Education Issues Brief 2010-2011
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Transcript of Education Issues Brief 2010-2011
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Education Issues Brief201011 Edition
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Edcation Isses Brie201011 Edition
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Introdction
Given the vast scope o the pblic edcation system in Caliornia, it is not
srprising that the details and intricacies o the system are sometimes not
known to the general pblic, or even the states elected leaders.
There are more than 6.2 million school children in Caliornia, served by
more than 9,000 pblic schools o a variety o dierent types:
Elementary
Middle
Juniorhigh
Highschool
Continuation
Alternative
Communityday
Countycommunity
Specialeducation
Juvenilehall/court
CaliforniaYouthAuthority
Charter
There are over 1,000 school districts and conty oces o edcation inCaliornia, governed by 5,000 governing board members. These govern-
ing board members are all members in the local commnities served by
districts and conty oces o edcation.
The Education Issues BrieisproducedbytheCaliforniaSchoolBoards
Associationanddistributedtosittingelectedofcials,includingschoolgov-
ernance teams, city concil members, conty spervisors, members o the
state Legislatre, and other high-ranking elected state ocials. The brie
is also distribted to candidates interested in rnning or political oce sothey may better nderstand the pblic edcation arena.
CSBA is a member-driven organization representing the states more than
1,000 school districts and county ofces o education. We bring together
school governing boards, and their districts and county ofces on behal
o Caliornias children. We support the governance teamwhich includes
school board members, superintendents and senior administrative sta
in its complex leadership role. CSBA actively develops, communicates and
advocates the perspective o Caliornia school districts and county ofces oeducation.
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Table o contents
HowCaliforniaschoolsarenanced 7
Sources o school unding
How districts spend their money
Proposition 98
HowCaliforniaschoolsaregoverned 11
Local districts and county ofces o education
Charter schools
State level governance
Howschoolsareperforming 13
Crrent isses in pblic edcation 15
The budget crisis
Accountability and intervention
Closing achievement gaps
Teachers and administrators
Charter schools
School acilities
Meetingdiverseneeds 25
Conclusion 27
Footnotes 28
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7California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
HowCaliforniaschoolsarenanced
Sourcesofschoolfunding
Theschoolsystemreceivesabout$72billionperyear$46billionof
whichgoestoongoingK12programsfromveprimarysources.1
Fnding rom the state general nd and other state nds incldesabot $12 billion that is appropriated or state special schools, state
schoolfacilities,bondrepayments,statecontributionstotheState
TeachersRetirementFund,theStateLibrary,theCommissiononTeacher
Credentialing and the Caliornia Department o Edcation. O the remaining
$60billion,about$14billionisforprogramsandservicesthatareoutside
o the range o K12 edcation, inclding child development and adlt
education.Thatleavesabout$46billion,orabout$7,600perstudent,for
ongoing K12 programs.
Somedistrictsareabletosupplementthisfundingwithrevenuefrom
locally-approved parcel taxes. Revene rom parcel taxes is in addition to
revene rom Proposition 98 and other nding sorces. Crrently, approval
ofparceltaxmeasuresrequiresatwo-thirdsvote.CSBAsupportslowering
the vote threshold and has sponsored legislation in the past to redce it to
55 percent.
State General Fund, $42 billion
Local property taxes, $14 billion
Other state funds, $8 billion
Federal funds, $7 billion
State Lottery, $1 billion
58%
19
%11%
10%
1%
Primary sources of school funding
FIGuRE 1
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8 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
TheLegislativeAnalystsOfceprovidesamoredetailedanalysisofspend-
ing per stdent, and notes that programmatic K12 spending per stdent
decreasedfrom$8,432in200809to$7,957in200910,and$7,417in
the governors bdget proposal or 201011.2 This is a drop o 12 percent
in jst two years in non-infation-adjsted dollars.
Howdistrictsspendtheirmoney
The average Caliornia school district spends most o its revene (62
percent) on direct instrction.3 This has sometimes been erroneosly
interpretedtomeanthattheremaining38percentisspentonoverhead
orbureaucracy.Nothingcouldbefurtherfromthetruth.Infact,morethan
halfofthat38percentisspentonnon-classroomrelateddirectservicesto
stdents, sch as library and media services, instrctional technology, gid-
ance and conseling, health services and transportation.
Only 5 percent o the average district bdget is spent on general adminis-
tration.AccordingtotheNationalCenterforEducationStatistics,California
has ar ewer school site and central oce administrators than the national
average, as measred by the stdents-to-administrator ratio. This impedes
the ability o Caliornia schools to condct important qality control nc-
tions, sch as evalating teachers, and making improvements in programs
and crricla.
Another10percentgoestoplantmaintenanceandoperations,and3per-
cent is allocated or other items, sch as debt service (which is increasing
de to state-imposed nding deerrals).
Proposition 98
The voters adopted Proposition 98, the constittional minimm nding
garantee, in 1988. It was later amended by Proposition 111 in 1990.
Proposition 98 governs the minimm amont o state General Fnd andlocal property tax revenes that mst be provided to K12 schools and
communitycolleges,andprovidesthreetestsfordeterminingthemini-
mm level o nding:
Test 1:39percentofstateGeneralFundrevenuessubjecttotheappro-
priationslimit(thispercentageisbasedonK14GeneralFundspending
in the base year, bt has been adjsted over time or stattory changes in
the relative proportions o local property tax and General Fnd nding).
Test 2: prior year Proposition 98 nding as adjsted or changes in K12
ADAandaninationfactor(thepercentchangeinpercapitapersonal
income in Caliornia).
Test 3: same as Test 2, except the infation actor is the percent change
in per capita General Fnd revenes.
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9California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
In general, the minimm level o nding is the greater o Test 1 or Test
2.Test3wasaddedbyProposition111andwasintendedtoprotectthe
state General Fnd dring economic downtrns by limiting the growth o
Proposition 98 nding to General Fnd revene growth.
Test1israrelyoperative.Test2andTest3havebeenoperativein most years.
InaTest3year,amaintenancefactorisestablished.Themaintenance
actor is the dierence between the amont o nding that wold have
been provided nder Test 2 and the amont that was actally provided
underTest3.Aseconomicconditionsimprove,themaintenancefactoris
graduallyeliminated,andK14fundingiseventuallyrestoredtowhatit
wouldhavebeeniftherehadnotbeenaTest3year.However,thisrestora -
tion may take years to be lly realized.
Proposition 98 may be sspended in any year by a two-thirds vote o the
Legislatureandthegovernorssignature.Suspensionalsoresultsinthe
creation o a maintenance actor, which is eventally restored in the same
mannerasunderTest3.Thisprovision,aswellas
Test3,servestobothprotecttheGeneralFundand
ensurethatnecessaryreductionstoK14funding
are only temporary and will be restored with improved
economic conditions.
AgoalofProposition98wastorestoreperstudent
school nding in Caliornia to the top 10 states. In
200506 (the latest year that complete data are
available), per stdent nding in Caliornia was
$8,301(basedonfallenrollment).4Thiswas$853
belowthenationalaverageand$3,136belowthe10thhigheststate
(Wyoming). It wold take abot $5.1 billion to bring Caliornia p to the
national average and abot $18.8 billion to reach the level o Wyoming.
Caliornia is also well below the national average on a dierent mea-
surethepercentageofstateandlocaltaxrevenuesspentonschools.
Nationally,48percentofallstateandlocalrevenuesarespentonpublic
schools.Californiaranks40th,at35.2percent.5 Caliornia wold need to
spend more than $16 billion more to get to the national average.
CSBAs position
Caliornias public schools are severely underunded by any measure. Policy
makers routinely acknowledge the undamental importance o a strong public
education system to the economic, social and civic well-being o the state. By
under investing in schools, were under investing in our own uture.
It would take about
$5.1 billion to bring
Caliornia up to thenational average
and about $18.8
billion to reach the
level o Wyoming.
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HowCaliforniaschoolsaregoverned
Local school districts and conty oces o edcation
To serve 6.2 million stdents, Caliornias schools are organized into
elementary, high school and nied school districts. The nmber o districtschangesovertimeduetoconsolidationandreorganization.In200708,
therewere331unieddistricts,556elementaryschooldistrictsand86
high school districts. Each district is governed by a pblicly-elected board o
education,usuallyconsistingofveorsevenmembers.Ahandfulofsmall
districts have governing boards o three members.
In addition, there is a conty oce o edcation in each o Caliornias
58 conties. Conty oces o edcation are governed by conty sper-
intendents (who are elected in all bt ve conties) and conty boards oeducation.AllcountyboardsofeducationareelectedexceptLosAngeles,
whosemembersareappointedbytheLosAngelesCountyBoardof
Supervisors.Severalcountieshavecounty-wideuniedschooldistricts,
where the conty board o edcation also serves as the board o edca-
tion or the nied school district. The largest o these conty-wide nied
schooldistrictsisinthecityandcountyofSanFrancisco;thesmallestis
Alpinecounty.
Conty oces o edcation provide direct instrction to specic stdent pop-lations, sch as special needs stdents, and oer a variety o services to
schoolsdistrictswithintheircounties.Amajorroleofcountyofcesofeduca-
tion is to provide scal monitoring and oversight over school district bdgets.
SchooldistrictsaretheonlylocalgovernmententitiesinCaliforniathatare
reqired to have their bdgets approved by another government entity.
Charter schools
Therearecurrently746charterschoolsservingmorethan285,000studentsinCalifornia.Thisisabout4.5percentofthetotalK12public
school enrollment. under Caliornia law, charter schools are designated
aslocaleducationagencies(LEAs).Mostcharterschoolsareprivately
managed and are governed by privately-selected individals or governing
bodies.However,chartersarepubliclyfunded.Manyso-calleddependent
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12 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
charters are created, operated and governed by school districts and conty
oces o edcation.
Statelevelgovernance
Governance at the state level is shared by the elected sperintendentofpublicinstruction(SPI),thestateboardofeducation(SBE),andthe
governorssecretaryofeducation.TheSPI(whichisanonpartisanofce)
manages the Caliornia Department o Edcation, which administers K12
programs, manages apportionments, and monitors school districts and
conty oce o edcation compliance with state and ederal laws and
reglations.
The11membersoftheSBEareappointedbythegovernor,subject
toSenateconrmation.TheSBEistheprimarypolicy-makingbodyforK12 edcation, with responsibility or sch nctions as the adoption o
textbooks or se in kindergarten and grades 1 throgh 8, approval o aca-
demic content standards as directed by the Legislatre, and establishment
o K12 perormance goals.
The secretary o edcation is appointed by the governor and is not sbject
toSenateconrmation.Thesecretaryisthechiefpolicyadvisortothegov-
ernor on edcation isses, preschool throgh higher edcation.
This three-headed governance strctre has oten led to consion and con-
fict over who is in charge or what at the state level. Proposals to address
thisbyshiftingmoreauthoritytotheSBEhavebeenmetwithresistance
rom those who believe that more athority shold be in the hands o an
electedSPIinsteadofanappointedboard.
CSBAs position
The publicly-elected school board is a cornerstone o democracy and an
essential institution or the engagement o local communities in the educa-
tion o their children. Governance at the state level must be streamlined to
eliminate conusion and lack o accountability.
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13California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
Howschoolsareperforming
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Caliornias pblic schools have
madeextraordinarygainssinceadoptionofthestatesPublicSchool
AccountabilityAct(PSAA)of1999.ThePSAAcreatedtheAcademic
PerformanceIndex(API),whichisanumericalindexthatrangesfrom200to1000.TheAPIisbasedontheresultsofstatewidetestsingrades2
through12,whichtestdifferentsubjectsatdifferentgradelevels.Subjects
tested inclde English-langage arts, mathematics, science and history.
TheAPItargetforallschoolsis800,andschoolsaremeasuredbyhow
mch progress they make toward achieving that goal, both in aggregate and
by types o stdents (ethnicity, poverty, disability, English learners).
SchoolsaredividedintodecilesbasedontheirAPIscores.Schoolsin
decile1arethelowest-performing10percentofschools.Schoolsindecile
10 are the highest-perorming 10 percent o schools. Progress can be
measuredbytrackingtherangeofAPIscoreswithineachdecileovertime.
I schools are improving, we wold expect the
range o scores within each decile to be higher
rom year to year. For example, we wold expect
theAPIscoresofdecile2schoolstobehigher
in later years than in earlier years. In looking at
Caliornias schools, this is exactly what we see.Ingeneral,anAPIscorethatwouldhaveputa
school in the middle o the pack in 2000, wold
place that school near the bottom today.
Impressive improvements occrred across all
deciles.Infact,asshowningure2onpage14,
the percentage o schools scoring at or above
700doubled between 2000 and 2008. Gains in
the higher deciles are necessarily smaller, simply becase they already hadhighAPIscoresinthebaseyearandthereforehadlessgrowthpotential.
ThetopAPIscoresforthelowest-performingschoolsindecile1increased
frombelow500tonearly700forelementaryschools,frombelow500to
640formiddleschools,andfrombelow500toover600forhighschools.
No other state
government program
or service can
document the samedegree o improvement
that Caliornias
public schools have
achieved over the past
eight to 10 years.
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14 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
However,APIscoresofsomeofthelowest-performingdecile1schools
showlittleimprovement.So,whilemostdecile1schoolsareshowingimprovement, some are not.
This is a serios problem and evidence that Caliornia needs to do more to
assiststrugglingschools.However,theseschoolsaretheexception to the
general trend o signicant achievement gains. Thereore, helping these
schools reqires targeted soltions, not wholesale changes to a so-called
brokensystemthatisactuallyworkingverywellinthevastmajorityof
cases. In act, no other state government program or service can docu-
ment the same degree o improvement that Caliornias public schools haveachieved over the past eight to 10 years.
CSBAs position
Improvements are needed to meet the needs o currently underperorming
students. However, state policy must avoid total system reorms that would
result in unnecessary and possibly harmul disruptions.
Percent of elementary
schools scoring at
or above 700 (API) Percent of middle
schools scoring ator above 700 (API)
Percent of highschools scoring at
or above 700 (API)
42%
2000 2008
85%
Dobled
FIGuRE 2
37%
2000 2008
70%
Dobled
30%
2000 2008
60%
Dobled
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Crrent isses in pblic edcation
The bdget crisis
Pblic schools in Caliornia have been hit hard over the past ew years with
sbstantially redced nding and deerrals o apportionments rom thestate.AccordingtotheLegislativeAnalyst,K12Proposition98funding
hasdroppedfrom$50.3billionin200708to$43.9billionin201011,
as proposed by the governor. The level in the crrent year (200910) is
$44.1billion.Asaresult,fundingperstudenthasdropped12percentin
twoyears,aspreviouslynoted.Afteraccountingfortheeffectsofination,
schools real prchasing power has dropped approximately 20 percent.
For more than hal o Caliornias school districts, these cts are exac-
erbated by declining enrollment. This is a problem, becase schools arended on the basis o average costs per stdent, bt the loss o a single
stdent prodces onlymarginal savings. This means that the loss o
revene exceeds the savings, orcing even deeper bdget cts in aected
districts.
In addition, the states cash crnch has reslted in the practice o deerring
apportionments to school districts. The size and length o these deer-
ralshasgrownfromyeartoyear.Asaresult,whatwasastatecashow
problemisnowaschooldistrictcashowproblem.Manydistrictsthathavenever had to engage in short-term borrowing to meet their nancial obliga-
tions mst now do so. Other districts mst borrow larger amonts. This
imposes new costs on districts or debt service, which orces additional
bdget cts.
One indication o the severity o the crrent crisis is the growing nmber o
districtsthathavereceivedeitheranegativeorqualiedbudgetcerti-
cationfromtheircountyofceofeducation.Anegativecerticationmeans
that a district will not be able to meet its nancial obligations or the crrentornextscalyear.Aqualiedcerticationmeansadistrictmay not meet
its nancial obligations or the crrent year or next two scal years. (The
reqirement to show a balanced bdget or tre scal years is niqe to
schooldistrictsandcountyofcesofeducation.Somedistrictsarequali-
ednotbecausetheircurrentyearbudgetisoutofbalance,butbecause
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16 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
they may be nable to meet their nancial obligations in tre years. For
some, this is cased by the schedled end o bdgetary fexibility provisions
that have been provided by the state as a means o easing the impact o
bdget cts.)
Even going into the crrent crisis, Caliornias schools already had ar ewerconselors, school nrses, librarians, school site administrators, and
centralofceadministratorsthanmostotherstates.Asaresult,those
areas provide ew opportnities or rther savings,
and crrent bdget cts are centered more on direct
instructionalprograms.AsurveyconductedbyCSBAin
September2008showedthatevenatthatrela-
tivelyearlypointinthecurrentcrisesschoolswere
alreadyreducingoreliminatingprogramslikeK3classsize redction, smmer school, ater school ttoring
programs, high school electives and advanced placement corses, and
elementaryartsandmusiccourses.Schoolbudgetshavebeencuttwice
since then and will be ct a third time in 201011.
Asaresultofthesecuts,theimpressiveAPIgainsdescribedearlierare
atrisk.Manyoftheprogramsthathelpedachievethesegainsarevictims
o the bdget ax, simply becase there is no longer anywhere else to ct.
Once lost, the momentm or improvement will be hard to regain.
CSBAs position
The current decline in support or public schools must be reversed i recent
gains are to be sustained.
Accountabilityandintervention
Caliornias pblic schools are sbject to two separate and sometimesconictingaccountabilitysystemsthePublicSchoolAccountabilityActof
1999(statelaw)andtheNoChildLeftBehindAct(federallaw).6 Prsant
tothePSAA,rigorousacademiccontentstandardswereestablishedforall
grade levels, and standards-based tests were developed that were linked
to the adopted content standards. Those same standards and targeted
achievement levels are also sed to evalate school perormance nder
NCLB,whichwaspassedaftertheenactmentofthePSAA.
Problemsimmediatelyensued.UnderthePSAA,thestateestablishedtheprocientlevelastheperformancetarget.Procientisdenedas
the level o achievement necessary to gain admission into the university
ofCaliforniaoraCaliforniaStateUniversity.Thislevelofperformanceis
signicantlyabovegradelevel,ascommonlyunderstood.
Once lost, the
momentum or
improvement will
be hard to regain.
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UnderNCLB,however,Congressunderstoodprocienttoequalgrade
levelandsetagoalof100percentofstudentsbeingprocientby
201314.WhencombinedwithCaliforniasPSAA,theresultisthatallof
Caliornias stdents will be expected to be achieving above grade level, or
theirschoolswillbeidentiedasbeinginneedofimprovementandsub-ject to interventions and sanctions. This is clearly an absrd goal, bt policy
makershavebeenreluctanttocorrectitforfearofbeingseenaswatering
downstandards.
Predictably, some o Caliornias highest achieving schools and school
districts have already been identied as being in need o improvement.
This over-identication o schools that are trly lagging is recognized as
aproblembytheObamaAdministration,whichproposestofocusmore
sharply on jst the lowest ve percent o schools in the reathorization otheElementaryandSecondaryEducationAct(ESEA).
Anotherconictisintherangeofsubjectareasthataretested.Theonly
indicatorofperformanceunderNCLBisAdequateYearlyProgress(AYP),
which is based only on English-langage arts and mathematics. By con-
trast,CaliforniasAPIalsoincludeshistoryandscience.BecauseAYPis
moredifculttoachieve,anunintendedconsequenceofNCLBhasbeena
narrowing o the crriclm as districts devote more classroom time to the
two areas tested.
ApositiveaspectofNCLBwastherequirementtodisaggregatetestscores
by stdent sbgrops (special needs stdents, English langage learners,
andracial/ethnicminorities).ThiswasafeatureofPSAA,butwasfurther
strengthenedbyNCLBtoensurethatlowlevelsof
perormance among some sbgrops do not become
hidden by schoolwide or districtwide averages.
AYPandAPIarebothgoodindicatorsofschooland
districtperformance.However,neitherissufcient,
by itsel, to tell s everything we need to know abot
how well a school is perorming. unortnately,
this does not stop policy makers rom adopting
accontability systems that assme each measre is scient. Whats
worse, these accontability systems se these measres, not to inorm
rational decision making, bt to trigger specic actions and interventions.
Predictably, this reslts in actions being taken that do nothing to solve the
nderlying problem.
InadditiontoPSAAandNCLB,theObamaAdministrationinitiatedRaceto
the Top as a competitive grant program designed to ocs on or major
areas:rigorousacademicstandardsandassessments;comprehensive
datasystems;ensuringeffectiveteachersandleaders;and,turningaround
By 201314, all o
Caliornias students
will be expected
to be achieving
above grade level.
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18 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
thelowestachievingschools.Statesmustsubmitapplicationstothe
UnitedStatesDepartmentofEducationandcompeteforRTTTfunds,which
weremadeavailableasaresultoftheStateFiscalStabilizationfundautho-
rizedbytheAmericanRecoveryandReinvestmentActof2009.
There are two ronds o RTTT competition. Therst rond was completed in the spring o 2010.
Only two states, Delaware and Tennessee, were
sccessl in secring RTTT grants. Caliornia
applied, bt was nsccessl. The second rond
ofRTTTgrantsareduebyJune1,2010.The
analysis o the application that Caliornia sbmit-
ted indicated that the shortcomings in the states
existing data system and the lack o spport bythe teachers nions, were the primary reasons or
Caliornias ailre to obtain an RTTT grant. Those
issuesarenotlikelytoberesolvedbyJune1.
AspartofCaliforniaseffortstocompeteforRTTT,theLegislaturechanged
Caliornia statte and adopted the or intervention models to trn arond
persistently low perorming schools dened in RTTT. They are:
Replaceschoolstaff
Converttheschooltoacharterschoolorturnitovertoaprivateeduca-
tion management organization
Closetheschool
Transformtheschool(whichincludesringtheprincipal)
unortnately, research has shown that none o these models can be
conted on to improve schools.7Meanwhile,alternativeturnaround
strategies that have been shown to be sccessl are exclded rom
consideration.
These or trnarond models are reqired becase o the pblic mis-
perception o their eectiveness, not becase they are spported by the
evidence. Policy makers, however, mst be gided by research, not by
conventional wisdom.
Closing achievement gaps
Achievementgapsbetweenstudentsfromdifferentethnic,languageand
socioeconomic backgronds have persisted in Caliornias pblic schools
or as long as all children have had access to pblic edcation. The table
below provides an excellent snapshot o these achievement gaps by
simply comparing the 2009 perormance o 6th graders on the Caliornia
StandardsTestinEnglishLanguageArts.
AYP and API are both
good indicators o
school and district
perormance. However,
neither is sufcient,
by itsel, to tell us
everything we need to
know about how well a
school is perorming.
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19California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
AllStudents
White Asian Black Hispanic PovertyBlack,
excldingpoverty
Advanced 21% 35% 44% 11% 11% 10% 19%
Procient 31% 36% 31% 28% 29% 28% 34%
Basic 30% 21% 17% 34% 365 36% 30%
Belowbasic
12% 6% 5% 17% 17% 17% 12%
Far belowbasic
6% 2% 2% 9% 8% 8% 6%
While there will always be individal variability on test scores, sch vari-
ability shold not be able to be predicted based on a stdents ethnicity or
socioeconomic stats. Closing those achievement gaps are o paramont
priority in pblic edcation. In order to be sccessl, myriad strategies
mst be employed, inclding:
Placingthemosteffectiveteacherswiththestudentswhohavethegreat-
est academic need.
Implementinghighqualityhealth,nutrition,mentalhealthandothersup-port services to meet the wellness needs o stdents.
Increasinginstructionalopportunitiesbeyondthetypicalschooldayand
school year.
Providingsafecommunitiesforstudents.
Expansionofhighqualitypreschoolprograms.
Ongoingprofessionaldevelopmentandmentoringtosupportteachers.
English learners are also an important stdent poplation whose needs
mst be met in order to close achievement gaps. English learners have,
qite literally, twice as mch to learn as their English speaking conter-
parts. They mst not only master the core academic content, they mst
learn a new langage with a depth o fency that will enable them to be
sccessl in rigoros academic content in all sbject areas that is taght
in the English langage.
In200708,oneinfourstudentsinCaliforniawasnotyetprocientinthe
English langage. Frther, nearly one in ve stdents is procient in English,
buthaveaprimarylanguageotherthanEnglish.Thatmeansthat43per-
cent o Caliornias stdents speak a langage other than English, with 25
percentofstudentsstilllearningEnglish.Yet,accordingtodatareleasedin
April2008bytheCaliforniaCommissiononTeacherCredentialing,nearly
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20 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
7,500teachersarecurrentlyteachingEnglishlearnerswithouttheproper
EL teaching athorization. There simply are not enogh teachers atho-
rized to meet crrent needs and districts lack the fexibility in statte to
reqire crrent teachers to become athorized to teach EL stdents. While
themajorityofELstudentsarenativeSpanishspeakers,morethan100langages are spoken in Caliornias schools, with 55 o those langages
having concentrations o 15 percent or more at a school site. These
stdents enter Caliornias schools at every grade level and come with
varying levels o edcation experience rom their native contry, with some
stdents having never received ormal instrction. To meet this vast array o
EL stdents, Caliornia schools have been provided limited spport in terms
ofEnglishlanguagedevelopmentinstructionalmaterials.TheStateBoard
o Edcation maintains control over which instrctional materials can be
prchased or schools in grades K8 and the board has provided no inter-vention or spport materials or English learners who are having diclty in
the early grades.
CSBAs position
Provideschooldistrictswiththeexplicitauthoritytorequirecurrentclass-
room teachers to obtain EL teaching authorizations.
ExpandresourcesforprofessionaldevelopmentforteachersservingEL
students.RequiretheStateBoardofEducationtoadoptinstructionalmaterialsthat
provide intensive intervention and support or EL students who are strug-
gling to master English in the early primary grades.
ProvideresourcestoallowforadditionalinstructionaltimeneededforEL
students to meet the learning outcomes or both language and academic
content mastery.
Teachers and administrators
Improving the qality o teaching and administrative leadership is critical to
the sccess o pblic edcation. With the nmber o teachers and admin-
istrators predicted to retire rom the proession, copled with attrition, the
Center or the Ftre o Teaching and Learning estimates that Caliornia
will need roghly 100,000 new teachers over the next decade. Frther, the
demands or the teachers and administrators in Caliornia are greater than
ever beore as districts strive to close persistent academic achievement
gaps between grops o stdents and psh or higher levels o standards
and accontability.
While the nmber o nder-prepared teachers has allen in the last several
years, there are still many teachers in classrooms withot a ll credential
and proper training. Districts are nding it diclt to nd lly credentialed
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teachers in some discipline areas sch as math, science and special ed-
cation.TheCaliforniaStateUniversityandUniversityofCaliforniasystems
have each made a commitment to increase the nmber o math teachers
theyprepare.Thisisastepintherightdirection.However,theneedfor
teachersinscienceandspecialeducationisalsogreat.Additionally,manyteachers lack training in teaching English learners. In Caliornia, learning
how to teach English learners is a reqired part o any basic credential pro-
gram.However,toteachELstudentsinspecializedsettingsstillrequiresa
particularauthorization.AccordingtotheCaliforniaCommissiononTeacher
CredentialingdatareleasedinApril2008,nearly7,500teachersarecur-
rently teaching EL stdents withot the proper athorization becase there
simplyarenotenoughteacherstomeettheneed.Additionally,withthe
rigoros academic content standards adopted by the state and the shared
imperative to ensre that all stdents meet those standards, Caliorniais asking teachers and administrators to do more than they ever have.
Ongoing recritment, spport and proessional development or these dedi-
cated edcators mst be provided.
Elements o collective bargaining that limit the ability o governing boards
to eectively address proessional assignments and accontability mst
be addressed. For example, there has been mch discssion abot the
distribtion o experienced teachers among schools within a district
becase many low perorming schools have the least experienced teach-ers.However,byincludingtransferandreassignmentpolicieswithinthe
scope o collective bargaining, districts are reqired to come to agreement
with their teachers exclsive representative regarding sch policies. Those
agreements invariably restrict the districts ability to correct problems in the
assignment o teachers.
CSBAs position
Thestatemustprovidesupportandresourcestoschooldistrictsandcounty ofces o education to assist them in providing the proessional
development needed to ensure teachers can be successul in meeting the
needs o all students.
Probationarystatusshouldbeallowedtobeextendedbeyondtwoyearsto
ensure that districts are able to make sound decisions regarding granting
tenure rights to teachers.
Abalancemustbestruckbetweentherightsofemployeestocollectivebar-
gaininganddueprocesswiththerightsofstudentstoaqualityeducational
program. I the enorcement o employee rights results in the misassign-ment o teachers, the inability to dismiss poor teachers, etc., then priorities
must be reconsidered.
Thescopeofcollectivebargainingmustbelimitedtothecorelaborissues
relating to the terms and conditions o employment.
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Charter schools
Nowhereisthegapbetweenconventionalwisdomandresearchwiderthan
inthecaseofcharterschools.Therearesomeverygoodcharterschools;
however, the overwhelming blk o independent research reaches the
conclsion that, on average, charter schools are no better than the averagenon-charter pblic school.
In act, a recent national stdy o charter schools in Caliornia and 15 other
statesconductedbyStanfordUniversityfoundthatcharterschoolsactually
underperormed compared to reglar schools more than twice as oten as
theyoutperormed them.8SpecicallyforCalifornia,thestudyfoundmixed
reslts, with charter schools showing higher reading gains bt lower math
gains than traditional pblic schools.
Similarly,a2006studybytheU.S.DepartmentofEducationconcluded,
Afteradjustingforstudentcharacteristics,charterschoolmeanscoresin
reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those or pblic non-
charterschools.9
While charter schools were originally intended to improve all pblic schools
throughcompetition,DianeRavitchanearlysupporterofcharterschoolsas
areformmakesacompellingcaseforthenotionthatcharterschoolsactu-
ally damage their neighboring non-charter schools, especially in rban areas.Even with a random selection process, charter schools have ways o pshing
outstudentswhodonotperformatdesiredlevels.AsRavitchputsit:
The theory o the charter movement is that competition with the
regular public schools will lead to improvements in both sectors,
and that choice is a rising tide that lits all boats. But in reality,
the regular public schools are at a huge disadvantage in competi-
tion with charter schools. It is not only because charter schools
may attract the most motivated students, may discharge laggards,
and may enorce a tough disciplinary code, but also because the
charters oten get additional fnancial resources rom their corporate
sponsors, enabling them to oer smaller classes, ater-school and
enrichment activities, and laptop computers or every student. Many
charter schools enorce discipline codes that would likely be chal-
lenged in court i they were adopted in regular public schools; and
because charter schools are schools o choice, they fnd it easier
to avoid, eliminate, or counsel out low-perorming and disruptive
students.10
Those stdents, o corse, are retrned to the non-charter pblic schools,
which are then responsible or their perormance. The remaining, more
motivated stdents enhance the perormance o the charter school.
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The bottom line is that charter schools lll an important role in pblic ed-
cation,butitisaspecializedrole.Simplyhavingmorecharterschoolsisnot
a reorm in and o itsel. In some cases, charter schools do a sperior job
o serving stdents that are not well served by traditional pblic schools.
In other cases, they do not. In some cases, converting a low perormingschool to a charter school may be the path to improvement. In other cases,
it may not. Policy making and decision making at both the state and local
levels mst bild on the strengths o charter schools while recognizing their
limitations and their eect on neighboring, traditional schools.
CSBAs position
Multiple measures must be used to assess school perormance in order
to capture the breadth o school purposes and avoid narrowing o the
curriculum. School districts must be permitted to select rom a variety oresearch-based turnaround interventions in order to eectively address local
needs and conditions.
Schoolfacilities
Schoolfacilitiesareanessentialcomponentoftheeducationalprogram.
Schoolswillhavedifcultyreducingclasssizeorprovidingnecessary
technology, school saety, health or social services withot scient schoolfacilitiestomeetthoseneeds.Studentsandschoolstaffshouldbeable
to work in an atmosphere that is environmentally sae, well maintained,
condcive to learning, technologically and strctrally p-to-date and ree
rom overcrowding.
The Caliornia Department o Edcation has projected that rom 2009 to
2014,thestatewillneedtobuildalmost22,000newclassroomsandmod -
ernizemorethan35,000classrooms.Altogether,theCDEhasprojected
that almost 1.5 million stdents will need new and remodeled classroomsdring the ve-year period. This estimate is based on estimates on 25 st-
dentsperK6classroomand27studentsper712classroom.
CSBAs position
CSBA supports the placement o statewide general obligation bonds on the
ballot in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to meet these school acilities
needs o the next decade.
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Meetingdiverseneeds
Californiaspublicschoolsenrollabout6.2millionstudents.Asshownin
Figure3,Californiaisamajority-minoritystate,withHispanicsaccounting
or nearly hal o the stdent poplation.11 Whites comprise a little more
than a orth, and each o the other categories is less than 10 percent othe total stdent poplation.
American Indian/Alaska Native
Asian
Pacific Islander
Filipino
Hispanic
African American
White (not Hispanic)
Multiple/No response
Ethnic distribution of public school students
0.8
0.6 48.73
.1
8.2 2.7
28.5
7.4
FIGURE3
Nearlyone-fourthofCaliforniasstudentsareEnglishlanguagelearners
(ELL). The state with the next highest percentage o ELL stdents is Texas,
with16percent.AccordingtotheNationalCenterforEducationStatistics,
Californiaenrollsabout13percentofthenationsstudents,but42percentofthenationsELLstudents.Mostofthese(85percent)speakSpanishas
their rst langage, bt the CDE identies 55 other langages that are also
spoken by Caliornias stdents. The size and diversity o Caliornias ELL
poplation presents niqe challenges that reqire additional resorces to
overcome.
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26 California School Boards Association Edcation Isses Brie
Californiasschoolsenroll678,000specialeducationstudents,which
acconts or 11 percent o total enrollment. Types o disabilities inclde
specic learning disabilities, speech impairments, mental retardation,
atism, and tramatic brain damage among others. under state and ederal
law, schools mst develop an Individalized Edcation Plan (IEP) or everyspecial edcation stdent.
The IEPs are developed by a committee that consists o school sta and
the parents or gardians o the stdent. By law, cost is not a actor in
determining the IEP, and the IEP mst have the approval o the parent or
gardian. IEPs oten inclde provisions or transportation, physical therapy,
and medically-related services that are needed to allow the stdent to
access and benet rom an instrctional program. The cost o these non-
edcation services are paid by the school.
Typically, the IEP species edcational otcomes or the stdent, and these
otcomes can be dierent rom the otcomes expected o reglar edca-
tionstudentsunderPSAAorNCLB.Federallawisactuallyinconictwith
itsel by reqiring the establishment o individalized otcomes or each
special edcation stdents while also reqiring those stdents to take
and pass the same tests administered to reglar edcation stdents. The
biggest single reason schools have been identied as being in need o
improvementunderNCLBisthatspecialeducationstudentsarenotabletopass those tests or that their parents exercise their right nder Caliornia
law to exclde them rom taking the test.
Finally, Caliornia has a relatively high nmber o stdents living in poverty,
as measred by eligibility or a ree or redced-price lnch. In Caliornia,
52percentofstudentsareeligible,comparedtoanationalaverageof43
percent.OnlytheDistrictofColumbiaandfourotherstates(Arkansas,
Louisiana,Mississippi,andNewMexico)havehigherpercentagesthan
Caliornia. The impact o poverty on a stdents readiness and ability tolearn is well docmented.12 The high incidence o poverty in Caliornia
means we mst more aggressively address the ot-o-school conditions o
stdents that aect in-school perormance.
In general, a stdent in Caliornia is more likely to be living in poverty, in
oster care, homeless, withot health care, hngry, and a victim o violence
than his or her national conterpart. These conditions mst be addressed i
the academic achievement gap is to be closed.
CSBAs position
Policy makers must acknowledge the impact o out-o-school conditions
o children on ability and readiness to learn. Closing the achievement gap
requiresprogramstoaddresstheimpactofpoverty,poorhealthandnutrition,
homelessness, and other challenging conditions.
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Conclsion
In closing, we hope this Education Issues Brieprovides an nderstanding o
the pblic edcation system in Caliornia. It is intended to be a short primer
on key isses, sch as how Caliornia schools are nanced, governed and
perorming, and on the amazing diversity o Caliornias stdent poplation.
For continos pdates on school governance and pblic edcation isses,
visitwww.csba.orgregularly.YoumayalsofollowusonFacebook,Twitter
andYouTube.Youmayalsocontactustodiscussanissueindetail,please
callusat1.800.266.3382.
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Footnotes
1 CaliforniaStateDepartmentofEducation,Fact Book 2009. (Percentages do not add p to 100de to ronding.)
2 CaliforniaLegislativeAnalystsOfce,The201011Budget:Proposition98andK12
Education,February25,2010.3 CaliforniaStateDepartmentofEducation,Fact Book 2009.
4 NationalCenterforEducationStatistics,Digest o Education Statistics.
5 NationalEducationAssociation,Rankings&Estimates, December 2009.
6 TheElementaryandSecondaryEducationActwasenactedin1965toprovidefederalnancialandprogrammaticsupporttopublicschools.Since1965,thelawhasbeenperiodicallyreautho -rizedwithadditionalprogrammaticguidelines.Someofthosereauthorizationshavebeengivenaname.Thelatestreauthorization2001wasnamedtheNoChildLeftBehindAct.
7
ImprovingLow-PerformingSchools:LessonsfromFiveYearsofStudyingSchoolRestructuringunderNoChildLeftBehind.Washington,DC:CenteronEducationPolicy,December2009.
8 MultipleChoice:CharterSchoolPerformancein16States.CenterforResearchonEducationOutcomes(CREDO),StanfordUniversity,July2009.
9 Braun,H.,Jenkins,F.,andGrigg,W.(2006).A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using HierarchicalLinear Modeling(NCES2006460).U.S.DepartmentofEducation,NationalCenterforEducationStatistics,InstituteofEducationalSciences.Washington,DC:U.S.GovernmentPrintingOfce.
10 Diane Ravitch, The Death and Lie o the Great American School System: How Testing and Choiceare Undermining Education.NewYork,NY:BasicBooks,2010,pp136-137.
11 Caliornia Department o Edcation, Fact Book, 2009.
12 Richard Rothstein, Class&Schools:UsingSocial,Economic,andEducationalReformtoClosetheBlack-White Achievement Gap.Washington,DC:EconomicPolicyInstitute,2004.
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