The Educational Gap in the SAUSD
Santa Ana, California is a relatively small but dense territory that can’t quite be named as a city or suburb, but more as something in between. In a town as small as this, you don’t really see many disparities amongst its residents, such as race, socioeconomic status, and so on. However, the disparities that do exist are those that go beyond what meets the eye. In a community that seems to be so uniform, how can there be such a difference in educational performance between the high schools of Santa Ana?
In an opinion piece written in the OC Register, Cecilia Iglesias, who is a Santa Ana Unified School District trustee, points out that the average graduation rate is 95% across all the high schools. Although she was content with these results, she was motivated to create change in the district after only an average of 39% of students tested proficient in language arts and 19% tested proficient in math. Cecilia’s words were meant to encourage students, parents, and faculty to be “cheerleaders” for change rather than to encourage the educational status quo.
Despite Cecilia’s call for change to occur throughout the entire district, I think it’s important to probe into where that change needs to happen specifically. Through the statistics found in a database called Public School Review, I found that the graduation rates varied from a high of 97% to a low of 86%. There was also a 28% difference between the highest and lowest language arts proficiency scores along with a 20% difference for that of the math one. To add on, EdData, which is another database for public schools, pointed out a difference between college readiness at the schools. 60% of students at the higher performing schools were reaching their UC/CSU course requirements while only 27% of the lower performing schools were completing that course load. By looking at each schools’ individual statistics it is evident that there’s a big gap between the academic performance of the high schools.
Some may blame an unequal access to AP classes for the lack of college readiness at some of the high schools. In a dissertation written by Danny Daher, there are multiple factors that have nothing to do with the student’s own intelligence or actual written rules that limit a student against enrolling in these higher education classes. He claims that a lack of quality counselors, lack of brown representation, lack of affluence, and a general lack of availability of the courses are to blame for the closed doors to AP classes, thus resulting in a lack of college readiness. Although Doher primarily focuses on Hispanic students’ limited access to AP courses in Orange county, his theories aren’t applicable in just Santa Ana — one city out of many in OC. Though these external forces should be considered as a possible cause, they are not all guilty.
In order to see if Daher’s points are valid and how much influence they hold over the students’ accessibility into these classes (which, again, may reflect on the student’s college readiness and further reflects on the overall academic performance of the high school), we must look into the statistics. According to Public School Review, lack of quality counselors is not to blame. Counselors from all the high schools have the same training because they are a part of the same district and the student to teacher ratios are fairly the same. Affluence does not play a very large role either. The top two high schools in Santa Ana, which constantly compete for the number one spot in every academic setting, have an 18% difference in the number of students that qualify for free or reduced lunch. (I’m using this as a measure for wealth because free/reduced lunch is dependent on the student’s income).That being said, a wealth disparity is not something that accounts for the difference in academic achievement amongst Santa Ana highschools. In the dissertation, Daher believes that students may avoid registering for AP classes because they fear being the only brown kid in their class. This does not really apply to the student’s in the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) because the school with the lowest Hispanic population is at 90% and had the largest number of students who were four year college eligible. As an example of these arguments, Santa Ana High School had 54% of its student body take at least one AP course, 100% of which were considered a minority and 86% were considered to be economically disadvantaged. Overall, students at every high school in town have the same opportunity to be college ready, and ultimately perform at the same academic standards as the other, according to Daher’s proposed factors.
So, then what is the cause of the difference of educational performance between the high schools of Santa Ana? In a journal written by Sylvia Guendelman, Juliet Nussbaum, Ann Soliday, and Maureen Lahif, the amount of time a father invests with their child is studied, analyzed, and compared against others. Prior to the study the researchers were aware that children who had a larger father presence had better physical and emotional growth amongst numerous other benefits. Through the surveys they conducted they found that the average immigrant Hispanic father was much less involved in their child’s life, not necessarily meaning they were absent. This study is significant to studying the educational performance in the SAUSD because many students are dealing with this issue.
The majority of students could relate to the experience of having at least one immigrant parent. In fact, the exact rate is 92% of kids. This means that they lack in-home support that could make all the difference in their achievements at school. In a newspaper article written by Ron Gonzalez, several authors have started to speak out against these issues because the struggle is all too real and all too common for the students in Santa Ana. To be specific, Gonzalez writes about a Santanero who became an author and wrote about witnessing their parent’s deportation by ICE — Ernesto Cisneros who wrote Efren Divided. It writes about the common experience of a child who needs to take on a bigger role in their household, which becomes distracting from their academic work. An interview with Samuel Cervantes gives us better insight on what it’s like to transition into living in an entirely different culture. He states, “When my family entered the United States, we became a new family. Our language was no longer the majority. Our culture was no longer the status quo. Our identity was no longer solely Mexican. I consider myself Mexican-American; the hyphenated part, now there’s the complexity.” So, while the students may be navigating through their academic careers, they may also be having to find their way through an entirely new form of living.
The issue runs so deep that there have even been efforts by the school district to ensure these students are getting the support they need. In an article written by Jessica Kwong, it includes the district’s stated support for its DACA students. It also includes training that counselors have undergone such as, training on immigration policies and formed circles of support. Also, they have begun a “WeCare” campaign to ensure the students have an emotional outlet. So now knowing that this issue exists, we must piece together why there is such a learning gap between high school academic performance.
A common way to check which schools have a larger immigrant population is by checking how many of its students are still “English Learners.” English Learners are students who are not yet entirely fluent in English. They are first tested in kindergarten and can stop testing once they pass. The percentage of students is supposed to dwindle down by the time they reach high school, but this might not always be the case depending on how fast they can learn and how many new immigrants enter the high schools. By looking at the statistics from EdData, the schools that usually perform lower have a student body in which English Learners take up about 30% of the population. In contrast, the English Learners in schools that typically perform higher have a population as low as 8.4%. Evidently, one of the main reasons that there is a disparity between educational achievement at high schools in Santa Ana, is the support that can be acquired from home.
All in all, by engaging with numerous sources in order to get to the bottom of my driving question I have become more aware of the struggle high school students in my town are facing. Prior to doing my research I thought I’d find a wealth disparity or difference in curriculum to blame for the different education performances. However, I learned that the issue ran way below the surface and into the students’ lives at home. I realized that instead of jumping towards the easy and typical answers, which I tend to often do, taking the time to research the subject is one step towards creating change.
Works Cited:
Daher, D. (2018). Examining hispanic students’ access to AP courses in high schools in orange county (Order №11016885). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ University of Southern California; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2176379339). Retrieved from http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy1.usc.edu/docview/2176379339?accountid=14749
“David Casper.” Ed, www.ed-data.org/school/Orange/Santa-Ana-Unified/Segerstrom-High.
“Eleven American Immigration Stories Told by Students, Faculty.” Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, 4 June 2017, diversity.utexas.edu/2017/06/04/coming-to-america-students-and-faculty-share-their-american-immigration-stories/.
Gonzalez, Ron. “How Does Santa Ana High Rank Among America’s Best High Schools?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/santa-ana-unified/santa-ana-high-3367.
Guendelman, S., Nussbaum, J., Soliday, A., & Lahiff, M. (2018). Hispanic immigrant father involvement with young children in the united states: A comparison with US-born hispanic and white non-hispanic fathers. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22(8), 1118–1126. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy1.usc.edu/10.1007/s10995-018-2496-z
“How Does Santa Ana High Rank Among America’s Best High Schools?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/santa-ana-unified/santa-ana-high-3367.
Iglesias, Cecilia “Ceci”. “We Need to Be Cheerleaders for Change, Not the Educational Status Quo.” Orange County Register, Orange County Register, 19 Oct. 2017, www.ocregister.com/2017/10/18/we-need-to-be-cheerleaders-for-change-not-the-educational-status-quo/.
Kwong, Jessica. “New Santa Ana Unified School District Resolution Supports DACA — One Board Member Dissents.” Orange County Register, Orange County Register, 18 Sept. 2017, www.ocregister.com/2017/09/12/new-santa-ana-unified-school-district-resolution-supports-daca-one-board-member-dissents/.
Public School Review. www.publicschoolreview.com/.
