Write 200 Times: California Schools Will Do Better.

The first thing I did when I saw California’s grades on Education Week’s report card was ask my students what they would do if their report card read: B minus, C minus, D, two D minuses and an Incomplete. “I’d pack my bags and run,” said Amir. Another who insisted on remaining anonymous replied that she would shrug and tell her mom that the report card must have gotten lost; “You can always bury it once.”

I wonder which solution California will choose, Amir’s or Student X’s.

Running away will not be easy. When 40% of California teachers identify physical conflict among students as a problem and another 25% student possession of weapons, it is clear that the D minus in school climate was well-earned. To raise this grade, California will have to take back control of its classrooms. This will mean barring chronically disruptive students from campus and forcing these teenagers to acquire an education in some other setting such as adult education or GED classes when their attitudes toward school have changed. Though such a policy runs counter to the American tradition of eternally blooming second chances, classroom climate must encourage scholarly pursuits. Why not institute a California Corps that pays teenagers to do community service while they wait out the years it sometimes takes for maturity to take hold? When these young people decide that education is something they want or need, they can return to the classroom in a different frame of mind. Some children 13 to 17 are developmentally unable to sit in a desk and pay attention.

California turns away at its peril from the data that only 18% of its fourth-graders are proficient readers and only 16% of its eighth-graders proficient in math. These numbers tell us that it is not only poor children or minority children or second-language-speaking children who are failing to acquire the skills they need. It is almost all of our children.

Classroom teachers have known this for years and continue to sound the alarm over class size in California. Many high school English classes have 40 students enrolled, and most English teachers are responsible for 150 to 180 students per day. How can these teachers possibly assign and correct the amount of writing that children need in order to become proficient? Do the math: 150 students times one three-page essay per week times 10 minutes per paper equals 25 hours grading that one assignment. Given the hours that teachers spend in class with students and the hours of preparation necessary for good teaching, it’s clear that under prevailing conditions, the job is simply not do-able. We need to extend the model that superintendent of public instruction Delaine Eastin and Gov. Pete Wilson have begun in primary grades and lower class size in all the grades up to 12th.

Burying California’s report card is always an option. We can shrug our collective shoulders and with great reluctance heave a shovelful of excuses over public education’s grave. But if we choose this option, let’s realize that it is the future of democracy we will be burying. A democratic nation depends on an educated citizenry. Simply ensuring that our own children get good educations in privileged districts or private schools will not ensure the quality of their lives in a society torn apart by inequity.

One of the Ds that California received was for the relative equity in per-pupil spending among all state districts. Whatever the rhetoric, California policy demonstrates that we clearly value some children more than others. If you are looking for a simple example, just compare school library collections at various campuses across town. It is hard to blame children with no books for not becoming readers.

When I asked my students what their parents would do if they brought home a report card like California’s, Marita said she would be grounded for life . (“Life” to a 15-year-old means anything longer than five days.) But how do you ground a whole state? Let’s take away its Nintendo for a year. It would be a start.