When it passed in 1978, before most of today’s Californians were even born, Proposition 13 addressed the very real fear of rising tax bills pricing people out of their homes. But we now have decades of evidence that Proposition 13...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed May budget revision for the 2023-24 fiscal year May 12. Newsom’s revised proposal now accounts for a projected $31.5 billion “shortfall,” or deficit, an increase from the governor’s January budget, which estimated approximately...

When should children begin their summer reading? How about yesterday? According to a blog from the children’s publisher Scholastic, 96% of educators agree providing year-round access to books at home is important for student achievement. And 94% of parents agree...

As California ramps up its expansion of Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK), new research suggests it must focus more on high-quality teaching. “High-quality preschool instruction can make a difference for students,” says Alix Gallagher, the lead researcher of the Policy Analysis...

As Harold Sims Jr. knocked on doors for his school board campaign, many of the Northern Virginia residents on the other side didn’t know there was an election in May. Sims wasn’t campaigning for the general election or primary that...

In nonpartisan school board races across Oregon this spring, particularly in the Portland-area exurbs, candidates backing a nationally field-tested Republican strategy calling for more parental control of school curriculum and materials largely came up short. Prime examples were in Canby...

For the past decade, California has spent billions of dollars to improve the education of at-risk children, but there’s scant evidence that it had the intended effect. When Jerry Brown returned to the governorship in 2011, a quarter-century after his...

Newcomer is a term typically used to describe students who recently arrived in U.S. schools–but what recently means is not uniformly agreed upon. A new report from PACE, written by Californians Together Director of Newcomer Policy and Practice Sam Finn...

As a former educator, I have long been fascinated by the roles and responsibilities of American school boards. School boards have been around longer than America itself. According to Stanford’s Michael Kirst, local school boards are one of America’s earliest...

Wellness centers. Mental health counseling. Youth leadership development. These are examples of community schools initiatives in practice. With passage of a new contract that specifically endorses community schools, the West Contra Costa Unified School District is poised to become a...

In mid-April, two powerful California lawmakers urged the state’s community college leaders in a letter to pause part of a pilot that allows these institutions to offer bachelor’s degrees. Fifteen California community colleges have offered four-year degrees under the pilot...

Michael Kirst, the architect of the Local Control Funding Formula and then its chief implementer as president of the California State Board of Education for the first five years after its passage in 2013, freely acknowledges the law needs some...

In 2013, the Legislature adopted the Local Control Funding Formula, landmark legislation championed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that overhauled how California finances TK-12 schools. It significantly redistributed money to districts based on student needs, and, in exchange for transferring more...

No issue is more pressing in California than education. In late October, the state released scores for the first post-Covid-shutdown state standardized test, conducted earlier last year. The results were horrendous (https://edsource.org/2022/2022-california-standardized-test-results-wipe-out-years-of-steady-progress/680179). Less than half of all students who took...

Now is the time for California elected leaders to be bold and to build on the historic progress we’ve seen. As a state that is poised to be the fourth largest economy in the world, California has the capacity and...

California’s lowest-performing and most-segregated student group is at risk of being left out of one of the state’s most important education reforms — the unprecedented investment in community schools. At both the February and April 2023 California Advisory Commission on...

From undergraduates to esteemed scholars, representatives of UCLA Ed & IS were everywhere at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA) earlier this month in Chicago. Bringing their Bruin spirit to the “Windy City,” the UCLA team...

Any absence is concerning because it represents lost learning opportunities, but when an absence is labeled unexcused, it also affects how a student and their family are treated. Our new report, "Disparities in Unexcused Absences Across California Schools," shows how...

The San Francisco Unified School District calls the LCAP its “most important plan.” That’s because the Local Control and Accountability Plan will map out how SFUSD serves its highest-need students: English language learners, foster and homeless youth and socioeconomically disadvantaged...

From kindergarteners to high school seniors, chronic absenteeism persists around the country, fueled in part by disruptions from the spread of COVID-19 in the last three years, government data shows. In some places, repeated absences are getting much worse. The...

Data on unexcused absences can be used to craft a “more preventive, problem-solving, and equitable response to poor attendance,” according to a new Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) report, Disparities in Unexcused Absences Across California Schools. Attending school is...

Marin school enrollment dipped again in 2022-23, the sixth straight year of decline, according to new state data. The county’s public school enrollment dropped by an average total of 8.85% since the baseline year of 2018-19. That was almost in...

As California’s community colleges add more baccalaureate degrees to their offerings, it could help improve racial equity in the state’s higher education systems, according to a new study. The study by UCLA calls for a “strategic expansion” of baccalaureate degrees...

Innovating High School Math Through K–12 and Higher Education Partnerships, a new report published by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), explores six partnerships between high school math specialists and university faculty working to increase equitable access to advanced math...