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The Learning-Disadvantage Gap, describes a substantial and growing divergence of K-12 educational opportunities for public and charter school students in the USA. This report is an ongoing critique that directs attention to the controversial federal and states standardized testing and reform that includes an equality and legal analysis of the difference between learning opportunities for the socio-academically disadvantaged versus advantaged.

The Learning-Disadvantage Gap, researched and developed over a 5 year period, is articulated by John Charles "Johnny" Thompson and team, with Parents and Students for Music and Arts aka allartsallkids.org. It is not to be confused with the achievement gap accountability of divergence between minorities and non-minority students' math and English standardized "high-stakes" testing. In comparison, the Learning-Disadvantage Gap is concerned with the divergence between equal and unequal-learning opportunities for all, and how it becomes standardized socio-academic discrimination.

Students of Socio-Academic Disadvantage

The student of socio-academic disadvantage is identified simply by a low(er) math or English high-stakes test score.* **See notes section He/she often has limited educational support from a low income family,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] single-parent home, or is an English-language learner (ELL or LEP).[9][10][11] Unstable home environment is also common, as is malnutrition, insufficient sleep and/or inability to sit and concentrate for long periods. This student is likely not a good high-stakes test taker.*notes[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] This adds to widening of the math and English achievement gap.[20][21][22][23] If a test or surrounding circumstance, however, is not fair to the student, neither can it serve in the long-term interest and goals of the state and federal governments.

A public or charter student’s low(er) standardized high-stakes testing score in math or English causes “remedial” (doubling) of these selectively endorsed (required) high-stakes "curricula" (subjects).**notes This routinely results in the standardized sanctioning (denied access) of school-day music and arts plus other non high-stakes whole-student curricula.***notes[24][25][26][27][28] Governments and schools excuse and dismiss it as “scheduling conflicts”,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] but it is not enough that the curricula material is in the state and districts curriculum if it is not actually taught in the classrooms equally.

All states provide public education, and therefore, each has a state and U.S. Constitutional duty to ensure "basic equality of educational opportunity" - Butt v. California, Ca Supreme Crt, 1992.†††notes[36][37][38][39] Standardized socio-academic discrimination comes from an unequally-denied opportunity because of a low(er) high-stakes math and/or English testing score, putting him/her at an immediate and future disadvantage.†notes[40][41] School-districts' implementation of test-driven math and English "achievement" goals, however, routinely enforce top-down “no excuses” test-results.[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]

Federal and states K-12 education laws and policies today in the U.S. emphasize "rigor" and "grit", "readiness" and "success",[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] but are designed to selectively endorse, enforce and guarantee only math and English instruction.[57][58] This is the daily narrow-curriculum and test-driven reality in all public and charter schools that receive federal and/or state funding,[59] contrary to the laws and a major public speech made by the U.S. Secretary of Education on April 9th, 2010. It included the statement, "we will not endorse or sanction any specific curricula -- the Department is in fact appropriately prohibited by law from endorsing or sanctioning curricula."[60][61]

The initial law restricting the activities of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) is still the law today under the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979, although it is not being enforced.[62] It states clearly that no federal official should attempt to "exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, [or] administration... of any educational institution." In early 2001, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) came before Congress for reauthorization in the form of H.R. 1, The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Before NCLB was enacted, Congress was advised by its own commissioned non-partisan report and forewarned by testimonies and scores of data. States' 1990's implementations of early forms of standardized testing in math and English were already raising inequality and inequity questions. As a result, NCLB section 9527 was added which, in part, forbid the federal government from creating any curriculum of nationalized standards or endorsing a state's curriculum.††notes[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73] USDOE restrictions continue to be unenforced, which includes negative effects from NCLB and its Title I distribution for economically-poor communities.[74] Common Core "State" Standards plus copy-cat cores, and Race to the Top and other competitionized programs are also being affected.[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]

In so far as federal authorities and state governments test-driven and accountability systems standardize inequality and promote socio-academic discrimination, the unintentional negative impact versus the intentional civil-rights discriminatory model are the same. The higher courts have been trending in agreement particularly when the discriminatory effects have fallen more harshly on one group than another.†notes[91](p.26) “Separate educational facilities [or curriculum] are inherently unequal” - Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. B.o.E., U.S. Supreme Court, 1954.†††notes[92][93][94][95][96][97][98]

"The [U.S.] Supreme Court has since held that proof of discriminatory intent is not required in a [Civil Rights Act] Title VI action of equitable relief. [refer to p.26 previous citation #36] The Title, furthermore, has been consistently administered in this manner for almost two decades without interference by Congress. Under these circumstances, it must be concluded that Title VI reaches unintentional, disparate-impact [unequal-opportunity] discrimination as well as deliberate racial discrimination".[99][100]

Today's student of socio-academic disadvantage endures high-stakes test intimidation and humiliating "stupid class" remediation (repeated curricula),[101] repeated grade levels, aka rank and label profiling or negative stereotyping and segregated,[102] denied-access educational opportunities that rival the 1950s.† ††notes[103][104][105][106][107][108][109] The student of socio-academic disadvantage too often has a daily-learning environment that may be described in a simple civil-rights K-12 "math" equation: standardization + high-stakes testing = standardized inequality and discrimination.* ** ***notes

Students of Socio-Academic Advantage

The student of socio-academic advantage is identified simply by a high(er) math and English test score. He/she often comes from a mid to upper-income family in an academically supportive environment.[110][111] This student is likely a good high-stakes test taker. That said, educators explain that this is a poor substitute for real learning.* ** ***notes[112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123]

When a public or charter school student "achieves" a good score on a high-stakes standardized test in math and/or English, this often allows for continued school-day access (via “electives” and “pullouts”) to whole-student non high-stakes curricula such as music and arts.***notes[124] Even when such well-balanced curricula are increasingly sanctioned for all students, the socio-academic advantaged can often outsource for opportunistic advantages. The primary-curriculum issue here is not of funding per se, but of excessive and high-stakes standardized testing of math and English,[125] which dominates funding and dictates today’s two-tier enabling-versus-disabling educations.[126][127][128]

The student of socio-academic advantage is disproportionately and unequally enabled by high(er) high-stakes math and English test scores to avoid standardized discrimination, and benefit from well-balanced whole-student educational opportunities. He/she is advantaged to compete and succeed in personal development and social skills, education, career and life.[129][130][131][132][133][134]

See also

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Notes

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(*) The High-Stakes Education Rule:[135][136] What is tested with “high-stakes” and excessive standardized accountability gets taught; what is not tested gets unequal or denied access. (aka "what is tested gets taught") The K-12 student of socio-academic advantage [high(er) test score] gets whole-student curriculum access unequally or can outsource to learn, while the “invisible” disadvantaged [low(er) test score] learns to grow up with a disproportionately narrow, separate and disabling, denied-access curriculum and educational opportunities.[137][138][139][140][141][142] - John Charles Thompson, Parents and Students for Music and Arts. The Rule is an example of Campbell’s Law (1976)[143]

(**) Endorsed: High-stakes tested gets taught. Sanctioned: Not tested is not taught. Curricula: Individual subjects. Curriculum: Schedule of all subjects taught. K-12 high-stakes and excessive standardized testing of endorsed math and English: Students are denied equal access to sanctioned whole-student curricula,***[144][145] as well as the denial of grade advancements and diplomas. Funding, plus teacher and administration jobs depend on relentless, unreliable test scores. Local schools are closing.[146]

Competitive federal and state high-stakes testing pits "kids against kids,[147][148][149][150][151] parents against parents,[152][153][154] teachers against teachers,[155][156][157][158][159][160][161] principals against principals,[162] schools against schools,[163][164][165][166][167][168][169] districts against districts,[170] states against states, and nations against nations".[171][172][173]

Such high-stakes competition produces “teaching to the test” (test-prepping abuse), excessive testing and The High-Stakes Education Rule.[174] States refer to teacher “accountability” from their students' test scores as “VAM” (value-added measures), but research has shown the policy to be counter-productive to learning.[175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190]

(***) Whole-student education: Equal access to all curricula balanced by engaging music and arts, plus PE, sports and recess for the youngest. Includes science, social studies, civics, history, foreign language, literature, technology and more. Whole-student ed emphasizes “the individual” to build lifelong love of learning, character and self-reliance, curiosity and creativity, imagination and innovation, critical and civic thinking, as well as learning social, team and leadership abilities.[191][192]

† Disability or disabling: “anything that disables or puts one at a disadvantage” (dictionary.com).

†† SEC. 9527. PROHIBITIONS ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS:
(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION. -Nothing in this Act [ESEA/NCLB] shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school's curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend and funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act.

(b) PROHIBITION ON ENDORSEMENT OF CURRICULUM. -Notwithstanding any other prohibition of Federal law, no funds provided to the department under this Act may be used by the Department to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in an elementary school or secondary school.

(c) PROHIBITION ON REQUIRING FEDERAL APPROVAL OR CERTIFICATION OF STANDARDS. -
(1) IN GENERAL. -Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law, no State shall be required to have academic content or student academic achievement standards approved or certified by the Federal Government, in order to receive assistance under this Act.

††† Additional quotes relative to U.S. Constitution and K-12 education C-1 through C-11:

  • C-2 "an unlawful interstate compact to which the U.S. Congress has never consented, whose existence and operation violate the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, § 10, cl. 3, as well as numerous federal statutes; and that Missouri's participation in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium [a form of Common Core State Standards] as a member is unlawful under state and federal law."[193]
  • C-3 The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment directs that "all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike" — F.S. Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 415, 1920.
  • C-4 “It is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms” — Brown v. B.o.E., U.S. Supreme Court, 1954.
  • C-5 “Individual rights do not stop at the school-house gate” — Tinker v. Des Moines, U.S. Supreme Court, 1969.
  • C-6 "Plantiffs have proven, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the Challenged Statutes impose a real and appreciable impact on students' fundamental right to eqality of education and that they impose a disproportionate burden on poor and minority students. Therefore the Challenged Statutes will be examined with 'strict scrutiny', and State Defendants/Intervenors must 'bear [] the burden of establishing not only that [the state] has a compelling interest which justifies [the Challenge Statutes] but that the distinctions drawn by the law[s] are necessary to further [their] purpose." — Serrano v. Priest decision (emphasis added), 1971.
  • C-7 “The U.S. Supreme Court has since held that proof of discriminatory intent is not required in a Title VI action for equitable relief... Thus a Title VI action can now be maintained in either the guise of a disparate 'treatment' case, where proof ofdiscriminatory motive is critical, or in the guise of a disparate 'impact' case, involving employment [education?] practices that are facially neutral in their treatment of different groups but that in fact fall more harshly on one group than another. In this latter type of case, proof of discriminatory intent is not necessary.” — Guardians Association v. Civil Service Commission of the City of New York, 463 U.S. 582, 103 S. Ct. 322, 77 L.Ed.2d 866, 1983.[194]
  • C-8 “The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or State government, but [instead] for the protection of individuals. State officials cannot consent to the enlargement of the power of Congress beyond those enumerated in the Constitution” — New York v. United States, U.S. Supreme Court, 1992.
  • C-9 "Neither a test score or any other kind of information can justify a bad decision. Research has shown that students are hurt by simple retention and repetition of a grade in school without remedial and other instructional support services. In the absence of effective services for low-performing students, better tests will not lead to better educational outcomes."...
    — "When test use is inappropriate, especially when making high-stakes decisions about individuals, it can undermine the quality of education and equality of opportunity."...
    — "[At the elementary and secondary education level,] appropriate test use for... all students requires that their scores not lead to decisions or placements that are educationally detrimental." — National Research Council, High-stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion and Graduation, p.3, p.4, p.40-41, Jay P. Heubert & Robert M. Hauser eds., 1999.
  • C-10 “In fact, the NRC, APA, AERA, NCME, and others caution against making high-stakes decisions based on a single test score. Other relevant information should be taken into account if it will enhance the overall validity of the decision.” — Joint Standards, p.146, 1999.
  • C-11 “The key question in the context of standards-based reforms and the use of tests as measures of student accountability is: have all students been provided quality instruction, sufficient resources, and the kind of learning environment that would foster success?... Third, a test score disparity among groups of students does not alone constitute discrimination under federal law. The guarantee under federal law is for equal opportunity, not equal results.” — The Use of High-Stakes Decision-Making for Students: A Resource Guide for Educators and Policy-Makers, Central Principles, p.v (introductory), U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2000.

References/Citations

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