In a reflection on her first year as PACE's Executive Director, Lupita Cortez Alcalá highlights the organization’s role in connecting rigorous research with California education policy. PACE's work helped inform two major legislative changes: AB 181, restructuring state education governance, and AB 2555, establishing more consistent and equitable English learner reclassification practices. Through its partnership with Stanford’s SCALE Initiative on Getting Down to Facts III, PACE also helped disseminate 55 technical reports and 22 policy briefs examining critical challenges facing California schools. Alongside research on literacy, mathematics, special education, and other priorities, PACE expanded opportunities for dialogue among researchers, policymakers, educators, and communities. Looking ahead to major leadership transitions and further governance reforms in 2027, Alcalá emphasizes PACE’s commitment to independent, nonpartisan research and collaborative, evidence-informed policymaking for improving opportunities and outcomes for California students.
In its guidance, the California Department of Education notes that school closures affect students, parents, staff, neighborhoods, daily routines and the broader community, and emphasizes that these decisions require careful planning and communication, as well as administrative action. Other school...
For school districts facing enrollment declines and mounting budget pressures, closing schools seems like an obvious – if often contentious – way to get finances back on track. But new research from Stanford suggests the reality is not so open-and-shut...
In a step toward giving math the attention early literacy has gotten, the Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would require schools to assess the math capabilities of all students in kindergarten through second grade each year, beginning in...
Earlier this year, Ideas We’re Watching explored California’s long-standing education governance challenges with Dr. Julie Marsh, one of the authors of the PACE report that helped spark a statewide conversation about the need for reform. Since then, that conversation has...
Students returning to school may not have noticed it. As the years pass, they hang out with the same friends or play on the same sports teams. But something’s been changing. There are fewer students. While charter school enrollment in...
STANFORD, Calif. — California has enacted one of the most significant education governance reforms in state history, adopting legislation through the 2026–27 state budget that reflects three central recommendations from the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) report TK–12 Education Governance in California: Past, Present, and Future.
SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced he has signed legislation to implement long-standing recommendations to strengthen California’s education governance system to better support its nearly 10,000 schools and approximately six million students. The legislation — Assembly Bill 181 by...
California’s Department of Education will soon be under the control of the governor’s office, drastically changing the role of the next state superintendent, who will be elected in November. The change, pushed through by Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of...
The just-approved state budget strips authority from the elected state superintendent of public instruction, transferring power in January to an appointee of the governor, dramatically changing the oversight and management of a public school system serving more than 6 million...
Legislation for the big shift — moving the California Department of Education from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s control to a new chief executive of education under the governor — passed the Legislature Monday, though barely. With 15 lawmakers...
School closures—commonly touted as a financially responsible strategy to right-size cash-strapped districts—often do not improve districts’ financial standing, according to a new study out of California. Even worse: Any money actually saved from closing a school building is largely offset...
It’s not often you see over 900 diverse organizations across California all agree on something. But when a problem affecting our kids’ education has existed for over a century with little progress towards fixing it, it brings people together to...
On May 7, 2026, the SCALE initiative at Stanford announced the release of Getting Down to Facts III, a trove of new research about California's education systems. It wasn't a surprise — this is the third time that Stanford has...
This has been a disruptive year for education research. Last February, roughly $1 billion in federal funding was canceled. Amid efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, most staff at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which supports education...
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the vital role school systems play in daily life, from learning and socialization to nutrition programs, transportation, and mental health. In the absence of in-person instruction, countless new stressors impacted families, teachers, and administrators who were...
Since 2009, nearly every U.S. state has adopted specific standards and teaching frameworks for literacy and math. Yet, despite these efforts, the implementation of these standards in classrooms has often fallen short. As I reflect on my six decades in...
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...
Oakland mom Azlinah Tambu vividly remembers the moment that would transform her from the law-abiding, neighborhood school mom into a trespassing activist threatened with jail time. For months, Tambu, whose two children were then in elementary school, and others had...
San Francisco must do everything it can to avert a state takeover of its schools. That’s the stark message brought by Carl A. Cohn, the only outside educator to be brought in to help the team of city administrators set...
As the San Francisco Unified School District deliberates over a tentative list of school closures, it will have to account for the fact that the district’s enrollment has declined for several years—and could fall much further. But San Francisco’s public...
Falling enrollments and gloomy economics point to the inevitable: Many school districts in California will close schools over the next decade. So far, they have been mainly elementary and middle schools, but high schools, spared until now, won’t escape, a...
No one wants to close schools. Not the communities that cherish their local school. Not the school boards that want to serve the needs of all their students. Not administrators and school district personnel who have to wade through the...
California is synonymous with innovation. Over decades and across sectors, California has been a leader—from tech start-ups to agricultural advances and environmental solutions. In the private sector, companies race to market with their ideas in order to capitalize on ingenuity.California...
