Starting Point for Schools

California’s first public school ranking system proves the self-evident: Children in the wealthiest neighborhoods attend the best neighborhood schools. Children of the very poor generally attend the worst. Notwithstanding that obvious chasm or the bright exception of highly competitive magnet schools, most of the state’s campuses rank below where they should be. The sliver of good news, however, is that schools are now being measured against one another, a step critical to improvement.

With the release of the Academic Performance Index, pushed by Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature, California joins dozens of states that track how individual schools perform. The emphasis will rightly be as much on making progress as on the numbers themselves. Schools that improve significantly, year to year, will be rewarded with additional money. Schools that fail repeatedly can request extra help and have three years to do better. Chronic failure despite such assistance could result in removal of the principal or state takeover. This is a great leap out of a culture that too often tolerated excuses and accepted mediocrity.

Few parents can afford to move to San Marino, Laguna Beach or other affluent suburbs that boast the best public schools; magnet schools have a shortage of seats. In the end, most children attend the school closest to home, and therein lies the challenge for public education in California.

Unless there is improvement in largely poor urban districts like Los Angeles--where most schools fell below the state target and many tallied a score of 1 out of a possible 10--public education statewide will feel the drag. However, a number of low-performing L.A. schools did pretty well compared with schools with similar demographic profiles.

In Ventura County, results also tracked with family income, and most underachieving schools were in the west county, especially the poorer, limited-English-speaking communities of Oxnard, Fillmore and Santa Paula. In Orange County, as in every other part of the state, schools fared well in affluent suburbs such as Newport Beach, Irvine and Los Alamitos. In Santa Ana, all but six of Santa Ana Unified’s 45 schools ranked in the bottom third, but most fared better when compared with schools facing similar economic and language disadvantages.

Such comparisons might encourage principals and teachers, but L.A.’s interim superintendent, Ramon C. Cortines, advised his educators not to cling to them. Students at low-performing schools will not compete just against similarly disadvantaged students for jobs and college slots.

Over time, the Academic Performance Index will include graduation and attendance rates, as well as other broader indicators of academic achievement, giving a more complete and sophisticated measure of schools. Improvement now is up to families, students and educators. At least they have a clearer path and a starting point.