getting down to facts

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April 18, 2006
For immediate release

UCSB Professor Russell Rumberger
one researcher working on “Getting Down to Facts,” landmark study of education in California

Summary Facts:

UCSB Professor Russell Rumberger, along with Patricia Gándara from UC Davis, will investigate the resource needs for providing an adequate education to California’s English learners
“Getting Down to Facts” is a research project of more than 20 studies
It will provide California with the comprehensive information needed to raise student achievement and reposition the state as an education leader

Dr. Russell Rumberger, Professor of Education at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute, has been named to conduct one of 20 studies that will comprise “Getting Down to Facts” The purpose of the $2.9 million, 9-month project is to carve out common ground for a serious and substantive conversation that will lead to meaningful educational reform. “Getting Down to Facts” (pdf) – a bipartisan attempt to rescue California’s failing K-12 system – was specifically requested by Governor Schwarzenegger’s Committee on Education Excellence, Democratic leaders in the State Legislature and Jack O’Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Rumberger and his co-researcher Patricia Gándara, Professor of Education at UC Davis and Associate Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute, will examine the state of California’s 1.6 million English learners (ELs) – students who come from non-English speaking households and are not yet proficient in English. Rumberger and Gándara will draw on existing research and collect and analyze new data in an attempt to determine what specific educational interventions must be offered to ensure that EL students are able to meet California academic standards and graduate from high school ready for postsecondary options.

To date, much of the focus for educating English learners has been on the early elementary grades and the contentious issue of native versus English-only instruction. But almost 40 percent of English learners in California are enrolled at the secondary level and achievement levels of secondary English learners and even students who have become fluent in English continue to lag behind those of other students. In fact, almost half of California’s English Learners may not graduate from high school in 2006 because they have not yet passed the California High School Exit Exam.

“Getting Down to Facts” will be led by educational economist Susanna Loeb of Stanford and includes the work of more than 30 researchers from six nonpartisan think tanks and 11 universities. The project is entirely funded by four private foundations: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the Stuart Foundation.

In an article in the Los Angeles Times State Senator Don Perata (D-Oakland) was quoted as claiming, “Our commitment is that this [study] will not die on the shelf. It could be and should be the centerpiece of the governor’s State of the State [speech] next year, and should be the driving force behind what we do legislatively and with our budget in 2007. We have a lot riding on this.”

[Professor Rumberger is available for interviews; to arrange an interview, contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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