By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

March 21, 2016 -- A UCLA professor and his team will present the first phase of his research into gaps in achievement among Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District students at a special upcoming community meeting.

Dr. Pedro Noguera, professor of education at the UCLA graduate school of education and information sciences, was selected by the School Board to develop an action plan to assist officials in closing achievement gaps and equity disparities in the district, said spokeswoman Gail Pinsker.

Noguera, who is considered one of the nation's most prominent authorities on urban education, had previously been the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University and also served as executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at NYU.

He has appeared as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets.

He was brought in by the Santa Monica-Malibu district last year to look into achievement gaps between white and minority students. His contract with the district pays Noguera $185,000 for the consulting work.

About 51 percent of the district's students are white, 30 percent are Latino, 6.4 percent are African American and 5.8 percent are of Asian American, but district data shows that 19 percent of African-American students are in special education classes, followed by 17 percent of Hispanic students.

White students in the district also have out-performed black and Latino students on standardized state tests.

The first phase of the team's research was an equity review of the district, which Noguera and his team conducted this past fall and earlier this year. The team visited each district campus, spoke with students and staff, gathered data and examined trends to come up with recommendations for the board.

“This work is the first phase in creating that plan and we appreciate your involvement in this process and your engagement in our efforts to continuously improve opportunities and outcomes for all of our students,” said Sandra Lyon, SMMUSD superintendent, on the district's website.

In a 2013 opinion piece published by the New York Times, Noguera said the No Child Left Behind policy had fallen short of its goals and called on the federal government to address inequalities in education.

“Not only is the policy not producing the progress that was promised, but also there is substantial evidence that it is having the unintended effect of undermining the educational opportunities of the very children it was meant to serve,” he wrote.

“Although the initiative was developed to foster equity between students, the method used to achieve it was all wrong. Educational opportunities were diminished, rather than increased, as vital programs in science, history, and the arts were cut across the board.

“The schools that teach some of the nation's poorest children saw the most drastic cutbacks—despite the fact that the act was supposed to help these children the most. Further, he explains that these cuts did nothing to decrease dropout rates (which still remain extremely high) or improve student success in literary skills or math,” Noguera wrote in the opinion piece.

The special community meeting will be held Thursday, April 7, at Santa Monica High School, 601 Pico Boulevard, at 4 p.m. For more information, call 310-450-8338.