There are 725,000 K-12 students in California who receive special education services -- and a new report says that the state has a long way to go to adequately meet the needs of these kids. With us to break down...

Facing the typical challenges of urban schooling, including overcrowded schools, mediocre academic outcomes, and high dropout rates, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been at the epicenter of big-city education reform over the past decade. District leaders have successively...

Special education in California should be overhauled to focus on the individual needs of students, with better training for teachers, more streamlined services and improved screening for the youngest children, according to a compilation of reports released today. Those were...

Special education in California should be overhauled to focus on the individual needs of students, with better training for teachers, more streamlined services and improved screening for the youngest children, according to a compilation of reports released today.

This brief identifies the steps necessary to realize an integrated system of care, reviews two current approaches, and makes recommendations—including specifying policy reforms that would promote interagency collaboration, integration, service delivery, and improved outcomes for California’s children, both with and...

Impact of teacher activism in California being felt in multiple but less visible ways, leaders say.

A year ago teachers in Los Angeles were celebrating the signing of a new agreement with their district after an outpouring of support from teachers around California and the larger public. But since then, there have been few visible signs...

Recent survey results show that while more California county office of education leaders are understanding and accepting of the new roles of COEs in the Statewide System of Support, the state must further build out and enhance the system to...

To help lay the groundwork for reforming California's faltering school system, more than 30 researchers nationwide have launched the largest independent investigation ever of how the state governs and finances education. Stanford Associate Professor of Education Susanna Loeb, an economist...

en years ago this spring, a federal commission released a report that shocked the nation with its grim assessment of public education. With ringing martial metaphors and a dire warning of a “rising tide of mediocrity,” A Nation at Risk...

But most people who work with problem kids say there are more relevant statistics. According to the child advocacy group Children Now, more kids than ever are growing up in poverty in California—1 in 5; 1 out of 3 kids...

California policymakers have not responded to the changing needs of the state’s children, leaving many at risk of slipping through gaps in a fragmented social-services system, according to a new report by a group of independent researchers.

Although most California...

What is it like to be a child in California? Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent, university-based research center, has undertaken the first comprehensive overview of that question in “The Conditions of Children in California,” to be released...

schools will do little more than ensure continued educational mediocrity, according to an analysis released Tuesday by an independent group of education professors from the state’s top universities. With enrollment statewide growing 42% above what had been projected for this year...

A recent report by USC education professors Allan Odden and David D. Marsh for Policy Analysis for California Education indicates that when schools put together all the critical reforms, they show improvement. All our estimates indicate that about 30% of...

Tougher school standards enacted by the state four years ago appear to be contributing to better learning conditions and academic gains, according to a study of 17 California junior and senior high schools released Thursday. The report, authored by two USC...

This year, Policy Analysis for California Education—PACE—has undertaken two of its most ambitious projects to date: a study of the impact of education reform at the local level, and an assessment of the condition of children in the state. Known...

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Monday that current high school seniors, the first crop of students to go all the way through high school under the tougher state academic standards imposed in 1983, recorded “the highest scores...

Two privately funded studies, issued this fall, highlight the progress and problems of California’s schools and make numerous and expensive suggestions for improvement. Those studies and their recommendations: Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a research group based at Stanford...

Five years after Proposition 13 took away money from California schools, Senate Bill 813 brought it back—but with strings attached. The bill, hailed as the largest educational reform measure in California's history, was passed in 1983. Its provisions were backed...

Minority students will be a majority of California’s public school enrollment by 1990, ten years earlier than expected, educational researchers predict. Between 1970 and 1980 the proportion of minority students grew from 15.6% to 42.9%, said the report by Policy...

California's public schools are progressing under the state's 2-year-old reform program despite teacher shortages and deteriorating buildings, an independent research group reported Wednesday. The university-based group, Policy Analysis for California Education, said in a preliminary report that more high...

More California high school students are taking tougher courses like math and science, according to a research report. Between 1982–83 and 1984–85, the number of math and science courses and the number of students taking them both increased 20 percent...

California's teacher training colleges are turning out poorly trained teachers who are "rubber stamped" by the state's certifying process and sent into the classrooms ill prepared to serve the millions of children put under their care, according to a new...