On the first day of kindergarten, children—regardless of race or income—who regularly attended preschool have up to five months’ academic head start on their nonpreschooled peers, University of California researchers found in a study released today. The study, funded by...
Teachers across the country work hard to increase student achievement, but report declining morale and high stress under accountability pressures such as the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to studies published Wednesday by UC Berkeley professors and other...
Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York and Phillip Griffiths, former director and professor of mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), announced the creation of a new high-level joint commission to address the continuing concern that...
Although some argue that it’s too early to pass judgment, recent evidence suggests that the bill has fallen short of its lofty goals, leaving parents, educators and legislators discontented. Three major studies released in November reported persistent achievement gaps between...
The usual hand-wringing accompanied the Department of Education's release late last year of new statistics on how U.S. students performed on international tests. How will the United States compete in the global economy, went the lament, when our students lag...
Under No Child Left Behind, individual schools and school districts can be punished for repeatedly failing to meet the federal standards, including restructuring schools and possibly closing them in extreme cases. Researchers with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) studied...
"Getting Down to Facts" is a new research initiative commissioned by Governor Schwarzenegger's Committee on Education Excellence, state Democratic leaders, and Superintendent Jack O'Connell. Led by Susanna Loeb, a Stanford Graduate School of Education Professor and PACE codirector, this project seeks to explore California's school finance and governance systems. Its objective is to provide comprehensive insights essential for assessing the effectiveness of potential reforms. The initiative addresses three key questions: the current state of school finance and governance, optimizing existing resources for improved student outcomes, and evaluating the need for additional resources to meet educational goals. The studies from this project are expected to be available by January 2007.
To help lay the groundwork for reforming California's faltering school system, more than 30 researchers nationwide have launched the largest independent investigation ever of how the state governs and finances education. Stanford Associate Professor of Education Susanna Loeb, an economist...
Among the less noticed fallout from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma is the need for tens of thousands of K–12 schoolchildren to suddenly change schools. Some of the new schools are near the children's home schools; others are far away...
With more teachers entering the profession as interns, California has reduced the number of under-prepared teachers by half. However, the vast majority of intern teachers are assigned to low achieving schools serving poor and minority students, according to a new...
This annual report provides an update on California’s teacher development and teacher quality policies; discusses trends in the supply of and demand for teachers; examines data on novice, underprepared, out of field teachers; and investigates the local policies and decisions...
As teachers and principals throughout California and the country struggle to satisfy the increasing demands of the federal No Child Left Behind law, education experts and school officials say they are paying increasing attention to the middle-of-the-road students who have...
Students, parents, and K–12 educators are not receiving clear messages about the skills that high school students need to enter and succeed in college. U.S. high school students now have higher aspirations for college than ever before. During the last...
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed into law by President Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the central federal law in pre-collegiate education. The ESEA, first enacted in...
For children and teachers across America, it's rather bad news. Education is now the No. 2 preoccupation of voters, running just behind worries over jobs, according to recent polls. So a political catfight has suddenly broken out between President Bush...
President Bush likes to say diversity is America’s greatest strength. But when it comes to schools seeking a passing grade under the landmark education law he championed, a diverse student body can be a school district’s greatest liability, according to...
This report, produced by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd, provides the latest available data and analysis of California’s teaching workforce and examines the preparation, induction, and professional development of teachers. The report also examines...
A growing body of literature suggests that high school curriculum, especially during the senior year, is greatly lacking in academic intensity. A recent report from the National Commission on the High School Senior Year indicates that students find the last...
High school seniors have slacked off for as long as anyone can remember. "Senior slump" isn't news, but education Professor Michael W. Kirst's explanation and proposed solutions for it are. It's where he lays the blame for students who goof...
Authored by Stanford education professor Michael W. Kirst, this 24-page report is the latest in the "Perspectives in Public Policy: Connecting High Education and the Public School" series, published by The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) and The National Center...
Halfway through the school year, money from California's new $66 7 million test-based awards program hasn't yet made it into either school budgets or educators' bank accounts. The effort to implement the high-profile rewards program-believed to be the largest of...
A state lawmaker said Tuesday that she will ask for an investigation into a statistical anomaly that allows school scores on the Academic Performance Index to go down even if all the groups of students within the school improved their...
By linking schooling with a specific field or occupation, the thinking goes, students will be able to see more direct connections between education and their own futures. The idea differs from traditional vocational schools in that the schools remain essentially...
Student mobility is the practice of students changing schools other than when they are promoted from one school level to the other, such as when students are promoted from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school...
Nearly a fourth of K-12 students nationwide are not attending their neighborhood public schools, opting instead for an array of public and private school options, according to a recent report. In 1993, the proportion of students eschewing their neighborhood public...