High lead levels hurt learning for DPS kids

[Octafish]

Source: The Detroit Free Press

High lead levels hurt learning for DPS kids

More than half of students tested have poisoning history

BY TINA LAM and KRISTI TANNER-WHITE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Posted: May 16, 2010

More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life, according to data compiled by city health and education officials.

The data also show, for the first time in Detroit, a link between higher lead levels and poor academic performance. About 60% of DPS students who performed below their grade level on 2008 standardized tests had elevated lead levels.

The higher the lead levels, the lower the MEAP scores, though other factors also may play a role.

The research -- the result of an unusual collaboration between the city's Department of Health & Wellness Promotion and DPS -- also reveals that children receiving special education were more likely to have lead poisoning.

The data, involving tens of thousands of city children, underscore the persistent and troubling legacy of lead, even as the overall number of lead cases continues to fall in Detroit and across the nation.

CONTINUED...

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20100516/NEWS01/5160413/High-lead-levels-hurt-learning-for-DPS-kids

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So. Teachers, parents and peer pressure aren't the exclusive reasons Detroit kids, as a group, aren't doing well in school. Environmental degradation is another important factor. Something else the leadership for "the greatest nation on earth" should be ashamed. I wonder what kids' blood lead levels are like in other urban areas?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. They are high here too

We test kids every year. The results are scary.

I have had several students who were diagnosed as lead poisoned. A couple of them were very violent. The effects of lead poisoning are horrific.

[Octafish]

12. Lead poisoining in children may be nationwide.

Our dear leaders must've thought the problem went away when gas co.s came up with unleaded.

Would we had a national health agency to investigate these important questions.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Holy shit.

'These numbers are scary'

Now, a landmark study by the city health department and Detroit Public Schools of lead data and test scores shows that the higher the lead level, the worse a student's scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program exam, or MEAP.

Overall, 58% of roughly 39,000 DPS students tested -- 22,755 children -- had a history of lead poisoning, according to the study.

Perhaps more startling: Of the 39,199 students tested as young children, only 23 had no lead in their bodies.

"These numbers are scary," said Lyke Thompson, a Wayne State University professor who has studied lead poisoning in Detroit for more than a decade.

The correlation between high lead levels and low test scores carries particular resonance in Detroit, where students have fared poorly on academic achievement tests.

Mr. Clueless chimes in:

DPS emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said lead exposure is one factor that leaves some kids poorly prepared for school.

Ya think?? This isn't just an educational crisis it's a godammend health disaster.

[Octafish]

13. Bob Squared is in a corner.

Children poisoned by lead is a public health emergency. Of course, the City of Detroit, the State of Michigan, and now the Federal Government are "broke" and can't afford things like protecting public health. There are wars to fight and crime families to protect.

Detroit had one of the best urban public school systems in nation. Bobb's got no money to fix a crisis 43 years in the making. The reality is a shame for the children and on the people of the City of Detroit, the State of Michigan, and the United States.

Today Detroit schools are a model for the future of public education in America: A system designed not to educate, but to warehouse children in ignorance. This is the conservative dream: a population unaware of their condition, allowing the elite to continue lording it over the mass of humanity.

[Name removed]

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[My Good Babushka]

4. I don't think you should be giving medical advice nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. For many kids, the exposure is ongoing

So your remedy would have to be administered frequently.

[Orrex]

6. I call BS

Bentonite is standard fare among "the colon is the root of all evil" advocates, and there's absolutely zero evidence that it's a reliable tool for cleansing the blood of lead toxicity.


In addition, you are offering medical advice.

[Orrex]

9. Thank you, mods!

:yourock:

[AngryAmish]

7. nobody listen to this nut

[AngryAmish]

8. Is the lead one of the reasons people in Detroit are so stupid?

[Cal Carpenter]

11. Fuck you

[Barack_America]

14. Yeah and I hear levels are even HIGHER in Chicago.

Which would explain your post.

[Starry Messenger]

10. kick.

[hunter]

15. Lead, mercury, pesticides, bad diet...

...maybe these toxins are the root cause of our empire's failure.