Getting Down to Facts III 2026 Conference

Governance, Accountability, & Support Systems

Moderator: Julie A. Marsh, Faculty Director, PACE, and Professor of Education Policy, USC Rossier School of Education

• Jacob Hibel | Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis 
• Morgan Polikoff | Professor of Education, USC Rossier School of Education
• Jose Eos Trinidad | Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley School of Education
• Jason Willis | Clinical Professor, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific

Electronic resources: Slides. Technical report: Assessing Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) Using Generative AI. Technical report: Public Accountability in California: Evaluating the SARCs and the California School Dashboard. Technical report: Re-Envisioning California’s County Offices of Education. Technical report: The Impact of Intervention: LCAP, Differentiated Assistance, and Resource Effectiveness in California School Districts.

Education Workforce & Instructional Improvement

Moderator: H. Alix Gallagher | Director of Education Policy and Outcomes, PACE, Stanford University

• Melanie Leung-Gagné | Researcher, Learning Policy Institute
• Maya Kaul | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
• Sarah Novicoff | Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California
• Elizabeth Huffaker | Assistant Professor, University of Florida College of Education College of Education
• Sherri Reed | Executive Director, California Education Lab, University of California, Davis 
• Laura E. Hernández | Senior Researcher II, Learning Policy Institute

Electronic resources: Slides. Technical report: Trends in California's Teacher Workforce: Understanding Supply, Demand, and Shortages. Technical report: Teacher Certification Policies: Balancing Quality and Access in the Teaching Profession. Technical report: Learning from California’s Prior Reading Reforms. Technical report: Adoption Windows and Reform: California’s Math Pathways in the Post-Common Core Era. Technical report: High School Coursetaking in California: A Primer. Technical report: California Community Schools: Past, Present, and Early Impacts of the California Community Schools Partnership Program. Technical report: The California State Role in Supporting District Capacity for TK-8 Math Improvement. 

School Funding and Sustainability

Moderator: Paul Bruno | Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education

• Francis Pearman | Assistant Professor of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Cory Koedel | Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Missouri College of Arts and Science
• Jonathan Kaplan | Senior Policy Advisor and Researcher, Learning Policy Institute
• Sara Hinkley | California Program Manager, Center for Cities + Schools, University of California, Berkeley

Electronic resources: Slides. Technical report: District Dollars 3: Recent Patterns in California School District Finances, Trends in Teacher Compensation, and Within-District, Between-School Spending. Technical report: The Fiscal Consequences of School Closures in California: Evidence from a Statewide Synthetic Difference-in-Differences Design. Technical report: Pensions and California Public Schools, 2026. Technical report: California Schools’ Revenue Sources and Constraints. Technical report: California's School Facilities in a Changing Climate: Funding, Equity, and Resilience.

Multilingual Learners

Moderator: Magalay Lavadenz | Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair in Moral and Ethical Leadership and
Executive Director, Center for Equity for English Learners, LMU School of Education

• Ilana Umansky | Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Education Policy and Leadership and
  Quantitative Research Methods in Education, University of Oregon School of Education
• Lucrecia Santibañez | Professor of Education, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies
• Francesca López | Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor in Education, University of
  Wisconsin–Madison School of Education
• Heather Price | Principal Researcher, Learning Policy Institute
• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj | Professor, Department of Education, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education,
  University of California, Santa Barbara

Electronic resources: Slides. Technical report: Academic Gatekeeping of English Learner-Classified Students: The Case of California. Technical report: Teacher Preparation for English Learners and Bilingual Education in California Schools. Technical report: Multilingual Learners learning English: What can California learn from other states? Technical report: Multilingual Learners of English: Progress of California's English Learners and the Resources That Support Their Educational Achievements. Technical report: Supporting Immigrant-Origin Students in California’s Schools.

Early Childhood Education

Moderator: Lupita Cortez Alcalá | Executive Director, PACE, Stanford University

• Beth Meloy | Founding Member, Child and Family Advisory Collaborative
• Deborah Stipek | Professor Emerita, Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Rucker C. Johnson | Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley School of Education
• Austin Land | Researcher and Policy Analyst, UC Berkeley School of Education

Electronic resources: Slides. Research brief:  From Expansion to Excellence: Addressing Systemic Challenges to Better Serve California’s Youngest Learners: Technical report:Early Childhood Education: The Changing Landscape of ECE in California. Technical report: Early Childhood Education: The ECE Workforce. Technical paper: Early Childhood Education: Data & Data Systems. Technical paper: Early Childhood Education: Staff Preparation and Support. Technical report: Early Childhood Education: Quality Assessment & Monitoring. Technical report: Early Childhood Education: P-3 Instructional Continuity. Technical report: Who Benefits from Public PreK Expansions & Increased K-5 Spending? Dynamic Complementarity in California’s Education Policies.

Serving Students with Disabilities

Moderator: Jeannie Myung | Director of Policy and Research, PACE, Stanford University

• Tye Ripma | Postdoctoral Scholar, SCALE Initiative, Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Alfredo J. Artiles | Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Christopher J. Lemons | Professor of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Lindsey Kaler | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Annenberg Institute, Brown University

Electronic resources: Slides. Technical report: Mandatory Regionalization and Its Limits: How California Districts Experience and Navigate Special Education Governance. Technical report: Multilingual Learners of English with Disabilities in California: Patterns in Enrollment, Opportunities, Outcomes, and County-Level Variation. Technical report: Paraeducators in California: Current Trends and Recommendations for Policy. Technical report: California’s System of Special Education Staffing.