Education Issues Brief 2010-2011

7/30/2019 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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California School Boards Association

Education Issues Brief 2010-2011

Documents

Transcript of Education Issues Brief 2010-2011