Multifaceted reforms needed to reach California’s education goals, research project finds
Studies organized by Stanford document need for better data systems, more funding and more early ed
Researchers on Monday released a massive collection of education studies timed to inform the next California governor’s and Legislature’s preK-12 agenda.
Among the findings of Getting Down to Facts II:
- The big achievement gap for California’s low- and middle-income children relative to their peers in other states starts in kindergarten, indicating a need to significantly expand preschool and quality child care.
- California would have to increase K-12 funding by 32 percent — $22 billion — to prepare all children adequately in the state’s academic standards, according to experienced educators and analysts who did the math.
- California has fewer adults in schools, with higher ratios of students to teachers, administrators and counselors than in most states.
- The lack of effective data systems is preventing schools and districts from determining which programs and practices are effective and which aren’t.
- California provides fewer general physical health and mental health services than almost any other state.
- Principals with the least experience are assigned disproportionately to the lowest-achieving schools. Nearly three-quarters of school districts report teacher openings they can’t fill, with the most severe shortages in special education, math, and science.
Two years in the making, Getting Down to Facts II consists of 36 reports and 19 briefs by more than 100 authors, including many prominent researchers from California. They took deep looks into a range of long-standing and pressing issues: the teacher shortage, inadequate funding, disparities in achievement, charter school oversight and English learner achievement. They examined unmet challenges in special education, school facilities, children’s mental health and other issues. Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education or PACE, which is affiliated with Stanford, USC, UC Davis, UCLA and UC Berkeley, coordinated the project.
The research comes at a pivotal time, with the retirement of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Gov. Jerry Brown and longtime Brown confidant Michael Kirst, president of the State Board of Education. Sweeping changes they initiated have altered the K-12 landscape since the first Getting Down to Facts studies were published in 2007.
In surveys detailed in the studies, educators argued strongly that California should stay committed to the major reforms already in place. These reforms include academic standards in math, English language arts and other subject areas; a funding formula championed by Gov. Brown that targets more funding to low-income students, English learners and other high needs students; and a new school accountability system that views counties and the state as partners with schools and districts, not overseers. Three-quarters of superintendents agreed that the new flexibility under the Local Control Funding Formula has enabled their district to spend in ways that match local needs.
But the funding formula, which remade school funding and shifted decision-making over how state funds are spent, has yet to significantly narrow the wide gaps in achievement among ethnic and racial groups in California. And California students, with the exception of wealthy children, continue to lag a full grade behind the nation, according to a study led by Sean Reardon, an education professor at Stanford University.
There are some hopeful signs. Reardon did find that low-income elementary and middle school students in California have improved in reading slightly faster than low-income students nationwide. And a study led by Rucker Johnson, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, found a correlation between extra spending under the funding formula on poor children and improvements in their graduation rates and reading scores. That research could not document how the extra money made a difference.
But the studies underscored that the principal goal of the funding formula — to give all students the opportunity and resources to achieve their post-high school ambitions — may be unattainable without not only additional funding but also policy changes, including:
- Placing fully prepared teachers, led by the most skilled leaders, in the highest-need schools. A disproportionate share of inexperienced teachers and principals staff those schools.
- Meeting the mental health needs of students. California provides fewer mental health services in schools than almost any other state.
- Giving districts the resources, guidance and opportunities to improve. The state’s system of support will rely on the coordinated help from the California Department of Education, county offices of education and a new state agency, the Collaborative for Educational Excellence — all of which, researchers concluded, have limitations. The California Department of Education, largely staffed to oversee compliance with federal laws and programs, lacks subject matter experts that districts may look to for help and has experienced high staff turnover because of competitively low pay. County offices of education, many with small staffs, face a steep learning curve to switch from enforcers of regulations to first responders for districts seeking help to improve academic outcomes.
- Responding to the impacts on district finances from several factors — state-imposed pension costs, special education funding that has remained flat and a school facilities modernization program that advantages wealthier school districts.
Christopher Edley, president and co-founder of the Opportunity Institute, criticized the state’s hands-off approach to overseeing spending under the Local Control Continue reading: Multifaceted reforms needed to reach California’s education goals, research project finds | EdSource
