Good Schools May Not Be Enough, Even in Los Altos School District

The Wall Street Journal recently asked a well-known education research and advocacy group to conduct an analysis of state data to see where the achievement gap lies.

And, surprise.

Los Altos School District was among many affluent Silicon Valley districts that showed big gaps between financially well-off and poorer students, the article reported Thursday.

According to the analysis by the Education Trust-West, 96 percent of "economically advantaged" fourth-graders, defined as those who don't qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, were proficient in math, compared with 53 percent of those whose families' low income levels qualify them for the subsidized lunches. Statewide, 84 percent of economically advantaged fourth-graders were proficient in math, compared with 64 percent of their disadvantaged peers.

Arun Ramanathan, the group's executive director, said that lower-income parents may think that by coming to the district they're giving their child an advantage by going to these schools. "In fact, it's quite the opposite: There is no advantage," Ramanathan said. 

Assistant Superintendent Alyssa Gallagher said the district was working to improve. She added that there are so few economically disadvantaged students in the area that low performance by a handful of low-income students might have skewed the district's results.

The Wall Street Journal listed 10 schools, including Palo Alto Unified, Sunnyvale and Burlingame school districts, where the proficiency scores of the poorer students was lower than the statewide average and varied significantly from the economically advantaged students.

Read the full story, by Vauhini Vara, here.