Good evening. It is a pleasure to be here with you today, at this very important time for our schools and our businesses here in California. First, let me say how pleased I am with the passage this week of Proposition 55 — another indication of voter support for our public schools. This bond measure will fulfill a critical need for new and modernized classrooms for the nearly 2 million of our students who are now coping with overcrowded and run-down classrooms.
So there is some good news to share about our schools, and not just from the standpoint of the election. My friends, despite all of the gloom and doom you may hear about public education, despite the very real challenges we face, I am here to assure you that after years of decline our schools are on the right track.
We've had five years of steady and significant growth in student test scores, even as our tests have grown more difficult to reflect our world-class standards. We've built a system of high standards linked to accountability that has put the focus in our schools where it belongs — on improving student achievement. Ninety percent of California's public schools improved their Academic Performance Index Growth scores, and 78 percent of schools met their academic performance targets -- a 26-percentage point gain from 2002.
Our English learners are showing remarkable improvements as well. On the first year of our California English Language Development test, nine percent of our English learners tested proficient in English. By the second year, 33 percent scored at that level — more than a three-fold increase!
After years of widening, we are beginning to see a narrowing of the achievement gap that has left poor students, students of color and English learners lagging behind. And closing that gap is at the heart of everything we are doing to improve our schools. So I'm pleased with the progress we've made in these challenging times. We want to keep up the momentum. But over the past five years, the focus of our standards-based reform has been primarily on our elementary schools — particularly on improving achievement in reading and math. Those early years build the essential foundation that enables children to tackle higher-level learning as they get older.
As a result of this focus tens of thousands more of our students are reading at grade level and performing proficiently in math.
But our high schools students have yet to benefit from initiatives that are paying off in our early grades. High school test scores remain disappointingly low, and it is in our high schools where the achievement gap is most severe. Far too many of our 1.7 million high school students are being prepared for neither careers nor college.
More than half of students entering California State University are not yet proficient in English and math. And as you well know, far too many of our entry-level employees are unprepared for the demands of the workplace. This is unacceptable. We must do better. Accordingly, I am sponsoring legislation to give high schools flexibility over their budgets, if they agree to focus on five goals: raising expectations; improving high school instructional materials; developing highly qualified teachers and administrators; smoothing transitions from middle school and to college; and creating a community of support for high achieving high schools.
This is a reasonable, do-able goal. By block-granting money in the state budget now earmarked for specific categorical programs, this initiative would free up $450 million to focus on initiatives that will make high schools more successful.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can no longer afford to hold high expectations only for our college-bound students.
Today, all of our students need the skills and knowledge contained in the curriculum that was once reserved only for the college-bound. And there is plenty of research and statistical evidence supporting the need to raise expectations in our high schools.
Students who take challenging, college preparatory courses do better in school, even if they started out with poor test scores and low expectations. Students who take rigorous courses are also more likely to persist in school, and to do better in vocational and technical courses. Today, more than 75 percent of occupations requiring certification by exam demand knowledge of algebra. And seven of the ten fastest growing jobs require at least an associate's degree.
I have been for many years and remain today a strong supporter of career and technical education. I've also strongly backed the integration of academics and career preparation. But for those who oppose increasing the rigor of our high school curriculum, for those who say students who don't choose college don't need college entry-level skills, I have some questions.
I ask them, what part of this more rigorous curriculum should our students NOT learn? Should students not have knowledge of geometry, or the critical thinking skills developed in study of algebra if they are to become our mechanics or our contractors?
Should they not perhaps have a two-year grounding in Spanish or another language, and understand a little about another culture, if they are to be productive citizens in the most diverse state in the nation?
Or should they not be able to communicate effectively in English? To write a persuasive letter as a consumer, for example, or engage their representatives in government about an issue affecting their daily lives?
Are all of these skills unnecessary to our high school students if they are to be the builders and repairers, the technology workers, craftsmen and skilled tradesmen of the next generation? Or should we prepare all of our students with these skills? The skills that today, more and more businesses, more and more trades, are crying out for in the people they hire?
I think the answer is that all of our students deserve to know all of these things. All of our students deserve to be prepared to make choices about their own paths after high schools, and not to have their futures determined by low expectations set for them early in life.
That's why I am calling for high schools to require that all of their students meet the minimum course-load requirements for attending our four-year universities. Not because all will go to college. But because all deserve this level of preparation for life.
So I ask you as business leaders to help me in this effort to raise expectations for learning in our high schools. I ask you to work with your schools to build a community of support for high achievement in high schools. For putting the focus on where it belongs — preparing students academically to succeed.
There are wonderful examples of how this can be done. Many of you are already a step ahead in this effort. At our career partnership academies, students learn to high academic standards while training for career pathways. At the International Trade Education Program at Banning High School, for example, students learn to high academic standards while learning real-life career applications from businesses in and around the world's third largest port complex.
In San Bernardino County, the PASS-16 program, a partnership between businesses, K-12 education, community and higher education leaders meets and works regularly to help schools do a better job of preparing students for college and the workplace.
Whatever your business, you have something to offer your schools, and I hope you'll get involved for the sake of our future. I also hope you'll support me in my efforts to protect our schools in the state budget. As business leaders, you understand better than anyone the fundamental role played by public schools in shaping the health of a state's economy.
Four of our top economists recently said that jobs will continue to leave this state unless we invest more to improve our schools. As Superintendent of Public Instruction, in fact, I like to think I am the Superintendent of jobs. And I truly believe that if we care about jobs, we must invest more in our schools.
I have underscored to Governor Schwarzenegger and Secretary Riordan that schools have already given up $4 billion in the past two years. to do our part in solving the state's fiscal crisis, state education leaders have agreed to another $2 billion reduction in what schools would be entitled to under Proposition 98.
I do recognize this is truly an extraordinary year, calling for extraordinary sacrifices from us all.
I just want to make it clear that schools are sacrificing in order to help California get its fiscal house back in order. We know funding is not the only answer to improving our schools. But let's not forget that the past five years of improved student achievement occurred at the same time we were able to make historic new investments in our schools.
We've built a good foundation, and now is not the time to turn back. We must stay the course. And that means when tough budget decisions are made, first priority must always go to those things that directly support student achievement.
More than ever, we need businesses to be our partners in this effort. We need your help. If we are to prepare students for the demands of your workplace, we need you to work with our schools and let them know what you need. I know I can count on you to do that, because it is everybody's interest, most particularly the interest of our children, that you do. Thank you so much.
