[South Carolina] Education study says poverty, race factor into children's achievement

from WIS TV

The gap between rich and poor and black and white in South Carolina schools hasn't changed much in the past year. That's the word from a new education study.

When WIS visited a kindergarten class at Harbison West Elementary earlier this year, the teacher, Jan Westmoreland-Snipes, told us some of the five-year-olds weren't quite ready for school, "Some children come in and have never seen a book, never seen a book. We had a child several years ago that said he did not have a single book in his home."

Some say poverty leaves many children in South Carolina behind. This week, a study by the Education Oversight Committee found poorer kids consistently score lower than others and black students score lower than white ones.

For example, on the 2005 math PACT test, there was 28 percentage point difference between black and white children, and a 20 percentage point difference between free and reduced children and others.

David Potter of the Education Oversight Committee draws a link between the two factors, "It's very difficult to separate those two in South Carolina. So many of our children in poverty belong to African-American or Hispanic ethnic groups."

Potter did the study. He says in South Carolina, most of students who fail the tests are in poverty, and that it's related partially to their experiences and exposure to fewer books, less travel, a smaller vocabulary. Potter says, "We know the gaps are there before children go to the first grade."

That's something WIS found when we visited the kindergarteners at Lower Lee Elementary, when the teacher told us, "Some of them came in and they did not even know how to recognize their names."

But Potter says there are a small but growing number of schools closing the gap every year. A common theme is that they don't let any child who fails fall through the cracks. Extra classes, tutoring, and parent participation are among the strategies for success.

Potter talks about how everyone is pushing the children to succeed in those schools, "There's a strong commitment to the success of every child in those schools and they, even the bus driver, ask the children about their homework."

Potter recommended universal four-year-old kindergarten for all at-risk children in the state. So far this year, the house has passed $6 million for the most at-risk 4-year-olds.

There is amendment before the Senate Finance Committee to push that up to $23 million, which is estimated to provide 4-year-old kindergarten to 8,000 children in poverty.

If that passes, the next step is the Senate floor.