Schools Score Marked Improvements in Last Two Years, Study Says

California’s public schools have undergone a remarkable turnaround in the last two years, producing stronger academic classes, longer school days for students and sharply higher salaries for teachers, according to an analysis released Wednesday of the 1983 state education reform law.

“After years of declining academic standards, shrinking funding and lower morale in the schools, we’ve turned the corner and things are getting better,” said Stanford University Prof. Michael Kirst, who along with USC Prof. Allen Odden, compiled a slew of figures on the state of California’s educational system.

In the years after 1978’s Proposition 13, many California schools laid off teachers, cut back on high school course schedules and, according to the critics, gave most students a skimpy education.

Embarrassed by the state of public education, the Legislature in 1983 enacted a reform law that boosted school funding and set new requirements for students and teachers. Since then, high schools have greatly increased the number of courses in science, math, computers, history and literature, Kirst said.

The number of science classes rose by 22% in the two years, while math classes increased by 19%. The number of college-level classes in all areas increased by 34%, Kirst said, based on a survey of high schools throughout the state.

The schools have also used the extra money to buy new textbooks, expand summer school, extend school days, add counselors and provide more detailed testing of students.

However, the most noticeable change may be in teachers’ paychecks. After a decade in which teachers’ salaries fell behind the inflation rate, California instructors received an average 7.6% increase in 1984 and a 10.3% increase in 1985, according to the California Teachers Assn.

In Los Angeles, teachers’ pay jumped 22.7% in the same period to an average of $29,685 for the school year completed in June. The city school district and the Los Angeles teachers union are in negotiations over a raise for the current year.

“The greatest benefit of SB 813 (the school reform law) was that it focused the public’s attention on how far we had fallen,” said Marilyn Russell Bittle, president of the state teachers association. Because of the salary increases, she said, “I think teachers are feeling somewhat better about themselves and their profession.”

‘A Stronger Curriculum’

Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, whose 1982 campaign highlighted the problems in the schools, said he sees “some evidence that the reforms are paying off. I think we’ve moving in the right direction and that we’re providing a stronger curriculum for a broader range of students.”

But Honig added that the long decline of the public schools will take a long time to reverse.

“We need to keep the pressure on. It will take 5 or 10 years of effort to build a quality public education system,” Honig said.

Despite a huge increase in state education spending over the last two years, California still spends less per pupil than the national average, Kirst and Odden said. Moreover, California still vies with Utah for having the largest classes in the United States.

In the 1982-83 school year, California spent $2,960 for each student, an amount that was $187 below the national average. In the school year that just began, California will spend $3,651 per student, but the state still has not caught up to the national standard, which has risen to $3,740.

No Progress on Class Size

The state has not made any progress in reducing its large classes, which typically have more than 30 students. Kirst and Odden calculated that it would cost the state $163 million just to reduce all classes by one student. Last week, the Legislature approved a bill by state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) that would set aside $60 million to reduce the sizes of selected high school classes in writing, math, science and history. But Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed a similar bill last year, and his aides have said he will likely veto this one.

The state had also made no progress in lowering the high school dropout rate. A state Assembly study released last week said about 3 in 10 California high school students leave school before graduation, a rate considerably higher than the national average.

However, Kirst and Odden pointed to the huge influx of new students as the biggest challenge facing state and local school officials. Because of immigration and a higher birthrate, California’s schools are expected to gain an extra 100,000 students each year for the next 10 years.

“Just to stay even between now and 1991 will cost the state an additional $7.2 billion in instruction costs and $3.5 billion in building costs,” Odden said. The researchers also said that by 1990 California will become the first state to have a majority of minority group students in its schools.