Are Texas children fated for failure?

Christopher Swanson of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center researched and wrote this report. Texas fares abysmally in it. The press packet offers the following about the 13 indicators: "The 13 indicators that make up the index capture key performance or attainment outcomes at various stages in a person’s lifetime or are correlated with later success. For example, in the early-childhood years, indicators include the percent of children living in families that earn a decent wage and the percent of children with at least one parent who has a postsecondary degree – factors that research shows have an impact on how well children perform in school."

-Angela

Are Texas children fated for failure?
Texas ranks lower than all but three states in offering opportunities for success, study says.

By Bob Dart
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Thursday, January 04, 2007

WASHINGTON — A child born in Texas has less of a chance at achieving academic and economic success than a child born in almost any other state, an analysis released Wednesday by an educational research group found.

In its "Chance for Success Index," Texas ranked 48th among the 50 states and District of Columbia, reported the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. Only Arizona, Louisiana and New Mexico were lower.

Virginia's children had the best chance to succeed of those in any state, said the report, "From Cradle to Career: Connecting American Education From Birth to Adulthood."

But the findings are not an indictment of Texas public schools, stressed Christopher Swanson, director of the research center and author of the report. Indeed, he said the state's educational system is improving rapidly and doing a good job of offsetting many factors outside the classrooms.

The study "looks at education through a broader lens," he said. "Overall, the index captures the cumulative effects of education experience from birth through adulthood and pinpoints the chance for success at each stage and for each state. We find that a child's life prospects depend greatly on where he or she lives."

Many factors are beyond the reach of the school system. To see why Texas children are behind other states, it is useful to look at the advantages enjoyed by Virginia children.

"The average child in Virginia starts out ahead of the curve," the report said. Painting a statistical family portrait, Swanson showed that Virginia children are less likely to live in a low-income home and more likely to have college-educated parents than those in other states.

Blessed with these advantages, Virginia children are then more likely to succeed in elementary school, finish high school and go to college than kids in other states. Once the students have graduated, Virginia's well-educated adult population and strong economy offer better opportunities. The educated young Virginians stay in the state, find good jobs and have children, and the cycle is repeated.

In Texas and other states deemed to offer fewer opportunities, the cycle is reversed. Children are more likely to live in poverty, speak Spanish at home and have poorly educated parents. That contributes to academic shortcomings. After reaching adulthood, young Texans find an economy with fewer opportunities for high-paying jobs, Swanson said.

The Texas education system "is actually a bright spot," he said, but it can't "solve all the problems of society."

The Chance for Success Index is based on 13 indicators at various stages in life that are correlated with future achievement. For example, research has shown that early academic success is linked to family income and parental education. Children from families that are financially well off and whose parents have postgraduate degrees do better in elementary school than those from low-income families with high school dropouts as parents — at least, statistically speaking. Then, children who do well in elementary school are more likely to succeed in high school, go to college and find successful careers.

In general, the report shows that children born in the South and Southwest have less of a chance of academic and financial success than do those born in the Northeast and north central states.

Swanson said Texas faces a huge challenge in the index because its populace contains so many immigrants from Mexico and Central America. These newcomers are likely to be poor, speak Spanish and be relatively uneducated — all factors that foretell scholastic and economic problems for their children.

In contrast, none of the top 10 states in the index — Virginia, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Vermont — is near the nation's southern border.

But immigration is only one factor. Although three of the bottom four states border Mexico, and Louisiana is nearby, the lowest 10 also include Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Nevada and South Carolina.

A state's economy, especially its ability to provide high-paying jobs for a well-educated work force, is important, Swanson said.

Increasingly, industries want to be "where the talent is," said Mary Jo Waits, director of the Pew Center for the States, an offshoot of the Pew Charitable Trusts that is charged with finding effective public policies on issues facing the states.

Talented people "are going to choose states where their chances for success and their children's chances for success are greatest" — which speaks to the importance of this study, she said.

Based in Bethesda, Md., the nonprofit Research Center for Editorial Projects in Education conducts studies on issues in education that are often published in Education Week magazine. Funding for this research project was provided by the Pew Center for the States.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/04/4success.html