In a newly released study, Susan Moffitt, director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Watson, partners with Susanna Loeb, new director of the Annenberg Institute of School Reform, and other researchers for Getting Down to Facts...

In 2007, researchers associated with Stanford University released “Getting Down to Facts,” a massive compendium of studies of California public education. Here was arguably the key takeaway: Public schools have many needs that would benefit from additional funding, but no...

Statement of John Affeldt, Public Advocates Managing Attorney & Education Program Director on Publication of Getting Down to Facts II Studies regarding California Public Schools. We welcome this new research and the contributions it can make to productive policymaking in...

en years ago California’s K-12 education system had the equivalent of a physical exam. Education experts from 32 universities and research organizations across the country studied its inner workings and effectiveness. They examined the state’s school finance and governance systems...

A decade ago, an academic research team produced a massive report on the shortcomings in how California’s K-12 schools educate about 6 million children and adolescents. The “Getting Down to Facts” report was issued just as a very severe recession...

Dozens of California school systems — including some in Santa Cruz County — with some of the state’s worst test scores and biggest academic achievement gaps won’t get any extra help this year under a support system launched recently by...

Nowhere is a data-informed approach to social-emotional learning more pronounced than in California’s CORE Districts, which embarked on a groundbreaking effort in 2013 to capture a more holistic vision of student success and school quality. There, eight of the largest...

English Learner (EL) students have been a key part of California’s K–12 system for decades. They currently make up about 21 percent of the public school population. English Learner status is meant to be temporary, and indeed, reclassified English Learners...

The Policy Analysis for California Education Policy Research Panel on Special Education has released a series of policy briefs summarizing key findings from the project Organizing Schools to Serve Students with Disabilities.Distinguished Professor George Farkas's article - "Achievement Gaps and...

As part of the California School Dashboard, the state’s new school accountability system, 1 in 4 school districts will receive assistance from county offices of education and the state to help improve the performance of groups of students who have...

While calls for introducing “continuous improvement” into K-12 education systems in California (and beyond) have grown, definitions of continuous improvement vary, and knowledge of what continuous improvement looks like in practice is limited. To advance the conversation, a report published...

This policy brief presents research-based information on “continuous improvement” and identifies characteristics present in organizations that are successful in building a culture of continuous improvement. It also identifies some areas that district and school administrators have identified as challenging within...

California is shifting to a transparent, evidence-based, collaborative approach to accountability to help schools perform better at every level. In just a few years, California has rolled out a series of major upgrades to public education designed to help all...

Data-based decision making has been the mantra of the school reform movement since the late 1980s, but California does not yet have an effective system for collecting and using vital school information. California has taken a number of steps to...

he Fresno Unified School District increased student applications to California State University and University of California campuses after training their counselors and giving students timely information to help them make selections. Their strategies are outlined in a new report from Policy Analysis...

he Fresno Unified School District increased student applications to California State University and University of California campuses after training their counselors and giving students timely information to help them make selections. Their strategies are outlined in a new report from Policy Analysis...

California’s Fresno Unified School District used improvement science and the six core principles of improvement to address their goal of giving all students an equal opportunity to graduate with the greatest number of postsecondary choices from the widest array of...

Jorge Aguilar, superintendent of Sacramento Unified School District Superintendent and former Associate Superintendent for Equity and Access at Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), coauthored a brief highlighting the development and use of FUSD’s data dashboard and the principles of improvement...

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 2017 full-day conference will engage with...

In school accountability, flashlights work better than hammers. That’s the oft-repeated argument of California’s CORE districts, a data collaborative now serving over 1.8-million students. It’s generally recognized that the practice of using data to bash schools—commonly known as naming and...

The State Board of Education spent two years creating a new district and school accountability system–revising multiple drafts in response to thousands of public comments–before adopting it in September. The plan is ambitious in concept and impressive on paper, but passage...

English-language-learner services are designed, in theory, to prevent educational inequity, but for some students the specialized services may be reinforcing it. A new study out of the University of Oregon found that designating early elementary students who are close to...

When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, it was celebrated as relief from its predecessor, but as regulations emerge it’s beginning to look like its evil sibling of the discredited No Child Left Behind Act’s name-and-shame policy...