The development of social-emotional skills within the CORE districts, a network of urban California school districts that serve more than 1 million students A new Policy Analysis for California study, " Trends in Student Social-Emotional Learning: Evidence from the CORE Districts,"...

Nowhere is a data-informed approach to social-emotional learning more pronounced than in California's CORE Districts, which embarked on a groundbreaking effort in 2013 to capture a more holistic vision of student success and school quality. There, eight of the largest...

Students’ reports of whether they have developed a growth mindset continue to climb steadily throughout their K-12 years, but their assessments of their social awareness skills and feelings of self-efficacy drop sharply beginning in middle school, according to a recent...

As the conversation grows over how to measure SEL among students grows, gathering their own perspectives is an important part of the picture. States are also beginning to include student surveys as one piece of their accountability plans for the...

Like their state counterparts, state boards must both respond to crises and plan ahead. A focus on creating the best possible learning for all will help educators, students, and families emerge from this crisis on a stronger footing. This issue of...

Policy Analysis for California Education and CORE, an organization representing eight urban school districts in California, released a new practice brief highlighting lessons learned on implementing social and emotional learning programs from the CORE districts.

With an increased appreciation of students’ social-emotional skills among researchers and policy makers, many states and school districts are moving toward a systematic process to measure Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). In this study, we examine the measurement properties of California's CORE...

As part of the California School Dashboard, the state’s new school accountability system, 1 in 4 school districts will receive assistance from county offices of education and the state to help improve the performance of groups of students who have...

The CORE-PACE research partnership is the first of its kind to provide real-time, research-based feedback that improves student learning; informs policy; and provides breakthrough findings to inform continuous improvement in the CORE Districts and beyond. With a network of university-based...

The “Power of Two” helps us identify schools where students are learning significantly faster or slower than their academic peers, and it provides key information about which schools need the greatest support and intervention. Through our partnership with Policy Analysis...

he Fresno Unified School District increased student applications to California State University and University of California campuses after training their counselors and giving students timely information to help them make selections. Their strategies are outlined in a new report from Policy Analysis...

he Fresno Unified School District increased student applications to California State University and University of California campuses after training their counselors and giving students timely information to help them make selections. Their strategies are outlined in a new report from Policy Analysis...

California’s Fresno Unified School District used improvement science and the six core principles of improvement to address their goal of giving all students an equal opportunity to graduate with the greatest number of postsecondary choices from the widest array of...

Jorge Aguilar, superintendent of Sacramento Unified School District Superintendent and former Associate Superintendent for Equity and Access at Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), coauthored a brief highlighting the development and use of FUSD’s data dashboard and the principles of improvement...

As states and districts work to develop new accountability systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act, six California districts who received federal waivers under the Obama administration are getting the first hints of how more holistic accountability systems might work...

In school accountability, flashlights work better than hammers. That’s the oft-repeated argument of California’s CORE districts, a data collaborative now serving over 1.8-million students. It’s generally recognized that the practice of using data to bash schools—commonly known as naming and...

In school accountability, flashlights work better than hammers. That's the oft-repeated argument of California's CORE districts, a data collaborative now serving over 1.8-million students. It's generally recognized that the practice of using data to bash schools—commonly known as naming and...

School districts and charter schools serving 1.7 million students in California will compile, analyze and compare data on student performance beyond what the state collects under a new agreement announced last week. The additional data will include information on school...

When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, it was celebrated as relief from its predecessor, but as regulations emerge it’s beginning to look like its evil sibling of the discredited No Child Left Behind Act’s name-and-shame policy...

To shine a brighter light on academic disparities, the six California districts known as the CORE districts have tracked test results for much smaller student subgroups than the state requires, giving a more complete picture of how some groups–African-American children...

The experience of the last quarter century tells us that it only takes one number to label, shame, or laud a school. But it takes a bunch of indicators to help one improve. Using single indicators to name and shame...