The alliance intended the website to serve as a guide for parents and the public that may be unaware of the significant shifts in policy under Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education that he appointed. To support...
Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt measure passed in 1978, is now under attack. Schools and Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders, has qualified an initiative for the Nov. 2020...
Besides voting for a new state superintendent of public instruction, voters in dozens of school districts in California on Tuesday decided whether to borrow money for school construction projects and tax themselves.
Newsom appeared to intuit this long before that report emerged. Newsom told the Oakland-based EdSource lobbying group California and the nation need “a new way of thinking about education as a lifetime pursuit. Our role begins when babies are still...
Over the past decade, California’s PreK-12 education system has seen a variety of reforms— new academic standards and assessments, the Local Control Funding Formula, advancements in data systems—yet despite these changes, a new research project reports that California lags behind...
California has more English learners than any other state, according to a report titled “English Learners: Charting Their Experiences and Mapping Their Futures in California Schools.” The report is one of 36 in Getting Down to Facts II, a comprehensive...
California districts with the most affluent students have been averaging more than twice as many local school bond dollars per student as the most impoverished districts, a CalMatters analysis reveals.
Even among the most engaged voters, the race for state superintendent may not attract much attention. But it is attracting huge amounts of money: upward of $43 million, mostly funneled to outside groups running advertisements in the race. The battle for...
California has no state-mandated or even state model teacher evaluation program, but schools still must evaluate teachers under the Stull Act, which leaves it to districts to develop a system, according to “Getting Down to Facts II," a research project...
Six years ago, Governor Jerry Brown cut a deal with unions and the Legislature to rescue the state’s two largest public employee pension funds from insolvency—but at a steep price for school districts and other public employers. Now, in the waning...
As California prepares to elect a new governor and superintendent of public instruction in November, a study released last month has drawn attention to major challenges the state faces when it comes to education. The study—coordinated by Stanford and conducted...
The new comprehensive analysis of California’s PreK-12 education system, Getting Down to Facts II, revealed that the state is moving in the right direction with reforms put in place over the last decade, but more importantly it showed much more...
In spite of recent efforts to address inequality in California schools, the data show consistent patterns of inequality of student outcomes based on race, ethnicity, language, special education, and poverty; persistent state education policy problems impact already disadvantaged students most...
Anyone skeptical of last month’s Stanford University study of Golden State K-12 underfunding must either be unusually perspicacious or a veteran California classroom teacher. That’s because the true amount should have been $25.6 billion — $3.5 billion more than the...
A unos cuantos días de las elecciones de gobierno estatal, la comunidad latina sopesa su voto entre los contrincantes Gavin Newsom y John Cox. La balanza se inclina a favor de aquel cuya prioridad sea la educación de los estudiantes...
Marshall Tuck, a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, sat down with Louis Freedberg and John Fensterwald of EdSource to talk about his vision for California’s public schools. Tuck responds to the finding in the "Getting Down to Facts"...
This week, Louis and John interview Marshall Tuck, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Tuck, a former school administrator, lays out his vision for the job and explains what he would do to strengthen the state’s limited education data...
A major thrust of landmark education reforms introduced during Gov. Jerry Brown’s tenure has been to emphasize local control of schools and to view the state’s primary role as providing support to districts to improve.
The next state superintendent of public instruction will face a big challenge: making the case for a bigger role for the California Department of Education. He will have to reassert the importance of the department, which he will run, after...
“Getting down to Facts II: Current Conditions and Paths Forward for California Schools” is the most important report on California schools in years, probably since the original Getting Down to Facts” a decade ago. It’s produced as a part of...
The massive “Getting Down to Facts” report on the pluses and minuses of public education in California, issued last month, was a sobering reminder of the stakes involved in how well youngsters are educated. The study’s findings were underscored last...
the state’s standardized tests rose slightly overall in 2018, increasing in all grades but 11th, the only high school grade to take the test, where a big drop countered the big growth in early elementary grades. In English language arts...
For the second year in a row, California students’ test scores have inched up so slowly that, by some estimates, it could take a generation for disadvantaged students to close the achievement gap with their peers. That was the sobering...
Child360, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting early learning from every angle, today announced the appointment of William (Bill) Sperling as Chief Executive Officer. He will lead as CEO effective immediately and will be the force behind Child360's vision to...
For the second year in a row, California students’ test scores have inched up so slowly that, by some estimates, it could take a generation for disadvantaged students to close the achievement gap with their peers. That was the sobering...