Senioritis. Senior slump. The Year of the Zombies. Forget preparing for the rigors of college. The final year of high school is for sleeping in, flipping burgers, hanging out with pals, surfing, partying, fighting with your girlfriend, making up with...

You can hardly open a newspaper or major magazine today without finding a story about another incarnation or overhaul of teacher evaluation. But underlying nearly all these detailed descriptions of state and local programs is a near-unanimous and long-standing assumption...

So what’s the alternative? If narrow, test-based evaluation of teachers is unfair, unreliable, and has negative effects on kids, classrooms, and curricula, what’s a better approach? By demonizing teachers and unions, and sharply polarizing the education debate, the corporate reform...

On the football field, a talented quarterback often calls the option play, holding off on the decision to run or pass to the last possible moment. This gives him time to survey the field and choose the best option for...

This fourth and final brief in the California Collaborative on District Reform series examines how the Fresno–Long Beach Learning Partnership uses data to inform work across and within the districts. The Partnership is a collaboration that aims to improve student...

The Fresno–Long Beach Learning Partnership is a joint effort of the third and fourth largest districts in California to pursue common goals, measure student outcomes, share professional knowledge, learn from each other, and support each other’s progress. This groundbreaking relationship...

The Commission on Teacher Credentialing and Policy Analysis for California Education co-sponsored a one day conference looking at preparing effective school leaders on September 25, 2009. This was a free, one day seminar for researchers, the policy community, district and...

The authors of this study employ longitudinal student data to gauge the effect of California's exit exam (CAHSEE, taken in 10th grade) on student persistence (as measured by the percentage of students remaining in school in their original district at...

Graduation rates for low-achieving minority students and girls have fallen nearly 20 percentage points since California implemented a law requiring high school students to pass exit exams in order to graduate, according to a new Stanford study. The new study...

After years of hard work and spending hundreds of millions to raise the level of student performance, educators, political and civic leaders, and parents still have not produced the results they expect. Now we know why: “A basic flaw in...

A recent report by UC Berkeley-based Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) praises the Long Beach Unified School District for its effective, systematic efforts to boost student performance. “The Long Beach Unified School District is nationally recognized for its systematic...

On the first day of kindergarten, children—regardless of race or income—who regularly attended preschool have up to five months’ academic head start on their nonpreschooled peers, University of California researchers found in a study released today. The study, funded by...

Teachers across the country work hard to increase student achievement, but report declining morale and high stress under accountability pressures such as the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to studies published Wednesday by UC Berkeley professors and other...

Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York and Phillip Griffiths, former director and professor of mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), announced the creation of a new high-level joint commission to address the continuing concern that...

Recent research suggests that a student’s first college academic experiences are critical in increasing their chances of transferring to a four-year college. The number and type of courses that students take in their first semester and the grades they earn...

Most high-school graduates who enter California’s community colleges intending to transfer eventually to a four-year institution either drop out or no longer consider transferring a primary goal after just one semester, according to a report released this week by Policy...

A new report by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) finds that six in 10 students who enter the California community college system as freshmen with high school diplomas and aspirations to transfer to four-year institutions drop out or lower...

Hundreds of California schools are "failing" under the federal standards, but one that's shining bright—and adding its own wrinkle to the debate over school reform—is Ralph Bunche Elementary, named for the black American diplomat who won the 1950 Nobel Peace...

The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is simply stated: All children should be proficient in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year. But more than five years after the law was enacted, it...

Stanford researchers, led by education Associate Professor Susanna Loeb, have headed an unprecedented investigation into California's troubled K-12 education system. Their findings reveal that millions of students will be able to attain the state's high achievement standards only if what...

Although some argue that it’s too early to pass judgment, recent evidence suggests that the bill has fallen short of its lofty goals, leaving parents, educators and legislators discontented. Three major studies released in November reported persistent achievement gaps between...

The usual hand-wringing accompanied the Department of Education's release late last year of new statistics on how U.S. students performed on international tests. How will the United States compete in the global economy, went the lament, when our students lag...

Under No Child Left Behind, individual schools and school districts can be punished for repeatedly failing to meet the federal standards, including restructuring schools and possibly closing them in extreme cases. Researchers with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) studied...

It is by now a familiar story, often told as a lament: teachers in this country continue to be paid according to the single salary schedule. They accrue better pay on the basis of years of experience and college units...