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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas' annual reading test adjusted its difficulty every year, masking whether students are improving
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jeanne Sinclair, Memorial University of Newfoundland (THE CONVERSATION) Texas children's performance on an annual reading test was basically flat from 2012 to 2021, even as the state spent billions of additional dollars on K-12 education. I recently did a peer-reviewed deep dive into the test design documentation to figure out why the reported results weren't showing improvement. I found the flat scores were at least in part by design. According to policies buried in the documentation, the agency administering the tests adjusted their difficulty level every year. As a result, roughly the same share of students failed the test over that decade regardless of how objectively better they performed relative to previous years. From 2008 to 2014, I was a bilingual teacher in Texas. Most of my students' families hailed from Mexico and Central America and were learning English as a new language. I loved seeing my students' progress. Yet, no matter how much they learned, many failed the end-of-year tests in reading, writing and math. My hunch was that these tests were unfair, but I could not explain why. This, among other things, prompted me to pursue a Ph.D. in education to better understand large-scale educational assessment. Ten years later, in 2024, I completed a detailed exploration of Texas's exam, currently known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. I found an unexpected trend: The share of students who correctly answered each test question was extraordinarily steady across years. Where we would expect to see fluctuation from year to year, performance instead appears artificially flat. The STAAR's technical documents reveal that the test is designed much like a norm-referenced test – that is, assessing students relative to their peers, rather than if they meet a fixed standard. In other words, a norm-referenced test cannot tell us if students meet key, fixed criteria or grade-level standards set by the state. In addition, norm-referenced tests are designed so that a certain share of students always fail, because success is gauged by one's position on the 'bell curve' in relation to other students. Following this logic, STAAR developers use practices like omitting easier questions and adjusting scores to cancel out gains due to better teaching. Ultimately, the STAAR tests over this time frame – taken by students every year from grade 3 to grade 8 in language arts and math, and less frequently in science and social studies – were not designed to show improvement. Since the test is designed to keep scores flat, it's impossible to know for sure if a lack of expected learning gains following big increases in per-student spending was because the extra funds failed to improve teaching and learning, or simply because the test hid the improvements. Why it matters Ever since the federal education policy known as No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002 and tied students' test performance to rewards and sanctions for schools, achievement testing has been a primary driver of public education in the United States. Texas' educational accountability system has been in place since 1980, and it is well known in the state that the stakes and difficulty of Texas' academic readiness tests increase with each new version, which typically come out every five to 10 years. What the Texas public may not know is that the tests have been adjusted each and every year – at the expense of really knowing who should 'pass' or 'fail.' The test's design affects not just students but also schools and communities. High-stakes test scores determine school resources, the state's takeover of school districts and accreditation of teacher education programs. Home values are even driven by local schools' performance on high-stakes tests. Students who are marginalized by racism, poverty or language have historically tended to underperform on standardized tests. STAAR's design makes this problem worse. On May 28, 2025, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with a different norm-referenced test. As best as I can tell, this wouldn't address the problems I uncovered in my research. What still isn't known I plan to investigate if other states or the federal government use similarly designed tests to evaluate students. My deep dive into Texas' test focused on STAAR before its 2022 redevelopment. The latest iteration has changed the test format and question types, but there appears to be little change to the way the test is scored. Without substantive revisions to the scoring calculations 'under the hood' of the STAAR test, it is likely Texas will continue to see flat performance.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump's West Point speech brought partisanship to the home of the US military − 3 essential reads
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jeff Inglis, The Conversation (THE CONVERSATION) President Donald Trump's speech at the graduation of the class of 2025 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point included segments that were clearly scripted and portions that were obviously not. During the unscripted portions, Trump, who wore a bright red 'Make America Great Again' campaign hat during his entire appearance on May 24, 2025, delivered remarks that hit many of his frequent partisan political talking points. That included attacking presidential predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, describing immigrants to the U.S. as 'criminals' and trumpeting other policy accomplishments in his first and second terms. That level of partisanship in a military setting – on the campus of the nation's first military academy, and before an audience of cadets and their families, many of whom are veterans – is unusual in the United States. The Conversation U.S. has published several articles discussing the importance to democracy of keeping the military and partisan politics separate. Here are three highlights from that coverage. 1. Cadets focus on the Constitution During the West Point ceremony, the graduates themselves took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' And all of them had studied the significance of that oath, including in classes like those taught by Joseph G. Amoroso and Lee Robinson, active-duty Army officers who graduated from West Point and later served as professors there. As Amoroso and Robinson wrote, those classes teach cadets that, like all military personnel, they serve the Constitution and the American people, not a particular person or political party: ' (O)ur oath forms the basis of a nonpartisan ethic. In the U.S., unlike in many other countries, the oath implies military leaders should be trusted for their expertise and judgment, not for their loyalty to an individual or political party. We emphasize to cadets the rules and professional expectations associated with this profound responsibility.' 2. A tradition of nonpartisanship Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Mahaney, who teaches history, national security and constitutional law at Missouri University of Science and Technology, observed: ' (S)ince the days of George Washington, the military has been dedicated to serving the nation, not a specific person or political agenda. … (N)onpartisanship is central to the military's primary mission of defending the country.' Mahaney wrote that if Trump's actions during his second term meant a change from the centuries of precedent, 'military personnel at all levels would face a crucial question: Would they stand up for the military's independent role in maintaining the integrity and stability of American democracy or follow the president's orders – even if those orders crossed a line that made them illegal or unconstitutional?' 3. Dating back to the founding of the nation Marcus Hedahl and Bradley Jay Strawser, professors of philosophy who teach military ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, respectively, explain the reason for this long-standing focus on keeping politicians and politics separate from military action. ' To minimize the chance of the kind of military occupation they suffered during the Revolutionary War, the country's founders wrote the Constitution requiring that the president, an elected civilian, would be the commander in chief of the military. In the wake of World War II, Congress went even further, restructuring the military and requiring that the secretary of defense be a civilian as well.' As they observed, '… the framers always intended it to be the people's military – not the president's.'
San Francisco Chronicle
17-05-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
The millions of people displaced by tornadoes, wildfires and other disasters each year tell a story of recovery in America and who is vulnerable
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Tricia Wachtendorf, University of Delaware and James Kendra, University of Delaware (THE CONVERSATION) People often think of disasters as great equalizers. After all, a tornado, wildfire or hurricane doesn't discriminate against those in its path. But the consequences for those affected are not 'one-size-fits-all.' That's evident in recent storms, including the widespread storms that brought deadly tornadoes and downpours to several states over the 2024 Memorial Day weekend, and in the U.S. Census Bureau 's national household surveys showing who was displaced by disasters in 2023. Overall, the Census Bureau estimates that nearly 2.5 million Americans had to leave their homes because of disasters in 2023, whether for a short period or much longer. However, a closer look at demographics in the survey reveals much more about disaster risk in America and who is vulnerable. It suggests, as researchers have also found, that people with the fewest resources, as well as those who have disabilities or have been marginalized, were more likely to be displaced from their homes by disasters than other people. Decades of disaster research, including from our team at the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center, make at least two things crystal clear: First, people's social circumstances – such as the resources available to them, how much they can rely on others for help, and challenges they face in their daily life – can lead them to experience disasters differently compared to others affected by the same event. And second, disasters exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. This research also shows how disaster recovery is a social process. Recovery is not a 'thing,' but rather it is linked to how we talk about recovery, make decisions about recovery and prioritize some activities over others. Sixty years ago, the recovery period after the destructive 1964 Alaskan earthquake was driven by a range of economic and political interests, not simply technical factors or on need. That kind of influence continues in disaster recovery today. Even disaster buyout programs can be based on economic considerations that burden under-resourced communities. This recovery process is made even more difficult because policymakers often underappreciate the immense difficulties residents face during recovery. Following Hurricane Katrina, sociologist Alexis Merdjanoff found that property ownership status affected psychological distress and displacement, with displaced renters showing higher levels of emotional distress than homeowners. Lack of autonomy in decisions about how to repair or rebuild can play a role, further highlighting disparate experiences during disaster recovery. What the census shows about vulnerability The 2023 census data consistently showed that socially vulnerable groups reported being displaced from their homes at higher rates than other groups. People over 65 had a higher rate of being displaced than younger people. So did Hispanic and Black Americans, people with less than a high school education and those with low household incomes or who were struggling with employment compared to other groups. While the Census Bureau describes the data as experimental and notes that some sample sizes are small, the differences stand out and are consistent with what researchers have found. Low-income and marginalized communities are often in areas at higher risk of flooding from storms or may lack investment in storm protection measures. The morass of bureaucracy and conflicting information can also be a barrier to a swift recovery. After Hurricane Sandy, people in New Jersey complained about complex paperwork and what felt to them like ever-changing rules. They bemoaned their housing recovery as, in researchers' words, a ' muddled, inconsistent experience that lacked discernible rationale '. Residents who don't know how to find information about disaster recovery assistance or can't take time away from work to accumulate the necessary documents and meet with agency representatives can have a harder time getting quick help from federal and state agencies. Disabilities also affect displacement. Of those people who were displaced for some length of time in 2023, those with significant difficulty hearing, seeing or walking reported being displaced at higher rates than those without disabilities. Prolonged loss of electricity or water due to an ice storm, wildfire or grid overload during a heat emergency can force those with medical conditions to leave even if their neighbors are able to stay. That can also create challenges for their recovery. Displacement can leave vulnerable disaster survivors isolated from their usual support systems and health care providers. It can also isolate those with limited mobility from disaster assistance. Helping communities build resilience Crucial research efforts are underway to better help people who may be struggling the most after disasters. For example, our center was part of an interdisciplinary team that developed a framework to predict community resilience after disasters and help identify investments that could be made to bolster resilience. It outlines ways to identify gaps in community functioning, like health care and transportation, before disaster strikes. And it helps determine recovery strategies that would have the most impact. Shifts in weather and climate and a mobile population mean that people's exposure to hazards are constantly shifting and often increasing. The Coastal Hazard, Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience Hub, which our center is also part of, is developing tools to help communities best ensure resilience and strong economic conditions for all residents without shortchanging the need to prioritize equity and well-being. We believe that when communities experience disasters, they should not have to choose among thriving economically, ensuring all residents can recover and reducing risk of future threats. There must be a way to account for all three. Understanding that disasters affect people in different ways is only a first step toward ensuring that the most vulnerable residents receive the support they need. Involving community members from disproportionately vulnerable groups to identify challenges is another. But those, alone, are not enough. If we as a society care about those who contribute to our communities, we must find the political and organizational will to act to reduce the challenges reflected in the census and disaster research. This article, originally published March 4, 2024, has been updated with latest severe storm systems.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Teachers and librarians are among those least likely to die by suicide − public health researchers offer insights on what this means for other professions
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jordan Batchelor, Arizona State University; Charles Max Katz, Arizona State University, and Taylor Cox, Arizona State University (THE CONVERSATION) Where you work affects your risk of dying by suicide. For example, loggers, musicians and workers in the oil and gas industries have much higher rates of suicide than the rest of the population. But on the flip side, some professions have very low rates of suicide. One of them is education. National and state data shows that educators in the U.S., including teachers, professors and librarians, are among the least likely to die by suicide. We're a team of researchers at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University. We manage Arizona's Violent Death Reporting System, part of a surveillance system sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with counterparts in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. We collect data on violent deaths, including suicide, thanks to agreements with local medical examiners and law enforcement. When public health researchers like us look at suicide data, we often focus on high-risk populations to learn where intervention and prevention are most needed. But we can learn from low-risk populations such as educators too. Why some professions have higher suicide rates Over the past 25 years, the suicide rate in the U.S. has increased significantly. The age-adjusted rate in 2022 was 14.2 suicides per 100,000 people, up from 10.9 a little over two decades earlier, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Epidemiologists often adjust data for age to allow for a fairer comparison of incidence rates across populations with different age distributions. But not all populations are affected equally. For example, military veterans die by suicide at higher rates than civilians, as do men, older adults and American Indian and Alaska Natives, to name a few demographics. In 2022 the suicide rate for men, for instance, was 23 suicides per 100,000, versus 5.9 for women. The rate of suicide among the working-age population is also growing. Over the past two decades it has increased by 33%, reaching a rate of 32 suicides per 100,000 for men and eight for women in 2021. And workers in certain occupations are at higher risk of dying by suicide than others. The reasons why are complex and diverse. Workers in construction, an industry with some of the highest suicide rates, may face greater stigma getting help for mental health issues, while people in other fields such as law enforcement may be more exposed to traumatic experiences, which can harm their mental health. In short, some explanations are directly tied to one's work, such as having low job security, little autonomy or agency, and an imbalance of work efforts and rewards. Other factors are more indirect, such as an occupation's demographic makeup or the type of personality that chooses a profession. Together, factors like these help explain the rate of suicide across occupations. Teachers, professors and librarians Educators, on the other hand, have relatively little suicide risk. By educators, we mean workers classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as 'educational instruction and library,' which includes teachers, tutors, professors, librarians and similar occupations. Nationally, about 11 in 100,000 male educators died by suicide in 2021, with the figure for women being about half that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, the rate for male workers in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media was 44.5 suicides per 100,000, and the rate for male workers in construction and extraction was 65.6. Data from our state of Arizona follows the same pattern. From 2016 through 2023, a total of 117 educators died by suicide, mostly primary and secondary school teachers. This works out to be an incidence rate of 7.3 suicides per 100,000 educators − one-third the rate for all Arizona workers and the lowest among all occupations in the state. So why are educators at such a low risk of suicide? After all, educational professions certainly present their own challenges. For example, many teachers experience high amounts of burnout, which can cause physical and mental health problems such as headaches, fatigue, anxiety and depression. A good place to begin is the profession's demographic composition. A disproportionately high share of educators are women or are married − traits associated with lower suicide rates. Educators also tend to have high educational attainment, which may indirectly protect against suicide by increasing socioeconomic status and employability. Another factor is workplace environment. Workplaces that offer increased access to lethal means such as firearms and medications are associated with higher suicide rates. This helps explain why workers in law enforcement, medical professions and the military tend to show high rates. The comparatively low availability of lethal means in schools may help keep educators' rates low. In addition, educators' workplaces, typically schools and campuses, offer rich opportunities to form strong social relationships, which improve one's overall health and help workers cope with job stress. The unique, meaningful bonds many educators form with their students, administrators and fellow educators may offer support that enhances their mental health. Finally, based on more contextual information in our Arizona database, we found that a lower proportion of educators who died by suicide had an alcohol or drug abuse problem. Alcohol or substance abuse problems can increase suicidal ideation and other work-related risk factors such as job insecurity and work-related injury. In short, educators may live a healthier lifestyle compared with some other workers. Improving worker health So, what can workers and employers in other professions learn from this, and how can we improve worker health? One lesson is to develop skills to cope with job stress. All professions are capable of producing stress, which can negatively affect a person's mental and physical health. Identifying the root cause of job stress and applying coping skills, such as positive thinking, meditation and goal-setting, can have beneficial effects. Developing a social network at the workplace is also key. High-quality social relationships can improve health to a degree on par with quitting smoking. Social relationships provide tangible and intangible support and help establish one's sense of purpose and identity. This applies outside the workplace, too. So promoting work-life balance is one way organizations can help their employees. Organizations can also strive to foster a positive workplace culture. One aspect of such a culture is establishing a sense of meaning or purpose in the work. For educators, this feature may help offset some of the profession's challenges. Other aspects include appreciating employees for their hard work, identifying and magnifying employee strengths, and not creating a toxic workplace. It is worth noting that continued research on occupational health is important. In the context of educators, more research is needed to understand how risk differs between and within specific groups. Despite their overall low risk, no person or demographic is immune to suicide, and every suicide is preventable.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that's a problem for fishing's future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) David Shiffman, Arizona State University (THE CONVERSATION) The single greatest threat to the diversity of life in our oceans over the past 50 years, more than climate change or plastic pollution, has been unsustainable fishing practices. In much of the ocean, there is little to no regulation or oversight of commercial fishing or other human activities. That's part of the reason about a tenth of marine plant and animal species are considered threatened or at risk. It's also why countries around the world have been creating marine protected areas. These protected areas, covering over 11.6 million square miles (30 million square kilometers) in 16,000 locations, offer refuge away from human activities for a wide variety of living creatures, from corals to sea turtles and whales. They give fish stocks a place to thrive, and those fish spread out into the surrounding waters, which helps fishing industries and local economies. In the U.S., however, marine protection is being dismantled by President Donald Trump. Trump issued a proclamation on April 17, 2025, titled ' Unleashing American commercial fishing in the Pacific,' ordering the removal of key protections to allow commercial fishing in parts of a nearly-500,000-square-mile marine protected area called the Pacific Island Heritage National Marine Monument. He also called for a review of all other marine national monuments to decide if they should be opened to commercial fishing too. In addition, the Trump administration is proposing to redefine 'harm' under the Endangered Species Act in a way that would allow for more damage to these species' habitats. I'm a marine biologist and scuba diver, and it's no accident that all my favorite dive sites are within marine protected areas. I've found what scientific studies from across the world show: Protected areas have much healthier marine life populations and healthier ecosystems. What's at risk in the Pacific The Pacific Island Heritage National Marine Monument, about 750 miles west of Hawaii, is dotted by coral reefs and atolls, with species of fish, marine mammals and birds rarely found anywhere else. It is home to protected and endangered species, including turtles, whales and Hawaiian monk seals. Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef, both within the area, are considered among the most pristine coral reefs in the world, each providing habitats for a wide range of fish and other species. These marine species are able to thrive there and spread out into the surrounding waters because their habitats have been protected. President George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, created this protected area in 2009, restricting fishing there, and President Barack Obama later expanded it. Trump, whose administration has made no secret of its aim to strip away environmental protections across the country's land and waters, is now reopening much of the marine protected area to industrial-scale fishing. The risks from industrial fishing When too many fish are killed and too few young fish are left to replace them, it's considered overfishing, and this has become a growing problem around the world. In 1974, about 10% of the world's fish stocks were overfished. By 2021, that number had risen to 37.7%, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's annual State of Fisheries and Aquaculture Report. Modern industrial-scale fishing practices can also harm other species. Bycatch, or catching animals that fishermen don't want but are inadvertently caught up in nets and other gear, is a threat to many endangered species. Many seabirds, sea turtles and whales die this way each year. Some types of fishing gear, such as trawls and dredges that drag along the sea floor to scoop up sea life, can destroy ocean habitat itself. Without regulations or protected areas, fishing can turn into a competitive free-for-all that can deplete fish stocks. How marine protected areas protect species Marine protected areas are designed to safeguard parts of the ocean from human impacts, including offshore oil and gas extraction and industrial fishing practices. Studies have found that these areas can produce many benefits for both marine life and fishermen by allowing overfished species to recover and ensuring their health for the future. A decade after Mexico established the Cabo Pulmo protected area, for example, fish biomass increased by nearly 500%. Successful marine protected areas tend to have healthier habitats, more fish, more species of fish, and bigger fish than otherwise-similar unprotected areas. Studies have found the average size of organisms to be 28% bigger in these areas than in fished areas with no protections. How many babies a fish has is directly related to the size of the mother. All of this helps create jobs through ecotourism and support local fishing communities outside the marine protected area. Marine protected areas also have a ' spillover effect ' – the offspring of healthy fish populations that spawn inside these areas often spread beyond them, helping fish populations outside the boundaries thrive as well. Ultimately, the fishing industry benefits from a continuing supply. And all of this happens at little cost. A need for more protected areas, not fewer Claims by the Trump administration that marine protected areas are a heavy-handed restriction on the U.S. fishing industry do not hold water. As science and my own experience show, these refuges for sea life can instead help local economies and the industry by allowing fish populations to thrive. For the future of the planet's whales, sea turtles, coral reefs and the health of fishing itself, scientists like me recommend creating more marine protected areas to help species thrive, not dismantling them.
