Teachers College Record

Rumberger, Russell W.; Gándara, Patricia

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00426.xpmid: N/A

Abstract The article provides an abridged version of a report prepared for the lawsuit, Williams v. State of California. The report first examines the achievement gap for English learners in California. Second, it reviews evidence in seven areas in which these students receive a substantially inequitable education vis-a-vis their English-speaking peers, even when those peers are similarly economically disadvantaged. Third, it documents the state's role in creating and perpetuating existing inequities. Finally, it describes a series of remedies that the state could pursue to reduce these inequities.

Koski, William S.; Weis, Hillary Anne

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00421.xpmid: N/A

Abstract This article examines the statutory and policy framework for California's standards-based reform and accountability scheme and argues that this scheme, not unlike others throughout the country, fails to ensure that all children are provided with the necessary resources and conditions to achieve at the high levels prescribed by the state's content standards. Although California has developed a comprehensive standards-based reform scheme that includes challenging educational content standards, curriculum frameworks tied to those standards, and accountability mechanisms that are based on performance on standards-based assessments, the state has never attempted to ascertain the basic educational resources and conditions to which all children should have access in order to achieve at the level of the state's content standards. In an effort to begin to fill that missing policy link, the article then summarizes a systematic analysis of the text of California's educational content standards and supporting materials, which analysis demonstrates that the state itself expects that children will have access to certain educational resources and conditions in four areas—facilities, technology, instructional materials, and teachers. Striking among the conclusions of the analysis is the extent to which California requires that children have access to modern technology, including computers, software, and the Internet. Less surprising, but no less important, is the extent to which the state's content standards assume that all children have access to quality facilities and instructional materials, ranging from laboratory equipment and sophisticated measuring instruments to well-stocked libraries and media centers. The article concludes by calling on the state to analyze its own content standards and curriculum frameworks to develop a complete basket of educational resources and conditions that all children should receive to have an opportunity to achieve the state's standards.

Darling-Hammond, Linda

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00422.xpmid: N/A

Abstract As new standards for students are taking effect, large disparities continue to exist in the educational opportunities available to rich and poor students in most states. These disparities are especially pronounced in California, where thousands of students attend school in dilapidated buildings, without textbooks, materials, or qualified teachers. This article focuses on inequalities in children's access to qualified teachers, documenting the disproportionate assignment of untrained and uncredentialed teachers to students in high-minority, low-income schools and the effects that large concentrations of such teachers have on students’ opportunities to learn. Given the importance of teacher expertise to student achievement, and the existence of new standards to which students are held accountable, these inequalities threaten students’ basic rights to an education. The article outlines the legal rationale for insisting on access to qualified teachers for all students, analyzes the reasons for the current shortfalls in California, and proposes a set of remedies based on research and policy outcomes elsewhere.

Ready, Douglas D.; Lee, Valerie E.; Welner, Kevin G.

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00424.xpmid: N/A

Abstract Consistent with the Williams v. California suit, our focus in this article is on educational equity, particularly the interface between equity and school organization. We concentrate on two structural issues, school size and school overcrowding, and one specific school structure, schools-within-schools. We organize the article as an interpretive summary of existing studies of these topics, concentrating on how these structural issues relate to social stratification in student outcomes, particularly academic achievement. Our evidence is drawn from both national studies and, when available and appropriate, from research that discusses the effects of school structure in California. We use this evidence to define which size high schools are best for all students (600–900 students), which responses to school overcrowding are appropriate (building more schools rather than adding portable classrooms or multitrack year-round schooling), and how creating smaller learning communities in high schools can work well for everyone by reducing the potential for internal stratification. California policies, however, have not promoted these responses. In many cases they have actually exacerbated inequality in educational outcomes and assisted the transformation of the social differences students bring to school into academic differences. We advocate reforms that are associated with high achievement and achievement that is equitably distributed by race, ethnicity, class, or family origin. Reforms that raise achievement of children at the lower end of the distribution without damaging those at the top are ones toward which we believe our nation should strive. By offering empirical evidence of practices that lead toward this important goal, we hope to inform the important debates surrounding the Williams case.

Oakes, Jeannie; Saunders, Marisa

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00423.xpmid: N/A

Abstract This article addresses critical issues regarding students’ access to textbooks, curriculum materials, equipment, and technology. Using California as a case, it reviews the importance of these instructional materials to education, generally, and in the context of current standards-based education policies. Based on data from a variety of sources, we find that textbooks, curriculum materials, and technology are educationally important and that the consequences of not having them are particularly harsh in a high-stakes, standards-based education system. We also find that many California students do not have the numbers or quality of textbooks, curriculum materials, and technology that they require to meet the content standards the state has set. Compounding the problem, shortages and poor quality of textbooks and instructional materials often exist in concert with other problematic school conditions—staffing shortages, facilities in disrepair, and overcrowding. Schools serving English learners and low-income students are most affected by shortages. A third set of findings details how actions by the state have either contributed to or failed to prevent students’ lack of access to textbooks, curriculum materials, and technology. Finally, considering California's own policies and those in other states, we conclude that California does have policy options that would be far more likely to ensure that all students have the texts and materials they need and/or detect and correct problems in the supply and quality of texts and materials when they occur.

Oakes, Jeannie

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00420.xpmid: N/A

Ortiz, Flora Ida

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00425.xpmid: N/A

Abstract Ortiz begins with research showing that safe, healthy, and uncrowded school facilities are a basic ingredient of a good educational program. When teachers work in well-designed and highly functional school buildings, they are able to be more effective than when they must teach in inadequate facilities. Ortiz sets these findings against the evidence that a high proportion of California's educational facilities are inadequate because they are crowded, old, and in need of repair and modernization. She finds that pressures from increased enrollment in the state due to demographic changes and class size reduction, an average age of the state's school buildings of over 25 years, and the high cost of facilities have all contributed to the current inadequacies. However, the state's responses to the many problems with educational facilities have been severely limited by flaws in policies establishing the state's relationships with local districts with regard to funding, inventory, and oversight of educational facilities. The state has failed to establish a system of state financing to ensure that funds are available to and used by districts with schools in the poorest conditions. It has failed to promulgate minimum standards for school facility conditions and maintenance, develop systematic ways of monitoring conditions in schools throughout the state, or maintain effective investigation and correction processes when serious deficiencies are reported.