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...

Most newcomer students enter school with very low or beginning English language proficiency (ELP), but their language skills can develop rapidly under the right conditions, according to the first in a new series of briefs by Policy Analysis for California...

Every year, several thousand California students who meet the University of California system’s grade point average for admission aren’t accepted due to missing college prep course requirements. A new pilot program is expected to save spots for those 3.0-and-higher GPA...

Throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, children throughout the world have had limited (or no) access to consistent, structured teaching. From early in the pandemic, researchers and early learning specialists sounded the alarm over the probability of significant losses in reading and...

Recent research lays bare an enormous toll facing California families: Child care has become so costly that in most of the state it’s surpassed housing as the largest monthly expense for households with young children. Even families who earn enough...

Preschool attendance is now the norm, and it is increasingly built into K-12 school systems. In many respects, as kindergarten has become the new first grade, preschool is becoming the new kindergarten. In this article, we draw on our four-year...

Some of California’s largest school districts are dropping D and F grades for high school students. While the hope is to help students reengage in school after distance learning and to boost their chances of acceptance into the state’s public...

When it comes to early childhood education, child’s play may well be serious business. Fun and games bring more than just joy. They may be the key to helping children thrive in tough times, experts say. Since young children don’t...

Some of California’s largest school districts are trying an unconventional tactic to help students re-engage in school after distance learning and boost their chances of acceptance into the state’s public colleges: by dropping D and F grades. Los Angeles Unified...

While literacy is often seen as a cornerstone to scholastic achievement, and many parents devote a lot of time and energy into nurturing their small child’s love of reading, studies show that mathematical reasoning ability may be even more crucial...

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...

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.

In the wake of the pandemic, which shined a spotlight on the essential nature of early childhood education and care, universal transitional kindergarten is poised to become a reality in California. Although some of the state’s largest districts already offer...

Special education in California has been showered with more than $1 billion in new state and federal money in recent weeks, enough to potentially transform a system that’s been underfunded for decades. Advocates were thrilled with the funding windfall, but...

Finding and treating developmental delays early can have a huge impact on children and their families. Children who are screened early and receive early intervention services show improved social and cognitive skills and have higher academic achievement than children who...