Event update: Registration for the Getting Down to Facts III 2026 Conference is presently at capacity. Thank you for your interest. About the Conference Co-hosted by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and Stanford University’s SCALE Initiative, the Getting Down to Facts III 2026 Conference: Aligning Governance, Policy, and Capacity to Support Student Success Conference will bring together 250 state leaders, educators, researchers, and advocates to engage with new, policy-relevant research at a pivotal moment for California’s education system. What to Expect Building on the legacy

Join Susanna Loeb, Professor and Faculty Director of the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University, and a team of leading researchers for the official release of Getting Down to Facts III—a landmark, independent study on California’s education system. This webinar will unpack important findings from the research, highlight the challenges facing students and schools today, and outline a forward-looking vision for building a more effective and equitable system for the future. What You’ll Gain: A clear synthesis of key findings across the full research portfolio Practical insights on designing

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), California State PTA (CAPTA), and Youth Leadership Institute (yli) will co-host a youth-led gubernatorial forum on April 30, 2026 at the Fresno Convention Center. The evening will begin with a Civic Engagement Festival (4:00–5:30 pm) followed by the youth-led gubernatorial forum (5:30–7:00 pm). Together, these components will create a dynamic, youth-centered civic experience that elevates youth voice while directly connecting participants to pathways for ongoing democratic participation. Gubernatorial candidate and California Superintendent of

The PACE Annual Conference in January 2024 will bring together California policymakers, researchers, and education leaders to address critical questions about the state's public education system and explore transformative actions for improvement at all levels, from early childhood through higher education.

Districts across California are working on three discrete but related challenges as they address the impacts of COVID-19 on teaching on learning: 1) What do we do now to support student learning before school year ends; 2) What can we do in the Summer to mitigate the disparate impact of distance learning; and 3) What should we be designing for the Fall to best meet the needs of students, teachers and families. Expanded learning providers are critical partners for all three challenges.

This webinar will present findings from two forthcoming publications on community schools: the PACE brief “Community Schools: A Coronavirus Recovery Strategy;” and “Creating Strong Community Schools: The Role of California Counties in Providing Technical Assistance” by the Learning Policy Institute. The webinar will also feature perspectives from leaders at the school and county levels who will speak to what it takes to launch and sustain community schools.

PACE’s annual conference brings together nearly 300 California policymakers, researchers, and education leaders to discuss new research and approaches to improving educational outcomes for California’s students, from early childhood through higher education.

Education experts from PACE, LPI, and Opportunity Institute present a Plenary Session introducing CA’s education system to education scholars and leaders from countries around the world. They will discuss the historical roots of the many challenges facing CA’s schools and teachers, promising changes in the state’s education policy framework, and ongoing concerns about whether new policies will lead to meaningful improvements in the education policy framework, and ongoing concerns about whether new policies will lead to meaningful improvements in the education provided to CA students.

PACE’s inaugural conference is the premier event for policymakers, researchers, advocates and other leaders working to define and sustain a long-term strategy for comprehensive policy reform and continuous improvement of California’s education system. Our full-day conference will engage with three key education policy issues: school funding adequacy, teacher policies and cross-system-alignment. Registered participants will learn about the key policy debates and research based best-practices through conference plenaries and workshops.

The instructional transformation that Common Core promises depends on teachers to incorporate formative assessment into classroom practice to elicit and interpret evidence, provide feedback and continuously adapt their teaching to foster students’ learning. This seminar offers an overview of what formative assessment is and why it matters. Educators and researchers will explore the challenges and opportunities in building teachers’ capacity to engage effectively in formative assessment, and identify policy and practice strategies to encourage the use of formative assessment in CA schools.

CA adopted Common Core State Standards and state and local leaders are now engaged in the implementation process. PACE has organized this conference to review the current state of CCSS implementation in California, what we have learned, and what challenges we will have to face going forward. The conference will feature presentations from state officials who are guiding the implementation effort from Sacramento, local leaders who are wrestling with the challenge of implementing CCSS in their schools and classrooms, and researchers who are monitoring the progress of CCSS in districts across CA.