State of the schools

Sacramento’s Susan B. Anthony Elementary School does not look like a model public school, one that’s gaining national attention for creating a method of improving test scores. Mostly made of outdated portables, the school outwardly looks like any rundown elementary school.

But, inside the classrooms, students (most of whom are low-income minorities) are receiving a high-quality education—a reality that belies the election-year portraits many politicians are painting of troubled public schools.

Yet, the school’s success is not a testament to Capitol-based education reform efforts. Administrators and teachers at the school take full credit for the improvements and claim that specific formulas implemented at individual schools can outweigh the best intentions and demands coming out of Sacramento or Washington, D.C.

Five years ago, before there was Governor Gray Davis’ Academic Performance Index or Standardized Testing and Reporting program, Principal Carol Sharp came to Susan B. Anthony and found students who couldn’t read, parents who didn’t participate and some of the worst standardized test scores in the Sacramento Unified School District.

Much of that has changed under Sharp’s leadership. Standardized test scores are improving, attendance is at an all-time high, and parent participation has increased. Sharp attributes all of the changes to her staff working hard at constantly assessing students’ needs.

With statewide elections just a week away, the state of California’s public schools is on every politician’s mind. The two leading candidates for governor have been painting drastically different portraits of California schools and what they need to succeed.

Republican candidate Bill Simon is pushing to restructure the education system, with an “empowerment policy” that focuses on taking control from districts and giving it to schools and parents. Davis boasts about increasing test scores and other signs of improvement.

With competing commercials, positions and speeches addressing the problems of low-performing and crowded schools, voters have been left to sort through each candidate’s proposed plans to assess what the problems are and who should be held accountable.

Sharp has heard it all before, and she says the only way to get around the current state of California’s public schools is to address each school individually. To get Susan B. Anthony back into shape, Sharp worked closely with teachers and branched out into the community.

By getting parents involved (with home visits from teachers) and by setting up teams of teachers to address students’ needs, Sharp made a difference in the students’ performances. Sharp and her staff say all a school needs is a little bit of money and a lot of patience.

“You can’t change it overnight,” said sixth-grade teacher Rosemarie Davis, who has been teaching at Susan B. Anthony for more than 10 years. Once a week, she meets with other teachers in her grade group to discuss what is working and how their students are doing in certain subjects. She said students’ needs should be addressed every year, not just every election period.

When Gray Davis entered the governor’s office in 1998, he promised education would be his top priority. In a speech at the 2002 California State Democratic Convention, Davis said, “A governor can’t fix every school, but he should try.”

Simon, on the other hand, has said that Davis is headed in the wrong direction. Simon blames Davis for California’s still-low test scores, mismanaged education funds and overcrowded classrooms and takes every opportunity to remind voters that “our schools rank near the bottom in reading, near the bottom in math and dead last in science.”

Davis argues that he’s improving a situation he inherited, but Simon claims the governor hasn’t done enough. Improving test scores has been a constant focus of educators, but many agree that even a drastic change in California’s educational system will not change the scores overnight.

“Scores continue to climb across the board. California schools are making great efforts to meet the challenges of improving student achievement,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said in one of her office’s many press releases on the subject.

Although test scores make for easy political targets, many educators question whether they are the best gauges of educational progress, and some even say they take away from the learning process. Sharp has instructed her teachers to veer away from teaching for the SAT-9 test toward teaching so that children are taking an interest in what they are learning. If a child does not understand a problem, the teacher will work with that child on an individual basis until the child does.

Along with the low test scores, the physical state of schools has become an issue in the governor’s race. Overcrowded schools and outdated equipment have become political weapons. Simon has needled Davis for the “deplorable shape” of California’s schools.

“I think the governor really has no plan on how to accomplish this, which, in fact, is in violation of California law that requires him to submit a five-year infrastructure [plan],” said Simon in the fall 2002 issue of California Schools magazine.

Simon also cited a study indicating 73 percent of school classrooms were outdated and needed repair and that 27 percent of classrooms had rats or vermin. Simon said school bonds approved by the state Legislature in the past have been only a partial answer to these problems.

Yet Tom Duffy, chief lobbyist for the Coalition for Affordable School Housing, said this oft-repeated accusation is somewhat misconstrued. Duffy attributes structural problems in California’s public schools to the rapid increase in student enrollment and to money being funneled to build more schools although others need modernization.

“I have been to many schools, and I can’t tell you of any rat-infested classrooms,” Duffy said. “Schools are pretty good about trying to control things that are a health hazard.” Duffy spends his days traveling from district to district across California to work with superintendents about facility issues within their schools.

Duffy also is pushing Proposition 47, which would increase funding to keep up with leaky roofs and help build new schools. Davis wants this bond issue to be phased in over three election cycles, which would create more jobs during construction and keep up with the demand for more schools.

Simon feels that passing the proposition is not enough to help. “California needs to have a comprehensive plan for meeting its total needs to rebuild and to renew its physical plan,” he said. He is proposing a plan that would address the physical state of schools along with the physical state of California’s roads and power plants.

Though Davis has said more funding is needed for education facilities, Simon has called for more home schooling and charter schools. “I want to give parents every opportunity to educate their children. That’s why I will fight for improving public schools, increasing the number of charter schools, and also for home schooling in California,” Simon said in a speech he gave at Calvary Christian Center School in Sacramento in September. “The question we should all be asking is why Gray Davis doesn’t wish to expand opportunities for California’s schoolchildren, who are currently being failed by unaccountable bureaucrats and crumbling facilities?”

“Accountability” has been a key buzzword on the education issue. Both candidates often say that someone should be held accountable for these problems. Davis turns the focus to peer-review programs, and Simon wants smaller school districts that are easier to control.

Davis has installed programs in which principals are accountable for the test scores of their students. If a school’s test scores do not improve, the principal faces disciplinary action from the school district.

Simon wants to create a three-part education plan in which teachers, parents and local schools have more control, by breaking up school districts that have more than 60,000 students. He also emphasizes holding teachers accountable for their classroom test scores, and he’s pushing for removal of the state’s cap on charter schools. Currently, there is a cap of 10 charter schools per district because of cost and lack of enrollment.

Those who have seen the progress at Susan B. Anthony think the blame should not be on just one factor in the education process. They say people shouldn’t assume gubernatorial attention or toughness are big factors in improving education.

“Everybody is accountable,” said Rosemarie Davis. She believes the pressure California’s school districts place on teachers is so overwhelming that it takes away from the teaching process. She feels that the process of educating should not fall only on the teachers but also on the parents. “If the parents work with us, then we can work better for the child,” she said.

She said many teachers feel school districts aren’t hearing their voices on the issue, even though much of the blame for schools’ failings is on the teachers.

Sharp has addressed the question of accountability by getting parents involved in the education process. By creating a program in which teachers are paid by the hour in addition to their salaries to make home visits, the process of education moves from the school to home.

Sharp feels that if schools were given more power and funding, the process of increasing test scores and improving schools would change drastically. Both she and Rosemarie Davis feel improving California schools should not be a process left only to the politicians and that schools only can improve if they can address the individual needs of each child.

On the table this election are polar opposites of this view. Simon wants a restructuring of the educational system to improve test scores and the state of schools across the board. Davis wants to keep building on what has worked.

Both plans could be difficult because, according to many educators, it is not just one method that works. In education, there are few silver bullets or effective top-down strategies for ensuring a child is learning.

“We should come back to the table,” Sharp said, “and continually assess what we do.”