Report Says Public Schools in California Are ‘Broken’ (NYT)

The New York Times ^ | March 16, 2007 | Carolyn Marshall

[summer]

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 — A scathing 18-month evaluation of California’s public schools has concluded that the state’s educational system is “broken,” crippled by a complex bureaucracy, flawed teacher policies and misspent school money, leaving it in need of sweeping reforms that could cost billions of dollars.

The report, a compilation of 22 university studies titled “Getting Down to Facts,” was released in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday. The long-awaited report, requested by a bipartisan group of state educators and legislators in 2005, cost $3 million and evaluated why California’s 6.8 million school-age students have lagged behind children in almost all other states.

“The structural problems are so deep-seated,” a summary of the report said, “that more funding and small, incremental interventions are unlikely to make a difference unless matched with a commitment to wholesale reform.”

The report, financed by private nonprofit foundations and coordinated by investigators at the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice at Stanford University, revealed “deeply flawed” problems in both the management and financing of the schools.

Among the findings were these: state financial policies so “complex and irrational” that they thwart school and district efforts to educate and school data systems that are poor and ineffective, making it impossible for districts to share vital information. ; the state suffers from “regulationitis,” a condition that has schools paralyzed by rules and buried in paperwork...

[Ieatfrijoles]

You reminded me that in 7th grade I wrote the names of all my favorite bands on the actual cover of the white algebra book: Van Halen, Boston, Cars etc. and had to white them all out before it was accepted for turn in.

[pray4liberty]

They put their heads down again. I ... just... have to find a different job!

You are a hero.

The churches in our nation need to grow a spine and stop lobbying Congress about prayer in school and instead, start putting the money into starting their own local schools!

[summer]

re your post #9 - It does truly matter who is in office, and in charge, in terms of education. I have certainly come to believe that. People think it doesn't matter on this issue, but, really, a person can have a major impact. Or not.