County Educators Tell State Task Force More Reforms, Money Needed

Ventura County educators Monday called for smaller high school classes, better state tests, more emphasis on career training and increased attention to students who are not going to college.

In other words, more money.

“There can’t be any meaningful reform without more money,” said Yvonne Peck, an English teacher at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard. “With 36 in a class, there’s no way a teacher can prepare a student for the world.”

Peck was among 12 speakers at a regional hearing of the California High School Task Force, which was appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction, Bill Honig, last December to recommend reforms in high school education.

Specifically, the task force is supposed to come up with ways to increase to 25% the number of high school graduates who eventually get bachelor’s degrees; raise to 25% the number who get community college degrees; increase to 40% the number who have enough skills to go directly to work; and cut the dropout rate to 10% from the current 22%.

Peck’s call for smaller classes was echoed by Paris Earls, director of secondary education in the Conejo Valley Unified District. He also urged tax incentives for businesses that help train students for jobs.

“There’s no way a high school can keep up with the equipment needs for high-tech training,” he said.

Earls and several other speakers called for stronger efforts to keep potential dropouts in school and train them for jobs.

“In ninth grade, you can identify the potential dropouts,” he said. “We need early intervention.”

Wayne Edmonds, a psychologist at Adolfo Camarillo High School, said disabled students have an especially acute need for job training but “their vocational needs are not being met.”

Patricia Croner, career coordinator for Las Virgenes Unified District, suggested integrating career planning with other disciplines. For example, English composition students might research and write about various careers.

Although several speakers said they wanted more independence and fewer state mandates, Jean Flemion said high school students should be required to take physical education all four years instead of the current two years.

Citing the poor performance of students in a statewide physical education test, Flemion said: “If we create whizzes in science or math but they don’t have their health, they’re no good to society.”

Flemion, a physical education teacher at Arthur E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, was recently named Teacher of the Year by two national physical education groups. He said physical education classes are often dumping grounds with 80 or more in a class, but most districts spend more on organized sports programs than on physical education classes that would benefit all students.

Two speakers urged quick reinstatement and improvements in the California Assessment Program that Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed out of the current state budget.

Bert Pearlman, director of curriculum and assessment for the Oxnard Union High School District, and Beth Fruchey, coordinator of staff development for the Ventura Unified District, urged the state to provide CAP scores for individual students. The program now provides scores only for entire classes.

Arlene Miro, the state Department of Education official who set up the hearing, said individual scores would require an expensive reworking of the test.

She said the eight-member panel that heard comments Monday will forward them to the full 65-member task force, which is expected to have a report completed by next June. The Ventura County hearing was the 17th of 18 being held around the state.

Mark Brenizer, who teaches German and Spanish at Camarillo High, said higher-ups have often asked him for ideas on improving education but rarely have been willing to share power.

He told the panel that their efforts will not have much impact “if teachers have no authority to determine what goes on in the classroom.”