Common Core

California’s NAEP scores have been an embarrassment for years. With an average statewide reading score of 210 in 4^th grade and 253 in 8^th grade, California falls nearly ten points below the national average for both grades. If California wants to raise these scores, the last thing state leaders should be doing is adopting policies that narrow the curriculum. That’s what AB2446 would do. If Governor Schwarzenegger allows this ill-conceived bill to become law he’ll be narrowing the curriculum in California high schools by eliminating any requirement that students take the arts or foreign language.

Evidence abounds to prove that a comprehensive curriculum raises achievement and makes students more career and college-ready. A recent ACT study found students more likely to earn a B or higher grade in their first-year college courses in every subject—from English to calculus, American history to biology—when students have taken a rigorous core curriculum in high school. Students who have taken a challenging core also are less likely to drop out of college or need remediation.

Fourteen of the states with high school graduation requirements that were deemed “college and career ready” by Achieve require their students take arts or foreign language.  Notably, all but three of those fourteen states post significantly higher reading scores than California. Studies also show that low-income and minority students who take a foreign language score significantly better on academic tests than students who do not. Arts and foreign language are key subjects in the kind of comprehensive, content-rich education that works for all students. California should not jettison these subjects.

The Governor is due to render his verdict on AB2446 tomorrow. We hope he’ll take the time to review this research and choose not to narrow the curriculum in California.

Lynne Munson and Stephanie Porowski

With the Governor’s deadline to veto Assembly Bill 2446 coming up on Thursday, we’d like to offer a run-down of its attention from around the web. While the California Alliance for Arts Education continues to follow the bill, The Sacramento Bee and Education Week have posted provocative articles on it. Fordham calls the bill a “radical step backward in education reform.” Joanne Jacobs questions the quality of California’s CTE courses. The LA Times wonders if the California legislature watches “Glee.”  And Richard Kessler, executive director of the Center for Arts Education in New York, describes the plan as “completely backwards to a 21^st century career and technical education.”

Stephanie Porowski

According to Achieve’s recently updated list of states with “college- and career-ready” graduation requirements, twenty-one states make the cut. California is not one of them.  Two-thirds of the states with college- and career-ready requirements have a foreign language and/or arts requirement for graduation.

With AB2446 poised to effectively eliminate California’s art/foreign language high school graduation requirement, does California really want to more further away from having college- and career-ready standards?

Update:  See Joanne Jacobs linking and thinking on this topic.

Lynne Munson and Stephanie Porowski

So what would California students lose if Governor Schwarzenegger signs AB2446, effectively eliminating the arts/foreign language high school graduation requirement? We looked to Granada High School in Livermore, California to find out. Currently, all students at Granada High School choose from a number of rich, content-filled courses to fill this requirement — courses like:

• French, German and Spanish to “develop cultural understanding and fluency in the language being studied.”
• Art: Drawing/ Painting to “develop the ability to aesthetically value and appreciate works of art, as well as understand the relationship between art, culture and history.”
• Drama to “learn the foundations of performance: pantomime, improvisation, voice, diction, movement and technical theater.”

If the Governor signs AB2446, students could instead take courses designed to train them for the workforce — courses like:

• Hospitality to “learn grooming and proper work ethic.”
• Fashion Apparel to “learn sewing machine basics.”
• Landscape Design to “grow flowers, ornamental plants and vegetables.”
• Food for Singles to learn culinary “short cuts, new techniques, budgeting their food dollars, and multiple uses of appliances.”

For all the urgency generated by economic rationales for education reform, education is about more than workforce preparation. It’s about building creativity, wonder, cultural literacy and citizenship, for starters. Governor Schwarzenegger, don’t allow AB2446 to narrow the purpose of education.

Stephanie Porowski

California’s AB2446, the bill that would effectively eliminate California’s arts and foreign language high school graduation requirement, remains on the Governor’s desk. But we’re continuing our investigation into its potentially disastrous effect.

Currently, nearly 50% of California high school students take a foreign language. That’s nearly a million students–and a 10% increase in just the last seven years. These students are taking world-expanding courses in French, German, Latin, Spanish, and even Japanese. And for good reason.  Studies show that foreign language-taking improves students’ cognitive skills and performance across the subject areas. It even boosts their SAT scores. Not to mention that foreign language is an admissions requirement for any University of California or California State University school. In this age of concern for “college and career readiness” does it make sense for California to drop a key requirement  that prepares students for college?

Stephanie Porowski and Skye Frontier

We’re still looking to California for the Governor’s verdict on AB2446, the bill that would effectively eliminate California’s arts/foreign language graduation requirement. In the meantime, we’d like to turn his attention to the bill’s potential impact. With Granada High School in Livermore, California (just a short trip away from San Francisco’s diverse population and thriving arts culture) as our reference, we’ve learned that the bill would allow students to replace courses in art, orchestra, or French with studies in landscape design or personal nutrition. Instead of learning to analyze and create works of art, students at Granada High School would be able to meet graduation requirements by “transplanting seedlings.” And, rather than troubling with learning to understand another culture through its language, they would be able to learn how to prepare “quick and easy meals with fresh foods” in a “Food for Singles” course.

Valuable in the dorm room, yes. But substantive preparation for college coursework and future careers? Not so much. We hope Governor Schwarzenegger will join us in our skepticism. Until then, we’ll be blogging daily with more word on AB2446’s impending harm.

Stephanie Porowski

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to make a mistake.  Due for his signature before month’s end is Bill 2446 which would effectively eliminate the requirement that students take either an arts or a foreign language course to graduate from high school.

During the 2008-09 school year, more than 870,000 California high schoolers took a foreign language course.  More than 1.2 million took art.  And hopefully many of them would still do so, even If AB2446 becomes law.  But it may be more difficult to encourage students to learn their irregular verbs and memorize their lines for drama class if these subjects are no longer required.

What’s worse, dropping these requirements would send the clear message that art and foreign language are unimportant.  That strikes us as particularly odd in the state that boasts more non-English speakers than any other, and which houses The Getty Museum and so many of America’s greatest art institutions.

Does California and its actor-Governor, whose native language is not English, really want to lead the nation in jettisoning foreign language and arts from our schools?  We doubt that, if Schwarzenegger takes the time to see this bill for what it is, he will make this mistake.  But we’ll be watching.  Just in case.

Lynne Munson