California’s teacher workforce needs stronger stewardship. Our state has established high standards for English, math, science and history that lay out what students must know and be able to do. But, as I have argued before, California has failed to...
Portland Public Schools has a math problem. The district enrolls 13,138 students across its nine major high schools. But enrollment numbers are in a steep decline. By the 2033-34 school year, population researchers at Portland State University project, those same...
A “Dear Colleague” letter from the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 14 threatened federal funding for schools’ race specific programs, including scholarships, financial aid, dormitory floors and graduation ceremonies. Now, as community members are interpreting the impact of new...
As schools grapple with declining enrollment and budget deficits, the only solution for many leaders is to consider closing schools. Here’s how leaders are handling those conversations. Hundreds of concerned family members recently entered Fort Worth ISD’s O.D. Wyatt High...
San Francisco public high schoolers are more likely than their peers in any other county to have completed the required courses to get into a four-year California public university, a Chronicle analysis found. Almost three-quarters of San Francisco high school...
In the areas of chronic absenteeism, suspension and reading proficiency, the rates for Black students in California remain largely the same as they were a decade ago. That is the focus of a new report, Black Minds Matter 2025, which...
On February 10, as part of its mission to “maximize government efficiency,” the Trump administration announced its cancellation of roughly $1 billion in federal contracts for education research. These contracts were held under the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)—the research...
SRI is excited to announce a new partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to examine career development opportunities (CDOs) in the district. CDOs include career advising tools, work-based learning experiences, career and technical education (CTE), and Linked Learning...
From private school vouchers to threats over “woke” curriculum, the Trump administration has launched a slew of reforms intended to reshape K–12 schools. But it’s still too soon to determine how—or if—those efforts will play out in California...
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...
In 2024, 18% of 8th graders in foster care in Orange County met or exceeded the state’s standards in math, more than double the statewide rate which was 7%; about half of counties had a higher graduation rate among foster...
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...
The SCALE Initiative is using text-based tutoring and research-driven insights to address key educational challenges, with generative AI as the next frontier. The next project for the SCALE Initiative is generative AI. Professor Susanna Loeb and her team, with input...
When I became president of the California State Board of Education in 1975 for the first of two stints in this role (1975–82), three different offices created state curriculum frameworks, instructional materials and assessments, without much coordination or integration. In...
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.
California school districts would receive $2.5 billion through a small cost-of-living increase, plus additional funding to train math and reading coaches, expand summer and after-school programs, and help launch the state’s Master Plan for Career Education in the proposed 2025-26...
Leaders in the Oakland Unified School District are putting off a vote on school closures as it deals with a massive projected budget deficit for next year. Parents, students, and community members voiced their outrage Wednesday night over the idea...
After ending my fourth term as president of the California State Board of Education in 2019, I have begun to reflect, in my sixth decade of education policy, about what I did right and what I should have done differently...
Marin schools improved in several state metrics over the past year, especially student absences, according to new data. Chronic absenteeism declined in almost all of Marin’s K-8 school districts. Statewide, the percentage of all K-8 students who were absent for...
While an essential and very important part of USC Rossier’s mission is to prepare the next generation of education practitioners, leaders and scholars, we do so much more. Unlike many other academic schools or departments, a school of education is...
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...
The Los Angeles Unified School District showed strong gains in newly released state metrics and reached a record graduation rate, but overall academic performance fell well short of state learning goals. The latest release of state data indicated positive trends...
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...
PACE co-founder Michael W. Kirst, former president of the California Board of Education (1977–1981 and 2011–2019), highlights in a new PACE commentary findings from his Learning Policy Institute report Standards-Based Education Reforms: Looking Back to Looking Forward, which analyzes the evolution of standards-based reforms in the United States. Kirst issues a call to action: California needs a strategic and tactical roadmap to improve instructional capacity in classrooms statewide. The commentary offers four recommendations: return the CDE to its former role of providing technical assistance on how to implement subject matter standards; strengthen COEs for effective capacity building; reorient the district role to focus on instructional capacity; and design the roadmap for targeted district support. Without a unified strategy, California risks more uneven progress. A comprehensive, coordinated approach is essential to equipping educators with the tools they need to deliver equitable, standards-aligned instruction to all students.
When the superintendent in San Francisco Unified proposed closing schools recently, parents launched a prolonged — and successful — protest. The uproar may have died down for now, but the issue is likely to erupt at school boards across the...
