AS DEMOGRAPHICS CHANGE, SO MUST EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Byline: Robert Rueda

THE surge in Latino and Asian populations is changing the face of California's ethnic makeup. In fact, by the year 2002 the white population will no longer be a majority.

This demographic shift impacts all Californians, native or recently arrived, on personal and professional levels. The state's economy, as well as an entire generation of retirees and Social Security recipients, will depend on workers who are members of today's so-called minority groups. Minority workers with high-tech skills will be valued, especially.

That's the good news. The bad news is a future economic crisis if California's current educational crisis is not resolved. According to statistics, the state's Latino community now receives the least amount of education of any segment of California's population.

Education is key to individual and economic success. If Latinos and other minorities, who comprise the largest group of available employees, lack the basics on which to build early educational success, California companies will soon find a shortage of qualified employees.

To prevent this future from playing out, we must change our educational system starting in grades K-12, where we have the best chance to help students - regardless of their ethnic makeup.

Where should schools begin in their efforts to reach a diverse student population? One promising area focuses on promoting cultural diversity, especially in ways children of varying ethnicities learn, based on their culture.

Studies show that ethnic students may be so overwhelmed by how things are taught, they're never able to concentrate on what's being taught. The downward spiral increases as students are labeled ``slow'' or are moved into remedial programs that avoid high-potential learning. Ironically, just the opposite needs to occur for students to get ahead. The remedy must be to give more attention to students who are struggling to understand the basics.

One way to increase individual attention is to reduce class size, a concept which the state introduced this year. Smaller classes mean more teachers and we must focus our resources on training a new crop of teachers. We can do so with live, interactive technology; that can bring the expertise of master teachers around the country to train the nearly 20,000 new teachers that will be hired in California.

Another way to promote diverse student learning is to ``reinvent'' classrooms into culturally responsive environments that emphasize valid forms of instruction and expose students to culturally diverse question/answer learning, reading and writing assignments.

Strategies such as cooperative learning, sheltered instruction, thematic teaching, integrated language arts, integrating family and community issues into instructional assignments, flexibility in teacher ``wait time'' and many other methods have been successful in promoting achievement.

In culturally responsive classrooms, teachers create opportunities for children that are inclusive and feature learning subjects and literature that ethnic children understand. Materials that represent a wide range of genre (narrative, expository, etc.), as well as a range of authors from many different backgrounds and diverse perspectives, permit students a meaningful gateway into literacy. All students should be able to see something of value to them or their families in their classroom materials and activities.

These practices engage students, and in turn, help them concentrate on learning. When this is not done, there's a ``disconnect''; the child's particular background and experience and the lesson being taught never meet.

Equally important, California's dismal reading scores - which know no ethnic bounds - are some of the lowest in the country. They might be improved if students are taught to read, using textbooks with subjects to which they can relate.

Cultural diversity in the classroom can contribute to a better-educated population, by directly exposing all students to new and different languages, experiences and diversity as a negative issue.

Yet positive cultural attributes can help students connect with academic content. They can blend ``living knowledge'' with curriculum materials to provide a balanced approach to education.

Culturally responsive classrooms are necessary for improving the schooling of the diverse student population that will one day make up California's work force. As the state's demographics change, leaders of the educational community also must drive schools to change the way they teach.

Before we know it, the state's new majority demographic group will be making news. The headlines I'd really like to see concern the state's educational foresight and commitment back in 1997 when it reinvented its classrooms and heightened teacher training to dramatically improve education for all its students, regardless of background. If we don't take these steps, we almost guarantee California a social and economic crisis of huge proportions.

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Photo: Class work: we must change our educations systems starting in grades K-12, where we have the best chance to help students - regardless of their ethnic makeup.