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In your February 21 issue, David Jesse reported on the use of consultants by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. I was particularly interested to read about the Pacific Educational Group (PEG), which has been working in the district for several years on equity issues and the achievement gap. According to Superintendent Roberts, PEG “has been instrumental in helping to keep the focus on the issue.” I would expect that for a consulting fee of $94,500 for the current school year listed in the article (past years’ fees were not given), PEG would indeed keep the focus on this critical, persistent issue. Just how serious is the “black-white” achievement gap in the Ann Arbor Public Schools? The March 2009 results by all AAPS 11th grade students on the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) reveal that in fact much more focus and action is needed. The data, available on the AAPS website under “Publications”, 2008-09 Annual Report, speak for themselves. Comparing the achievements of all Caucasian and African-American students in the district, the results show that students not meeting minimum state standards on six core academic areas are as follows:

English language arts: Non-proficient Caucasian students: 14.5% Non-proficient African-American students: 69.0%

Reading: Non-proficient Caucasian students: 12.2% Non-proficient African-American students: 56.4%

Writing: Non-proficient Caucasian Students: 2.2% Non-proficient African-American students: 34.0%

Mathematics: Non-proficient Caucasian students: 16.4% Non-proficient African-American students: 75.1%

Science: Non-proficient Caucasian students: 12.9% Non-proficient African-American students: 67.0%

Social studies: Non-proficient Caucasian students: 5.0% Non-proficient African-American students: 38.7%

Further, the following are the totals of all 11th grade AAPS students who did not meet minimum state standards on the March MME exams given every year since 2007. (Disaggregated achievement results based on student demographics are not available for comparison purposes.)

Review of these figures is informative. What is evident is that little progress - if any - has been made in the achievement of all AAPS 11th graders on the MME state exam in the last three years. Perhaps if the district had not spent a total of $1,348,790 in consulting fees out of the general fund over the last three years, as stated in Mr. Jesse’s article, and had rather invested in an effective districtwide chief instructional leader who could provide professional development and introduce significant educational reform efforts, then more students could have met state academic proficiency standards, and the disgraceful so-called “black-white” achievement gap could have been on its way to being just a sad historical tale.

Beverley B. Geltner, Ann Arbor

Editor's note: Beverley Geltner is the former superintendent of Saline Area Schools.

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