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...

Educational accountability is attracting a lot of political attention—or perhaps lip service—these days in California. Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two bills touted as bringing more accountability to education. Better tracking of how individual students are faring could, and perhaps...

Districts and high school counselors throughout the county spend time and resources supporting students as they explore their college and career interests. In December 2018, Policy Analysis for California Education released a report entitled, “Where California High School Students Attend...

It is not enough to put a new technology in front of the student and hope for the best. The mindset toward change—and the resources leveraged to support the people who enact change—mark the difference between technology that empowers and...

Half a century ago, the University of California helped catapult the SAT to a place of national prominence in the college admissions process when it began requiring all applicants to take the test and report their score. Now the UC...

Critics worry that a California State University proposal to increase admission requirements from three years of high school math to four years could make it harder for African American, Latinx, and low-income students to get into CSU, writes the Los...

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...

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...

School districts across the United States are working to understand how to best meet the educational needs of their students as well as the instructional needs of their teachers. Increasingly districts are turning to data to help them do that...

New data available from the California Department of Education (CDE) on the college enrollment of recent high school graduates demonstrate the value of tracking student data across educational institutions and systems. For the first time in about a decade...

A new study by education researchers at the University of Wisconsin−Madison shows that proactively addressing students’ anxieties with clear and cost-effective messaging early in the school year can lead to a lasting record of higher grades, better attendance, and fewer...

Sacramento City Unified School District’s efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism in our highest risk schools are working according to preliminary data released today. The data compares year to year chronic absenteeism rates at ten schools that have been targeted with...

There’s no denying it: the concept of a four-day school week is extremely enticing. And it’s swiftly becoming a reality for many schools across the country. Currently, in the U.S., there are 24 states that have at least one district...

magine Worldwide is aiming to develop a deeper level of understanding of how autonomous tablet learning can work. It plans to conduct a series of tests with different methodologies—from randomized controlled trials to action research—in a variety of developing countries...

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

When Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed building a statewide data system to track students from pre-K through college and into the labor market, the empirical researcher in me said: “Finally.” Not because the new system, once established, will link between...

A report on California school policy finds the state lags in student achievement, and prescribes a much bigger investment in preschool.

Despite progress on state accountability plans, the myriad of plans and the painstaking nature of their rollout make it difficult for those in the education policy world to paint a comprehensive picture of how states and district leaders are—or are...

The most damaging myth in American higher education is that college admissions is about merit, and that merit is about striving for – and earning – academic excellence. This myth is often used as a weapon against policies like affirmative...

Many schools—especially those which a large number of students facing stress and trauma—can benefit from increased mental health resources on campus. The topic of mental health in schools has been more pronounced in recent years as school districts—and donors—are moving...

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...

In The 74, writer Kate Stringer reports on how the Long Beach Unified School District and other CORE Districts are tracking students’ growth in both academic and social-emotional skills. Long Beach Unified is part of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership, established in...

Crafting successful education policy requires evidence. Generating this evidence requires data that do not currently exist, or are not used to their full potential, in California. An integrated educational data system would arm teachers, schools, districts, service providers, and policy...