calwis2A.htm

California "Distinguished" Schools

Several schools in this San Francisco East Bay area, such as Brentwood, Pleasanton, and Livermore have designations of “A California Distinguished School”.

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL?
The title "Distinguished" sounds like that particular school is quite extraordinary, one that excels in education. Beware of deceiving fancy titles, that smacks of Hollywood hype and advertising, but may have little substance.
Having moved from Wisconsin to California in 1998, I researched East Bay school districts to find one comparable to ours in Wisconsin. Most of the East Bay schools offered only SAT scores. Brentwood Liberty High School-A Distinguished School, provided test scores for both the SAT and ACT for the school years of 94-95, 95-96, and 96-97. Since most schools in the Midwest use the ACT, that enabled me to make an accurate comparison between ACT scores.
I found that for 1995-96 LHS (Brentwood) had a 21.5 ACT score- which is above the 95-96 California state average of 21.0 (thus the distinguished distinction?). Our Wisconsin school district for 1995-96 had a 21.8 ACT score-slightly higher than Brentwood, but lower than the 95-96 Wisconsin state average of 22. These differences may not mean much to the average parent.

In Wisconsin,however, our parent group was dissatisfied with the lower than average state scores of our school district (21.8 ACT score) The parent group got involved with the school board and worked toward improving academics.
Here, in the East Bay, that school might well be considered A Distinguished School, being above California’s state average (21 ACT score). California parents may well be satisfied by the "Distinguished" title to their high school, while being deceived with mediocre academic performance. Parents need to be able to not only compare SAT and ACT scores with other districts in their state, but need to be able to see how their district compares with districts in other states.

Whereas about 30% of American freshmen need remediation, i.e. taking high school level courses over again in college in order to get up-to-speed for college level courses, did you know that in California, OVER 50% of freshmen need to be remediated? I’ve had people tell me the reason for this is the influx of foreigners to California.
California students score next to last (that’s 49th) in reading among all states. When results are broken down by race, California white students are last in the nation; African-American students are fourth from the last in the nation; Hispanic students are third from the last in the nation. Except for part of the last group, I don't think that foreigners can be blamed for the low reading scores.

Wisconsin had the top ACT scores in the nation in 1998, but how did Wisconsin and the rest of the United States fare in comparison with the rest of the world? “ … American 12th graders scored near the bottom on the recent Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS): U. S. students placed 19th out of 21 nations in math and 16th out of 21 in science.” [“A Nation Still At Risk, An Education Manifesto, April 30, 1998]. So in comparison with the world, it doesn’t matter that Wisconsin has the top scores. It doesn’t matter that California has “distinguished” schools. The United States falls short of the rest of the industrialized countries in the world as far as education is concerned.

American students are no longer being educated , but trained by programs such as school-to-work (Careers & Goals 2000) for lower level jobs in the service sector such as hotel and restaurant management. The focus of education is shifting from taking college preparatory courses (the basics) to less stringent requirements such as apprenticeships, etc.
While the economy was good it offered up apprentice-type jobs such as restaurant, hotel, etc. When the economy dipped the first jobs affected (especially in the San Francisco area) were the service sector jobs, such as restaurant, hotel, etc. These are the Goals 2000 "apprentice" type jobs. Employees found themselves out of a job, and most likely did not have enough basic core curriculum to get into a college for higher degree program for a future highly qualified position.

Foreign countries still focus on a CORE CURRICULUM formerly known as "The Basics", while the United States focuses on so-called "critical thinking" also know as "Higher Order Thinking Skills-HOTS". (Article on "HOTS").
One cannot critically think unless one has some sort of content to draw from.(Please see summary of the article "Much Ado About Nothing")

I once had a school administrator tell me that although foreigners score higher than Americans on tests, they are unable to think “critically”, thereby cannot be successful in the job market. In the late 1990's Silicon Valley entrepreneurs needed more qualified employees than the United States could provide, pressing Congress to increase visas for degreed individuals. Why? Because, secondary Education in the United States was busy "training" students (Goals 2000) instead of "educating" them (The Basics). Even our college students are lagging behind foreigners in our own Universities! (See the article by Thomas Sowell : "Nobel results are indictment of schools; Foreign-born students who avoided weak U.S. curricula doing the best.")

When it comes to the education of your children, it pays to be Vigilant
It pays to learn "Eduspeak"(DEBRA J. SAUNDERS teaches us eduspeak in her article "Educators' Babble").
Know how much Content of the Basics (Core Knowledge site) your child is being taught.
And don't fall into that Mediocrity Trap, and be lulled into complacency by Hollywood-hype titles such as "A California Distinguished School".

A Summarization of "Much Ado About Nothing"- Why Critical Thinking Skills Alone Do Not Work!

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