Organization

 School Progression

• Preschool, generally ages 3 and 4.
• Elementary School, usually kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade.
• Middle school, grades five to eight, or junior high, grades seven and eight.
• High School, grades 9-12.
• College. Many students attend out-of-state or private colleges but the great majority attend public colleges and universities within the state. Although governed separately, the public colleges and universities greatly influence instruction at the K-12 schools. www.mccormacks.com

Preschool And Day Care

Except for Head-Start programs for low-income children, just about all preschools are privately run and many of the Head-Start schools are managed by private firms or community service groups, such as the YMCA, under contract with a public agency.

Many preschools function as day-care centers and as schools and it’s important to know the difference. www.mccormacks.com

A day-care center may limit itself just to keeping the kids busy, fed and out of harm and mischief.

A preschool is supposed get the kids academically and socially ready for kindergarten or the first grade. Some of these schools follow distinct philosophies, for example, Montessori or Carden. In recent years, educators have elevated the importance of preschools, especially Head Start, because many children are entering school unprepared for academics. See Day Care www.mccormacks.com

Kindergarten Through 12 (K-12) System

About 6.3 million students attend a public school. Although their curriculums differ, much of what is taught in the public schools is also taught in the private simply because the students need to master the same knowledge: English, math, geometry, science, etc. Also because both public and private schools, in their college-prep classes, follow the dictates of the University of California.

Private Schools

They educate about 591,000 students, or 8.5 percent of all students. Most private schools have some religious or ethnic affiliation but many of these welcome students of differing beliefs. See Private Schools. www.mccormacks.com

Community Colleges

Enrollment about 1.6 million, full- and part-time. California has 109 community colleges scattered around the state. Just about every county will have one or a branch campus. No academic admission requirements.

Community colleges train people in job skills and for careers, such as nursing, child care, office-secretarial, culinary-restaurant. www.mccormacks.com

They teach the academic curriculum for lower-division university work (freshman, sophomore). Many “university” students attend community colleges for the first two years because they charge little and being numerous and scattered, allow students to live at home. The students then transfer as juniors to a California State University or a University of California.

Some high-school students take classes at community colleges to fill academic requirements. www.mccormacks.com

Community colleges boast that their instructors do a better job than many university professors. The former are hired for their academic knowledge (many have Ph.Ds) and their teaching ability. Many start out as teachers in the K-12 schools. University professors are hired for their academic knowledge and for their research prowess; teaching ability may be secondary.

Community colleges are run by locally elected trustees. Much of the power, however, has devolved to administrators and faculty. Many community colleges offer summer enrichment classes for adolescents and teens— a cheap way to keep the kids interested in academics. www.mccormacks.com

California State Universities

Also called CSU’s or Cal States or State, for example, Cal State Pomona, Long Beach State, San Diego State, Sonoma State. Enrollment about 405,000, including post-grads. Twenty-three campuses, almost all of them in metropolitan areas and many branch campuses. Instruction covers four years of college and master’s degree or equivalent (such as teacher’s certificate.) Two campuses specialize in the sciences: Pomona and San Luis Obispo.

Admission requirements: top one-third of high-school class and completion of the prep curriculum. Cal State professors, almost all Ph.Ds, are hired for their academic knowledge and accomplishments, and for their teaching skills. Cal States, with few exceptions, can’t offer the Ph.D. They are not research institutions (but some research goes on). www.mccormacks.com

All or almost all Cal States have dorms and attract students from around the state and indeed from around the nation and the world. In the big cities, Cal States function as commuter universities, popular with young students and mature adults returning to school to pick up a belated bachelor’s or master’s. Cal States offer extension classes — non-degree or certificate classes.

Cal States are managed by professional educators appointed by a state board. No local elections. The state board is appointed by the governor with the approval of the state senate. www.mccormacks.com

University Of California

Ten campuses, including one (San Francisco) that specializes in medicine and has almost no undergrads. About 159,000 undergrads and 45,000 grads. Bachelor’s, master’s and doctorates.

UCs are also research institutions. Several UCs have Nobel winners and are ranked among the top universities in the world. The UC system runs major research labs at Livermore and Berkeley and at Los Alamos in New Mexico, and medical centers serving San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Orange counties. www.mccormacks.com

Admission requirements, top 12.5 percent of class and perhaps another half-percent admitted under discretionary rules that seemingly are always under argument. Very competitive.

Commonly called UC this or that, as in, to name the campuses, UC Berkeley (also known as Cal), UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz. www.mccormacks.com

UC exerts great influence on the K-12 system. To gain admission to a UC or a Cal State, a high-school student must take courses approved by the UC system.

Californians believe that if the UCs are to become and remain first class they must be free to set and enforce their own standards. The big exception: Affirmative Action (admission based on ethnicity) which voters shot down at the polls. But even with this rejection, the UCs have cobbled together standards and programs that allow the admission of a diverse group. The arguments, however, rage on. www.mccormacks.com

To get into a UC generally means that you can get into the other top universities in the United States. Classes have sprung up on how to win admission to a UC and people have gone into business as UC admission gurus.