As charter schools continue to become more prevalent across the country, however, one challenge facing them is that there is wide variation in the effectiveness of organizations that authorize charters and decide on their renewal. One of the Getting Down...

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...

Stanford’s recently released Getting Down to Facts II illustrates both the challenge and opportunity we collectively face: families’ lack of access to affordable, quality early learning experiences has a detrimental effect on children’s achievement in the K-12 system. Can Gov...

Years of advocacy have resulted in better understanding of the needs of California’s foster students, translating into more funds that target gaps. School districts now report yearly on how funds earmarked for youth in care are spent, a relatively new...

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...

EdSource asked several education leaders to comment on what they think Gov. Jerry Brown’s most important contributions to education reforms in California have been, what major education issues remain unaddressed and what they are hoping for from incoming Governor Gavin...

Welcome, readers, to the new year. It’s time for our favorite armchair exercise: predictions for the year in education. There’s a wild card this year: Gavin Newsom. Gov. Jerry Brown, while sometimes mystical, proved to be true to his word...

Early childhood education. A top-tier national ranking for K-12 per-pupil spending. A data system that would track kids from nursery school through state universities. California’s Legislature won’t reconvene until 2019, but the Christmas wish list for public schools  is already...

The California legislature will debate three Assembly bills in the upcoming session that would open up preschool options for thousands of California families.

Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom is promising universal preschool for the next generation, and with Democrats winning a supermajority in the state Legislature, education in California is likely to see some big changes. Newsom's plan includes preschool for all children, which estimated...

One Stanford University study says that California needs to spend billions more on the state’s PreK-12 public school system. Another Stanford study says that too-generous public pensions are robbing core government programs of needed funds. Will the two disparate ideas...

Tony Thurmond has named a veteran California education administrator as his chief deputy superintendent in his first act as state superintendent-elect of public instruction.

The alliance intended the website to serve as a guide for parents and the public that may be unaware of the significant shifts in policy under Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education that he appointed. To support...

Over the past decade, California’s PreK-12 education system has seen a variety of reforms— new academic standards and assessments, the Local Control Funding Formula, advancements in data systems—yet despite these changes, a new research project reports that California lags behind...

Even among the most engaged voters, the race for state superintendent may not attract much attention. But it is attracting huge amounts of money: upward of $43 million, mostly funneled to outside groups running advertisements in the race. The battle for...

Anyone skeptical of last month’s Stanford University study of Golden State K-12 underfunding must either be unusually perspicacious or a veteran California classroom teacher. That’s because the true amount should have been $25.6 billion — $3.5 billion more than the...

A unos cuantos días de las elecciones de gobierno estatal, la comunidad latina sopesa su voto entre los contrincantes Gavin Newsom y John Cox. La balanza se inclina a favor de aquel cuya prioridad sea la educación de los estudiantes...

Marshall Tuck, a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, sat down with Louis Freedberg and John Fensterwald of EdSource to talk about his vision for California’s public schools. Tuck responds to the finding in the "Getting Down to Facts"...

This week, Louis and John interview Marshall Tuck, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Tuck, a former school administrator, lays out his vision for the job and explains what he would do to strengthen the state’s limited education data...

A major thrust of landmark education reforms introduced during Gov. Jerry Brown’s tenure has been to emphasize local control of schools and to view the state’s primary role as providing support to districts to improve.

The next state superintendent of public instruction will face a big challenge: making the case for a bigger role for the California Department of Education. He will have to reassert the importance of the department, which he will run, after...

Child360, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting early learning from every angle, today announced the appointment of William (Bill) Sperling as Chief Executive Officer. He will lead as CEO effective immediately and will be the force behind Child360's vision to...

A team of researchers managed by Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education recently released a massive study of California schools’ successes and shortcomings.

Dr. Michelle Hall, Attallah College of Educational Studies’ Director of Program Assessment and Improvement, was one of the contributors to a major update to a key research project, Getting Down to Facts II (GDTF II), that examines the many facets...

California has earmarked nearly $200 million over the last four years to address the state’s persistent teacher shortage, but it is not enough, according to new studies that are part of “Getting Down to Facts II,” a research project focused...