Flunking School Reform

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Page 7

IN MY OPINION (Column)

Flunking School Reform

By RAY HAYNES

(The writer represents the 36th Senate District, which includes western Riverside County and northern San Diego County. He is also the Senate Republican whip.)

The latest results from California’s STAR exams—tests used to gauge student performance—have just recently made their annual splash in the news. Surveying the scores at an elementary school event, Gov. Gray Davis noted with caution that the modest increases were promising, but that “this is no time to pop the champagne cork.” He’s right. A sober look at the scores shows that under his leadership, California students have had no reason to celebrate.

The apparent achievement of note for our children is that for the fourth consecutive year, scores on the standardized Stanford-9 exam edged upward.

But the Stanford-9 is just one piece of the testing puzzle, and the least important one. The Stanford-9 is being scrapped next year, and with good reason: it ignores the specific information we are trying to teach our students. It measures only certain general knowledge, and then compares our scores to students’ scores across the country. A recent investigation into the reliability of the SAT-9 scores by the Orange County Register indicates that it barely does even that. The investigation found that some schools were exempting large numbers of students from the tests, removing low scorers and driving test averages up.

Some of these tricks were inspired by the competition for award money, which was a critical component of Governor Davis’ original education plan.

Millions of dollars were being awarded to schools and school employees based on test results that are incomplete and inconsistently applied from school to school. Rather than fix the cheating, the awards programs were removed entirely as a part of last summer’s budget, eliminating the competition that drove some of the legitimate gains in test scores.

By contrast, California has crafted a set of academic standards that are challenging and comprehensive—and this reflects the knowledge and skill set that we want our students to master. The California Standards Tests, implemented widely this year, are the true barometer of student learning in the state. How did our students fare on these tests? Two-thirds of the state’s students scored below proficient in “language arts” (what used to be called “English”), and only half of our students were considered proficient in other core disciplines such as math and earth sciences. And that’s just the good news. Even these red-flag scores mask some pockets of failure that are eye opening.

According to the California Standards Test results, nearly 90 percent of California’s 11th graders aren’t proficient in algebra or geometry. In U.S. history, 70 percent of our high school juniors are considered below proficient. Science scores fell dismally in the middle of math and history.

If you wonder why more than half of all California State University freshmen need remedial classes, this may clear things up.

Governor Davis vowed earlier this year to fight a “war on mediocrity” in our public schools. Looking at these test scores though, it’s apparent that he is having a problem identifying the enemy. While he should be combating failure, he is failing to use one of the most potent weapons in the school reform arsenal.

The Democrat-controlled legislature and administration are lobbing grenades at the wrong targets. First you have the Superintendent of Education intimidating home-schoolers, and you have the legislature threatening charter schools, trying to suffocate them with the same regulations that smother other public schools. Home-schooled students have consistently scored higher on these tests than public school students. Charters spring forth from a community’s desire to exercise greater control over their children’s education. A recent study from Cal State University-Los Angeles showed that charters are proving successful at educating our most challenged students. In every legislative session though, charters come under fire.

In recent years, the legislature has tried to put charter employees into the local teachers’ union and restrict charter schools from running certain independent and home-study programs (home-schoolers), a move that affected 27,000 students in these innovative plans.

And although the demand for charter schools is soaring, the state caps new charter growth to just 100 schools a year. Unlike the average public school, charter schools’ existence is predicated upon improving student achievement. If a charter school fails, it closes up shop. This is the straightforward accountability California strives for with all of its public schools, and the governor and the legislature should support them if for no other reason.

But with 90 percent of our juniors not proficient in math, shouldn’t we make room for more schools that have had a brief—but promising—record in educating students? Governor Davis, the man who made education his “first, second, and third priority,” needs to wage war against the status quo. If he does so, mediocrity will disappear along the way. Defending and promoting charter schools is a must. They will help raise our children’s test scores and better their chances for success as adults.