February 10, 2010
My name is Stephen Gale. I live in Rincon Valley and my son graduated from Maria Carrillo High School. I am speaking tonight as the Chair of the Sonoma County Democratic Party.
The Sonoma County Democratic Party's support for issuance of Certificates of
Completion is already known to you based on our previous correspondence and testimony. I have come tonight to address two specific issues.
First, I ask you to consider whether it is reasonable to require all English Language
Learners who are "on track" students to pass the state's Exit Exam. While over 99.4% of regular education students passed the Exit Exam, only 81.9% of ELL students achieved the same result.
Research published in Education Policy Analysis Archives in 2008, concluded that it takes five to six years of English Language Learning in order to achieve a skill level required to pass the word problem section of a standardized test. This research was based on an analysis of the entire San Francisco Unified School.District's student database.
If this research is even remotely accurate, you are asking ELL students who have less than five to six years of English language experience to pass a test that is invalid for this category of students. If this research is even remotely accurate, you are asking many ELL's in Santa Rosa to do the impossible.
Unfortunately, the students who are being stigmatized are predominantly non-white, including members of the Eritrean and Latino communities. While your policy is not racially motivated, it has the unintended consequence of stigmatizing racial minorities disproportionately.
I also come before you tonight to take public note of your very unusual decision to prominently post, on the home page of the publicly funded website for the Board, the Sonoma County Democratic Party's letter and a reply that included false and misleading information, apparently intended to denigrate those who are asking for this policy change.
On February 9, one day before this hearing, you sent a letter to the local party acknowledging your false statements and admitting that this is the only School District in the County that does not issue Certificates of Completion.
Unfortunately, taking such an unusual action in the first place and waiting until yesterday to privately acknowledge your public lie means that the damage has already been done.
The posting of false information by Elected Officials in an attempt to discredit members of the public is repugnant in a Democracy and unacceptable to the voters of Santa Rosa.
To compensate for this unfortunate behavior on the part of the School Board, I ask that you post, on your home page, in a location of equal prominence, a link to this statement and a link to a true and accurate transcript of tonight's proceedings, including both public testimony and the statements of members of the Board. Further, I ask that you similarly post the exact wording of the motion ultimately enacted on this issue (whether tonight or in the future) along with the names of those voting yes, those opposed, those abstaining and those absent. The voting public needs to know how you choose to treat children with special needs, in light of evidence that you are asking them to do the impossible.
The Sonoma County Democratic Party urges you to issue Certificates of Completion and allow participation for students who complete all graduation requirements except passing the exit exam. We ask that you undo past injustice by making this policy retroactive.
Thank you for the hard work you do on behalf of our children.
Statement delivered by Stephen Gale, SCDP Chair, at the February 10 meeting of the Santa Rosa School Board
