Thomas B. Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?

November 1, 2006

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state's track record in implementing bold education reforms. It finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science. In addition, most states making significant achievement gains--including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas--are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

View the press release for this report

Contents

Idaho

 

 


 

Help Needed for Hispanic Students

What it lacks in population, Idaho makes up for in potatoes. With just 16 people per square mile, the state produces 38 percent of the nation's starchy staple. If only its education efforts were planted on similarly fertile ground.

Idaho's state standards provide poor soil from which to grow student achievement. In four subject areas (math, science, U.S. history, world history), they are so skimpy they can hardly be called standards at all. In English, however, the state comes closer to getting things right. When the Fordham Foundation reviewed them in 2005, the state earned a B. But the reward came with a warning: the lack of specific references to examples of content makes it unlikely "these standards can lead to uniformly high expectations for all students in the state."

In fact, they don't. While the performance of Idaho's low-income students is among the best in the nation, the achievement of its surging Hispanic population is markedly worse. Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of the state's population growth between 1990 and 2003-and 31 percent of growth in rural communities. Today, Hispanics constitute 12 percent of all Idaho students and are the state's only large minority population. (African-American students account for just 1.5 percent of enrollment.)

Though slow out of the starting gate, the state is beginning to respond to the challenges its schools face in educating these students. The legislature recently appropriated a modest $750,000 for a competitive grant program to districts with significant Hispanic populations "in an effort to engage districts in their own solutions." Statewide, the education department requires that all Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students participate in individualized student assessments. Idaho is training non-LEP teachers on how to deal more effectively with English language learners in their classrooms.

In the realm of school choice, there are some encouraging signs. Charter schools are well established in Idaho, and their future looks bright. Currently, 3 percent of students attend one of the state's 28 charter schools, and there's reason to believe that number will grow. A 2004 amendment to Idaho's charter law empowers a new state-level charter school commission to authorize charters in addition to school districts. This mountainous state isn't just resting upon brick and mortar charters, either. Three virtual charter schools currently offer their programs through cyberspace, reaching about 1 percent of the state's 262,000 students.

The biggest reform challenge facing Idaho educators may be high schools.  For years, the state's graduation standards were among the lowest in the United States. (The state still requires just two years of  math and science and two-and-a-half years of history for high school graduates.)

In 2005, the state board of education proposed a high school reform initiative that would raise the number of required math and science courses to four and three years, respectively. Moreover, seniors would have been required to complete a project and take one national test-the ACT, SAT, or Compass-as a prerequisite for graduation. The legislature, however, didn't approve funds for this overhaul.

For many people in Idaho, says state school board spokeswoman Luci Willits, the current number of credits required is "fine." Many citizens believe that "students... don't need math. That they will just work on the farm or in the mines. The state board doesn't agree with that."

While the board couldn't boost the number of courses required for graduation, it could and did raise the bar for the state's high school exit exam. It was raised from eighth-grade to tenth-grade level between 2004 and 2006.

Adding to the state's woes has been difficulty filling teacher vacancies with talented educators, especially in rural communities. During the 2005-2006 school year, districts received, on average, fewer than five applications for each of roughly 2,400 vacancies. And the vacancy rate has been rising steadily since 2001, when it stood at just over 1,400.

The state is starting to look to alternatively certified teachers to help ease the burden. The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence's (ABCTE's) Passport to Teaching program is beginning to certify teachers in Idaho. Plus Idaho has a "fast track" program for placing teachers in the classroom, though just a handful of candidates have completed the program and been hired into jobs.

Reform still isn't a staple in the state's education diet. But Idaho's needs are forcing it to experiment in some interesting ways. The ground may well be fecund enough for planting reform across the state.

 

back to top

< Previous  Next >

© Copyright 2003-2010 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute. All Rights Reserved.