Reporting, Research and Staff:

This project was based in part on reporting from Times staff writers Richard Lee Colvin at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles; Mark Gladstone at Oakmont High School in Roseville, Placer County; Duke Helfand at Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills; Tina Nguyen at Katella High School in Anaheim; Tony Perry at Hoover High School in San Diego; Doug Smith at Taft Union High School in Taft, Kern County; and Elaine Woo at Arcadia High School, Arcadia. Additional reporting was provided by staff writers Nick Anderson, Ken Ellingwood, Amy Pyle and Louis Sahagun.

Statistical analysis of California public school education data was conducted by Richard O’Reilly, the Times director of computer analysis, and Sandra Poindexter, data analyst. Researcher Nona Yates assisted in the compilation and presentation of the data.

Additional research was conducted by a team of analysts from UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, including Denise Quigley, Richard Brown, Jamal Abedi, and co-director Eva Baker.

Other staff for this section:

Project editors: Paul Lieberman and David Lauter

Graphics editor: Les Dunseith

Graphics: Lorena Iniguez and Roger Kuo

News editor: George Foulsham

Copy editors: Mike Castelvecchi, Tami Dennis, Larry Harnisch, Steve Hensch, Mark Sachs, Elizabeth Troy and Mike Wyma.

Photo editor: Calvin Hom

Photographers: Mark Boster, Bob Carey, Carolyn Cole, Robert Durell, Robert Gauthier, Irfan Khan, Wally Skalij, Luis Sinco and Clarence Williams.

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The Series at a Glance

SUNDAY: A Week in the Life: An inside view of seven California public high schools.

TODAY: Culture and Language: The implications for schools when so many students don’t speak English--and so many don’t care about learning.

TUESDAY: Teacher Shortages, Accountability, and ‘Grand Gestures’: How a succession of school reform efforts have been heavy on good intentions and light on follow-up.

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This series, along with additional statistical information on every public high school in the state, is available on the Internet at https://ukobiw.net