Child poverty in California limits educational success for disadvantaged children, but schools struggle to identify effective solutions. Colombia's Escuela Nueva model has successfully educated marginalized rural children since 1975, raising academic and non-cognitive outcomes in tens of thousands of schools worldwide. This brief describes how Escuela Nueva works and discusses how California's schools might implement core aspects of the model to better serve disadvantaged students.

Achievement gaps in education cannot be solved by looking at the school day alone, as young people also have varied experiences outside of school. Free and affordable learning experiences after school and in the summer are essential strategies for equalizing student outcomes. California districts have greater regulatory and financial flexibility to address achievement gaps under the Local Control Funding Formula. This brief describes how local education leaders are mobilizing expanded learning to close the opportunity gap and recommends key steps for districts.

The Local Control Funding Formula gives local education leaders more power to allocate resources, but requires strategic budgeting practices to prioritize goals and make necessary tradeoffs. Three recommendations include integrating budgeting with strategic planning, focusing on critical questions, and developing internal structures to sustain strategic budgeting. These practices improve district policies and performance of local schools and students.

California's education system is fragmented, with separate governance structures and funding sources for K-12, community colleges, and universities. To address educational issues, intersegmental partnerships are needed to promote collaboration among the different segments. Local partnerships can strengthen alignment in standards and expectations between K-12 and post-secondary education and help students progress through the system more efficiently.

California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) requires districts to report student performance measures and use state and local data to monitor progress towards preparing students for college, career, and citizenship. Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) utilized principles of Improvement Science and a data dashboard to increase college access for students, in partnership with the University of California, Merced.