BOISE - The Idaho State Board of Education formally approved members of a citizen committee tasked with identifying strategies that will eliminate educational performance gaps for Idaho's minority students.
"It's clear from testing results that our minority students are falling behind," State Board of Education President Blake Hall said. "Greater attention must be given to these student populations so that learning gaps between minority and Caucasian students are eliminated. The State Board is committed to doing all it can to help our minority students with limited English proficiency succeed. The committee members appointed by the State Board are proven leaders in the minority community and I have confidence in their ability to evaluate our current system and to recommend positive changes."
As part of "No Child Left Behind," the state is required to bring all students to a proficiency level by 2013-2014 as part of "adequate yearly progress" requirements. According to spring ISAT scores from 2003, our minority population would be severely challenged to meet progress indicators. For instance, 66 percent of Idaho students must be proficient in reading and 51 percent must be proficient in math. Only 39 percent of our minority students were judged proficient in reading and 44 percent in math in fourth grade. The gap grows larger as students attend junior high and high school. Thirty-five percent of eighth grade students were judged proficient in reading, while only 18 percent passed in math. Of minority 10th grade students, only 26 percent passed the reading test, and 32 percent in math.
State Board members of the committee will include: President Blake Hall, Secretary Rod Lewis, Paul Agidius and Superintendent Marilyn Howard. Citizen committee members include:
The State Board Limited English Proficiency Committee will:
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