Agenda at a Glance

Oakland, CA – The Education Trust—West issued the following statement in response to the California Department of Education’s (CDE) release of the 2011 Accountability Progress Report results:

The APR results released today by the California Department of Education make one thing clear: we need to do more for our state’s Latino, African-American, and low-income students.   

Both California’s accountability system, the Academic Performance Index (API), and the federal accountability system of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) indicate that far too many California schools are failing to adequately educate their students—especially the low-income students and students of color who now comprise the majority of our state’s student population.

OAKLAND, CA (August 15, 2011) – The Education Trust—West issued the following statement from Executive Director Arun Ramanathan in response to the release of the 2011 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) results by the California Department of Education (CDE) today:

This year’s STAR data demonstrate how far we still have to go in our effort to educate all California students to their fullest potential. Over the last eight years, we have seen slow, incremental growth in the achievement of low-income students and students of color, who now represent the majority in our state’s public schools. The sad truth is that wide achievement gaps still persist between African-American and Latino students and their white peers.

In 2011, less than half of California’s African-American, Latino, and low-income students from grades 2 to 11 scored at or above proficient on the English-language arts California Standards Test (CST), compared with 71 percent of their white peers. Some of the most disheartening results reflect how little we have done to serve the needs of our 1.5 million English-learners: only one out of five scored proficient or advanced on the English-language arts CST. In mathematics, the outcomes for similar groups of students are just as dismal.

Given the minimal growth in student performance during both good and bad fiscal years, it is clear that our state leaders must do more to prioritize the needs of our underserved students, regardless of the budget climate. As tough budget decisions will continue to present themselves, we encourage state leaders to work with a variety of stakeholders to enact the high-impact reforms that will close the persistent achievement gaps that have plagued our education system for far too long.

(OAKLAND, CA)  Dr. Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director of The Education Trust—West, issued the following statement regarding the proposed 2011-12 budget:

“While Democrats slap each other on the back for their ‘budget’ deal and Republicans applaud their efforts to prevent any tax increases, California’s poorest students are once again getting a raw deal from our state’s leadership.  The potential budget deal is based on Wizard of Oz assumptions that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  If that pot of gold does not materialize, our poorest students and most vulnerable communities will once again take the brunt of state budget cuts through inequitable approaches such as shortening the school year.  It is long past time to develop a real budget solution that solves the boom and bust cycles of California’s state budget.  We have seen courageous Democrats and Republicans in other states forging the difficult compromises and showing the visionary leadership necessary to confront entrenched interests and solve their states’ fiscal crises.  As long as California’s children and communities are at the mercy of lawmakers beholden to special interests from public employee unions to taxpayer associations, we will continue our pattern of smoke and mirrors budgeting.  The result will always be reprehensible cuts that force our children to pay the long-term price for our current dysfunction.”