Edtrust Report Gives Status of California Students

The Edtrust West foundation released a report Monday that details the performance of African American students in the State of California.

African Americans graduate at lower rates , are less likely to complete college-level coursework in high school, and are less prepared for college upon high school graduation than their peers, according to the report.

The report details that the highest academic performing districts have generally lower percentages of minority or low-income students, usually ranging from one to five percent. The top five academic performance districts include: San Marino Unified, Temple City Unified, Wiseburn Elementary, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified and Manahattan Beach Unified.

Edtrust says that there are a number of factors that contribute to the scholastic performance of minorities. Socioeconomic conditions, lower quality of inner-city preschool programs and lack of behavioral support programs for minorities are examples of such factors according to the report.

Diversity is cited as a key answer to the low performance of minorities. The report presents that the most poor-performing districts are those with schools that are made up of predominantly minority and low-income students. This leads to less resources, under-qualified teachers and lower quality programs.

Though the article presents a grim view of minority academic performance, it does not stop there. The latter half of the report gives a list of solutions, and examples of school districts that are reversing the trends.  

Edtrust is an advocacy organization that seeks to produce research on the performance  of all California students. With that research, Edtrust seeks to expose the gaps in resources avaialbale for minority and low-income students in the classroom.

In 2005 the organization released the "The Hidden Teacher Spending Gap" report which led to the passing of SB687, a bill that required the state to be more transparent with how education funds are spent.

According to their website, the organization has three missions:

- "Ensure access to effective teachers for every student."

-"Support access to and success in college and career, from K-12 through higher education."

- "Ensure adequate and equitable funding for all students."