The city of New Orleans is not the only thing that needs rebuilding in the wake Hurricane Katrina; young evacuees taking refuge in the Lone Star State scored significantly lower than Texan students on a statewide, standardized reading exam.
With 37,000 refugees enrolled in the Texas education system, the recent scores on the Texas Assessment and Skills of Knowledge exam indicate many students potentially could be repeating current school grades next semester.
Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, communications director for the Texas Education Agency, said 89 percent of all third-graders in Texas passed the exam, and 59 percent of Katrina refugees passed. Meanwhile, 80 percent of all fifth-grade students passed the reading exam, and 47 percent of evacuees garnered passing scores.
Ratcliffe said the disparity between the test scores of Texas' elementary school students and those of the evacuees can be linked to several factors.
"They've been traumatized," she said. "Also, we've been hearing from both New Orleans teachers and Texas teachers that New Orleans schools were not very good; the students just haven't had the opportunity."
Ratcliffe said she believes the young hurricane evacuees will be presented with the opportunity to make academic gains in the next few months as they are offered extra help.
"It is just a matter of giving them the opportunity to learn and presenting the information multiple times," she said. "It just won't happen over night. The test scores are not great, but they have a lot of opportunity to catch up."
Ratcliffe said the students who do not pass the standardized testing are required by law to get additional reading help, often in the form of an after-school program.
They will have the chance to retake the exam on April 19, and if they do not produce a passing score then a committee composed of parents, teachers and the principal meet to decide what else can be done to get the child on track, she said.
Their final opportunity to take the exam will be on June 28; any student who fails this test will be retained in their current grade unless the child's parent chooses to appeal the result.
According to The Associated Press, educators are worried that holding students back will increase the financial burden for the state, and the Texas Education Agency is estimating the state will spend upwards of $300 million educating evacuees this year alone.
The Texas Education Agency declared Thursday that federal aid allocated to the Lone Star State for schooling the refugees will be distributed to the districts that took in the new students.
Cary Short, an instructional specialist at Preston Smith Elementary School, said she has seen a Katrina evacuee who entered the Lubbock Independent School District lacking basic skills.
"(The student) can't read, and (the student) can't write, and (the student's) in the fourth grade," she said. "(The student) has been getting a lot more help here."
She said the student's environment in Louisiana probably did not encourage advancing his reading abilities.
Peggy Young, a counselor at Lubbock's Whiteside Elementary School, said Whiteside has two evacuee students and both of them are doing just fine in their courses.
She said she believes the trauma of the hurricane plays a role in the lower test scores that seem to be the trend across the state.
"Additionally, in the past, students who have been in the Louisiana school districts have had lower scores than the scores in this part of Texas," Young said.
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