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Assessing education Editorial Parents want the best for their children. That's why recent elections and polls have featured education as the major concern of voters nationwide and locally. Education will be a key topic for the editorial staff this year. We will emphasize learning -- what works and what doesn't in the classroom -- as well as examine the larger trends in the education environment, especially those that encourage competition. As always, we will stay alert to public policy shifts in the state capitol and in Washington, D.C. that militate against making decisions about education close to home. In California, recent years have seen a great deal of action on the issue. Such fads as bilingual education and ''whole word reading,'' instead of phonics, have been discredited and are in retreat, though not entirely defeated. On another front, entrepreneur Ron Unz, who spearheaded the Proposition 227 limitations on bilingual education, charged earlier this month that Davis administration regulations have allowed ''bilingual education teachers rather than parents to make the decision on whether children should be placed in to bilingual education programs, thereby nullifying a core provision of Prop. 227.'' This is one development that calls for scrutiny and, if true, strong objection. Schools have taken up a ''back to basics'' attitude that has produced some results. Statewide in 2001, for the Stanford 9 reading test, 50 percent of 8th graders scored above the 50th national percentile ranking, up from 46 percent in 1998. Other grades show similar jumps for reading and math. But there's still a long way to go. Last year the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test ranked California 41st among the 41 states taking the test. That's just not acceptable for a state that's supposed to lead not only America, but the world in 21st Century scientific advances. Science, indeed, provides a model for education improvement: keep open to competing methods, test hypotheses, reject what is disproved and keep testing what seems to work. The key, we believe, is competition and innovation in schooling. Although voters have repeatedly rejected voucher programs in California, other ideas can be advanced to promote competition. Over the next year, we're going to be looking at these innovations, as well as plans to do things better in more traditional classrooms. We'll keep you informed of the rapid developments in these areas with one overarching theme: finding ways to give Orange County parents a full array of choices in the education of their very individual children. |