Since the adoption of the LCFF, CA’s public school funding structures have become more straightforward, transparent. Additionally, per pupil spending has increased, but remains below the national average. Comparisons between CA and other states in terms of funding levels and policy put CA’s public school spending in context and help to identify opportunities for improved funding measures. PACE researchers summarize findings on CA’s funding structures and trends, detailing gaps between current and adequate spending.

California supports the learning of 1.3 million English students and has the highest proportion of EL students in the nation. With the adoption of the California English Learner Roadmap by the State Board of Education and the passage of Prop 58, state support has grown for improved services. Consideration of the needs of the diverse EL student population is essential as it evolves at all education levels. In this seminar, PACE researchers present the needs of California's EL students, barriers to their success, and potential tools districts can use to support their EL populations.

More than 100 researchers from across the nation have focused their attention on the current status of California’s schools as part of the Getting Down to Facts II project. This fall, the project released 36 detailed studies that examined progress and challenges in student success and provide a comprehensive overview of the state’s preK-12 finance, personnel, and governance systems.

In 2014, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1469 requiring teachers and school districts, along with the state government to substantially increase their respective contributions to the California State Teachers' Retirement System. The state has accrued significant pension debt for an extended time totaling approximately $107 billion, and there is no short-term solution to solving this problem. In this seminar Cory Koedel provides the background for how and why CalSTRS finds itself in this situation and discusses potential policy options for reform moving forward.

Rural school districts face unique challenges in procuring funds, recruiting staff, and obtaining high-quality technical assistance. This environment creates challenges in implementing best practices. A collaborative learning network can address these challenges by providing access to professional development, collaborative time with peer districts, and economies of scale. Pivot Learning designed the Rural Professional Learning Network to address this need. In this seminar, based on a recent PACE report, lessons learned from a rural network in El Dorado County will be discussed.

Public school funding is a complex but vital area of interest in CA. In this seminar, the challenges of financing public education are highlighted in two areas: funding for facility maintenance and modernization, and special education for students with disabilities. CA’s vast inventory of school facilities vary widely in age and condition, and estimates for CA school facility maintenance and modernization over the next 10 years top $100 billion. With the advent of the LCFF, there has been increased focus on helping students with disabilities succeed in school but many districts lack funding.

Leading experts and practitioners discuss the state’s ambitious goals of expanding high-quality early education and care statewide. Learn more about California’s constraints and opportunities. The webinar, part of an ongoing series of deeper dives into the Getting Down To Facts II research released earlier this year, is co-sponsored by PACE and the Learning Policy Institute.

Once a national leader in early childhood education, California faces unique challenges in addressing the educational and developmental needs of the nearly 24 million children. Compared to the rest of the US, twice as many of these children live in families without a parent fluent in English, and an additional one in five live in poverty. The current early childhood education system consists of an array of underfunded and incoherent programs that under-serve children, families, and workers. In this seminar Deborah Stipek highlights inefficiencies and potential areas of improvement.

In this webinar, researchers and practitioners in the CORE districts will discuss both SEL measurement and practice, based on this just-released report and new quantitative work coming soon on the validity of the SEL measures used within CORE.

Motivated by statewide efforts to improve persistence and completion rates in college, the goal of Early Start is to better prepare students in math and English before their first semester at CSU. Specifically, Early Start requires all incoming students who do not meet the threshold on the entry level math or English proficiency requirements to take a designated developmental education course in the summer before their freshman year. In this seminar Michal Kurlaender will present results from a study that examines the impact of Early Start on persistence rates and achievement in the CSU.

Governor Brown’s landmark finance reform —the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) —has shifted large quantities of new revenue to school districts that serve large concentrations of poor children, but less is known about how districts are distributing resources to local schools. Are the schools that educate large numbers of poor children receiving additional resources in proportion to the share of kids who generate the new revenues? Can we detect organizational improvements in these schools? Are the financial and organizational changes supported by LCFF making teachers’ working conditions

ESSA makes sweeping changes to the way school performance is measured, and shifts decisions about how to define school quality and how to support struggling schools back to states and districts. The CORE Districts’ innovative accountability system is aligned with both LCFF and ESSA requirements, and includes many measures that the State Board of Education is considering for inclusion in CA's emerging accountability system. In this seminar Heather Hough, Rick Miller, and Noah Bookman provide an overview of what has been learned in the first year of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership.

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, California state policymakers are tasked with determining the subgroup threshold for school-level reporting. To inform this decision, this policy brief explores the implications of utilizing various subgroup sizes using data from the CORE Districts. In this seminar, PACE authors present findings that the 20+ subgroup size presents clear advantages in terms of the number of students represented, particularly in making historically underserved student populations visible.

The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd is conducting research on the experiences of California teachers as they implement the new CA Standards. As a part of this work, the Center is conducting a series of focus groups to give voice to teachers in the process of implementation. In this seminar, Robert Sheffield will present findings from the first round of focus groups. In his discussion, he will offer an analysis of how the findings fit within the policy context defined by CA's new funding and accountability systems, and will present recommendations for policy leaders.

Under a waiver granted by the federal government, the six CORE Districts (Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Santa Ana) have developed the School Quality Improvement System (SQIS). In this seminar, Rick Miller, David Plank, and Heather Hough will discuss the CORE-PACE research partnership with a particular focus on the unique features of the SQIS and their implications for the new state accountability policy that is currently under development in California.

The forum will explore the role that social-emotional learning plays in supporting young people's academic achievement and well-being. Experts will present the latest research on measuring social-emotional outcomes. School district leaders will talk about emerging practices at the district, school, and instructional levels, including perspectives from the CORE initiative, the charter school movement, and the expanded learning field. The forum will close with opportunities for the audience to discuss policy implications and hear reactions from policymakers and researchers.

In this seminar, PACE researchers will present findings from a study of the second-year of LCFF implementation, focusing on how local leaders are adapting to California’s new finance and accountability systems, identifying some promising approaches to LCFF implementation, and providing implications of the findings for adjustments to the LCFF. The report is based on case studies of LCFF implementation in 7 to 9 California school districts, along with LCAP reviews of over 50 districts and interviews with over 25 County Office of Education leaders.

Michal Kurlaender and Jacob Jackson present research following up on their statewide evaluation of California’s Early Assessment Program (EAP), an academic preparation program developed jointly by the California Department of Education, the California State Board of Education, and the California State University and implemented in 2004. The goals of the EAP are to bridge the gap between K-12 educational standards in English and mathematics and the requirements and expectations of postsecondary education. In this seminar, Kurlaender and Jackson present new findings on EAP effects at California

Californians are just now beginning to recognize the scale and impact of recent policy changes in the state’s education system. The simultaneous adoption and implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) promise large and potentially transformational improvements in the state’s schools and classrooms. PACE has organized this conference to discuss the changes that are underway in California’s accountability system, and to analyze what they mean for the state’s schools and students.

In this seminar, Margaret (Macke) Raymond investigates operator supply in the charter sector in the United States. She examines the performance of individual schools as they opened and grew over their early years. Her analysis expands to consider the likelihood of quality among new schools and networks of schools, called Charter Management Organizations. Using a new method to ensure rigorous comparisons, she compares the performance of charter schools to the traditional public schools with which they compete.

Summer learning loss disproportionately affects low-income students and likely contributes to the achievement gap between students and their higher-income peers. Until now, research has not demonstrated whether voluntary school district summer learning programs offered to large numbers of urban, low-income students can actually make a difference. In this seminar, Catherine Augustine presents early findings from a study that seeks to answer one key question: Can such programs in urban districts improve student achievement and social-emotional outcomes for low-income, low-achieving students?

PACE, in partnership with EdSource, invite you to attend a webinar featuring California's Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor on Governor Brown's May Revision of the 2014-15 state budget, what it means for schools and the fiscal outlook for education funding generally. Join us for a thoughtful, information-rich discussion on the state budget in the wake of Prop. 30 and the Local Control Funding Formula, as well as the forecast for Prop. 98 funding and the implications for schools as they implement the Common Core standards and assessments.

PACE, in partnership with EdSource, invite you to attend a webinar featuring CA's Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor on Governor Brown's May Revision of the 2015-16 state budget, what it means for schools and the fiscal outlook for education funding generally. Currently it looks like schools will be the big winners when it comes to revenues they will receive as a result of the state's surging economy. But just how big a winner? And will the schools' windfall come at the expense of other parts of the state budget, including possibly non-education services that are important to a child's well-being?

Gardner Center staff and two institutional partners at the University of Chicago and Brown University, developed and studied the implementation of a CRIS in five urban school districts across the country. The seminar will present the recently-released CRIS Resource Series, including a menu of research-based indicators and six essential elements of CRIS implementation. The seminar includes a discussion of how districts, schools, and state agencies can use a college readiness indicator system to fulfill college readiness mandates and advance equitable access to deeper learning opportunities.

School districts throughout the country are facing mounting accountability pressures to improve student achievement and turn around failing schools. In response to these pressures more than 20 major cities have adopted the portfolio management model of school governance. In this seminar, Katharine Strunk and Julie Marsh will explore how portfolio management is working in the Los Angeles Unified School District's Public School Choice Initiative (PSCI).