Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 March 2003 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2003

The AT&T and MCI WorldCom Shell Game *

AT&T and MCI WorldCom are playing a shell game with Indiana consumers. ♦ They lease wholesale phone service from the local phone company, SBC Indiana, at among the deepest discounts in the country. Then they pocket most of the savings instead of passing them along to you. While SBC Indiana provides phone service to everyone, AT&T and MCI WorldCom "cherry-pick" the most profitable customers. They say they're for competition. But at the same time they're raising their own long distance rates or fees, they are waging a fight to block SBC Long Distance from offering service in Indiana. Now they're pulling out all the stops to block House Bill 1627, which would end the AT&T and MCI WorldCom shell game.

■STEP ► Continued from Page 1 tests as much of the test was retooled to reflect the state’s new academic standards and requirements. Many wondered why the results weren’t released until now. The reason was to allow time to determine the passing scores for each test at each grade level. The new ISTEP-Plus tests helps Indiana comply with the federal Leave No Child Behind Act which requires that test results be provided in a number of economic, academic and demographic breakdowns. The Indianapolis Recorder obtained and analyzed ISTEP-plus data for African-American students statewide and in Indianapolis city/county and suburban school districts containing at least an African-American enrollment of 300. The Recorder’s analysis combined the total number of third, sixth and eighth graders who took and passed the test. Overall, African-American students in the Indianapolis Public Schools did better than expected on the ISTEP-Plus with 40 percent of Black third, sixth and eighth graders passing the language arts and 35 percent passing the math sections. IPS’ Black third graders did the best on ISTEP as 54 percent passed language arts and 52 percent passed math. The passing scores were far lower among Black sixth graders (34 percent language; 27 percent math) and Black eighth graders (32 percent language; 26 percent math). African-American students in the Anderson Community Schools had the lowest passing grades of any Indianapolis metropolitan area school district. J ust a third (33 percent) of Black students passed the language arts section while 29 percent passed the math portions. The highest performance by African-American students in the Indianapolis area occurred in two Hamilton County districts. In the Carmel schools, 72 percent of Blacks passed language and 77 percent passed math. In the Hamilton Southeastern school district, 71 percent of Blacks passed the ISTEP language section and 68 percent passed the math portions. Of the school districts in Marion County, Washington Township a.id Pike Township schools had the highest AfricanAmerican ISTEP results. In Washington Township 63 percent of Blacks passed language arts while 52 percent passed math. In Pike Township 57 percent passed the language section and 49 percent passed math.

Next best were Blacks in Decatur Township schools where the ISTEP results were 49 percent passing language arts; 50 percent passing math. AfricanAmerican students in Warren Township did better in language (49 percent passing) than in math (44 percent passing). Nearly half the Blacks in Speedway schools passed the ISTEP; 48 percent passing language and 46 percent passing math. Of the Indianapolis township schools, Wayne Township and Perry Township had the lowest percentage of African Americans passing the new ISTEP-Plus tests. In Wayne, 38 percent of Blacks passed language arts; 41 percent passed math. In Perry Township Blacks did better in mathematics (41 percent passed) with 38 percent passing language. The results are better than previous years ISTEP test results for Blacks; but there is plenty of room for improvement. The differences between African-American ISTEP passing rates and overall passing rates continue to be wide, even in so-called “affluent” school districts. Some of the differential in Af-rican-American and overall ISTEP scores is due to when the test is taken, just a couple of weeks after the start of a school year. In many cases African-American students taking the test are new to the school and may not have had the same level of academic study as other students. Another problem with ISTEP is that the results sometimes indicate sharp differences in student performances, especially when students come from homes in poverty. Accordingto State Superintendent Reed, “We have found in the past that students that attend schools where less than 50 percent of the families live below the poverty level do better than students in schools where more than half the students come from families below the poverty level.” Reed says that parental involvement is one key in improving the number of African-Ameri-can students who pass ISTEP. “Parents need to pay attention to the ISTEP reports their children will receive,” Dr. Reed told The Recorder. “The reports will outline the subjects and standards that students (and parents) need to pay attention to,” Dr. Reed added. This September, fifth graders will be tested on a new ISTEP science test and new third, sixth and eighth graders will take the new ISTEP-plus. And in 2004, ISTEP will be expanded to include all grades from third through 10th.

2002-03 ISTEP-PLUS RESULTS

Districts of 3004 Black Students

DISTRICT

TOTAL % PASSING

Lanouaoe

Math

Statewide

IPS

Decatur Twp.

Franklin Twp.

Lawrence Twp.

Perry Twp.

Pike Twp.

Warren Twp.

Washington Twp.

Wayne Twp.

Speedway

£armel

Hamilton SE

And they're doing it by hiding behind front groups they fund - like Voices for Choices - posing as consumer advocates, trying to block telecommunications reform in Indiana.

Send a message to AT&T and MCI WorldCom: This game is over.

Call 1-866-FAIR-SHK.

Paid for by SBC Indiana.

DISTRICT

BLACK % PASSING

Linguage