As we reopen schools and return to classrooms with a new infusion of desperately needed funding, I hope we all realize that “back to normal” won’t work for all students. Let’s take advantage of this exciting opportunity to reimagine and...

All throughout the previous year, we held our collective breaths in hope for a “return to normal,” while recognizing that whatever we returned to would look very different. As school starts this fall, after a year of interrupted learning imposed...

At the start of a school year, kids usually show up with oversized backpacks stocked with fresh pencils, crisp notebooks and snacks. This back-to-school season, many children will carry extra baggage. Eighteen months of an unprecedented pandemic turned routines—including going...

America’s future is figuratively on the line. After a year and a half of remote and hybrid learning, children across the United States have fallen desperately behind, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which estimates that the average American...

The pandemic altered our understanding of how schools could and should operate as well. Now, as we return for a new school year and districts are poised to receive a major infusion of federal and state funding, we have an...

The Education Department projects that homelessness within the public school system has increased by an astounding 70% in the past ten years. This poses problems when the school bell rings, but those issues don’t dissipate when class is not in...

Thanks to unprecedented funding from the American Rescue Plan and other federal, state, and local resources, school districts across the country are leveraging several evidence-informed strategies to accelerate learning and provide students with needed supports and services. Local initiatives include...

In the past year, students, families, and educators have experienced trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further exposed and exacerbated educational inequity, from unequal access to tech for distance learning to structural barriers to basic resources—like nutrition, housing, and...

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools, the grades and mental health of millions of students declined. Several of the leading Republican challengers in the upcoming California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom see this crisis as an opportunity. Turning parents...

A recent poll by Policy Analysis for California Education and USC Rossier confirmed what many educators, parents and students likely already know: The public has become increasingly polarized about issues in education. The poll found that the majority of voters...

When schools across the country closed their doors and began remote instruction last spring, most of us in education braced for the worst. We weren’t wrong. The academic, social and health challenges that besieged K-12 students during the pandemic are...

Any effort to reach students disproportionately affected by the pandemic must address the needs of English learners (ELs). These students have always been underserved and underfunded by the U.S. education system. And now, data suggests that these students have been...

With the 2020-21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery. To expand our understanding of the...

With the 2020–21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery. As data experts, we believe that...

Policy Analysis for California Education and the USC Rossier School of Education released their ninth annual poll on education on July 8. Findings show record-high support for schools and teachers after more than a year of learning during a pandemic...

Despite perceptions of the public's widespread unhappiness with the slow reopening of California's schools last spring, most voters surveyed, including parents, gave the highest marks in a decade of polling to the state's public schools in general and their schools...

With coronavirus numbers creeping up, online learning in flux and public health departments revising their return-to-campus guidelines almost week by week, parents, educators and experts are increasingly turning to summer school to try to figure out fall.

Californians are concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the state’s students and strongly support specific efforts to address their learning needs as the pandemic eases, according to new public opinion research from the 2021 PACE/USC Rossier poll released...

Although California parents strongly favor full campus reopenings in the fall, they want school districts to offer online learning options, according to a statewide survey that indicates uncertainties ahead for in-person attendance. More than two-thirds of parents agree that eligible...

Despite perceptions of the public’s widespread unhappiness with the slow reopening of California’s schools last spring, most voters surveyed, including parents, gave the highest marks in a decade of polling to the state’s public schools in general and their schools...

As districts plan for reopening schools in the fall, many parents, educators and policymakers are concerned about reengaging students, especially students who experienced trauma, stress and disrupted learning during the pandemic.Across California, their conversations are about how to reimagine schools...

A new law offers California students several ways to make up for lost learning after the profound disruptions of the pandemic year. Under AB104, signed into law Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, K-12 students have a number of options to...

Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a law to help alleviate the pandemic’s effect on grades and graduation credits by giving California students an opportunity to redo a grade level. Assembly Bill 104, now law, creates a range of grading options to accommodate K-12 students who struggled during the 2020-21 academic year, when distance learning disrupted classroom routines.

Schools are emphasizing summer programs—some underway now, and others still to come, as summer break varies across the country—in part because they fear remote learning wasn't the best for academic and social growth. Just how far behind students fell is...

Research supports ‘restorative restart’ for schools. A new report from PACE lays out 14 “restorative actions” educators should take in the 2021-22 school year to welcome students back and begin the foundational work for creating change within school systems.“Restorative Restart...