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...

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.

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...

Measuring both student proficiency, whether students are on grade level, and student growth from year to year matters, particularly in places like Oakland where thousands of students enter school each year behind grade level. Despite the importance of growth, California...

Los Angeles Unified on Wednesday is expected to become the latest California school district to publicly share data showing how its students improve year to year, a move the district expects will provide deeper insights into how individual schools are...

Los Angeles Unified leaders were right to abandon plans for a single rating system for schools, which would have been a giant step backwards for school performance transparency. Those same decision makers should double down by making Los Angeles school...

Each spring, California public school children in grades 3-8 and 11 take a set of tests known as the CAASPP (the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress). In summer, families receive the results electronically. In autumn, schools and districts...

As local educational agencies throughout California strive to boost student outcomes by way of continuous improvement strategies, a new research analysis of the state’s eight CORE districts explores which conditions best support that continuous improvement in districts and schools. The...

There is a deeply rooted impulse in American society — perhaps any society — to rank everything from restaurants and refrigerators to athletes and colleges. That may help explain why pressures continue in California to rank its schools based on...

Every year, California schools are evaluated on a variety of measures, everything from students’ math and English skills to suspension rates and chronic absenteeism. When things don’t go well, school districts scramble to put new programs in place that will...

Distinguished Professor George Farkas presented his latest research findings at the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) group in Sacramento on August 13. The meeting title was PACE Policy Research Panel on Special Education: Organizing Schools to Serve Students with...

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spotlighted a continuous improvement grant to the CORE Districts, a network of California school districts, and its research partnership with PACE at its school improvement showcase in Baltimore this week, reports EdSource. The CORE...

Research shows California schools are now relying more on counselors in order to improve outcomes for students in areas such as attendance and graduation. A report released last year as part of Getting Down to Facts II—a project involving Stanford University...

A recent WestEd event brought together representatives from healthcare, philanthropy and justice to discuss how partnerships with school and district leaders can improve prevention.

You’ve seen the headlines and watched the TV segments. The largest college admissions scandal in recent memory has implicated Hollywood celebrities and industry titans who allegedly went to extraordinary lengths to get their children into elite colleges. While this scandal...

Getting Down to Facts II combines 36 studies that explore a broad swath of K–12 policy topics central to school equity. Among some of the report’s findings: Large accountability gaps persist; students are behind before they even enter kindergarten; data...

Host Joseph Pace and guests discuss the policy and funding issues underlying Oakland and California’s public school crisis.  What solutions exist to get our schools back in session and back on track?

A new analysis by the Palo Alto-based nonprofit Learning Policy Institute calls for doubling down on efforts to deepen and strengthen “one of the country’s most ambitious equity-focused education reforms.” LPI’s report cites multiple publications from PACE and Getting Down...

When it comes to implementing policies that will shape education, research is a critical starting point, says Heather Hough, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a nonpartisan center led by faculty members at five universities in California...

Brown University professors ors Susanna Loeb, Kenneth Wong, Matthew Kraft and John Papay were named in the 2019 Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. The list ranks the top 200 U.S. university scholars who most influenced “educational practice...

School's In with Dan Schwartz and Denise Pope:
"Improving Education from the Inside with guest Heather Hough"

Policy Analysis for California Education executive director Heather Hough talks about the value of arming local officials with the best information to make...

Gavin Newsom is officially California’s 40th governor. During his electoral campaign and inaugural speech, he made several promises to provide services and representation to different communities across the state. Advocates for early childhood development, housing policy and the LGBTQ community...