EPAA Vol. 12 No. 10 - Powers: Increasing Equity and Increasing School Performance—Conflicting or Compatible Goals? - Addressing the Issues in Williams v. State of California

Oct 15, 2026

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This work addresses arguments about equity in public education versus school performance in the case of Williams v. State of California. Plaintiff experts contend the state must reduce inequities across California’s educational system. State witnesses counter that some plaintiff proposals yield limited educational effects while reducing local autonomy. The paper uses four years of data from California’s Public Schools Accountability Act to evaluate these competing claims.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Key Claims

EPAA Vol. 12 No. 10 Powers: Increasing Equity and Increasing Schoo... [http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/](http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/) A peer-reviewed scholarly journal Editor: Gene V Glass College of Education Arizona State University Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES. EPAA is a project of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory. Articles appearing in EPAA are abstracted in the Current Index to Journalsin Education by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation and are permanently archived in Resources in Education. PDF file of this article available: This article has been retrieved times since March 5, 2004 Volume 12 Number 10 March 5, 2004 ISSN 1068-2341 Increasing Equity and Increasing School Performance—Conflicting or Compatible Goals?: Addressing the Issues in Williams v. State of California Jeanne M. Powers Arizona State University Citation: Powers, J. M. (2004, March 5) . Increasing Equity and Increasing School Performance— Conflicting or Compatible Goals?: Addressing the Issues in Williams v. State of California. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(10) . Retrieved [Date] from [http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/](http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/) . Abstract This work addresses some of the arguments regarding equity in public education versus school performance at issue in the case of Williams v. State of California. The plaintiff’s expert witnesses have argued that the state is responsible to reduce the inequities in California’s public educational system. In contrast, the state’s witnesses argue that some of the plaintiff’s proposals have limited educational effects at the cost of reducing local autonomy. In this paper, I use four years of data from California’s Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) to evaluate these claims. 1 of 30 3/4/2004 6:51 PM EPAA Vol. 12 No. 10 Powers: Increasing Equity and Increasing Schoo... [http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/](http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n10/) Introduction On May 17, 2000, the 46th anniversary of the decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing racial segregation in public schools, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of California’s public school students in an effort to make the state address some of the inequities in California’s public educational system (Purdum, 2000) . Represented by the ACLU and civil rights organizations, the plaintiffs allege that the state is responsible for ensuring that all public school children across the state have the right to experience the same quality of textbooks, teachers, and classrooms. The plaintiff’s experts have documented a range of inequities in California’s public educational system and have further argued that these inequities are fundamentally unfair given the high stakes accountability program California initiated in 1999 with the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) . (Note 1) This legislation mandated the ranking of all California public schools based on their Academic Performance Index (API), which has been calculated based on the results from the state-mandated tests administered to students in grades 2 through 11 in the spring of each school year. By the winter of 2003, the fifth year of state school rankings will be released. Over three years later, the case of Williams v. State of California is still working its way through the court system; the trial is set to begin August 30, 2004. (Note 2) In this article, I evaluate the claims made in one expert report written by Margaret Raymond of the Hoover Institution’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO) on behalf of the state. (Note 3) In her report, Raymond utilizes the data generated in the wake of the PSAA to rebut the plaintiff’s claims. There are four main sections to the article. First, I briefly outline some of the major claims made by Raymond, focu

FAQs

What central equity-versus-performance dispute does the paper address?

The paper examines arguments comparing equity goals in public education to measures of school performance in Williams v. State of California.

How do the plaintiff and state witnesses differ in their assessment?

Plaintiff experts argue the state should reduce inequities, while state witnesses argue some proposals have limited educational effects and may reduce local autonomy.

What data does the author use to evaluate the claims?

The author evaluates the claims using four years of data from California’s Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA), including analysis related to the Academic Performance Index (API).

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dawugda