Schools Have Room to Improve

The numbers in last week’s annual report card on state schools reveal generally encouraging news for campuses in the San Fernando and surrounding valleys. More students are staying in school and more are going on to college--providing evidence supporting what many teachers and parents already believe: With the proper resources and support, students can meet high standards.

But the Department of Education’s report shows just as clearly that not all schools are sharing in the gains. Schools where dropout rates are climbing and the number of students headed to college is dwindling highlight the difficulty in merely raising the bar and expecting students to clear it. Thousands of youths don’t speak English or don’t have parents who understand the value of education or simply don’t get enough to eat.

Few of the performance results were surprising. In the rapidly changing Antelope Valley Union High School District, for instance, dropout rates increased 3.5% between 1994 and 1996, but remained below the statewide average--and well below the rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which cut dropout rates 10% during the same period. Yet in the largely upscale Las Virgenes Unified School District, schools such as Calabasas High have virtually no dropouts and send nearly a quarter of students to University of California campuses.

Within Los Angeles Unified, schools in diverse neighborhoods showed predictably diverse performances. El Camino Real High in Woodland Hills sends four times as many students on a percentage basis to UC schools as San Fernando High. But at San Fernando High, roughly one-third of students attend community college--reflecting a general trend. As costs to attend UC or California State University schools rise, more students are turning to less expensive community colleges.

Although last week’s results support the notion that schools are getting better in many neighborhoods, they reveal as well that many schools and districts lag behind. In schools where standards are in place and students are supported by parents and teachers, results improved. That doesn’t take much to figure out. But no one should be lulled into thinking that schools in northern Los Angeles County are perfect. Far from it. The numbers are instructive, giving school administrators clear benchmarks on their performance--but that can change from year to year.

Parents and teachers at high-ranking schools cannot sit back smugly. Neither can parents and teachers at low-ranking schools throw their hands up in despair. The numbers provide answers, but they should spark just as many questions. Only by working together to answer those new questions can parents, teachers, administrators and students hope to bring all schools up to the standards they want and deserve.