California Ranks at Bottom in Student Achievement, RAND Study Says

When it comes to educating students from similar family backgrounds, Texas ranks first among the 44 states studied and California ranks at the very bottom, according to a RAND study released last week comparing student achievement across states from 1990 to 1996.

Texas' success owes a lot to higher spending on small classes and for pre-school among other reasons according to the study. California was in the top third of states with gains. Increased spending now heads a long list of reforms underway in California, including lower class sizes, a new testing system and financial incentives to attract teachers. California's new accountability plan is designed to funnel extra money to low-performing schools and impose sanctions, such as reassignment of principals or state takeover for those that don't turn around.

According to the study, Texas and California, the nation's two largest public school systems (combined, they educate 21 percent of U.S. children), have much in common demographically: In both states, close to half the students are Hispanic or black (compared with 22 percent nationally during the study period), many speak English as a second language, and one quarter live in poverty. That makes the academic differences all the more striking.

Low spending, tracing back to a 1978 property-tax cut, has also contributed to California's woes, the study states. Gov. Gray Davis, who has made education a major theme of his administration, announced Tuesday that California will receive a $60-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve reading by children in the state's poorest school districts. California was one of 10 states to receive the money and obtained the largest grant. Illinois received the second-largest sum, $37.9 million.

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