Notations

Reporting, Research and Staff

* This project was based in part on reporting from Times staff writers Richard Lee Colvin at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles; Mark Gladstone at Oakmont High School in Roseville, Duke Helfand at Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills; Tina Nguyen at Katella High School in Anaheim; Tony Perry at Hoover High School in San Diego; Doug Smith at Taft Union High School in Taft and Elaine Woo at Arcadia High. Additional reporting was done by staff writers Nick Anderson, Ken Ellingwood Amy Pyle and Louis Sahagan.

* Statistical analysis of California public school education data was conducted by Richard O’Reilly, the Times director of computer analysis, and Sandra Poindexter, data analyst. Researcher Nona Yates assisted in the compilation and presentation of the data.

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* For this series, The Times Poll surveyed 2,804 California adults, including 1,281 parents of school students aged 5-17, by telephone Nov. 18 through Dec. 12, 1997. Also interviewed were 545 children between 12 and 17 years old. Random digit dialing techniques were used so that listed and unlisted numbers were contacted. Asian parents were interviewed in their language by Interviewing Services of America. Other interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error for adults and parents is plus or minus 3 percentage points, for children it is 5 points. Also, random sample of 1,091 teachers, surveyed Nov. 13-16, 1997, was drawn proportionately from the California Teachers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers membership lists. The margin of sampling error for teachers is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Poll results can also be affected by other factors, such as question wording and question order.

* Additional research was conducted by a team of analysts from UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, including Denise Quigley, Richard Brown, Jamal Abedi, and co-director Eva Baker.

Project editors: Paul Lieberman and David Lauter

Graphics editor: Les Dunseith

Graphics: Lorena Iniguez and Roger Kuo

News editor: George Foulsham

Copy editors: Bob Browning, Mike Castelvecchi, Tami Dennis, Larry Harnisch, Steve Hensch, Mark Sachs, Elizabeth Troy and Mike Wyma.

Photo editor: Calvin Hom

Photographers: Mark Boster, Bob Carey, Carolyn Cole, Robert Durell, Robert Gauthier, Irfan Khan, Wally Skalij, Luis Sinco and Clarence Williams.

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The Series at a Glance

SUNDAY: A Week in the Life: An inside view of seven California public high schools.

MONDAY: Culture and Language: The implications for schools when so many students don’t speak English-- and so many don’t care about learning.

TODAY: Teacher Shortages, Accountability and ‘Grand Gestures’: How a succession of school reform efforts have been heavy on good intentions and light on follow-up.

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This series, along with additional statistical information on every public high school in the sate, is available on the Internet at https://www.latimes.com/schools

To order copies of all three special sections, call Times on Demand at I(800) 788-8804. the price is $11, including shipping, handling and sales tax. Or mail your request and a check to Times on Demand, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Bradbury Suite, Los Angeles, Ca. 90053