Posted on 11/01/2011 6:48:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
On the nation's report card, California schools have advanced from failing to -- failing a teensy bit less.
Despite posting minute gains this year, California students scored at nearly the bottom of the nation in reading and math, test results show. In reading, California performed worse than all other states and only outscored Washington, D.C. In math, state fourth-graders ranked above only D.C. and Mississippi; eighth-graders did a notch better, also outscoring Alabama.
The National Assessment of Education Progress is administered every other year to a sampling of students across the country. It is the only nationally standardized test for public schools. California students have typically performed poorly, both overall and in comparison to other children.
Education reformers reacted with dismay.
"Slow, incremental improvement is not enough for our kids," said Arun Ramanathan, executive director of the Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based advocacy group. Further, he said, "These results show just how far out of the mainstream, of the national education reform conversation, that California is right now."
Other large diverse states, like Texas, Florida and New York, performed better.
California schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson gave a more nuanced reaction. "Asked to do more with less, students, teachers, school employees and administrators have delivered. Imagine how much more they could accomplish," he said in a prepared statement, "with the resources they deserve."
For several years, California has steadily cut public education budgets and laid off teachers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Typicial idiot 'Rat response.
We need to spend more money!
Waaaaaaah!
Who voted for this moron?
Which is why TX kicks their butts each and every year?
Sorry, it ain’t genetics, or culture. It’s liberalism, plain and simple.
Better than CA for sure, but hardly anything to write home about.
If you were to split texas into black, white and hispanic, each individual pool would be among the best. The reason that TX is rated so low is simply because of the demographics, not because of the quality of the teaching.
Also, when you factor in spending, TX does more with less.
Diversity is our strength. Remember, support the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform.
Isn’t saying its demographics the same as saying its genetics or culture?
¿Por qué los niños de California tan estúpido?
Not when black kids in TX are doing better than black kids in Wisconsin, same with hispanic kids and white kids.
If it were genetics and culture, you’d expect to see TX do as poorly as California, even after taking this into account. This we don’t see.
When I was growing up in E. Long Beach in the fifties the school teachers were so proud to tell us all, and often how we were blessed with the absolute best, #1 rated school system in the entire country. California’s school system was the best.
Toss aside any and all the rhetoric about this reason, that reason. There’s only one reason the school system, and the State have gone to Hell, and that is because of the Leftists, and apathy on the part of the citizens of the State.
This State was also once upon a time the fourth largest economy in the entire World. Wasn’t that long ago either.
I dont think we’re disagreeing. Obviously I agree that in a conservative system any demographic group will do better.
Just was clarifying. Iowahawk had a pretty good article on this phenomenon not so long ago.
Like Dude....
Lighten up, it's, like....totally gnarly dude...it's awesome.
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If the tests include only kids in public schools the results will keep getting worse. Around our neighborhood, most of the kids are going to private schools..because the public schools are not focused on learning for the upper half, but baby sitting the lower half.
More money won’t change what walks in the doors of the school every morning.
Welcome to Mexifornia.
As a native Californian, I can say the main two causes in the decline of California public education are liberalism/Marxist indoctrination and the massive invasion of illegals from Mexico over the last 25 years or so.
And let me be frank, the problem has to do with the illegal and anchor baby Mexicans and not other immigrants, because Asians, illegal or legal, always outperform all other groups, including the native born whites, and I know many Latinos who aren’t Mexican that did extremely well in school.
My best friend was a first generation legal immigrant from Guatemala who came to the United States when he was 7 and didn’t know any English and he graduated with a double major with honors at a UC and has an MBA from Carnegie-Mellon.
You excuse the poor results with “demographics”. It still boils down to the genetics underlying the demographics. You can fix that with more money.
Take the folks in WI and swap them with TX. They would do better in TX and WI, and would likely be the top in the nation.
Sure, the results could be better, but TX is doing very well. If it were genetics a good system wouldn’t show the improvement that it does here in TX.
</sarcasm>
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