Educators Brace for Unsettling Changes

They come seeking a better place for their children. A place where schoolyards are safe and inviting, where students can walk to school without fear, where test scores are high and dropout rates low.

Karyn Nussbaum is one of them. The registered nurse and mother of two moved to Westlake with her husband from West Los Angeles two decades ago.

“We specifically bought on the Ventura County side because of the schools,” she recalled.

Dianne and Gary Nevers, who have seven children, moved to Oak Park in 1980 for the same reason. He is a lawyer, she volunteers at her children’s elementary school.

“I like what I see,” she said.

But the very qualities that attracted the Nussbaums and the Neverses are being threatened as Southern California’s suburban sprawl creeps into Ventura County.

Campus violence is increasing. The number of limited-English-speaking students is outpacing the number of bilingual teachers.

Debate over what children should learn is as fierce as it has ever been. And increasingly, educational opportunities are splintering along socioeconomic lines.

“In the last couple of years, we in education have realized the idyllic setting we are in is changing,” said Ventura County Supt. of Schools Charles Weis.

Those changes--compounded by years of slashed funding for education--are making it increasingly difficult for teachers to do their jobs, educators say. And the ones who stand to suffer are the students.

“I see that coming,” said Oak Park High School junior Beverly Barton, 16. “Definitely the parents should see what’s going on.”

For years, Ventura County schools have been rated among the best in the state. The county’s dropout rate is lower than the state average, and students consistently outperform their peers statewide on standardized tests and college entrance exams.

“We are perceived as one of the top counties in the state,” Weis boasted. “I think in some respects, we are the top in the state.”

But considering California’s ranking on the national level, that is not much to brag about.

A recent report showed that California fourth-graders ranked 40th of 41 states in reading skills. Only 15% of eighth-graders were able to work with fractions and decimals and perform simple algebra.

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California has the most crowded classrooms in the nation, and although its residents are among the country’s wealthiest, they spend less of their personal income on public education than less-affluent Arkansas and Mississippi.

While New Jersey spends about $10,000 per student, California spends just $4,200. What does that mean for students in this state?

“It means our kids are going to be working for kids in New Jersey,” remarked Weis.

Ventura County educators acknowledge that parents may be surprised to learn how local schools stack up nationally.

“If they are coming from elsewhere in California, we are going to be better,” said Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. “If they are coming from Fairfax, Va., they are going to be in for a shock.”

Indeed, in Fairfax County, 75% of high school graduates go on to four-year colleges and universities. In Ventura County, the figure is 11.3%.

That is below the statewide average and significantly less than other California counties of comparable size and wealth. While a Times Poll revealed that 82% of students surveyed said they plan to go to college, studies show that far fewer actually do.

According to a 1995 report by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, 53.4% of Ventura County’s 7,237 high school graduates in 1993 enrolled in college.

About 42.1% went to two-year community colleges and 11.3% enrolled in UC, Cal State and private California colleges--fewer than Fresno County (15.1%), Contra Costa County (18.7%), San Mateo County (19.7%) and San Francisco County (34.4%).

Some educators attribute Ventura County’s low numbers to skyrocketing college costs and the absence of a local Cal State university.

“The only answer I can come up with is proximity,” Weis said. “There is no other rational reason.”

But others say the problem lies with middle-of-the-road students who are unmotivated to go beyond high school. With no reason to leave the comfortable confines of Ventura County--and no push from their parents to do otherwise--they find average-paying jobs and settle here.

“It seems to me in Ventura County there is a homebody feeling,” said Conejo Valley Unified Supt. Jerry C. Gross. “It is a close community and people hang around. . . . I think it is one of the reasons we don’t have kids running off to four-year universities.”

Geographically, more east Ventura County students go to four-year universities than those from west Ventura County.

In 1992, for example, 18.5% of Conejo Valley Unified’s graduates and 23.7% of Oak Park Unified’s graduates went to a UC or Cal State campus, higher than the state average of 14.2% for that year. But the percentage was significantly lower in Ventura Unified (9.2%), Oxnard Union High (9.1%), Ojai Unified (10.4%), Santa Paula Union High (8.4%) and Fillmore Unified (6.2%).

That points to a growing trend, educators say, in which student achievement is tied more closely to parental income and education than any other factor.

Oak Park’s median family income, for example, is $68,421--the highest in Ventura County. Fillmore’s median is just $36,204. About 42% of Oak Park’s residents are college graduates. Only 9% of Fillmore’s residents hold a college degree.

“The idea is that everybody is entitled to an equal-opportunity education and that is not the case,” said Fillmore Unified Supt. Mario Contini. “The fact is, it depends on where you live.”

Rio Mesa High School graduate Esmeralda Fernandez knows this to be true. When she tried to fill out UC admission forms, no one in her poor La Colonia neighborhood in Oxnard could offer any guidance.

“There were no role models,” recalled Fernandez, now an 18-year-old UCLA freshman. “In my neighborhood, there is hardly anyone who has gone to a university.”

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Educators say that family expectations are one key to success or failure. But some graduates say that schools--not families--should shoulder much of the blame for low college attendance and low student achievement. Too often, they say, educators fail to motivate students to continue their education.

“I don’t think a lot of students see college as an option,” said Britt Molina, 21, a graduate of Channel Islands High School in Oxnard. “They need to tell students . . . they have potential and motivate them.”

When Molina was a student at Channel Islands, she and her friends cruised through classes with little concern for the future, she said, and no one seemed to care very much.

“I think the goal of a lot of administrators is just to get them through high school,” she said. “They aren’t looking more long-term.”

In addition, high school counseling services have been so severely scaled back by budget cuts in recent years that one counselor may be responsible for as many as 600 students, making valuable one-on-one time nearly impossible.

“In high school, you almost have to be suicidal for them to talk to you,” said Caroline Ramirez, 18, a Rio Mesa High School graduate.

In a perfect world, educators say, schools would have additional funding for counseling and better teacher-student ratios. They could also make campuses more pleasant environments for learning by buying new desks when old ones get tattered and placing state-of-the-art technology in classrooms.

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But it would take a ton of money. Thirty years ago, California ranked fifth in the nation in the amount of money its residents spent on public education. The state now ranks 38th.

“It is just like a family on a limited income,” said Ventura Unified Assistant Supt. Patricia Chandler. “You set priorities and you do the best you can.”

In most districts, priorities lie in the classroom. School officials have struggled to keep class sizes small--29 or 30 students if they are lucky. But much has been sacrificed to that end.

Funding for arts programs, books, technology and building improvements has been scaled back. If parents want those “extras” for their children nowadays, they must pay for it out of their own pockets. And many do.

To the extent that they can help, parent organizations kick in cash for school supplies, new computers and even salaries for part-time teachers.

The Parent-Teacher Organization at Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura raised $28,000 last year, which paid for folding chairs, dry-erase chalkboards, walkie-talkies and the salary of a music teacher.

But in some communities, parents simply can’t afford to subsidize public education. So less affluent areas suffer.

“The amenities that come with the education aren’t there,” said Fillmore’s Contini. “The unfortunate part is that without those amenities, you miss other things that are enhancements to everyday life. It’s unfair.”

Perhaps the most frightening issue facing educators today--and the one that most concerns parents and students--is school safety.

In the past five years, acts of violent crime and expulsions for weapons possession have risen sharply in Ventura County schools. The Los Angeles Times Poll found that one of every 20 students said at least half the students at their school now regularly carry a gun or knife to class.

The fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old Simi Valley boy on his junior high campus last year sent shock waves through the community and served as a wake-up call to school officials that even in relatively safe cities like Simi Valley, violence among young people is increasing.

“Everyone in education realizes every district has that potential,” Weis said. “We are dealing with more crime than in the past.”

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Ventura County school officials need look no further than Los Angeles Unified schools to see the rising tide of violent confrontations. Nearly a dozen students have been shot and at least three killed on or in front of Los Angeles schools during the last decade, including two fatal shootings in 1993.

For the most part, Ventura County students say they feel safe at school, though The Times Poll found that campus violence and gang activity were their foremost concerns.

“It’s better than L.A.,” said Ryan Hansen, 12, of Thousand Oaks. “There are a lot of gangs, but not as many.”

School officials have taken different steps to combat campus violence. Two years ago, Oxnard and Camarillo high schools began using hand-held metal detectors to crack down on students carrying weapons--the first time such devices had appeared in Ventura County schools.

Many campuses have set up telephone hot lines so students can anonymously report youths who bring guns or knives to school.

Others have taken more visible steps, such as erecting tall fences around schoolyards. But some schools, such as those in Thousand Oaks, have taken pains to avoid putting up fences for fear of turning campuses into foreboding camps.

“The reason people come here is to not have their schools look like that,” Conejo Valley Unified’s Simpson said. “They want schools to be safe, but they don’t want them to look like prisons.”

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Another growing concern among educators is how to provide an equal education to the mushrooming population of immigrant students who do not speak English. More than 860 students with limited English skills joined county classrooms in the past year, bringing the county’s total to 22,508--one in every five students in the county and more than twice the number of 10 years ago.

The situation is most dramatic in Oxnard, where nearly one in two elementary-age students speaks little or no English. Statewide, the ratio is one in five.

“There is a statewide shortage of teachers who have been adequately prepared to teach bilingual [classes],” said Richard Duarte, Oxnard elementary’s administrator for educational services. “That is a big challenge for us.”

Educators expect the number of limited-English-speaking students to continue rising. Schools must be prepared to deal with changing demographics, experts say, in terms of culture as well as language.

Yolanda Benitez, who recently took office as Rio elementary’s superintendent, said she is seeing more name-calling on playgrounds and general intolerance among youngsters than ever before.

“I hear little children telling other little children, ‘You’re an illegal alien,’ ” she said. “It is meant as a nasty word.”

Educators agree that teaching tolerance is important and necessary. But how do schools make room for multicultural programs when the curriculum is already crammed?

“We still have the same 180 days we had 10 years ago, but we have 100 more things to teach,” Weis said. And the debate over what students should learn is as fierce now as it has ever been, he said.

Factions of parents and elected officials routinely face off at meetings of the county Board of Education and regional school boards, arguing over sex education, bilingual education, reading and teaching methods.

Critical of state education reforms, vocal parents have come forward to demand that schools return to a “back-to-basics” agenda. But educators say there is more to it than that.

“I would submit to you that the basics are different,” said Ojai Unified Supt. Andrew Smidt. “It has caused us to maybe become less focused to delivering academic education.”

“The times have changed,” said Ventura Unified’s Chandler. “It is not that education is doing a poor job, it is that we have to do a different job because of the changing society.”

* Next Sunday: Parents cope with the pressures of work and time as they struggle to keep up with the Ventura County family dream.

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BY THE NUMBERS

Statistics that reflect on education in Ventura County:

Total Students:

Public Schools-120,733

Private Schools-13,805

Where The Students Are:

East County-38%

West County-62%

Where The Students Are Going:

53.4% of 1993 graduating high school students were college bound.

Adults Holding a College Degree:

23% (Statewide: 23.4%)

High School Graduates:

79.4% (Statewide: 76.2%)

Oak Park Has the Highest Ratio of College Graduates: 42%

Piru Has the Lowest Ratio of College Graduates: 3.6%

Dropout Rate:

Class of 1993-11.7% (Statewide: 15.3%)

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Schools at a Glance

Ventura County schools have been rated among the best in California. Students here consistently outperform their peers statewide on standardized tests, although fewer attend four-year colleges compared to the state norm.

WHERE THE STUDENTS ARE

Oxnard: 31,674

Simi Valley: 18,978

Thousand Oaks: 18,114

Ventura: 13,907

Camarillo: 8,454

Santa Paula: 5,112

Moorpark: 4,888

Port Hueneme: 3,532

Fillmore: 2,852

Ojai: 1,144

HOW THEY SCORE ON TESTS

Ventura County public school students generally scored higher than their peers statewide on 1993-94 California Learning Assessment System tests.

Grade 4

County

Reading: 26; Writing: 36; Math: 36

Statewide

Reading: 23; Writing: 32; Math: 28

Grade 8

County

Reading: 41; Writing: 50; Math: 27

Statewide

Reading: 39; Writing: 39; Math: 14

THEIR SAT SCORES

Their performance on the 1994 SAT college entrance exam. The numbers represent the average combined math and verbal scores.

County: 938

State: 895

Nation: 902

THE LANGUAGE THEY SPEAK

In 1994, the percentage of public school students identified as “limited english proficient” soared past state averages in five districts in west Ventura County. The numbers remain lower than average in eastern portions of the county.

State: 23

Simi Valley (Unified): 5

Thousand Oaks (CV Unified): 5

Ojai (Unified): 6.5

Camarillo (Elementary): 8

Ventura (Unified): 11

Moorpark (Unified): 15

Santa Paula (High School): 17

Ventura County: 19

Santa Paula (K-8): 28

Hueneme (High School): 30

Oxnard (High School): 31.5

Fillmore (Unified): 40

Oxnard (Elementary): 46

THEIR COLLEGE PREPARATION

Ventura County ranked 11th among 58 counties in percent of students prepared for college last year.

County: 36.8%

State: 32.7%

THOSE WHO GO TO COLLEGE

In 1993, 7,237 students graduated from Ventura County public and private high schools. But fewer than the state average went to four-year colleges.

County: 11.3%

State: 16.7%

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VOICES: What qualities make your school a good place to learn and work?

“You can go to a teacher and have a one-on-one conversation. . . . They understand your ability. And the society around campus--we hear about a lot of gang problems at different schools and we don’t have that at our school.”

--Laura Rodriguez, 17, senior, Camarillo High School

“You couldn’t ask for a better place to teach. I have had friends in the teaching profession in other districts who have been a solo act. But here, it is just very much a community atmosphere. . . . There is a tremendous value for education.”

--Nancy Bowman, science teacher, Westlake High School

“I think they are able to offer a lot of outside curriculum classes, the science courses, the music courses, on top of their regular routine. [Students] have access to . . . things that other schools are not able to offer.”

--Tambi Fisher, Moorpark parent and fifth-grade teacher at Santa Rosa School in Camarillo.

“No. 1, you’ve got an area that is a very professional area, and parents that are enthusiastic about education . . . and support school activities. You look at it from a student standpoint, you have parents that stand behind them and motivate and have high expectations.”

--Curt Luft, principal, Westlake High School