievement Gaps? They are the differences in achievement between groups of students, usually based on standardized test scores and typically between white students and a group of minority students.

4. Dos Pueblos Senior High: 2018 Snapshot Note: For accountability purposes, the California Department of Education considers students socioeconomically disadvantaged if they are eligible for the free/reduced price meals program, and if neither parent has a high school diploma.

5. Just Communities’ Claims About Achievement Gaps • JCCC informed SBUSD officials that as a result of its Institute for Equity in Education (IEE) workshops and follow-up activities the district “would see … changes in academic indicators within 5-8 years.” 1/ • In 2013 Goodland Assessment and Partnering Systems (GAPS) evaluators claimed that in the eight years since July 2005, “the Latino-White achievement gap has narrowed significantly,” and that “Just Communities made a measurable contribution to Latino Student Achievement between 2007/08 and 2011/12 school years in McKinley Elementary, La Colina Junior High, and Dos Pueblos High School.” 2/ • Executive Director of Just Communities Jarrod Schwartz claimed during an October 19, 2018, radio interview: “What I can say is that over the years that we have been working with Santa Barbara Unified School District we’ve seen an incredible…improvement in academic achievement on the part of Latino students.” 3/ • JCCC’s IEE workshops are “grounded in the belief that confronting educational disparities through race-conscious, race-sensitive approaches are the primary ways to address the root causes of inequities and narrow the educational achievement gap.”4/

6. Dos Pueblos Senior High: STAR/CST ELA, 2003-2013

7. Dos Pueblos Senior High: STAR/CST ELA, 2003-2013

8. Dos Pueblos Senior High: STAR/CST Math, 2003-2013

9. Dos Pueblos Senior High: STAR/CST Math, 2003-2013

10. Smarter Balanced ELA, 2015-2018

11. Smarter Balanced ELA, 2015-2018

12. Smarter Balanced Math, 2015-2018

13. Smarter Balanced Math, 2015-2018

14. California High School Exit Examination ELA, 2002-2015 Note: No results were reported for 2005 or 2006.

15. California High School Exit Examination ELA, 2002-2015 Note: No results were reported for 2005 or 2006.

16. California High School Exit Examination Math, 2002-2015 Note: No results were reported for 2005 or 2006.

17. California High School Exit Examination Math, 2002-2015 Note: No results were reported for 2005 or 2006.

18. Graduates With UC/CSU Required Entrance Courses, 2001-02 - 2016-17

19. Graduates With UC/CSU Required Entrance Courses, 2001-02 - 2016-17

20. Summary English Language Arts: STAR ELA: end H/L performance increased, gap decreased CAASP ELA: end H/L performance decreased, gap increased CAHSEE ELA: end H/L performance increased, gap decreased Mathematics: STAR Math: H/L students initially outperformed W; end performance decreased, gap increased*For several years performance declined, and end performance was far lower than 2003 and 2004 performance. CAASP Math: end H/L performance increased, gap increased (W performance improved more than H/L). CAHSEE Math: end H/L performance increased, gap decreased College Preparation: Graduates with Required UC/CSU Entrance Courses: H/L student courses increased, gap increased (W student courses increased more than H/L)

21. Concluding Thoughts • There is no consistent pattern of student performance improvements or achievement gap declines. • Absent analyses measuring the effect of JCCC programs and controlling for other possible influences, we cannot assume annual student performance and achievement gap fluctuations are not random. • There is no quantitative, scholarly evidence for JCCC’s belief that “confronting educational disparities through race-conscious, race-sensitive approaches are the primary ways to…narrow the educational achievement gap.”

22. Just Communities Claims About Achievement Gaps: Sources 1/ Rubayi Srivastava and Michelle Enriquez, “Just Communities’ Institute for Equity in Education Contribution Analysis Pilot Study,” Goodland Assessment and Partnering Systems, September 2013. See Just Communities’ IEE Evaluation Report Introduction (December 2013), p. 1, http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/JCs_IEE_Contribution_Analysis_-_Full_Report_-_2013.pdf. GAPS2/ Quotations from “Executive Summary” in GAPS, pp. 2 and 7.3/ Comments made starting at 12 minutes, 11 seconds and 12 minutes, 20 seconds. See “Anonymous parents threaten lawsuit over an implicit bias training program,” KCRW Santa Barbara,805 Stories from the Central Coast, Hosted by Jonathan Bastian, October 19, 2018, https://kcrw.co/2R0a0s8.4/ Quotation from GAPS, p. 2.

23. Appendix: About the Achievement Data Sources Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. STAR, which included annual California Standards Tests (CSTs), served as California’s primary K-12 assessment from the spring of 1998 through the spring of 2013. Through the CST it tested students in grades two through 11 in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Results were first disaggregated by students’ race/ethnicity in the spring of 2003. Beginning in 2003 all STAR/CST scale scores were also adjusted to fit within a range from 150 (low) to 600 (high) across all subjects and grade levels tested. A scale score of 350 corresponds to the cut score for the proficient performance level. Students in grades 8-11 took math tests depending on the specific courses in which they were enrolled: Algebra I (recommended grade 8); Geometry (recommended grade 9); Algebra II (recommended grade 10); or Summative High School Math (only for students in grade 11 who have completed all three of these math courses and a fourth, more advanced math course). Some high school students, however, did not begin Algebra I until grade 9 or later. Instead they took the General Mathematics CST, which tested grades 6 and 7 standards. Therefore, it should be borne in mind that students in lower grades taking more advanced mathematics courses were likely stronger performers than their peers in higher grades taking the same mathematics courses tests. This presentation includes results only for Summative High School Math. Again, it is likely that these grade 11 students are stronger math performers, considering they are enrolled in advanced math courses.  The figures for Dos Pueblos Senior High represent the combined percentages of grade 11 students scoring proficient or above on the STAR/CST ELA and math for 2003 through 2013. It is important to keep in mind that JCCCC programming was implemented in July 2005, so the 2005-06 school year was the first program implementation year. This means that STAR/CST results for the spring of 2003 through the spring of 2005 reflect pre-program student performance and proficiency-rate achievement gaps. Results from the spring 2006 through the spring 2013 reflect post-program student performance and proficiency-rate achievement gaps. Based on JCCC’s assurances to SBUSD district officials that they would see positive changes within five to eight years, improvements in Hispanic/Latino student performance and proficiency-rate achievement gaps relative to White students should be evident starting with the spring 2010 STAR/CST results and certainly with the spring 2013 results. For this presentation, grade 11 ELA and math scores are shown for students not designated as English learners, special education, or socioeconomically disadvantaged. Notes and references: California Department of Education, Assessment Development and Administration Division, California Standards Tests Technical Report Spring 2013 Administration Submitted March 31, 2014 Educational Testing Service, Contract No. 5417, pp. 14-15, 252, 256-57, and 571, https://star.cde.ca.gov/techreports/CST/cst13techrpt.pdf. California Department of Education, “Help: Term and Score Explanations,” https://star.cde.ca.gov/star2013/help_scoreexplanations.aspx. Ed-Data, “Understanding California's Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program,” https://www.ed-data.org/article/Understanding-California's-Standardized-Testing-and-Reporting-(STAR)-Program. For more information, about these subjects and courses, see California Department of Education, “2013 STAR Test Results: About 2013 STAR,” https://star.cde.ca.gov/star2013/AboutSTAR.aspx; and “2013 STAR Test Results

24. Appendix: About the Achievement Data Sources The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. The CAASP was established on January 1, 2014, and includes the Smarter Balanced Assessment System. The first publicly reported results were for the spring of 2015. Students in grades three through eight and grade 11 take full-length summative tests for both English language arts/literacy and mathematics. For this presentation, grade 11 overall ELA and math scores are shown for students not designated as English learners, special education, or socioeconomically disadvantaged. Notes and references: California Department of Education, “California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System,” https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/index.asp. For more about the subjects assessed, see California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), “Smarter Balanced Assessments for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics,” http://www.caaspp.org/administration/about/smarter-balanced/; and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, “Summative Assessment: The End-of-Year Test,” http://www.smarterbalanced.org/assessments/. Smarter Balanced ELA and Math results are from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), “Test Results for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics,” https://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/sb2016/Search.

25. Appendix: About the Achievement Data Sources California High School Exit Examination. The CAHSEE was first administered as the state’s mandatory high-school graduation exam in the spring of 2003 to students in the second half of grade 10, and it continued to be administered as a graduation requirement through the 2014-15 school year. The CAHSEE tested students ELA and math, and students who did not pass were given numerous opportunities to re-take the portion or portions of the test that they had failed. Results are from the California Department of Education’s DataQuest system. From 2002 through 2006, passing percentages represented combined results for students in grades 10 through 12. Starting in the spring of 2007, only passing percentages for students in grade 10 are reported. Students who pass in grade 10 are likely stronger performers than those who pass in grades 11 or 12 because these students presumably did not pass in grade 10. Limiting results to students in grade 10 likely explains the higher passing percentages from 2007 onward compared to previous years. For this presentation, results shown are for students not designated as English learners, special education, or socioeconomically disadvantaged. Notes and references: California Department of Education, “California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE),” https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/; and “Program Overview: Overview of the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE),” https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/overview.asp; and “CAHSEE Description – CalEdFacts,” https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/cefcahsee.asp. California Department of Education, DataQuest, https://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/.

26. About Vicki Alger, Ph.D. • Vicki Alger is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, and author of FAILUE: The Federal “Misedukation” of America’s Children • She holds  Senior Fellowships at the Fraser Institute, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Independent Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C. Alger is also President and CEO of Vicki Murray & Associates LLC in Scottsdale, Arizona. • Alger’s research focuses on education reforms that promote a competitive education marketplace and increase parents’ control over their children’s education. She is the author of more than 50 education policy studies, and co-author/contributor of several books, including The Youth Unemployment Crisis: A Reference Handbook,  Lean Together: An Agenda for Smarter Government, Stronger Communities, and More Opportunities for Women, Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California, and Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice. • Alger has served on the Agency Action Team for the Trump-Pence Transition, advising on federal education policy, and she advised the U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights on public and private school choice, as well as higher education reform. She has also advised education policymakers in over 40 states and England, provided expert testimony before state legislative education committees, and served on two national accountability task forces. Alger’s research helped advance four parental choice voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs in Arizona, as well as the state’s first higher education voucher. She also provided expert affidavits as part of the successful legal defense of educational choice programs for low-income, foster-care, and disabled children. • Alger’s research also inspired the introduction of the most school choice bills in California history—five in all—and her research was used as part of the successful legal defense by the Institute for Justice of the country’s first tax-credit scholarship program in the U.S. Supreme Court (Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn). • Her research and commentary on education policy have been widely published and cited in leading public-policy outlets such as Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, Education Week and the Chronicle of Higher Education, in addition to national news media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes,Fortune, Human Events, La Opinión, the Los Angeles Times, and US News & World Report. She has also appeared on the Fox News Channel, Global News, local ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS affiliates, as well as news radio programs across the country. • Prior to her career in education policy, Alger taught college-level courses in American politics, English composition and rhetoric, and early British literature. She has lectured at numerous American universities, including the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Alger received her Ph.D. in political philosophy from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, where she was an Earhart Foundation Fellow. Alger lives in Arizona with her husband David and three stepsons (the eldest is currently in training to become a Marine). • Email: valger@independent.org