STUDY RANKS STATE LAST IN STUDENT NET ACCESS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - California, the epicenter of the high-tech economy, has largely proved to be a bust at educating future mathematicians and scientists, a study released today shows.

CyberEducation 2001, conducted by the American Electronics Association, a trade group, ranked California last among all states and the District of Columbia in terms of student access to Internet-connected computers.

The state ratio was 10.1 kids per computer, compared with a national average of 4.2 and South Dakota's top-rated access of 3.4 students. The report also found that 91 percent of California campuses now have some form of connection to the Internet.

California tied for last place, along with Mississippi and Hawaii, when it came to the percentage of eighth-graders who were judged proficient in science on standardized tests. Only 15 percent of the state's youngsters were proficient, compared with 30 percent nationally and a high of 46 percent in Montana.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has created a number of math and science magnets in recent years, including programs at Granada Hills, Polytechnic, Reseda, San Fernando, Sylmar and Van Nuys high schools in the San Fernando Valley. But Gary Scott, a veteran teacher and secondary adviser for the LAUSD, said finding and retaining talented instructors is a challenge.

``People who major in math and science in college can make a lot more money in other fields,'' he said. ``Our shortage is acute, especially in middle school. If a teacher minored in math or science in college, that's usually good enough to become a full-time math or science teacher.''

Scott also said the magnet programs tend to sap the LAUSD's limited pool of experienced science and math pros.

``A lot of our best people want to teach at the magnets, where the students and their parents tend to be more motivated,'' he said.

The AEA study reported some encouraging trends. Students across the country are performing better in math than they were a decade ago, and higher-level math and science classes are gaining in popularity.

But overall it found the country - and particularly California - wanting when it comes to propelling students into technology fields.

The study found that only 18 percent of California eighth-graders were proficient in math, compared with the national average of 26 percent.

The survey also said that 46 percent of California's high school math teachers and 23 percent of secondary science instructors had neither majored nor minored in their assigned teaching fields while in college. The national averages were 28 percent for math teachers and 18 percent for science teachers.