Business and Industry | School Districts

Although not usually included in the category of “Business and Industry”, public school districts not only share many of the characteristics of other businesses, but are critical determinants of the future success for all local industries and businesses. Much of the focus here shall be on examining proficiency in “English Language Arts” among school districts in Southern California.

Why might this matter to business and industry?

“It is estimated that poor English skills cost the U.S. economy $65 billion in lost wages (1)”.

It is likely that these cost s fall disproportionately on California. Map 1 (to the right) indicates that California has the lowest score in the nation on degree of “Linguistic Integration” in its public schools. Furthermore, schools in Southern California tend to fare less well on measures of “Language Arts” than do schools in the north, as displayed in Map 2.

There are many predictors of student performance in the language arts, including the percentage minority enrollment in a district, percentage of students in the free/reduced lunch program (a proxy for poverty), percentage of “English Language Learners” , percentage of credentialed teachers, average class size, and average teacher salary. The Document (to the right) examines each of these predictors in relation to outcomes, but also introduces two less well-known predictors:

• Percentage of “Linguistically-isolated” Hispanic households
• The Hispanic “Teacher-Student Gap”.

A “Linguistically-isolated household” is one in which nobody older than 14 speaks English “well”. Map 3 suggests that proficiency in a district is inversely related to the portion of households that are “isolated”. Similarly, Map 4 suggests that proficiency also is inversely related to the Hispanic “Teacher-Student Gap”, which is defined as the gap in Hispanic representation among teachers, compared to that among students in the district, weighted by the relative representation of Hispanics in the school district.

Virtually all variation among district measures of “Language Arts” proficiency can be explained by these two predictors, and this model also can be used to identify districts that are over-performing or under-performing, relative to the composition of their student body and teacher ethnicity.

Contributors: Marjo Mitsutomi is Director School of Education, Orange County Campus, University of Redlands. Jerry Platt is Professor of Business at the University of Redlands.