Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / February 9, 2000

So…the State of Louisiana has finally started to respond to what can onlybe considered the deplorable condition of the educational system in this state. Finally, after all these years, steps are being taken to addressseveral issues, one of which is the fact that social promotion has become the norm, and kids are often passed to the next highest grade when they aren’t at that level academically.

To this end the state has instituted a test. Called the LEAP test – anacronym for Louisiana Educational Assessment Program – it is scheduled to begin this spring. The purpose of this test, which will be administeredto fourth and eighth graders, is to see that these kids are where they should be at that point in their schooling.

To put it simply, the tests are designed to ensure that little Johnny and little Suzie can read and write before being promoted to the next grade.

Hey, not a bad idea, huh? Somebody finally realized that a great many of the high school graduates in this state can’t fill out a job application, and they want to make sure the kids have a chance at a career that doesn’t involve a paper hat and asking people if they want fries with that greaseburger. They want the kids to be able to read and cipher just a bitbetter than Jethro Clampett. And that’s what the LEAP test is about. If Johnny and Suzie can’t pass it, they stay right where they are until they either pass it on a retry, or take it again next year. Now, that’smotivation. But there is a catch.A group of parents just don’t think that the test is justified.

The group, which has given itself the dramatic name of Parents for Educational Justice, has decided that the test is unfair. They don’t thinkit’s right to hold back a child based on the results of one test. They alsothink that the test could be “biased.”I’d like to know just what that test could be biased against. Feel free tocorrect me if I’m wrong, but I believe that every child in this state’s public school system sits in a class with their peers and, from day one, they all learn the same stuff. They will all be taking the same test. Thatis about as unbiased as you can get in my book.

If a kid can’t pass a test that the majority of his peers can pass after sitting with them in the same class from the very, very first day of the first grade, then the kid needs additional instruction. And that just mayinclude being held back.

Note this: When my generation was in school you weren’t held back. Youflunked. Or you failed. The emphasis was on you. YOU flunked. Or YOU failed.Now THEY hold you back. Interesting, eh? One of the arguments is that being “held back” will damage their little psyches. Yeah, well, nothing will ensure the status of social outcast morethan being the kid who was socially promoted again and again until they find themselves to be one of a few in their class who can’t read the want ads, much less do the school work they should be doing.

That paper hat will loom large in that kid’s future.

I have a message to Parents for Educational Justice. Louisiana has longhad a reputation as an American banana republic, and as long as people like you block efforts to make our system better it will never change. I noticedthat one of the founders of their little Justice group has a child in the fourth grade who will be facing the LEAP test this spring. Being the cynicI am, I have to wonder if they would have been so eager to challenge this academic step forward if their child didn’t stand to be directly affected by it.

As is usual these days, the over used word “justice” in their group’s name appears to mean “justice for me and my self interests.”A few years ago another attempt at making our education system better was blocked by a group with self-interest in mind. The state was going toinstitute a teacher’s test to evaluate whether or not out teachers were qualified to teach. “Whoa now!” cried some of the teachers. You can’t doTHAT! And they began to demonstrate with the tried and true method of the picket line. And in that picket line of striking New Orleans teachers Iwas horrified to see that some of the signs those teachers carried were actually misspelled. No wonder they didn’t want to test. They won, by the way, and there is still no system in place to make sure all our teachers – the majority of whom are well qualified in my opinion – can do what they are supposed to do.

And now people want to block another effort to at least try to make things a bit better in our schools, and for the future of our kids.

Jethro would be proud.

LEE DRESSELHAUS is a regular columnist for L’Observateur.

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