Around the Capital Region, schools are still working to recover socially and academically from the COVID-19 pandemic. Test scores have been affected, as has school attendance. A new wave of behavioral issues has unfolded, too. Now, a variety of people...
California students continue to trail their peers across the country in two key subjects on the newly released national report card. Testing data released Wednesday reveals that, overall, students across the country have not recouped pandemic learning loss in math...
An analysis of recently released Smarter Balanced Assessment System (SBAC) test scores shows very modest improvements in 2024 in students’ proficiency at meeting state standards for English language arts and mathematics. However, the rate of improvement is too slow to erase declines from the pandemic. Substantial gaps across student subgroups persist, with disproportionate impacts on the performance of students of color, disadvantaged students, and English learners (ELs). Also of concern is a pattern showing that overall proficiency in mathematics declines as students progress through school, indicating that they may not be prepared for postsecondary success.
Using evidence-based approaches, Ed Partners District to District program collaborates with districts and county offices to improve systems to achieve better outcomes for students. In Taking Reform to Scale, researchers at PACE studied our work with districts over four years...
While schools in the Bay Area and across the state are seeing more students graduate and attend class, academic performance among students remains stagnant nearly five years after the pandemic. That’s according to new data from the California Department of...
California’s public school students are continuing to rebound from the pandemic, with more showing up for class, more graduating and fewer misbehaving at school, according to new data released today. The California School Dashboard, a color-coded snapshot of how students...
I dreamed of following in my mother’s footsteps to become a teacher. We would spend our Augusts decorating her classrooms with cheesy quotes and fun colors. During the year, she would grade assignments and share her elementary school students’ funny...
Statewide efforts to increase rates of dual enrollment participation among high school students were paying off prior to the pandemic, but have stalled since students returned to in-person instruction, according to a recent breakdown from Policy Analysis for California Education...
For the first time since COVID-19 hit, California students demonstrated slight across-the-board gains in math, English and science according to statewide standardized testing data released Thursday. The news offers a glimmer of hope for some in the face of concerns...
To get students back in classrooms, Oakland Unified decided to test out a simple solution—paying students for perfect attendance. The Equitable Design Project, which just ended its second trial year at Oakland Unified, gives students $50 every Friday if they...
With declining enrollment and the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds, many California schools are facing financial challenges, said Marsh, who researches K-12 policy and governance. California is also facing a state budget deficit that could affect some districts more...
The nationwide increase in chronic absenteeism, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, persists in California—affecting approximately 25% of students. Marginalized communities face disproportionate challenges. Structural issues like transportation and teacher shortages, alongside student-level factors such as insecurity and disengagement, contribute to absenteeism. Tailored solutions recognizing the unique developmental needs of adolescents are crucial. Adolescents' curiosity and peer interactions necessitate opportunities for exploration and contribution, while supportive relationships with adults are essential. Addressing chronic absenteeism requires collaborative efforts, ensuring equitable access to these opportunities and relationships. Local expertise and insights from developmental science should guide the creation of inclusive school environments that promote consistent attendance and engagement among adolescents.
California’s public schools live—or die—by the numbers. They are utterly dependent on how much money the state budget allocates each year under Proposition 98, a formula adopted by voters in 1988 that only a few wonks in and around the...
After years of cash windfalls, California schools are bracing for a stretch of austerity that could jeopardize students’ already precarious recovery from the pandemic. An end to billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds, declining enrollment, staff raises, hiring...
Preparation for college and a career is important to economic prosperity. How college and career readiness in schools is defined varies across the state. The College/Career Indicator, adopted by the State Board of Education, integrates eight pathways that demonstrate a...
When the state published last year’s batch of post-pandemic school data, alarm bells went off. It was our first glimpse into where kids stood after years of virtual learning, and it was bleak. The data showed that student performance on...
Chronic absenteeism has risen dramatically in our country. A close look at 2021-22 school year data reveals that every state in the country is experiencing a substantial increase in the number of schools and districts with high and extreme levels...
Teachers, who too often are left to work in isolation and lack instructional support or clear expectations, are struggling to help students rebound academically and personally post-pandemic. Policy Analysis for California Education’s (PACE) December report What Does It Take to...
More than a year after California community colleges received $650 million in state COVID-19 relief money, schools have spent less than 20% of it. Colleges say they desperately need the money, but that they are reluctant to spend it because...
When then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature created the Local Control Funding Formula a decade ago, their professed goal was to close the achievement gap separating poor and English-learner K-12 students from their more privileged contemporaries by providing more targeted...
The pandemic had a devastating impact on learning, experts say, with lasting ramifications for the world of education at large. During the chaotic period when California families were running scared, public schools were shuttered and playgrounds off-limits, an estimated 152,000...
Truancy rates for students in the state of California and across the country are again an area of concern. Since the earliest days of the Corona pandemic educators, parents, government and community organizations have monitored the effects of chronic absenteeism...
Ventura County public school students continued to miss school at historic rates during the 2022-23 school year, further crystallizing a post-pandemic trend. Across the county, 22% of students were chronically absent last school year, a small improvement from 2021-22, but...
The surge in chronic absenteeism among California students during the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years was initially attributed, quite reasonably, to the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic. There was optimism that these rates would eventually begin to decline as schools returned to normal. When new chronic absenteeism numbers came out in October—along with California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASSP) data for 2022–23—the findings indicated that rates are down from the soaring absenteeism of 2021–22; 25 percent of K–12 students in California schools were chronically absent in 2022–23, down from 30 percent the year before. However, more than three years after the initial onset of the pandemic, chronic absenteeism among California students is still double the rate of prepandemic levels, and there are no signs of this trend abating.
Two years after California schools reopened their classrooms to in-person instruction following the Covid-19 pandemic, students continue to struggle—both academically and emotionally. Both of these factors are deeply connected and recovery requires a team effort, according to panelists at the...
