Thomas B. Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?

November 1, 2006

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state's track record in implementing bold education reforms. It finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science. In addition, most states making significant achievement gains--including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas--are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

View the press release for this report

Contents

California

 

 


 

Let the Sun Shine In

The question could be a setup line in a Jay Leno monologue: "How frustrated with California's public school system are the state's parents?" The answer is long, full of political intrigue, and not particularly funny-at least not to Californians.

"The public's frustration with the state of education is palpable. They see lots of rhetoric but little progress," said Mark Baldassare, research director for the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. "There is serious discontent across the board."

The dismal performance by minority and low-income students (most of these groups are in the single digits in reading, math, or science on the National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP]; and black graduation rates are deplorable) is a big reason for their frustration. But if Californians adjust their sunglasses and look through the smog, they can see that the education cloud hanging over the Golden State may have a silver lining.

A close examination of test scores over time shows a somewhat encouraging trend: Hispanic students are making gains in reading and math, as are low-income students. That means California has made "moderate progress"--one of just eight states in this study to meet this standard. (There has been less progress among African-American students.)

"We've put strategies and accountability in place, and they are pushing the needle up every day," said Marlene Canter, president of the Los Angeles City Board of Education. "When you are making up for thirty years of neglect, the word ‘progress' is important.... As we look forward," she continued, "I can predict we will not be ranked near the bottom in achievement for long."

Canter confidently makes that prediction because the entire state is treading a path of substantive reform, earning California a B- grade in this area and the number three ranking in the country. That ranking reflects the upside of widespread discontent. When there is enough frustration, it can create an environment where serious reform ideas are given the opportunity to take hold and blossom.

In Los Angeles, departing Superintendent Roy Romer, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former governor of Colorado, met parental discontent with a concrete plan for action. Among the changes he brought to L.A. Unified include the following:

  • A focus on scientifically-based reading programs for young children and a core curriculum in all grades
  • A proposal to build more schools
  • An emphasis on better teachers

The results? Gains on achievement tests that are among the best in the state. Romer said that if the district were a stock, he would buy it because "the lines are going in the right direction." It remains to be seen whether that trend will continue now that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has gained partial control of the schools.

Los Angeles is not alone in realizing significant changes. Oakland-among the state's poorest cities and a perpetual cellar-dweller in student achievement-has become a reform cauldron. Under the leadership of state-appointed Superintendent Randolph Ward, the district closed schools with low enrollments and poor academic scores, gave other schools more control over their own budgets, and allowed groups of teachers and parents to design programs-and some curricula-for failing schools that were closed and then reopened.

Today, Oakland stands as the most academically improved unified school district in California, having posted the most improved test scores of any urban district in the state over the past three years. Whether the city can maintain its progress remains to be seen, however. Ward recently left Oakland to head the school system in San Diego County.

These local reform efforts are supported by a reasonably healthy state policy environment, starting with California's highly- regarded academic standards.

The state-local balance issue in California will be important for reforming education. "I'm a conservative, and I normally like local control," said Lance Izumi, director of education studies for the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco think tank promoting free markets. "But the problem in California is education at the local level is controlled by union politics."

Izumi sees tremendous political pressure, led by the teacher unions, to "dumb down" and "water down" the curriculum, creating loopholes so large that even a pumped-up Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's bodybuilder governor, could jump through them. But so far Schwarzenegger has resisted that pressure, and he promises to continue doing so. According to the "Governator," number one on his education agenda is to "safeguard the State Board of Education's adopted academic content standards as the foundation of California's K-12 educational system."

"We're seeing a commonsense viewpoint on our State Board of Education," said Izumi. "The question for us is if our state policymakers, particularly the legislature, will have the courage to continue with these very rigorous standards."

He might add the state's citizens to the list of those who will have to stand up and be counted. This past fall, they resoundingly defeated two ballot initiatives strongly backed by Governor Schwarzenegger that would have significantly weakened the power of the teacher unions in the state.

Fortunately, the state's strategy is not just top-down dictates; policy has also encouraged a measure of bottom-up innovation. California leads the nation in the number of charter schools in operation, and it is among the most aggressive in the nation in hiring alternatively-certified teachers. The alternative certification movement began in earnest in California in 1997, when then-governor Pete Wilson supported a law that created incentives for districts that placed second-career professionals into the classroom. Today, few states do a better job of hiring these teachers-or need them more, given both population growth and mandatory class-size reduction in California.

The state also took the bold step of eliminating bilingual education. Doom and gloom predictions abounded about the future of the state's large Hispanic population, but these students have risen to the occasion. Gregory McGinity, senior policy consultant for the state board, noted, "Bilingual education of the past has failed these kids miserably."

Factor in the politics, the test scores, and a growing culture of change, and it is clear that California education is getting better. If the no-nonsense reforms currently in place retain their stature in the state's education establishment, the state's school system could, in a few years, become a source of pride instead of the punch line for a bad joke.

 

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