Flint 3rd grade reading proficiency has dropped from 41.8% in 2013 to 10.7%

[muriel_volestrangler]

Snyder and his administration didn’t cut it either, apparently ignoring the reading mission the same way they ignored the Flint water crisis: Third-grade reading proficiency in Flint, where Snyder allowed the water — and children — to be poisoned by lead, dropped from 41.8% in 2013, the first year of the poisoning, to 10.7% last year.

That’s a nearly three-quarters drop.

Read it again: That’s nearly a three-quarters drop in third-grade reading proficiency among children whose lives were affected by lead poisoned water during the Flint water crisis.

“We’re in crisis mode,” said Flint school board vice president Harold Woodson.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2018/02/06/sh-h-h-snyder-state-update-left-out-75-drop-reading-proficiency-flint/1074057001/

Via Charles Pierce: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a16638618/flint-water-crisis-not-over/

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. If I recall this piece of shit was first elected in 2010. How the fuck is he still there??!!! nt

[dewsgirl]

2. OMG. This is horrible.

[Igel]

5. But the devil's in the details.

From the same article, considering those without Pb-tainted water,

The reading proficiency problem isn’t limited to Flint. Third-grade reading proficiency dropped statewide from that 70% Snyder boasted about in 2015 to 44% last year. In Detroit, where thousands of children also have been victims of lead poisoning caused by massive blight abatement and renovation of homes, third-grade reading proficiency dropped from 11.7% three years ago to 9.9% this year.

Pb may be in the mix, but I could easily see the average in some communities being close to the proficiency line under the old standard, some a bit higher, and others a bit higher yet. Then when the new standards hit if they were all shifted down the same amount, you'd get truly stunningly different effects. In this case, lower achieving areas are likely to be poorer and more subject to both the Flint lead disaster as well as blight abatement. In other words, SES is a confound.

There's also a "teach to the test" effect. In a lot of lower-achieving schools they really focus on just those skills needed for the standardized test. In higher achieving schools, they focus on all sorts of things. Change the basket of skills needed, and suddenly one curriculum is mismatched to the new test while the other is still a reasonable fit. So in TX when they re-did the tests achievement dropped and the expectation was that just as happened with all the previous tests there'd be an upward trendline that over the course of several years would get students back to where they were. As schools and teams adjusted the basket of skills taught. And in some cases they'll never get back to where they were because the new standards are just harder.

The article discusses a methodology for the Legionnaire's outbreak. That's what would be needed for looking at the effect on 3rd-grade reading. They'd have to map scores against Pb levels block by block, and I'm not sure FERPA would allow that.

[malaise]

3. Studies were done here about learning deficiencies

and lead poisoning. This didn't have to happen. I hope they sue the governor et al.

This needs to be seen
Get thee to the greatest page

[llmart]

4. I thought there were already lawsuits against him?

I seem to remember articles about how he was lawyering up when the water crisis shit hit the fan.

[aidbo]

6. There is no safe amount of lead to ingest. Particularly for developing brains of children.