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.

Declining student enrollment is leading to a loss of revenue in many California school districts. To address ongoing budget shortfalls, many districts have consolidated or shuttered schools, and others are contemplating doing so. In this session, Carrie Hahnel (Bellwether) and Francis A. Pearman (Stanford Graduate School of Education) will discuss new research exploring the racial dimensions of school closures and how to address them.

Newcomer students have long been an underserved group in California’s school systems. Newcomers require specialized curricula and instruction to succeed in school as well as access to social services to meet even their basic needs. Unfortunately, most newcomers have not experienced schooling that adequately addresses their unique needs and drop out at a disproportionately high rate. There are thus significant opportunities to improve education for newcomers in California through policies, data systems, curricula, programs development, and collaborations.

What works to support students through the pandemic? How can the state and local districts best meet the needs of newcomer English Learners to California? What strategies can policymakers and district leaders implement to build bridges between a child’s early learning experiences and the early grades? Researchers, policymakers, and educators ask these kinds of questions all the time and yet making timely, effective connections between research, policy, and practice can seem like a herculean task.

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.

The rapid onset of the health and economic crisis accompanying COVID-19 has presented an array of challenges for school districts and county offices across California. To aid in both local and state decision-making, PACE and Pivot Learning have been documenting promising practices at school districts in California. In this webinar, researchers and local superintendents will highlight how two districts initially addressed students’ immediate needs and how they are approaching strategic planning for the months ahead.

Join us for a conversation about education during COVID-19 including the challenges and opportunities ahead as schools and families prepare for a new academic year. What policies and practices can help ensure equitable and effective re-opening? What might learning and classrooms look like in the future?

The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings will host a webinar, featuring PACE Executive Director Heather J. Hough, addressing how the United States should approach reopening schools in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Education experts will discuss options regarding the pace and sequence of reopening schools, how school practices will change to accommodate public health guidelines, and what schools should anticipate in the fall.

This webinar was the third in a three-part webinar series on special education featuring new research on the status of special education in California and paths forward for organizing schools to better support students with disabilities. This webinar will cover Differentiated Assistance, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Interagency Collaboration, and Lessons from Other States in Support of Students with Disabilities.