Education is not a central issue in California’s crowded governor’s race, but the candidates addressing it offer sharply different visions, from expanding school funding and free college, to stricter teacher accountability and restrictions on transgender students in sports. Lupita Cortez...
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...
Dozens of Bay Area school districts have announced layoffs, budget cuts or school closures this year to repair gaping budget deficits ranging from $6 million to over $100 million. Last month, Oakland Unified School District voted to lay off more...
The Los Angeles school district is falling short of meeting school board-approved academic goals set four years ago, but students continue to improve faster on key academic measurements than the state as a whole, based on data released this week...
California’s public school system, which purports to educate nearly 6 million students ranging from 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten to near-adults preparing to graduate from high school, is in a world of hurt.Its students perform poorly in national tests of academic...
Some teachers say that AI tools, particularly Google Lens, have made it impossible to enforce academic integrity in the classroom—with potentially harmful long-term effects on students’ learning. Google has recently made the visual search tool easier to use on the...
More than two dozen educators from kindergarten through college converged at UC Merced to discuss the challenges they're facing and the opportunities ahead. The Oct. 21 event, hosted by the Center for Educational Partnerships, featured Lupita Cortez Alcalá, the newly...
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...
The school year is nearing to a close, but many parents are already looking forward to next year’s enrollment. California has a lot of options for schools, from public, to charter, to private. You can choose to stay in your...
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...
As schools grapple with declining enrollment and budget deficits, the only solution for many leaders is to consider closing schools. Here’s how leaders are handling those conversations. Hundreds of concerned family members recently entered Fort Worth ISD’s O.D. Wyatt High...
On February 10, as part of its mission to “maximize government efficiency,” the Trump administration announced its cancellation of roughly $1 billion in federal contracts for education research. These contracts were held under the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)—the research...
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...
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...
While schools in the Bay Area and across the state are seeing more students graduate and attend class, academic performance among students remains stagnant nearly five years after the pandemic. That’s according to new data from the California Department of...
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...
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...
When a new intervention or program is introduced, the conventional wisdom among many seasoned educators is, “This too shall pass.” This attitude doesn’t mean an intervention is not promising or educators are not flexible and innovative. Rather, it emerges from...
A conversation with Michelle D. Young, Dean of the Berkeley School of Education. Dean Young discusses the significance of leadership development and effective learning experiences for school leaders, particularly emphasizing the need for equity-oriented and culturally responsive leadership. Highlighting the...
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...
