Facts About Unequal Education in America

Students should be provided with instruction from a highly qualified teacher... 

In Chicago, 1,672 temporarily certified teachers who have not passed both their teacher-certification tests are currently in classrooms.  In fact, one of every 10 Chicago teachers tested since 1988, or 1,371 total teachers, has failed a teacher test of Basic Skills at least once. The test is so easy, experts said, an eighth- or ninth-grader should pass it on the first try. ^[i] 

In Maryland, 6% of all teachers are not fully certified.  In Baltimore, that number rises to 36%.^[ii] 

At the Lake View School District in Phillips County, Arkansas, there is one uncertified math teacher for all high school math courses: pre-algebra, algebra I and II, geometry and trigonometry.  The math teacher is paid $10,000 a year as a substitute teacher, which he supplements with $5,000 annually for school bus driving.^[iii] 

In Philadelphia, more than 2,000 of 12,000 classroom teachers have emergency teaching certificates, which allow them to teach while they go to college to learn how to teach.^[iv] 

At Connally High School in Waco, Texas, French is no longer taught because school administrators cannot find a teacher certified in the subject.  More than 42,000 of the 275,000 teaching positions in Texas are not filled by certified educators, according to the State Board for Educator Certification.^[v] 

The demand for new teachers is so great that nearly 30,000 teachers in California  some 10 percent of the work force  entered classrooms last fall with "emergency" credentials, meaning that they had not completed state minimum requirements in education and training.^[vi] 

During the 1998 99 school year, the school district in Detroit employed roughly 800 uncertified teachers as full time instructors.^[vii] 

In California, there are 47,000 under-prepared teachers in the state's classrooms and an estimated 300,000 new teachers needed over the next decade.^[viii]   

In Massachusetts, 500 teachers who work with special education students are not certified to do so.  In fact, there is a shortage of certified teachers in nearly every subject.^[ix]    

Poor and minority children who struggle academically are most likely to land in the classrooms of teachers without full credentials.^[x]

In California, only 10% of high school graduates are actually prepared for college.^[xi] 

More students of color than whites attend districts that have less to spend per student, are overcrowded and are served by less-qualified teachers. In Philadelphia, for instance, 15 percent of teachers don't have full certification, compared to 5 percent statewide.^[xii] 

At Winthrop High School in Massachusetts, 40 percent of the high school staff are first-year teachers and 60 percent have less than two years' experience.^[xiii] 

In Charleston County, recruiters still had not filled 124 classroom openings at the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year.  As many as 2,500 students were left to substitute teachers and put in overcrowded classrooms.  Many of those students who were left to uncertified and under-qualified teachers wound up in summer school.  “It’s very upsetting,” said Josephine Matthews, whose son went to summer school.  “I talked with the substitute and she admitted she wasn’t qualified.  She said the other teachers wouldn’t help her with her lesson plans.”^[xiv] 

Midway through the 2000-01 school year, Prince George’s County, MD, 36 special education teaching slots were still open, leaving some of the country’s neediest students in the care of untrained substitutes and piling extra paperwork on already taxed teachers.  An additional 30 slots have recently been staffed with teachers who do not have full certification to work with disabled students.^[xv] 

At Santa Ana High School, in California, one in six teachers lack full credentials.  More than two thirds of the school’s students are learning English and about 80 percent are poor.^[xvi]

Students should be provided with access to rigorous academic standards, curricula and methods of instruction... 

More than half of urban college freshmen have to take remedial classes before they can take regular college courses.^[xvii] 

Children in 80% of local school districts in Kentucky are not as well-educated as those in the other 20%.^[xviii] 

In 1998, a record 47% of all California State University freshmen had to take remedial English and 54% enrolled in remedial math^[xix] 

In Minnesota, 32% of all 1999 graduates who entered public colleges and universities had to take remedial courses.^[xx] 

In an international math study, students from Chicago, Miami-Dade County, Rochester, NY and Jersey City, NJ, all scored at or near the bottom – in the same range as such countries as Chile, the Philippines, Morocco and South Africa.^[xxi]                                                                  

In Arkansas, the Holly Grove School District, offers only the basic curriculum required by the State for graduation. There are no advanced courses or programs offered. In Lee County, Arkansas, advanced placement courses are not offered. Required courses are being taught in the Lee County District but suffer from a lack of funds. The science laboratories have little or no equipment. The Fort Smith curriculum includes classes on drafting and design, machine II technology, furniture manufacturing, electronics and electricity, band, orchestra, advanced girls' chorus, gifted and talented programs with honors courses, German, Spanish, French, fashion merchandising and marketing. Fort Smith also offers the basic curriculum required by the State.^[xxii] 

Elementary students at Dawson-Bryant, Ohio, have no opportunity to take foreign language courses, computer courses, or music or art classes other than band.  Junior high students in this district have no science lab. In addition, Dawson-Bryant offers no honors program and no advanced placement courses, which disqualifies some of the students from even being considered for a scholarship or admittance to some universities.^[xxiii] 

In Florida, an Educational Opportunity Task Force showed that fewer or no advanced classes were available for students in small school districts and in lower performing schools.  Whereas research and experience has shown students in high minority, high poverty schools can excel, students in these categories were denied access.^[xxiv]       

In California the conditions at the Helms Middle School and Kennedy High School are so abysmal, that 7 students have launched a class action lawsuit against the state.  The lawsuit demands all students be provided with “bare essentials” needed to learn, such as trained teachers, adequate facilities and sufficient instructional materials.^[xxv]

students should be provided with small class sizes...

At Sarasota High School in Florida, 36 students were placed in a classroom designed for 24 students.  There was not enough space for desks for all the students, so some had to stand.  Some students only stood for one or two days but many stood for weeks.^[xxvi] 

In Los Angeles, Van Nuys High School is so overcrowded that it  has to convert to year round next year. The school has 3,698 students, more than its capacity of 3,600. The school is so packed that the time between classes was extended by one minute to seven minutes. “The kids can't get from one end of campus to another, because it's wall to wall kids," said Assistant Principal Diane Klewitz.^[xxvii]  

The kindergarten pupils at Buffalo's Campus North School 63 eat lunch in a hallway because the cafeteria is packed with other students.^[xxviii] 

More than 500 schools in Texas exceeded the 22 pupil limit for kindergarten through fourth grade classes this spring, according to the Texas Education Agency. While the 522 overcrowded campuses are scattered around the state, more than half   264   are in Dallas and Houston.^[xxix]  

In Superior, Wisconsin, an eighth grade physical education class included 58 children and one teacher.^[xxx] 

Classrooms in Chicago are known to hold as many as 54 students.^[xxxi]  

Students who attend small classes in the early grades are more likely to aspire to take college entrance exams than students who attend large classes.  Princeton economist Alan Krueger found that the increase is especially significant for African-American students, reducing the black-white gap by 60 percent.  The more years spent in small K to 3 classes, the greater the benefits.^[xxxii] 

In Ohio, some schools have more than thirty students per classroom teacher, with one school having as many as thirty-nine students in one sixth grade class.^[xxxiii]  

Due to a $42 million dollar budget cut, Buffalo Public schools will be forced to exceed previous class limits, with an expected class size of 29 students.^[xxxiv]

Students should be provided with up-to-date textbooks AND INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPLIES...  

At Southern Local School in Ohio, during the 1992-1993 school year, none of the students in a Spanish I class had a textbook at the beginning of the year.  Later, there was a lottery for books.  Students who picked the lucky numbers received a book.^[xxxv] 

At Luther Burbank Middle School in San Francisco, there are not enough textbooks for each student to take home an individual book; they must do their homework on photocopied worksheets with a text to refer to or to help with studying.  In some of the social studies classes, they do not have any books at all and will read the newspaper or watch television instead.^[xxxvi]  

At Hyde Park High School in Boston, it is typical for 25 to 30 students to share four or five books during any given class.  Since they cannot take the textbooks home, they must rely on their handwritten notes for studying and doing their homework.^[xxxvii] 

At Winton Place Elementary in Ohio, teachers spend from between $500 to $1500 per year out of their own pockets on such basics as scissors and glue. The encyclopedia in once classroom declares that “someday we will send a man to the moon.”^[xxxviii]  

Students in an urban school district in California rely on history textbooks that say the Soviet Union is still in existence.^[xxxix] 

At the Bryant Elementary School in San Francisco, there is also a lack of books.  However, administrators run into problems with their monthly copier budget trying to xerox homework assignments for their students.^[xl]  

Laura Heller, a teacher in Appleton, Wisconsin, uses the same textbooks for her class that she used when she was a student.  “You should see their faces when I give them books that look like that,” she says.^[xli] 

In Lake View, Arkansas, Roy King, teaches a trigonometry course with a Prentice Hall textbook that is a graphing calculator supported program. The calculators are expensive. There are ten students and four calculators. ^[xlii]                                                

In Nantucket, one class did not have enough textbooks for students to take home to study for tests, and those books in the classroom were over 10 years old and in deplorable shape.^[xliii]    

32% of California's 1.6 million public school students do not have books necessary to do their homework.  Another 11% do not have enough textbooks to use at school.^[xliv]  

Schools should have up-to-date libraries…  

It is a fact that the highest achieving students tend to come from schools with strong libraries and library programs.^[xlv] 

In Appleton, Wisconsin, the school librarian cannot order any books because her library budget is zero.^[xlvi]  

Several state studies show that good library programs increase student achievement. Texas, for example, found that on the reading portion of the state's basic skills test, about 89 percent of students in schools with librarians passed, compared with about 78 percent in schools without librarians. Colorado, Alaska, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have found a similar positive correlation between libraries and test scores.^[xlvii] 

In Arizona, some books on the schools’ shelves are so old that they include titles such as “Asbestos, the Magic Mineral.”^[xlviii]  

In the Roosevelt School District in Long Island, New York, library books from the 1930's describe the Treaty of Versailles as the last word in arms limitation.^[xlix] 

At the Monitor Elementary School in Ohio, the library was small and dark and could house only 10 children at a time, with no room for children to sit down and browse through books.^[l]  

In one Philadelphia elementary school, the library, with its broken furniture and moldy, smelly books, is in such bad condition that the principal has closed it to students.^[li] 

California is now trying to remove thousands of books from the Los Angeles Unified School District.  Of the 6,400 volumes at the Colfax Elementary School, more than half were recently removed.  Among them were science books from the 1950's, including one with a prediction that “Someday man will land on the Moon.”  Another book from 1938 on American history had stories of happy slaves “working hard and singing on the plantation.”^[lii]  

Books in school libraries in Washington, DC, still speak of communist rule in the Soviet Union, of apartheid in South Africa, and of Golda Meir as the prime minister of Israel.^[liii] 

In Boston, "many school library book collections are stuck in the '50s and '60s"^[liv] and encyclopedias from the 70's and 80's line the shelves.^[lv]   

Students in one fifth grade class in Nantucket, Massachusetts, were using an atlas that was older than the 10‑year‑old students, and because of its age it did not reflect important changes in political geography such as the break‑up of the Soviet Union and changes in Eastern Europe.^[lvi] 

In Los Angeles, the book “Rockets into Space” has been checked out 13 times.  It has a copyright date of 1959.^[lvii]  

In Cleveland, Ohio, only 15 schools in the 120-school system are computerized; the others still use old-fashioned card catalogues.  However, in suburban Beachwood, the high school has its own Internet site where students at class or at home can check the availability of any book at any library in the system, and in other systems linked through INFOhio^[lviii]  

Studies in Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Colorado prove that in schools with a qualified library media specialist and a well-stocked, up-to-date library, student achievement scores rise.^[lix]  

A study completed for the Texas State Library showed that students in schools with librarians and strong school libraries scored ten points higher on state standardized tests.^[lx] 

In South Carolina, some schools have library collections with an average copyright date of 1950.^[lxi]  

Wisconsin only provides part-time librarians in elementary schools.^[lxii]  

Two studies by the Library Service Center of Colorado State Library found that better school libraries improved scores on standardized achievement tests by 10-15% over peers in library-impoverished schools, regardless of social and economic factors.^[lxiii]  

Students should be provided with up-to-date computers...  

The ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access is greater in schools with the highest concentration of students in poverty than in schools with the lowest concentration of poverty (9 to 1 compared with 6 to 1).^[lxiv] 

When California teachers were interviewed and asked what were the key problems, an overwhelming majority reported lack of access to technology.  Many teachers suggested that California has two school systems, one for the poor and one for the rich.^[lxv]  

In California, the ratio of students-to-computers is 10 to 1 in schools serving 81% or more of students with free or reduced lunch and 7 to 1 in schools serving 20% of fewer students with few or reduced lunch.  39% of the computers in the state are more than four years old.^[lxvi]                                     

California’s poorest students have been disproportionately denied Internet access in their schools.  67% of the classrooms in schools serving 81% or more of students with free or reduced lunch have Internet access, while 87% in classrooms in schools serving 20% of fewer students with few or reduced lunch.^[lxvii]  

In Lake View, Arkansas, one teacher’s computer lacks hard and software, it has no sound chip, and the printer does not work. Paper is in short supply and the duplicating machine, an addressograph, is generally overworked so that documents, including examinations, have to be handwritten on the chalkboard.^[lxviii] 

In Lee County, Arkansas, there are approximately thirty computers for six hundred students.^[lxix]  

In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, they use Apple IIE computers.  Most new software does not even run on those old computers.^[lxx] 

At one school in Ohio, there are only twelve computers for more than eighteen hundred students.^[lxxi]                             

In Ocean County, New Jersey, the student-to-computer ratio is 7 to 1 while nearby Camden County has a ratio of 4 to 1.^[lxxii] 

According to the California Council of Science and Technology, the California education system isn't producing enough skilled graduates to fill over 14,000 open jobs in science and technology in the state.  The council attributed this to inadequate science and math training.^[lxxiii]  

STUDENTS SHOULD BE PROVIDED WITH QUALITY GUIDANCE COUNSELING…  

At Camden High School, in Camden, NJ, where two-thirds of the freshmen drop out by their senior year, guidance counselors are overwhelmed by their workload.  Camden High School has the highest ratio of students to counselors in all of Camden County.  Only about 25% of students go to four-year colleges.^[lxxiv]                                     

In Arizona, parents ranked counselor-to-student ratio as important when considering school administration, behind parent involvement and discipline policy.  The average high school counselor is assigned to 561 students.^[lxxv]       

On Long Island, New York, one community has two counselors who serve four buildings.  These are large schools.  The actual student-to-counselor ratio is approximately 1800 to 1^[lxxvi].    

At Jefferson High School, in South Los Angeles, Marino Parada and his counseling partner, Ana Parra, try to meet with each of their 1,000 students at least once a semester.  The only way to get it done is to run a mid-semester assembly line operation in the cafeteria.  As they attempted to meet with all the 10^th graders one day, each student only got 80 seconds with a counselor.^[lxxvii]  

At Santa Ana High School in Orange County, California, the ratio of students to guidance counselors is more than 700 to 1.  In 1999, only 19 percent of the school’s graduates fulfilled the requirements to get into a four-year state college, compared with 39 percent countywide.^[lxxviii] 

At Holmes Junior High, in Covington, Kentucky, there are 673 students for every one guidance counselor.  The federal poverty guidelines are met by 70 percent of Covington families and 44 percent of entering freshmen do not graduate with their class.^[lxxix]  

At East Hills Middle School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, there are only three guidance counselors for 1,376 students.  These counselors are assigned to almost twice the number of students recommended by national guidelines.  This has resulted in counselors meeting with their students a dozen at a time.  There has been a 300% increase in discipline infractions since last year.^[lxxx] 

Winsor Hill Elementary School students appeared at their local school committee meeting to request a full time guidance counselor.  One parent said," a lot of the kids are having stress, and they feel uncomfortable talking to their parents about it...a lot of kids get bullied, when their peers feel stress and must act out...there'll be less violence."  Currently the school has a guidance counselor at the school for only 2 hours a week.  Superintendent Jolin responded that they might be able to hire one more counselor, which could allow them to have a guidance counselor for 4 to 5 hours a week.^[lxxxi]