Proposition 15 is one of the biggest-ticket items on the California ballot this year. It would have major consequences for one of the most iconic and obsession-driving ballot measures of all time: Proposition 13, which capped the growth of property...

Policy Analysis for California Education Director of Strategic Partnerships and State Education Policy Expert Dr. Alix Gallagher discusses the biggest challenges facing in K-12 education.

Heather Hough, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), talks about a closely watched measure to increase school funding. California’s Proposition 15, which would increase funding for public schools and local governments by changing tax rules for commercial...

Deep into the pandemic, some districts are finding an alarming percentage of students are missing from the virtual classroom—with the worst absentee rates occurring among homeless students, foster youth, English learners, Black students and high school seniors. Two San Francisco...

The 1978 passage of Proposition 13 was part of a nationwide anti-tax wave, spurred by residents’ frustration with high inflation and soaring property taxes. It was a pivotal moment in California history when, critics say, individual needs overruled those of...

With K-12 revenue having cratered, school administrators, policymakers, and school funding advocates are now devising strategies to help school districts survive the coronavirus-sparked recession.

Learning in the pandemic has its challenges, but for a lot of students the problem is more fundamental: They are missing out on school altogether this fall, or showing up sporadically. Schools that have opted for virtual learning are struggling...

When Sacramento City schools started back up again just before Labor Day this year, parents were scrambling to figure out their kids’ online learning schedule for the fall. The teachers union and the Sacramento City Unified School District still hadn’t...

Despite colleges dropping their testing requirements because of the coronavirus, students continue to sign up for the exams, believing that a score is the key to admission. Whether standardized admissions tests will become yet another casualty of the pandemic is...

Headaches, anxiety and exhaustion caused by never-ending video meetings are no longer exclusively for adults trying to work from home during the pandemic. Some schools have started the fall semester with remote-learning setups that mimic what a full day of...

Anticipating that the coronavirus would create a turbulent and financially unstable year, the Legislature agreed in June to fund schools at the same levels of student attendance in 2020-21 as in 2019-20. Most school districts welcomed the predictable funding.

When schools reopen for the 2020–21 school year, they will look dramatically different than before the pandemic. Whether in person, online, or some combination of the two, it will be critical that each student receives rigorous instruction and the academic...

Wanted for the new school year: high-quality remote-learning experiences to engage and benefit all students. In the current pandemic reality, educators can improve learning, we believe, by finding better ways to use and structure students' work time. That's true whether...

There is little that is likely to be regular about the coming school year. Hermosa and most other districts in California are beginning the year exclusively with distance learning.

This week's Lunch Bites episode focuses on utilizing strategic frameworks from Community Schools, a relationship-based way to approach student growth. Our guests are Hayin Kimner, an education policy advisor, and Gustavo Morales, the Program Manager of The CA Labor Management...

With Covid-19 cases still on the rise in much of the country, the remote learning experiment that started last spring will continue in most schools across the nation. But even as teachers, students and families prepare to go back to...

Weeks of racial justice protests and the coronavirus pandemic have together drawn much-needed attention to the race-based disparities embedded in our institutions, from policing to health care. These disparities are also deeply rooted in our communities and schools.

Live online class time is most effective when it is built around small-group peer interactions and direct teacher-to-student feedback, according to a new research brief from Policy Analysis for California Education. The researchers also found that students need reserved time...

As more than 6 million California students head back to school this fall, this year isn’t about fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils and new backpacks. Students, parents and educators are navigating a new world of virtual learning, with the vast majority...

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) recently published a report (and a corresponding brief, titled: Supporting Learning in the COVID-19 Context) for educators and district leaders in California. The recommendations set forth in the publication are drawn from both evidence...

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented challenge for America’s K-12 schools. As policymakers and practitioners struggle to respond, they are weighing significant uncertainty and trade-offs that arise because of education, health, and budgetary concerns. The consensus is that students learned less...

Many teachers, students and their families can agree on one thing after experiencing the unexpected hurricane that was distance learning this spring: It must improve—especially in the earliest grades, transitional kindergarten through second grade. Our youngest students, from ages 4...

With research showing that low-income students will fall behind their wealthy peers if schools operate remotely due to COVID-19, and a renewed focus on racial equality, there’s a new report from WalletHub that ranks 115 North Carolina school systems on...