‘Three Rs’ Curriculum Proposed for Santa Ana Schools

SANTA ANA —  The Santa Ana schools superintendent on Thursday proposed teaching students nothing but the “three Rs” from kindergarten through eighth grade in an all-out campaign to lift his urban district’s perennially mediocre test scores to at least the national average.

Supt. Al Mijares’ proposal would relegate traditional subjects like science, social studies, health, physical education and the arts to a secondary place in the curriculum, either taught outside normal school hours or folded into newly intensified periods of reading, writing and mathematics instruction.

Mijares said many of the details of how the plan would work still are undecided. But he warned there is no time to lose.

“We have large numbers of students who are struggling in the area of language and mathematics, and who need all the help that they can get,” Mijares said.

What Santa Ana Unified School District calls “Project ATM--Above the Mean” is likely to kindle debate over education priorities in an era when many urban school districts in California are lagging far behind their suburban counterparts. The proposal will go to the district’s board of trustees Tuesday evening.

Santa Ana Unified, with about 52,000 students, is Orange County’s largest school system and among the 10 largest districts in the state. In recent years it has been flooded with immigrant children from impoverished families whose first language is Spanish.

When tested on basic skills, Santa Ana students usually score well below the national average. Ninth- and sixth-graders, for example, have ranked no higher than the 35th percentile in reading comprehension in the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills for eight consecutive years.

Traditionally, district officials, trustees and parents have pointed to socioeconomic factors to explain such scores--two-thirds of Santa Ana students qualify for federal lunch subsidies and seven out of 10 aren’t fluent in English.

But Mijares, 44, who was named superintendent in 1994, said he wants to raise expectations.

Calling his proposal “a bold step” and “the ultimate push for increasing academic achievement,” he said student test scores could reach the 50th percentile within five years.

The proposal, if adopted, would apparently be one of the most far-reaching curriculum overhauls in recent times in Orange County.

One academic expert agreed with Mijares that the plan is bold.

“Have I ever heard of a proposal like this? Absolutely not,” said Louis Miron, chairman of the department of education at UC Irvine.

Miron said the proposal reflected increasing pressure on public educators in urban areas to show improvement in standardized test scores.

A district blueprint on the plan, titled “Setting Expectations Too High,” said, “Schools will be compelled to focus and direct all of their resources and efforts solely on improving student performance in language arts and math.”

The proposal must be reviewed and approved by the five-member school board before taking effect.

Nativo Lopez, president of the board, declined to comment Thursday afternoon but said through a spokeswoman that he would answer questions next week.

Trustee Robert W. Balen said he agrees that Santa Ana schools need reform but contended that music instruction and other arts programs should not be gutted.

“We have some big hurdles in front of us as far as student achievement, and we all agree that there needs to be a radical approach taken,” Balen said. “But there are literally a hundred issues to discuss and to finalize before we could implement a program like that.”

Indeed, many details about the plan remained sketchy Thursday. Elementary and middle school principals told The Times they were not yet sure how it would change their operations.

Joe Randazzo, a principal at McFadden Intermediate School, said he has pushed for heavy emphasis on reading and writing--the so-called language arts--and mathematics for years. He called it “teaching across the curriculum,” pointing to science classes as an example in which students learned math, critical thinking and writing skills.

“It’s basically already being done at this level,” Randazzo said. “We’re doing a good part of that right now.”

Santa Ana officials also must consider state requirements. According to a Department of Education official, students in grades 1 through 6 must receive at least 20 minutes a day, on average, of physical education instruction, and twice that in higher grades.

The state education code also calls for instruction in social sciences, science, visual and performing arts and health--though, unlike physical education, a daily schedule is not prescribed.