California’s K–12 students experienced significant academic setbacks during the 2020-21 school year of mainly remote learning, showing growing achievement gaps, lagging progress in math and English, increased chronic absenteeism and a slight decline in the statewide graduation rate, according to...

As communities continue dealing with the fallout of the pandemic and districts grapple with how best to spend an influx of one-time funding to support students, experts say there is no better time to begin looking into community school models. The...

Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar provides an update on school reopening amid Omicron and updates on the district’s vaccine mandate ahead of its January 31st deadline.

The 2021-22 school year was supposed to have been a rebound to normalcy, with Covid in the rear-iew mirror. Instead, midway through, the year has been “shock and overload,” with teachers and administrators “working harder and losing ground,” as Mike...

California high school seniors were in 10th grade when the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools and sent them home to learn. This year, many seniors are either struggling to earn enough credits to graduate or, because of a new state law...

It didn’t take long before the consequences of the pandemic shone a spotlight on the growing inequities within our communities and systems. Existing disparities in housing and food security, education, and health care, for example, grew wider between socioeconomic and...

This episode of School’s In features Ted Lempert, a former California State Assembly member and longtime champion for education reform who currently serves as PACE advisory board member and president of Children Now, a national research and advocacy organization.  He joins...

In 2013 students of color at the University of California at Los Angeles Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, known as UCLA SEIS, wrote a letter to the school’s leadership, reporting a “hostile racial climate” on campus. The students...

A new poll provides insight into the issues that a new Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent may face. Lower-income and Black families of students attending L.A. Unified schools feel less supported by the state’s largest school district, according to...

The bottom line is: Spanish is just one of the many languages spoken by members of the Latino community. This problem has bled into schools, where administrators and teachers don’t know that their students speak an indigenous language, and don’t...

The bottom line is: Spanish is just one of the many languages spoken by members of the Latino community. These assumptions have real repercussions, particularly given the limitations about what we know about the diversity of the Latino immigrant community...

This year is crucial for students as many risk falling further behind if they don’t catch up academically. A study conducted by The Policy Analysis For California Education looked at 18 districts in the state and found students kindergarten through...

The Hoover Education Success Initiative (HESI) presented a six-part webinar series this fall that explored how public education can improve moving forward given the ongoing disruption of in-person instruction caused by COVID-19-inspired restrictions, as well as foundations of the system...

Since May 2020, the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative (NCOLI) has created dozens of free resources to support districts to center equity by returning students to school safely through the use of outdoor spaces for learning. In the spring and...

Much of the discourse around learning loss has gotten stuck on what to call it. Learning lag, interrupted learning and unfinished learning are favored among academics, because knowledge did not vanish from the minds of young people. Kids just didn’t...

The abrupt switch to remote instruction caused by the pandemic has created potentially irreparable setbacks for the students who can least afford the disruption—low-income students of color, English learners, students with disabilities and others who have been historically underserved. The...

Using data to help guide decisions about increasing student engagement, providing extended learning opportunities, and finding effective ways to communicate with parents and students can help boost attendance rates as students adjust to full-time, in-person learning. The timely analysis of...

Vaccine mandates have yet to be implemented statewide in California, delegating the decision to individual school districts and counties. Currently, West Costa Contra and Berkeley counties are seeking to establish a vaccine mandate. With neighboring counties considering adopting similar measures...

After years in which reading scores throughout the state fell short, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced a new initiative Tuesday that would get all California third-grade students reading by 2026. Though the specifics of the initiative have...

A report from a coalition of bipartisan education groups—including the California PTA, the California Teachers Association and Policy Analysis for California Education—has urged schools to use their COVID funding to support mental health programs this year. The report recommends school...

The term “learning loss” is too often used to describe the restorative restart needed in California’s most underserved communities for the 2021-2022 academic year. It is accurate that many students have experienced enormous disruptions in their lives and learning, but...

With Fall fast approaching, parents and teachers alike are wondering if this school year will bring with it some normalcy. But with over three-quarters of school districts offering remote learning options, many are worried the pitfalls of the past year...

All 50 states closed schools to in-person instruction at some point during the 2019-2020 academic year, and the closures continued for more than a year in many districts throughout the country. Now, some students are returning to full-time, in-person instruction...

While we know that there is an increasing number of Indigenous Latinx students in schools. Some argue that the silencing of Indigenous communities and lack of knowledge among educators of Indigenous languages has obscured the true number of English learners...

A year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, schools are reopening amid more uncertainty than ever. Just about the only thing districts know for sure is that last year’s lockdowns and online learning were a disaster for the emotional...