Nearly a fourth of K-12 students nationwide are not attending their neighborhood public schools, opting instead for an array of public and private school options, according to a recent report. In 1993, the proportion of students eschewing their neighborhood public...

One in four children across the nation has left the neighborhood school in favor of a magnet or charter school, voucher program or private school, despite lax oversight and scant evidence of academic success, according to a two-year study released...

The notion that schools should be held directly responsible for improving student achievement—and should be rewarded or sanctioned for their ability or lack of ability to do so—is taking both California and the nation by storm. Much of the recent statewide...

School districts are not responding to charter schools with swift, dramatic changes, according to a study released by Policy Analysis for California Education, a university-based research consortium. A majority of districts in which the independent public schools have been established...

Asian immigrant students, representing a striking range of languages, cultures and socioeconomic levels, are streaming into schools in the San Gabriel Valley, forcing districts that were largely Anglo or Latino to grapple with profound ethnic changes that seemed to develop...

Those were among the findings of a new poll of California voters conducted last month for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a 13-year-old research center focusing on issues of state education policy and practice. Michael Kirst, Stanford professor of...

The financial impact of Proposition 174 has been debated by both sides in the contest, each trumpeting multimillion-dollar figures. Two independent think tanks -- the Rand Corp. is one -- have disputed those predictions, saying the price tag is unknown...

They were the splintered children of America. There were Ceasar, Dasha, Jesse, Jamilett, Ali and Alex. Only two had lived their entire lives with the same two parents. The lives of those two had been anything but stable. Their families...

Nearly two-thirds of Californians believe the way to improve their public schools is through wiser--not more--spending, but a bare majority is willing to pay higher taxes to restore state cuts in education funding, a Los Angeles Times Poll has found...

In the aftermath of a particularly rancorous Los Angeles school-board session last week, a fair number of parents expressed anger at the decision to put city schools on a year-round calendar starting in July, 1991. But while some may find...

But most people who work with problem kids say there are more relevant statistics. According to the child advocacy group Children Now, more kids than ever are growing up in poverty in California—1 in 5; 1 out of 3 kids...

California policymakers have not responded to the changing needs of the state’s children, leaving many at risk of slipping through gaps in a fragmented social-services system, according to a new report by a group of independent researchers.

Although most California...

What is it like to be a child in California? Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent, university-based research center, has undertaken the first comprehensive overview of that question in “The Conditions of Children in California,” to be released...

San Francisco may bill itself as “Everybody’s Favorite City,” but city school officials say they’re having trouble finding minority teachers who want to work here. The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most ethnically diverse spots in the...

Countering a blistering study last fall that attacked the performance of minority high schools in four Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, a group of California education professors said Wednesday that minority pupils have made academic gains, particularly since a...

Countering a blistering study last fall that attacked the performance of minority high schools in four Southern California counties, including Orange County, a group of California education professors said Wednesday that minority pupils have made academic gains, particularly since a...

schools will do little more than ensure continued educational mediocrity, according to an analysis released Tuesday by an independent group of education professors from the state’s top universities. With enrollment statewide growing 42% above what had been projected for this year...

A recent report by USC education professors Allan Odden and David D. Marsh for Policy Analysis for California Education indicates that when schools put together all the critical reforms, they show improvement. All our estimates indicate that about 30% of...

Tougher school standards enacted by the state four years ago appear to be contributing to better learning conditions and academic gains, according to a study of 17 California junior and senior high schools released Thursday. The report, authored by two USC...

The majority of inner-city high schools in Los Angeles are doing a worse job of educating low-income black and Latino youths than they were 10 years ago, according to a study of standardized test scores released today by the University...

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Monday that current high school seniors, the first crop of students to go all the way through high school under the tougher state academic standards imposed in 1983, recorded “the highest scores...

Two privately funded studies, issued this fall, highlight the progress and problems of California’s schools and make numerous and expensive suggestions for improvement. Those studies and their recommendations: Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a research group based at Stanford...

Five years after Proposition 13 took away money from California schools, Senate Bill 813 brought it back—but with strings attached. The bill, hailed as the largest educational reform measure in California's history, was passed in 1983. Its provisions were backed...

Minority students will be a majority of California’s public school enrollment by 1990, ten years earlier than expected, educational researchers predict. Between 1970 and 1980 the proportion of minority students grew from 15.6% to 42.9%, said the report by Policy...

California's public schools are progressing under the state's 2-year-old reform program despite teacher shortages and deteriorating buildings, an independent research group reported Wednesday. The university-based group, Policy Analysis for California Education, said in a preliminary report that more high...