This year, TCLA will release an Educational Data Report with each new issue of the journal. The reports will use public information collected by the California Department of Education (CDE) to show how well students in the state are receiving education on equal terms. TCLA will also show you how to create Educational Data Reports for your own school.

Our first report looks at students’ access to qualified teachers and adequate school facilities. We asked whether schools with high percentages of African American and Latino students have teachers and facilities that are comparable to schools with fewer African American and Latino students. Here’s how we did it:

We divided all California schools into 5 groups, or quintiles, according to the proportion of African American and Latino students who are enrolled. “Quintile” is a statistical term that means one-fifth or 20% of the total number. Then we made some comparisons between the “top” and “bottom” quintiles, or the 20% of California schools serving the highest proportion of African American and Latino students and the 20% of schools serving the fewest African American and Latino students.

A further breakdown of the highest and lowest quintiles shows the degree of segregation in these schools.

• In the 20% of schools that serve the highest numbers of Latino and African American student, between 86% and 100% of the students are Latino or African American.
• In the 20% of schools that serve the fewest Latinos and African American students, these students represent only 0 to 19% of the enrollment.

By looking at the qualified teachers and facilities available to each of these groups of schools (quintiles), we can get a good picture of whether two crucial learning resources—teachers and facilities—are available to Latinos and African Americans “on equal terms” with other students.

Qualified Teachers

Indicators to examine students’ access to qualified teachers include the rates of fully credentialed teachers and the rates of emergency credentialed teachers. Fully qualified teachers are teachers who have completed a teacher education program and have received a California teaching credential. In contrast, emergency credentialed teachers have not completed any teacher preparation program that certifies them as teachers. The State Department of Education data below reveals that schools serving African American and Latino students have fewer credentialed (more qualified) teachers and have 3-4 times more emergency credentialed (less qualified) teachers.

Selected School Districts

Adequate Facilities

It appears obvious to many people that not all schools in the State have equally adequate facilities. However, the State does not collect good information that shows which schools are in good repair, overcrowded, healthy, comfortable, or up-to-date. And, of course, there’s no way to tell if these resources are available “on equal terms.” One way of examining the adequacy of school facilities is to look at the rates of overcrowded schools. There are two ways to do this: We can look for schools the State calls, “severely overcrowded.” (These are schools that exceed a maximum ratio of students per acre of land. Click here to see a full list of critically overcrowded schools). Or we can look to see if schools are on "year-round educational calendars," especially the “Concept-6” calendar, which indicates that schools have more students than the facilities can accommodate at any one time. The next data report reveals that schools serving high rates of African American and Latino students are overwhelmingly the same schools that qualify as severely overcrowded schools or operate on year-round calendars.

Steps for Creating Your Own Data Report for Education on Equal Terms

There are a few indicators of access to educational resources available on statewide databases that are accessible over the Internet. In addition to looking at access to qualified teachers and adequate facilities, TCLA suggests examining the following three indicators to look at tangible resources for students.

1. # multimedia computers / student
2. # counselors / student
3. ADA – annual funding per student (only available at district level)

For each of these categories, TCLA suggests comparing your selected school/district with both state averages as well as schools serving primarily affluent, white and Asian students (ie. Palos Verdes Unified, Beverly Hills Unified).

# multimedia computers / student

1. Go to http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/
2. On the left side of the page, under the Subject menu, select “Select your own data”
3. For the Level menu, select desired summary of information (school or district)
4. Click “Submit”
5. On the new page, keep the default 2002-03 school year
6. Type in the first word of the desired school or district
7. Click “Submit”
8. Select “# of students per computer with CD-ROM” under the “Technology Data” heading
(You may also select any other indicators on this same page to look at disparities in access – including “# of students per computer” or “% Fully credentialed teachers”; this page also contains information on the socio-economic and racial composition of the student population)
9. Select the desired name of the school, district, or county from the dropdown Select Agency menu
10. Select desired report
11. Click “Submit”

Compare your school/district to the district, county, and statewide averages. For comparison purposes, TCLA also suggests comparing the # of multimedia computers per student result to communities with many resources – such as the Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes school districts.

# counselors per student (best for comparing high schools) or # librarians per student

1. Go to http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/
2. On the left side of the page, under the Subject menu, select “Staffing”
3. For the Level menu, select desired summary of information (school or district)
4. Click “Submit”
5. On the new page, keep the default 2002-03 school year
6. Type in the first word of the desired school or district
7. Click “Submit”
8. Select desired school or district from Select Agency dropdown menu
9. Select “# Pupil Services Staff by Type”
10. Click “Submit”
11. Write down or print the number of counselors and librarians located at the school. [Note: Though this information allows us to know how many staff support service workers there are at a school, we need to know how many students per support staff to better look at student access to these resources. So, we need to compare the number of librarians and/or counselors to the total number of students attending that school.]
12. Go to http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/
13. On the left side of the page, under the Subject menu, select “Enrollment”
14. For the Level menu, select desired summary of information (school or district)
15. Click “Submit”
16. On the new page, keep the default 2002-03 school year
17. Type in the first word of the desired school or district
18. Click “Submit”
19. Select desired school or district from Select Agency dropdown menu
20. Select either “School/District Enrollment by Grade” or “School/District Enrollment by Ethnicity”
21. Click “Submit”
22. Write down or print the total school or district enrollment
23. To compute the number of students per librarian, divide the student enrollment by the number of librarians. To compute the number of students per counselor, divide the student enrollment by the number of counselors

Compare the access students have to librarians and counselors in your school or district to other districts, such as Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes Peninsula.

ADA – annual funding per student

1. Go to http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/
2. Select “District” under reports
3. On new page, under Select Report choose “Financial Statement for District”
4. Leave the year at the default 2001-02
5. Select the desired county from the dropdown menu
6. Allow the page to reload
7. Select the desired school district from the dropdown menu
8. Allow the page to reload
9. At the bottom of the page is the $/student (ADA) summary

Compare the money spent per student in your district with other school districts across California.