During the past decade, California has made historic investments in early childhood that span income supports, health care coverage, early learning, and family well-being. Yet 3 years of research listening to parents show that families with young children continue to face severe, interconnected economic hardships, with rising costs for housing, child care, health care, and basic needs outpacing available supports. The authors recommend three strategies to support families: simplify governance and shared accountability across the 0–5 ECE system; expand investments for children ages 0–3, where unmet need and system strain are greatest; and leverage existing investments by investing in the workforce, aligning existing funding streams, and addressing facility and infrastructure constraints for greater impact. Together, these actions can help translate California’s commitments into a more coherent and equitable early childhood ecosystem that better supports families and young children.
Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a brief and vaguely worded section into his State of the State address earlier this month, suggesting an overhaul of how California’s vast public education system is managed. “It’s long overdue that we modernize the management...
As California wrestles with a statewide literacy crisis, a bill poised to hit Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk could fundamentally change the way students learn to read in California. The bill, AB 1454, would move the state one step closer to...
Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent education research center supported by five California universities, has hired Lupita Cortez Alcalá as its new executive director. Lupita Cortez Alcaláhas been a prominent leader and administrator in education from early education...
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget provides $2.4 billion in ongoing Proposition 98 funding to permanently expand Transitional Kindergarten, or TK, which has been gaining steam in Capital area communities like Roseville. California students who turn four on or before September...
In recent weeks, Education Week Opinion has received scores of submissions from individuals in the K-12 field reacting to the current state of education in the United States and, in particular, the actions of the Trump administration. As the federal...
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...
Over a three-year period beginning in 2020, Grass Valley School District, located in Nevada County, was able to implement strategies that improved literacy instruction and outcomes for students. Policy Analysis for California Education’s (PACE) brief “Building Momentum One Step at...
California school districts would receive $2.5 billion through a small cost-of-living increase, plus additional funding to train math and reading coaches, expand summer and after-school programs, and help launch the state’s Master Plan for Career Education in the proposed 2025-26...
The re-election of former President Donald Trump is certain to bring a period of conflict,tension and litigation between his White House and California’s political and education leaders whose policies and values the president-elect castigates. It also could potentially have major...
This month we want to highlight the work in Grass Valley. The Improvement Team is engaged in year two of the P3CC Literacy Collaboration. Grass Valley has focused on Preschool through 3rd grade coherence as foundational to their district-wide initiative...
Public data posted by the California Department of Education has been incomplete, often outdated and occasionally inaccurate, forcing legislators to pass laws based on old data, researchers to delay inquiries and journalists to grapple with inaccurate information. Californians, living in...
As California’s major expansion of public education—the addition of TK, a new grade level for 4-year-olds—wraps up its second year, tens of thousands of parents statewide are struggling with their own versions of Hagooli’s question. Their individual decisions may determine...
While TK is a historic, once in a generation, opportunity, it has been challenging for many across the state to implement effectively. Our research partners at PACE recently published an article which highlights the work of the Ed Partners P3CC...
California mandates one adult for every 12 students in what it calls “transitional kindergarten." It’s the second year of an uneven four-year rollout of universal transitional kindergarten, an ambitious, multi-billion dollar initiative to make high-quality education available to each of...
As California continues its push to expand access to transitional kindergarten, ensuring high-quality TK programming will require better data on early education, according to researchers at Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). In January, PACE released a research report identifying...
California is making a significant investment (estimated at $3 billion per year) in early childhood education by requiring school districts to offer transitional kindergarten (TK) to all 4-year-olds by the 2025–26 school year. This investment is crucial—research has shown that there can be many wide-ranging and long-term positive impacts of high-quality early education on student outcomes. Such outcomes, however, depend a great deal on program design. It is thus critical for us to have good data so that we can understand the effects and effectiveness of TK at both the state and district level. Specifically, we need good data on program characteristics and participation as well as on the trajectory of student outcomes post-TK in order to understand how TK programs can have the greatest impact on participating students and fulfill the promise of the state's investment.
As California continues to expand access to transitional kindergarten (TK), new research from the Public Policy Institute of California finds benefits and potential pitfalls should burgeoning trends go unaddressed. For instance, TK leads to earlier identification of multilingual students in...
California’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program provides an extra year of schooling within the K–12 system. Launched a decade ago with limited eligibility, TK will soon be open to all four-year-olds. Taking stock of the program’s impact so far—especially among multilingual...
Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on an ambitious plan to make a pre-kindergarten program available to California’s 4-year-olds for free. That effort, already underway, is an attempt to reduce learning disparities and improve outcomes for the state’s...
Thanks to TikTok videos, billboards and other creative marketing techniques, enrollment in transitional kindergarten in California appears to be climbing. But advocates are keeping an eye on how those 4-year-olds are spending their class time — which they say will...
As nearly half a million Los Angeles Unified School District students head back to school today, they’re joined by a younger cohort than in the past: 4-year-olds. The district is offering universal transitional kindergarten at every public elementary school this...
In an effort to expand transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-old children in California by 2025–26, local educational agencies have focused their efforts on developing facilities and ensuring suitable staffing, but state leaders must turn their attention to promoting high-quality teaching...
As California ramps up its expansion of Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK), new research suggests it must focus more on high-quality teaching. “High-quality preschool instruction can make a difference for students,” says Alix Gallagher, the lead researcher of the Policy Analysis...
California is moving forward in the expansion of Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) with schools and districts focusing on the development of facilities and appropriate staffing. But the state needs to boost its focus on high-quality teaching and learning if it is to help all students meet learning goals and ensure an effective return on the state’s investment, according to a new research analysis released today by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).
