The Ups and Downs of Improving the Schools

Two privately funded studies, issued this fall, highlight the progress and problems of California’s schools and make numerous and expensive suggestions for improvement.

Those studies and their recommendations:

Policy Analysis for California Education

PACE, a research group based at Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, and USC, studied California school reform with a $900,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Its findings in a report titled “Conditions of Education, 1985:”

- Student enrollment will increase by 500,000 by 1990, especially in the first four grades. Minority enrollment will exceed 50% by 1990.

- California has a growing dropout problem. As many as 30% to 34% of students enrolled in first grade will leave before graduation. The figure is more than 40% for Latinos.

- High school course offerings in math, science and foreign languages are up, as well as advanced placement classes. Courses in home economics, industrial arts and business are decreasing.

- The average California teacher’s salary increased 101.4% between 1974 and 1984, while the consumer price index went up 129.4%.

- Women hold 64.9% of teaching positions, but 33.2% of administrative positions.

- California teacher salaries are among the highest in the nation, but the student-to-teacher ratio is at the bottom.

- California spends $89 less per student than the nation’s average for 1985-86.

California Commission on the Teaching Profession

Also known as the “Commons Commission” after Chairman Dorman Commons, this body used a $400,000 grant from the same Hewlett Foundation. Its 17 members were appointed by Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Teresa Hughes, Senate Education Committee Chairman Gary Hart and state school Supt. Bill Honig. The recommendations in its report, “Who Will Teach Our Children? A Strategy for Improving California’s Schools:”

- Restructure credentialing of teachers, requiring new teachers to complete a one-year paid “residency” and passing tests before getting credentials.

- Abolish the emergency credential and establish a program to give people with a bachelor’s degree credentials for areas with teacher shortages.

- Redesign the tenure process, requiring three years of teaching instead of two and developing new evaluation guidelines.

- Strengthen the “mentor” program whereby exceptional teachers are given extra money to help other teachers.

- Develop advanced career options, with increased pay, for teachers not interested in administration.

- Reduce classroom sizes.

- Use schools year-round.

- Develop an index that could be used to rate all schools according to resources and conditions.

- Increase beginning teacher salaries from $20,000 to $25,000. Increase salaries for experienced teachers from a high of $56,250 for 12-month teaching after 25 years to $68,250.

- Initiate a statewide recruitment campaign, especially for minority teachers.