Leading education policy researchers on Monday released Getting Down to Facts II(GDTF II), a major PreK-12 education report that reveals California is generally on the right track due to recent reforms but that major system-wide funding challenges and significant gaps...
One in 4 California school districts received notice that they must work with county offices of education or with a new state agency to improve the education of at least one of their student groups that were ranked among the...
Speaking at the 2017 Principal of the Year Institute in Washington this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos talked about the need to cut federal red tape and to give state and local leaders as much autonomy as possible, Education Week reports...
California is quickly becoming a national battleground over the franchise for testing high school juniors. The College Board, producer of the SAT college admissions test, wants in, while state officials, defenders of the state’s current test provider, the Smarter Balanced...
Some low-income students in California could face a steep fee increase for Advanced Placement exams this spring following the elimination of a federal subsidy. The cost for each AP exam for these students could climb from $5 or $15 to...
PACE’s inaugural conference is the premier event for policymakers, researchers, advocates and other leaders working to define and sustain a long-term strategy for comprehensive policy reform and continuous improvement of California’s education system. Our 2017 full-day conference will engage with...
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) revolutionized school assessment by emphasizing a comprehensive approach over No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) test-focused model. California shifted from NCLB's single-number school ratings to a multi-dimensional dashboard system to better assess school performance. However, ESSA's current draft regulations advocate for a single, summative rating for identifying struggling schools, contradicting the spirit of multiple measures. The approach of condensing diverse measures into one rating would yield misleading outcomes. For instance, PACE found that schools performing poorly on one indicator might fare well on others. Such simplification fails to identify struggling schools accurately, a crucial step for offering necessary support. PACE recommends a tiered approach, considering each indicator separately, rather than amalgamating them into a single score. California's pursuit of a detailed, dashboard-style accountability system aligns with this approach, offering a more nuanced understanding of school performance and supporting tailored improvement strategies. A dashboard not only informs parents better but also enables informed decisions on school choices, focusing on continuous improvement rather than misleading rankings.
English-language-learner services are designed, in theory, to prevent educational inequity, but for some students the specialized services may be reinforcing it. A new study out of the University of Oregon found that designating early elementary students who are close to...
California’s K–12 students struggled on the new statewide Smarter Balanced assessments (SBAC) last year. The results highlight the challenges facing students and teachers as the state shifts to computer-based tests on new curricula with higher standards for achievement. Disadvantaged groups...
Michael W. Kirst discusses the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the CA overhaul of accountability based on local control of education policy. The federal law requires multiple measures for accountability, including some with state choice. Databases for English learners will change significantly. Federal requirements for teacher evaluation will be deregulated significantly. State assessments are all over the place and will be hard to summarize. California is building an integrated federal/state/local accountability system that includes 23 metrics, primarily for local use in Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAP) that focus on improving budget strategy. Longitudinal data bases from the past will be difficult to integrate with these policy shifts.
The education of English learners (EL) continues to be a topic of great interest across the country. But there has been little research to identify what steps to take in order to best serve this diverse group of students. In...
What can states and districts do to improve opportunities and outcomes for English Learners (ELs)? The question is asked and answered often; just this past fall, the U.S. Department of Education released a sprawling toolkit to help states and districts...
Ilana Umansky, Stanford CEPA alumni, on Improving the Opportunities and Outcomes of California’s Students Learning English: Findings from School District-University Collaborative Partnerships.
Recent policy changes in California’s education system have opened up a unique opportunity to improve educational opportunities for the state’s 1.4 million English learner students (ELs). The implementation of new state standards including new English Language Development standards will require...
California's 1.4 million English Learner children are often pigeon-holed and trapped for years in a school system that also impedes their academic progress and blocks their path to college. That’s the conclusion of a report released this week and published...
A 1998 voter referendum that strictly limited bilingual education in California's public schools has weakened educational efforts and held back non-English-speaking children, according to a report led by the UO's Ilana Umansky. The report's nine co-authors are calling on California...
Researchers studying a group of California school districts are highly critical of the state’s system for providing services to English language learners in a report released this week.
Researchers conducted an experiment to determine if incentives could improve low-income students' attendance in tutoring programs provided through Supplemental Education Services (SEdS). Three groups of 5th-8th graders were formed: one offered a $100 reward for regular attendance, another receiving certificates of recognition, and a control group without incentives. Surprisingly, the monetary reward didn't increase attendance, while the certificate group attended 40% more sessions than the control. This contrasts with past studies showing monetary incentives for improved test scores as ineffective, suggesting that mere rewards may not enhance skills without additional support. The certificate approach proved cost-effective, costing $9 per student versus $100 for the monetary incentive. However, wider implementation's effectiveness might diminish due to students' varied perceptions of recognition's value, related to existing academic achievements or repeated rewards. The study's success suggests non-monetary incentives are effective and inexpensive. Policymakers and educators seeking to boost student participation in underutilized programs should consider these findings, emphasizing nuanced research into varying incentives' effectiveness and cost-efficiency to motivate student engagement. Despite these promising results, a comprehensive solution requires a deeper understanding of how different incentives affect diverse student populations and their sustained impact over time.
As the California Department of Education prepares to release the first set of student test scores based on the Common Core State Standards, a new poll shows voters have mixed feelings about the new standards, including many who don’t understand what they are...
As kids across the country return to school, the results of a new poll suggest it’s adults who need a lesson on the Common Core State Standards, a set of end-of-grade expectations in math and English adopted by 44 states...
Kids learn to covet three-day weekends from the time they first enter grade school. Labor Day weekend and other random holidays provide the chance to escape school a day early and have more time for leisure activities. Now, a new...
School districts have adopted the four-day school week to curb budget deficits, particularly in rural regions like Colorado and Wyoming, with around 10 districts in California following suit by 2011. This schedule change raises questions about its impact on academic performance. Longer class periods allow varied teaching methods and teacher planning, possibly improving student morale and behavior. Yet, concerns arise about teacher stress, student retention, and increased fatigue, especially for younger students. Evaluating this shift rigorously is vital, but few studies exist. Using a difference-in-differences regression and data from Colorado’s CSAP, researchers analyzed 4th-grade reading and 5th-grade math scores in districts that switched to a four-day week against those on standard schedules. Over a third of Colorado districts adopted this schedule. The results showed a significant increase in math scores post-switch, and while reading scores also rose, the change wasn’t statistically significant. The findings suggest no harm to student performance and even hint at improved attendance rates, though they apply primarily to smaller, rural districts, warranting caution in applying these findings more broadly.
School districts use a variety of policies to close budget gaps and stave off teacher layoffs and furloughs. More schools are implementing four-day school weeks to reduce overhead and transportation costs. The four-day week requires substantial schedule changes as schools...
Shortening the school week to four days has a positive impact on elementary school students' academic performance in mathematics, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Montana State University. The study, published in the journal Education, Finance and Policy...
USC Rossier assistant professor Morgan Polikoff and co-P.I. Cory Koedel from the University of Missouri-Columbia have received funding from an anonymous source for a project titled “Curriculum Adoptions and Effects on Student Achievement in California,” which will produce a database...
