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In the last decade, the low-income elementary enrollment in the Madison Metropolitan School District grew from less than one-quarter to nearly 34 percent. Poverty presents a host of challenges to educators - parental involvement issues, reducing the achievement gap and the concern that many low-income students backslide during the summer - are just a few. Decisions about school finance issues will determine the extent to which local school districts have the resources to work with struggling students.
SAGE is much more than a program that reduces K-3 classes to 15 students. Integral, indeed required, components of SAGE include parental involvement, on-going student assessment, high academic standards, and staff development opportunities to ensure that teachers are using the best methods in the classroom. For five successive years, SAGE has received glowing academic evaluations from UW-Milwaukee researchers, who observed orderly classrooms and widespread one on one attention to students by teachers.
"Last year I had a student that came in at a pre-kindergarten reading level. If I had a class of 20 or more students, there's no way I would have been able to help that student catch up."
-- Maria Dyslin, 2nd grade teacher at Mendota Elementary.
By the end of the school year, the student was reading at a third grade level. Over 75 percent of the district's K-3 students are in SAGE classes, including 91 percent of low-income students. The District has made steady progress in cutting the achievement gap of African-American students on the 3rd Grade Reading Test (TGRT). Smaller classes, coupled with tremendous support from community volunteer tutors through the Schools of Hope project, are making a difference. Five years ago only 59% of all students scored at the proficient/advanced, compared to 71% in 2001-02. These achievement gains were attained while the District increased the total number of TGRT test-takers from 82% in 1998 to 90% in 2001-02.
Summer school is a critical element to academic success for many low-income students. Research confirms a widespread problem of summer learning loss among low-income students. The District's Summer Reading Academy, open to students struggling to read, is making headway to stem the loss. The six-week session with 10 students per class enabled all of the 500 students last summer to show reading improvement from the end of spring to the end of the summer program. It is also important to note that 100 % of the parents responding to a survey believed their child was better prepared for reading this school year - with 97% saying they would recommend the program to others and re-enroll their child next year. The program costs nearly $200,000 - with hopes of adding 300 more students next summer.The Wisconsin Supreme Court correctly identified state resources for districts with large numbers of low-income students as a key component of a constitutionally sound school aid formula. Closing the achievement gap and ensuring students leave third grade reading at grade level will not come cheaply, as the Court indicated. Continued resources for SAGE and full-funding for summer school are crucial.