State of Public Schools in California - Book Report/Review Example

Running head:  INVESTIGATIVE REPORT PUBLIC SCHOO Investigative report Public School In the United State of America, education is mainly offered by the public sector with the funding and controlling coming from the local, federal and state government. The public sector education is available and compulsory at child level. School curriculum, teaching, funding, employment among other vital policies are mostly set by the locally selected school boards having authority over school districts with numerous directives coming from the state legislatures. The school districts are mostly separate from the other forms of local jurisdictions having their own budget and independent officials. However, it is worth noting that standardized testing as well as education standards are made by the states government. Compulsory education needs can be satisfied through educating children in the permitted home school programs, public school or in private schools certified by the state. This paper will candidly offer an in depth report pertaining the state of public schools in California. State of Public Schools in California As indicated above, public school in the United States plays a vital role in enhancing the education system. In California, the education system consists of private and public schools. This includes the public California States University, California community colleges, University of California, Private universities and colleges, private and public, high, middle and elementary schools. Brint & Karabel (2009) argues that California has the highest number of students estimated to be over 7.3 million in the 2009-2010 school years. The table below briefly compares the number of public schools (at the high, middle and elementary levels) between California and other major states in the U.S. State Elementary Level Middle Level High Level California 6,431 1989 2,572 DC, Washington 162 60 56 Arizona 1299 400 679 Indiana 1242 455 447 Michigan 2,363 1,021 1,260 Wisconsin 1337 467 630 Texas 4968 2416 2178 (Brint & Karabel, 2009) Approximately 25% of the children in the public schools are English learners as compared to 10% nationally. It is worth noting that staffing and funding levels of public schools in California largely lags behinds in comparison to other major states, such as Texas (Brint & Karabel, 2009). As a result, the state has continued to experience low quality of education, especially at elementary level, thus highly hurting the states education system. For example, in terms of expenditure per pupil, the state of California is ranked 30th of the 51 states, which includes the District of Columbia in 2009-2010. In the area of teaching staff expenditures for every pupil, the state is tanked 50th of 51 states. Considering the teacher to pupil ratio, the state of California ranks 49th with up to 25 children per teacher. The other states that ranked behind the state of California included Utah and Arizona. According to Brint & Karabel (2009), the public school systems in California have been criticized for failing to recognize the needs of at-risk students. For example, these students are mostly placed together with those with social and emotional disabilities. As a result of this, the education progress of both disabled and at-risk students is highly impeded. However, some of the academic researchers have recommended this model of teaching as it raises behavioural and academic standard of the whole student population (Brint & Karabel, 2009). Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that the need of high quality education is essential to the growth of any country. Based on this fact, there is an urgent need of the federal government to increase funding, staffing among other important elements to improve the state of public schools in California. References Brint, S., & Karabel, J. (2009).The Diverted Dream: Community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More