ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In this week’s installment we looked at the reading scores for black children and what’s being done to close the learning gaps with those children.
We checked the Florida Department of Education’s database to examine those reading scores. The reading scores are measured by the passing scores on the English Language Arts portion of the Florida Standards Assessments test also known as FSA: https://edudata.fldoe.org/StrategicPlan/reports/Strategic-GAP-Report-District.html
According to those records, during the 2018-2019 school year in Hillsborough County, 69 percent of white children passed the ELA portion of the FSA compared to just 35 percent of Black children.
All Bay area counties had a similar gap. In Pinellas County 64 percent of white children passed that potion of the FSA test while only 27 percent of black children passed. In Pasco 42 percent of black children passed. 34 percent passed in Polk and in Manatee County 31 percent passed.
Denise Ford works as a tutor and runs her own school in St. Pete and she said the numbers are not a representation of black kids failing. Instead she said it shows how schools are failing these kids.
“I don’t like, I actually resent the narrative that we’re intellectually inferior or that it’s because of our household make up or our socioeconomic status that represents these scores,” Ford said. “I personally think it’s deliberate. I think it’s systemic. You look at the reading scores and that’s why my passion is with reading. The methods and policies they use to teach our children how to read are not effective.”
So why is there a gap and what is it going to take to close it? Manatee County School District’s Executive Director of Curriculum, Shirin Gibson said a fix isn’t going to happen overnight.
“We find that across the board kindergarten through first grade is sometimes a challenge, low socioeconomically and then by the time they get to second and third grade with more academic exposure to academic vocabulary, they seem to catch up. I wouldn’t say close the gap by any means but they seem to catch up and the learning gains are faster and they’re in the positive range,” Gibson said.
The FSA scores for the 2019-2020 school year aren’t available for review because the state tests were cancelled due to Covid-19.
For more information about how you can participate the barbershop book club mentioned in our story and how you can help to their literacy program visit http://www.csbg2325.booksy.com to book an appointment and to donate: