Challenges Will Test State

By NICK ANDERSON

Jan. 13, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Before you can find a solution, you have to define the problem. That maxim is just as relevant to would-be education reformers in Sacramento these days as it is to the high school mathematics student wrestling with a complex homework assignment.

To that end, EdSource Inc. made public in December what should serve as a useful dossier for Gov. Gray Davis, state lawmakers and others interested in school reform.

The 16-page report from the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Palo Alto is titled “How California Compares.”

It gives an easy-to-read snapshot of the nation’s largest state educational system at a pivotal moment as Davis, a Democrat, takes the place of Pete Wilson, a Republican. Davis has called a special session of the Legislature to pass urgent school measures.

Headline-worthy rankings leap off the first page of the report. California, according to 1996-97 data, the latest available to include all states and the District of Columbia, ranks:

* First in the number of students

* Ninth in teacher salaries

* 37th in high school graduation rate

* 41st in per-pupil expenditures

* 47th in students per computer

* 50th in students per teacher and students per principal

* And 51st--dead last--in students per guidance counselor and students per librarian.

The report notes that the school system faces complex issues, ranging from teacher quality to curriculum updates to the interactions between and among families, schools, communities and businesses.

“The success of California’s efforts to improve education may depend on which of these issues takes center stage,” the report concludes. “And perhaps on how well the state learns from the mistakes made and examples set elsewhere in the nation.”

To be sure, others are circulating their own school information kits. Some are overtly partisan. Wilson assembled a Fact Sheet touting what he contends is a rebirth that has taken place under his eight-year stewardship.

In it, the two-term former governor takes credit for a $1.5-billion annual program to limit the size of kindergarten through third-grade classes to 20 students.

Wilson also says he led a return to phonics-based reading instruction and claims credit for new academic standards heavy on facts and traditional skills, statewide testing for all students from grades two to 11, a 180-day school year that yields up to eight extra teaching days for some schools, charter and experimental single-sex public schools, and more money for textbooks and library materials.

“California’s public education system has undergone a complete transformation” since Wilson took office, the Wilson spin shop declared in November. “Burdened [then] by low test scores, unsafe schools, low expectations and runaway bureaucracy, California’s schools are now flourishing under the governor’s ‘education renaissance.’ ”

Those are strong words. Contrast them with Wilson’s comments last summer on the release of statewide test data showing that most English-fluent students scored around or below the national average in basic skills: “That is clearly not acceptable; in fact, it is deplorable.”

Clearly, how you view California’s public schools depends on where you stand. When the Republican governor was in his final budget negotiations, he assessed the system skeptically. Now that Wilson has left and sought to burnish his record, his views have softened.

Wilson’s critics say the governor was but one player--and not necessarily the instigator--in the reform movement of the last few years.

“Was he governor while all this happened? Yes. But he didn’t make this happen,” said John Hein, governmental relations director of the 285,000-member California Teachers Assn. “And he’s not the person who, per se, initiated it, and he’s not the person who, per se, finished it. The opportunity was forced upon him, and he seized it.”

While politicians and interest groups joust over the portrayal of the school system, the EdSource report rises above rhetoric to give a balanced appraisal grounded in data.

On test scores, for example, EdSource notes that the first year of California’s administration of the Stanford 9 achievement tests “evoked mixed interpretations.” On the whole, California students who were tested in reading, math, writing and other subjects scored between the 30th percentile and the national-average 50th percentile.

“Some observers criticized schools for not doing better,” the report found. “Others pointed to the state’s high proportion of English-language learners (25% compared with 2% in the national sample) to justify praise for the scores.”

Other data showed more promising trends in a state of educational haves and have-nots. For instance, the number of high school graduates completing the courses required for entrance to the University of California has risen to more than 36%, up 3.3 percentage points in two years. And the number of successful Advanced Placement exams per 100 high school juniors and seniors statewide has tripled since 1985, to 13.4 this year.

The report drove home the profound diversity and staggering growth of California’s student population.

Not only does the state’s public school enrollment rank No. 1, with more than 5.7 million students, but the rate of growth is the fastest in the nation, with a projected 15% increase over 10 years.

The largest ethnic bloc of students, the report found, is the 40% Latino portion. That percentage tops the figure for Latino students in any other state, including Texas.

Students not fluent in English account for a quarter of the total enrollment--but more than one-third of those from kindergarten through third grade. Those numbers emphasize the urgency of the education of limited-English students in the post-Proposition 227 era, as most schools move from bilingual teaching to English immersion.

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Public School Primer

Here are some key measures of the nation’s largest state public school system as Gov.-elect Gray Davis prepares to take office in January. Included are demographic profiles and comparisons to other major states.

An Education Index

Here’s a look at public schools by the numbers. Figures are for the 1996-97 school year. They reflect the first year of California’s initiative to reduce class size in elementary grades. In parentheses are rankings among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

* Number of students enrolled in California public schools: 5,612,965 (1st).

* Number of students in Texas: 3,828,975 (2nd).

* Salary of the average California teacher: $43,474 (9th)

* Salary of the average Alaska teacher: $50,647 (1st)

* Dollars California spends per student: 5,327 (41st).

* Dollars spent on average nationwide: 6,335.

* Number of students per instructional computer in California: 18 (47th).

* Number nationwide: 13.

* Number of students per teacher in California: 23 (50th).

* Number nationwide: 17.

* Number of students per principal or assistant principal in California: 537 (50th).

* Number nationwide: 370.