One of the major disruptions to daily life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the rapid shift from in-person K–12 education to virtual learning. While necessary for social distancing and slowing the spread of disease, there is a concern that...

The pandemic has touched many students with heightened stress, disruptions and remote learning hurdles, but experts say it may have the greatest impact on the youngest learners, those in the formative years of learning to read. Creating a language-rich environment on...

Strict school discipline increases the chances of adult arrests. The research confirms the school-to-prison pipeline, a term used to highlight the link between exclusionary school discipline and incarceration. Black and Hispanic individuals, who are more likely to be suspended or...

Distance learning and the coronavirus have taken an undeniable toll on students who have suffered from isolation, learning loss and trauma during the past year and a half. West Contra Costa Unified and many districts across California are planning a...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been clear that not all students have been impacted by the switch to online learning in the same ways. The greatest impacts have fallen on young children, as well as English language learners and low-income...

As we reopen schools and return to classrooms with a new infusion of desperately needed funding, I hope we all realize that “back to normal” won’t work for all students. Let’s take advantage of this exciting opportunity to reimagine and...

All throughout the previous year, we held our collective breaths in hope for a “return to normal,” while recognizing that whatever we returned to would look very different. As school starts this fall, after a year of interrupted learning imposed...

Advancing equity continues to be a major focus for California public education at all levels of the system. Yet, as education leaders and school business officials, it’s not always easy to press your way forward into the noisy, bustling, sometimes...

The pandemic altered our understanding of how schools could and should operate as well. Now, as we return for a new school year and districts are poised to receive a major infusion of federal and state funding, we have an...

In the past year, students, families, and educators have experienced trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further exposed and exacerbated educational inequity, from unequal access to tech for distance learning to structural barriers to basic resources—like nutrition, housing, and...

To improve accountability and transparency in California’s special education system, funding should bypass local cost-sharing consortiums and go directly to school districts, according to a new report. Compiled by researchers at the nonpartisan consulting firm West Ed, is the second of a two-part study of ways to improve funding for California’s 725,000 students with disabilities in K-12 public schools. The report will be presented to the Governor, Legislature, and other State officials.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools, the grades and mental health of millions of students declined. Several of the leading Republican challengers in the upcoming recall election of Govenor Gavin Newsom see this crisis as an opportunity. Their solution: more...

Schools are shaping up as a key battleground in the upcoming California recall election, and the coterie of Republicans running to replace Governor Gavin Newsom is offering voters an alternative vision of public education: school choice.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools, the grades and mental health of millions of students declined. Several of the leading Republican challengers in the upcoming California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom see this crisis as an opportunity. Turning parents...

A recent poll by Policy Analysis for California Education and USC Rossier confirmed what many educators, parents and students likely already know: The public has become increasingly polarized about issues in education. The poll found that the majority of voters...

As critical race theory—the examination of institutions through a lens of racism and inequality—becomes a nationwide political flashpoint, ongoing efforts by schools to promote inclusivity, in part, by offering ethnic studies courses have come under fire. Now, county education officials...

When schools across the country closed their doors and began remote instruction last spring, most of us in education braced for the worst. We weren’t wrong. The academic, social and health challenges that besieged K-12 students during the pandemic are...

Inevitably, the lives of many students returning to campus will look dramatically different from their lives in March of 2020. Some of them might have acquired a new sense of hopelessness and anxiety triggered by losing a loved one during...

Any effort to reach students disproportionately affected by the pandemic must address the needs of English learners (ELs). These students have always been underserved and underfunded by the U.S. education system. And now, data suggests that these students have been...

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a series of budget bills worth more than $100 billion, giving the most detailed glimpse yet into how the state’s huge budget surplus will be distributed over the coming months, and how California’s experiment with...

With the 2020–21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery. As data experts, we believe that...

Policy Analysis for California Education and the USC Rossier School of Education released their ninth annual poll on education on July 8. Findings show record-high support for schools and teachers after more than a year of learning during a pandemic...

Despite perceptions of the public's widespread unhappiness with the slow reopening of California's schools last spring, most voters surveyed, including parents, gave the highest marks in a decade of polling to the state's public schools in general and their schools...

Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature have seized a once-in-a-generation deluge of state and federal funding to set in motion a sweeping and ambitious set of education programs that seemed implausible six months ago. The 2021-22 state budget, which...