August 20, 2020 | EdSource

Live online class time is most effective when it is built around small-group peer interactions and direct teacher-to-student feedback, according to a new research brief from Policy Analysis for California Education. The researchers also found that students need reserved time...

August 17, 2020 | UC Davis GSE News

The COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide reckoning about institutional racism have cast a bright light on longstanding inequities in our educational system. On August 17, 2020 we heard from UC Davis experts about the latest research into educational disparities for...

August 6, 2020 | Los Angeles Times

Many teachers, students and their families can agree on one thing after experiencing the unexpected hurricane that was distance learning this spring: It must improve—especially in the earliest grades, transitional kindergarten through second grade. Our youngest students, from ages 4...

July 29, 2020 | ABC10

For most California students in schools and colleges, the fall term will look like the middle of spring: online with little to no in-person instruction. But if students and parents accepted the rapid switch to online in March and April...

July 10, 2020 | Politifact

As thousands of school districts figure out how and to what degree they will reopen this fall, President Donald Trump railed against the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The administration has tightly linked reopening schools to...

Summary

In preparing for the next school year, California state policymakers must set clear statewide expectations for teaching, learning, and student support, regardless of whether instruction is online or in person. This spring, local school districts scrambled to adapt to COVID-19 with a wide range of responses largely focused on securing delivery of online resources. Now is the time to shift the conversation back to the core purpose of school: learning. The state should establish a minimum amount of instructional time; create an instrument of diagnostic assessment and require its use; adopt instructional continuity plans; and advocate for and secure additional funding.