I went to public schools in California in the 1950s and believed what I was told and read in the press... that our schools were first in the nation. Now we are told, and have been told for decades, that California is somewhere near the bottom in educational test scores. Not a possible change.
Four things have changed. First, there were no reliable national achievement test data before 1969 and there was no requirement that every state participate in a standard testing system until 1996.
So any statement that California was first in the nation was pure ......
So any statement that California was first in the nation was pure bullshit.
Second, in 1959, California changed from being a non-partisan state where nearly all elective offices were filled by all the voters ranging across party lines to a purely partisan state where only party loyalists (read incompetent boobs ...since I personally worked in the Calif. legislature) could be elected. I am waiting for someone to find reliable and stable data that measures that change.
Third, there has been more foreign born immigration into California, than to most other states. I have no idea what that change could do to test scores since Mexican and Latino immigrants are not noted for pushing educational achievement on their kids but most Asian parents are. We have more Latin immigrants but not much more than Asian in the S.F.Bay Area. San Francisco's top national achieving High School and its two top achieving elementary schools are mostly Asian.
Fourth, there has been a mass exodus of kids from public schools to private schools, from 20% (1960) in private schools to 35% (2000). Since I don't know what the private school achievement scores are it is hard to know what this effect has been. In San Francisco, private Catholic schools are largely Latino.
So what is the story? I know spending on schools has no impact, but ethnicity does. What has been going on?
(Footnote: I hated school, K-12, so being number 1 just made the situation worse.)