Chandler school board member: Reduce ethnicity tracking
Courtesy of Chandler USD
This graph, part of a Chandler Unified Governing Board study session packet, showing how CUSD students have consistently recently outperformed state averages in English and language arts, or ELA, and math. Other cohort and subgroup data in the presentation was not as positive.
One Chandler Unified School District board member questioned the use of ethnicity when collecting data on student acheivement during a recent meeting.
The discussion came following a presentation of assessment data the district uses to measure student achievement during the Sept. 10 meeting. Board member Kurt Rohrs said he would like to see the district move away from that.
“There seems to be — still — an obsession with ethnicity," Rohrs said. "And I’m not terribly convinced ethnicity is a good indicator of a kid’s behavior or their performance. Every kid’s different.”
Rohrs said if there’s a language ability problem, that will show up somewhere else besides in assessment scores.
“I’m kind of hoping we can move away from that and start treating these kids as individuals and addressing their needs as individuals —and not start perpetuating stereotypes that we should have gotten away from long ago,” Rohrs said.
Assessment data is useful and necessary, Dr. Jennifer Fletcher said.
“Assessments and data are good to help drive student success,” Fletcher said prior to Rohrs comments during the Sept. 10 meeting. “Our teachers use data and assessments to help students’ abilities be on campus, engage on campus, love school and start their learning journeys.”
Following the comments, Fletcher said it’s the obligation of districts, under state and federal laws, to report data by subgroups to ensure districts are driving toward success for every child.
“We agree with you,” Fletcher said. “It’s not the ethnicity that’s driving the behavior.”
Board President Patti Serrano agreed with Fletcher, noting one purpose of extensive research is to help stave off districts and school systems from past behaviors of marginalizing different groups of students.
“The data does indicate that we have, in fact, marginalized subgroups (through the years),” Serrano said. “The other example we saw there was our special education students.”
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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