In Seattle, test scores lag but opportunities align to help Black male students

Jacob Montgomery is spending part of his last summer before college interning for construction company Skanska USA. But he’s not hammering nails or building structures. 

On a recent Thursday morning in Bellevue, the 18-year-old Cleveland High School graduate was shadowing a college intern who is on the path to becoming a superintendent — the lead on a construction project overseeing operations and quality control. Montgomery was learning what field managers have to look out for and how to plan day-to-day schedules for a 25-story office building.

“At first I didn’t think much of it,” Montgomery said. “I didn’t want to sit around wasting my last summer before college. I gave it a shot and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Montgomery is making $20 an hour. He is also shadowing leaders in the marketing, engineering and real estate departments. 

His internship is possible because of a partnership between Skanska and Seattle Public Schools’ Office of African American Male Achievement. Usually, Skanska only offers internships for college students, but it expanded to Seattle high school students 16 and older this summer to expose young people to possible careers in the construction industry, said Justin Lee, a commercial manager. 

“Opportunity is important,” said Adam Haizlip, a manager in the African American Male Achievement office. “Especially for young Black males in the Seattle region. If you look around, we’re still here, but we’re more and more dispersed.” 

The partnership is part of a broader SPS initiative to dismantle anti-Black racism and make the education system work for students of color, specifically Black males. That’s been a focus since 2019, a few years after the disparity in test scores between Black and white students in the district gained national attention. 

But the other key part of the districtwide initiative is improving the experience Black males have in school. Officials are still working out the details, but the Skanska internships are one idea. The district is also trying a new way of measuring progress, something SPS has never done before. 

Test scores still matter

Montgomery, who will study exercise science at Seattle Pacific University in the fall, said he first learned about the internship through his Kingmakers class, an elective program for middle and high school Black male students; the class is also part of the district’s initiative. Including Montgomery, there are five SPS students interning at Skanska this summer, and the goal is to get more students interested next summer, Haizlip said.

However, measuring test scores remains a core indicator of success for the initiative. 

To see if Seattle Public Schools’ efforts are working, administrators are monitoring seventh grade math and third grade reading scores on the standardized Smarter Balanced Assessment among Black males and students of color. By 2026, SPS’ goal is for 70% of these students to score proficient or higher. 

Since 2019, students have not met the district’s targets. (There is no data from 2020 and 2021 because standardized tests were canceled during the beginning of the pandemic.) 

Recently released test scores for the spring of 2022 show Black male students and students of color are still far off from where district officials hoped. But third grade reading scores did stay stable compared to 2019, SPS officials said, which shows there wasn’t a loss during online learning. 

The new scores show Black male seventh grade math scores are edging close to district goals, but students of color were dramatically below SPS targets. Black males who scored proficient or higher in spring 2022 were about 4 percentage points lower than the district’s projected goals. Students of color — who include Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and North African, Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander, Black/African American, and multiracial students — were about 25 percentage points below the target. 

In spring 2022, third grade reading scores for Black males were about 16 percentage points below district goals, and students of color were about 12 percentage points below. 

To help bring up these scores, Seattle Public Schools has implemented new math and reading curricula at 13 schools that have students of color as majorities. Before the change, the district didn’t have a standard reading or math curriculum — educators decided how to teach these courses, usually drawing on what they learned in teacher prep classes and how they were taught in school. Eventually, the new curricula will be at every school. 

But beyond test scores, the district wants to measure the experience students are having in schools. 

For now, SPS uses a climate survey given out to African American males. Students in grades three through five are asked about math, and in sixth through eighth grades they’re asked about reading. In spring 2023, about 37% of students said the math they are learning is relevant to their lives, according to survey results. And 69% of students agreed their teachers believe they can do well in math. 

Part of improving student experiences is also making sure adults’ ideas align with student needs, Haizlip said. When the Office of African American Male Achievement works on new initiatives, student input is always sought out and considered.

About 45% of Black males said they see themselves reflected in the books they read, results from the spring 2023 climate survey showed. About 71% enjoyed reading, 73% said reading was easy for them and more than half read books outside of school. 

The students who responded positively to questions about enjoying reading, reading outside of school and finding reading to be easy are more likely to score proficient on standardized tests, said Cashel Toner, executive director of curriculum instructional support, during last month’s board meeting.

“That’s something we can mirror back to our educators and talk about which specific students are answering and how their identity relates to reading proficiency,” Toner said.

With the Skanska internships, “one of the things students are learning is immersion,” Haizlip said. It’s important for students to be in professional environments, gain experience and be exposed to different careers, he said.

“It’s hard to learn something from the textbook, but once you get hands-on practical knowledge and put the pieces together, it makes sense,” he added. 

For Montgomery, starting at Cleveland High his sophomore year and being a part of Kingmakers “really changed my life for the better. I’m super grateful.”

Before coming to Seattle, Montgomery was going to school in Renton. His grades were low, he was struggling with family issues and he was navigating school in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Kingmakers and other supports at Cleveland, he raised his GPA to a 4.0, and received guidance on how to get college scholarships and find different career paths. 

“Kingmakers was my favorite class — the environment, the teacher, the curriculum,” he said. “A lot of times school can seem tedious and learning about stuff you don’t really care about, but in Kingmakers it builds more fun.”

The Skanska internship was Montgomery’s final opportunity from Kingmakers. He said it’s making him consider other career paths in the business side of construction. Even though he’s already picked a college major, he said he’s open to different opportunities. 

For students who are interested in construction or don’t know which career path to take, Montgomery said, he recommends the internship with Skanska.