As faculty deliberate, UC Berkeley chancellor calls for ending the use of SAT and ACT. Pressures are mounting on the University of California to end its 50 year old practice of requiring freshman applicants to take the SAT or ACT...

Top leaders at the University of California say they support dropping the SAT and ACT exams from admission requirement. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ, along with the UC system’s chief academic officer, Provost Michael Brown, said Friday that research...

Top leaders at the University of California say they support dropping the SAT and ACT exams from admission requirement. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ, along with the UC system's chief academic officer, Provost Michael Brown, said Friday that research...

The chancellors of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, along with the University of California’s chief academic officer, say they support dropping the SAT and ACT as an admission requirement — stances certain to fuel the growing national movement against...

Today, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) released an extensive report outlining specific actions taken by district leaders to improve California students’ college readiness, access, and success. The report, “Strengthening the Road to College: California’s College Readiness Standards and Lessons...

The University of California came under new pressure Tuesday to eliminate the SAT and ACT as an admission requirement, when several groups threatened a lawsuit alleging that the tests violate state civil rights laws by unlawfully discriminating against disabled, low-income...

Strategizing around how best to address policy makers on issues of access, student success and the impact of higher education, four prominent scholars gathered at New York University (NYU) on Friday to share their research. Dr. Stella Flores began Friday’s...

Educational accountability is attracting a lot of political attention—or perhaps lip service—these days in California. Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two bills touted as bringing more accountability to education. Better tracking of how individual students are faring could, and perhaps...

Districts and high school counselors throughout the county spend time and resources supporting students as they explore their college and career interests. In December 2018, Policy Analysis for California Education released a report entitled, “Where California High School Students Attend...

Critics worry that a California State University proposal to increase admission requirements from three years of high school math to four years could make it harder for African American, Latinx, and low-income students to get into CSU, writes the Los...

About 75 percent of all California high school seniors enrolled in a math class in 2016, 2017 and 2018, but only 47 percent of those students were enrolled in advanced math courses above Algebra 2, a study from Policy Analysis...

As thousands of incoming high school freshmen fret about the start of a new chapter, some California schools are relying on summer bridge programs to help students adjust to the new academic environment.

New data available from the California Department of Education (CDE) on the college enrollment of recent high school graduates demonstrate the value of tracking student data across educational institutions and systems. For the first time in about a decade...

A recent trend in public education spending is positive for educators: revenues are on the rise as states such as Texas, Arizona and West Virginia inject new money into school districts. While many schools will receive additional resources as a...

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spotlighted a continuous improvement grant to the CORE Districts, a network of California school districts, and its research partnership with PACE at its school improvement showcase in Baltimore this week, reports EdSource. The CORE...

The California Board of Education has replaced the four-year graduation rate with a combined four- and five-year graduation rate to give schools an extra year to help students earn their diplomas. Last spring, 25,000 seniors “were still enrolled in school...

California governor Gavin Newsom racked up significant wins last week when his first education budget sailed through the legislature mostly intact. A minimum increase, mandated by Prop. 98, will bump funding for K-12 and community colleges by $2.9 billion, to...

College affordability is a top concern for voters throughout California, but the problem is most profound for African Americans and residents living in rural areas of the state, according to a poll of 2,000 California voters by Policy Analysis for California Education...

Providing all students with the chance to take college admissions tests sounds like a logical way to pull disadvantaged students into the college pipeline.

CSU is considering requiring a fourth year of high school math of all freshmen applicants. While advocates for this change say that requiring four years of high school math will make more students ready to tackle mandatory college math courses and improve CSU’s graduation rates, critics fear the possible harmful impact on underprepared students in low-income and high schools already struggling to find enough math teachers.

Policymakers and educators have a vested interest in ensuring that each space at universities be filled by the most capable candidates, as spaces are limited. This is especially true at public institutions. Because the majority of funds come from the...

SAT or not SAT? What’s the best way to assess California 11th graders’ readiness for college? In this EdSource article, journalist John Fensterwald describes the range of opinions on this important issue. Some families feel that the SAT “perpetuate the...

California lawmakers are feeling pressure to respond to a nationwide cheating scheme that cuts at the heart of higher education’s legitimacy. This pressure was best expressed as California Assembly Member Kevin McCarty asked the question that’s been reverberating since the...

The most damaging myth in American higher education is that college admissions is about merit, and that merit is about striving for – and earning – academic excellence. This myth is often used as a weapon against policies like affirmative...

Is the college admissions process about merit? In a recent article from The Conversation, USC researchers Morgan Polikoff, Jerome Lucido, and Julie Renee Posselt, state that “merit” is more complicated than the public thinks. For universities, building a student body...