The policy brief examines the impact of QTEA on teacher recruitment, retention, and overall teacher quality in the San Francisco Unified School District. It provides evidence of the effectiveness of salary increases in attracting and hiring higher-quality teachers, and the importance of strategic hiring and retention efforts. The brief also highlights the need for teacher confidence in the longevity of such policies, and suggests the Local Control Funding Formula as a means to ensure sufficient funds for competitive teacher salaries.

Internet technology can transform the education system in three ways: individualizing learning, making it smart with adaptive software, and creating an open network for learning production. California can lead the way by adopting policies to leverage digital technologies and online resources for Learning 2.0. This would improve the performance of schools and students, and create opportunities for teachers, small enterprises, and individuals to contribute to the production of learning.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will impact many state education policies in fundamental ways. Before 1990, most states did not have uniform K-12 academic standards, and each state developed its own. To align policies with CCSS, CA must eliminate contradictions, look for gaps where no policy exists, and ensure sufficient breadth and depth of newly aligned policies. Common Core will transform instruction by focusing on fewer, higher, and deeper standards. However, current state assessment and accountability systems in CA are not aligned with the CCSS's specific instructional approach.

Preparing every high school graduate for postsecondary education and fulfilling work is the goal of common core standards. Career readiness and college readiness share many of the same skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Being ready for professional life requires additional transferable skills to support success throughout a lifetime of changing circumstances. The importance of transferable skills is emphasized by many groups and observers.

California’s school finance system has been criticized for being irrational, inequitable, and inefficient. The proposed Local Control Funding Formula aims to simplify funding and give local leaders more control, but raises questions about balancing transparency with improved outcomes, providing meaningful incentives, and effectively allocating funds.

The California Academic Performance Index (API) is limited by demographics, instability, and narrow focus on test scores. Experts recommend tracking individual students' progress, measuring achievement growth over multiple years, and using alternative performance measures. Improving API could enhance accountability systems and target educational improvements.

The LAUSD invested over $19B to build 130 new facilities to relieve overcrowded schools. A PACE policy brief analyzed its effects on student achievement and found robust gains for many elementary-school pupils who switched from old to new facilities. However, significant gains were limited to elementary school students and new high school facilities produced weak and inconsistent achievement gains. The report also tracked thousands of students who moved from overcrowded to new facilities over the 2002-2008 period.

California cannot afford to ignore or postpone questions of how to support the academic success of English Learners (ELs) in the state’s K-12 education system. Language-minority students already represent more than 40 percent of the state’s K-12 public education students, and their share of enrollment is growing. How well California serves these students will help determine the vitality of the state’s economy and society in the years ahead.

The University of California (UC) requires the SAT or ACT as part of their admissions process, but critics argue that these tests have flaws and are biased. This brief suggests that state-mandated standardized tests used to monitor student progress in secondary education, such as the CST exam in California, could be a suitable substitute for college entrance exams. The analysis in this brief shows that the CST exam offers similar predictive power for college performance and persistence at UC, compared to the SAT.

This brief analyzes the effectiveness of contextualized developmental math in California Community Colleges, where fewer than 10% of students who enter at the basic math level complete college-level math. These integrated courses focus on math required in specific occupations and have higher success rates than traditional math courses. However, the pressure for traditional academic courses has eliminated many of these courses, hindering students' ability to acquire occupational skills and complete advanced courses or degrees.

This brief analyzes the relationship between teacher employment, collective bargaining laws, and school district policies in California. The authors examine the extent to which California's legal structure constrains or facilitates district-level discretion over teacher employment policies and practices. They classify various aspects of the teacher-school district employment relationship into four categories, and conclude that California statutory law is somewhat more constraining of administrative decision-making in teacher employment matters than in four other large and diverse states.

This brief examines the strengths and weaknesses of value-added measures, which are useful for separating out school influences from other factors when evaluating teacher and school performance. Although value-added assessments give a summative picture of teacher performance, they do not provide guidance on how to improve. The author explores best uses and practices for value-added measures and discusses the limitations of attainment measures in evaluating school performance. The "Cardinal Rule of Accountability" is to hold people accountable for what they can control.

This brief evaluates the effectiveness of CA's Governor's Teaching Fellowship, which aimed to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in low-performing schools by providing a $20K fellowship to individuals enrolled in traditional teacher licensure programs who agreed to teach in designated schools. The study found that financial incentives can attract skilled professionals to work with underserved populations, but alternative policy designs should also be explored for cost-effectiveness. The results of the evaluation have important implications for state and national education policy.

PACE has published a policy book to support informed debates about the issues facing California education. The book includes recommendations to improve education quality, targeting resources to those who need it most, giving local schools more flexibility, and designing policies for continuous improvement. While there's no one solution to fix public education, a series of good policies can bring about fundamental reform and improve outcomes for schools and students.

This brief discusses the significant disparity between the Latino population in California's public schools and their representation among college graduates. The author suggests that this may lead to a shortage of graduates for California's economy and outlines six steps the state could take to improve access and success for Latino students in higher education.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has undergone decades of reform, resulting in an unstable atmosphere rather than institutional stability. A recent book, "Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change in Public Education," identifies five policy levers that can create a more effective educational system and a new institutional structure for public education, both in LA and beyond.