Posted on 10/23/2006 9:06:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The future looks grim for the state and even grimmer for the Inland Empire in education and the economy, according to a Cal State Sacramento study.
Called "State of Decline," the study by the university's Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy found the Inland Empire is least likely in California to prepare students for college.
And a second, unrelated report issued by Morgan Quitno Press lists the state as one of the nation's dumbest, ranking it in 47th place out of the 50 states.
Declining college-going rates and an achievement gap between students from different races and regions of the state could result in a weakened California economy years down the line, according to the "Decline" study released Thursday. It found student achievement in California differed by region and race.
By race, whites and Asians were more likely to take college preparatory courses and earn a college degree than blacks or Latinos, the report found.
While projections for California show American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, black and white populations declining or growing moderately between 2000 and 2020, the Latino population is expected to rise by millions.
"We're going to see the older, more highly educated population leave the work force to be replaced by younger, less-educated workers unless we start making immediate progress in closing the gap," said Nancy Shulock, director of the Sacramento institute and a co-author of "Decline."
Overall, the percentage of students attending college directly out of high school has been dropping for a decade in California.
The Inland Empire came in 14th of 14 regions in college preparation.
Most students in the Inland Empire - more than in any region but the San Diego/Imperial area - take eighth-grade algebra, considered an important step on the path to college.
But just 28.5 percent of Inland Empire high school graduates complete course work necessary to enroll in state universities, compared with 35.2 percent in California.
While achievement in the Inland Empire ranks low in the state, California ranks low in the nation.
Rankings released this week by Morgan Quitno Press found that only Mississippi, Nevada and Arizona ranked lower than California in intelligence. The ranking used 21 factors, including class size, student proficiency and dropout rates to determine which states were "smartest."
Juan Gutierrez, a College of Education professor at Cal State University San Bernardino, said studying the achievement gap by race does not provide a full picture of who needs help.
Elsa Valdez, a San Bernardino City Unified School District board member and a professor of sociology at Cal State San Bernardino, noted that Cuban Americans are more likely to succeed in school than Mexican Americans.
Also, first-generation Latinos who must learn English have different needs from second-generation students, Gutierrez and Valdez said.
"To lump them all together is doing a disservice to some of these students," Gutierrez said.
In recent years, too much emphasis has been placed on test scores and too little on teachers, he added.
He said encouraging experienced teachers to move to needy schools could help low-achieving students learn more.
Urban districts often have the least experienced teachers, and San Bernardino district schools hire as many as 300 new teachers a year, said Linda Whitaker, president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association.
A proposal discussed last week at a district board meeting included creating incentives to lure experienced teachers to low-performing schools.
On a wider scale, the Sacramento report's authors suggest fostering regional collaboration to help close the achievement gap, encouraging four-year universities to offer courses at community colleges.
Groups composed of representatives from local schools and higher-education institutions in a region could help teachers better understand students' needs, the authors said.
The government and unions will tell you the problem is that we do not spend enough money.
The real problem is that those that got us here are also telling us they can fix it and we cannot get rid of them.
Albert Einstein once said: "You cannot get out of a situation wit the same mind set that got you into it in the first place."
So, little or nothing will change.
Alabama is ranked #1. Arizona #50. Who knew?
This are the type of numbers you are going to get when you are importing poorest and least educated from a third world country.
Can you say ILLEGAL ALIENS......they are ruining the country
OK. Can you tell I'm from Califoria. It's actually Vermont #1.
I had a high school teacher get all freaked out at me the other day when I said we spend too much money on education in California.
He literally screamed at me. "What?!??! We only get $6800 a year per kid!!!"
I said "According to the state budget, we spend $10,800 per kid" and he called me a liar.
I showed him the budget numbers and his retort?? "Well, the state may spend that much, but we only get $6800/kid at the school level"...in other words, $4K gets spent for busses, administration, union benefits, etc
I told him that if he thought schools were underfunded, why not cut back on his retirement benefits "for the children" at which point he huffed, puffed, and walked away.
The Rank Order is the right hand column, Vermont is #1.
Which state ranked first???????????? I know it was Iowa for many years followed closely by several other midwestern states.
Well, socialism has not been administered by the "right" people, thats all. :)
Yeah, but their kids know how to put a condom on a cucumber...
"The government and unions will tell you the problem is that we do not spend enough money.
The real problem is that those that got us here are also telling us they can fix it and we cannot get rid of them. "
EXACTLY .... and there are yet MORE bond issues they are pushing this year to "fix the problems"
It allways disgusted me how the teachers unions would actually say things that boil down to " We could teach better if you pay us more, and if we don't get it we will keep your kids stupid "
( Actually if they ever did teach the kids right, they would learn to see through these lies )
"The government and unions will tell you the problem is that we do not spend enough money.
The real problem is that those that got us here are also telling us they can fix it and we cannot get rid of them. "
EXACTLY .... and there are yet MORE bond issues they are pushing this year to "fix the problems"
It allways disgusted me how the teachers unions would actually say things that boil down to " We could teach better if you pay us more, and if we don't get it we will keep your kids stupid "
( Actually if they ever did teach the kids right, they would learn to see through these lies )
Those stats will not change until you have 3 changes in the hispanic culture.
1. To value education within a family
2. That it is not an insult to the father if the sons do better financially than they do
3. Women be encouraged to get an education.
All of these are present with in their culture as they were in Mexico. They have not assimilated american beliefs in their culture, while asians, and other immigrants have found success in adopting those values.
Much less to do with socialism than with immigration and local politics. This is a comparison of public programs that are equally socialistic.
There is a lot of dancing around the issue of the fact that the proportion of Mexican immigrants and their children among public K-12 pupils is approaching a majority. Of course the state average is depressed. And the "Inland Empire" - the Central Valley - has plenty of Mexican kids. The proper comparison is by ethnic groups, such as reported by the NAEP.
Even here CA does not do well - Texas for instance does a much better job with Mexicans than California. That is a genuine ding against how CA handles K-12. The short answer here is that CA overpays teachers so the state can afford many fewer, even while spending a lot more per kid than Texas, wastes a lot of resources on special education, and the curriculum/testing/incentive system is not as tight and does not work as well. Most of this is because the CA teachers union is much more powerful than Texas'.
The other "study" of "intelligence" is almost too silly for words. It confuses inputs like class size with outcome measures. Their approach would prove that Singapore is full of idiots.
Uh...does this surprise anybody?? To begin with...look who they elect to public office... And then there's the open door policy for illegal immigration to the welfare rolls... And, of course, Hollywood... Then there's... Oh nevermind!
Just imagine these nitwits running the U.S.A.!!!
Now it's the states that are the furthest away from the influx of illegal aliens from Mexico.
This list is not accurate at all. The red states should appear at the top, and the blue states should be at the bottom.
No hablo Ingles.
Who came up with the name "Inland Empire" for a state on the coast? LoL
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