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This study investigates racial disparities in school closures both within California and nationally. Findings highlight an alarming pattern: Schools enrolling higher proportions of Black students are at significantly increased risk of closure relative to those enrolling fewer Black students, a pattern that is more pronounced in California than elsewhere in the United States. The findings underscore that school closures in California and elsewhere reflect racial inequalities that require adequate policymaking to ensure equitable and fair school-closure proceedings.
Supporting Students During COVID-19
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An analysis of Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs) developed by local educational agencies in California during the 2020-21 academic year showed variations in practices across districts, particularly between urban and rural areas. While districts planned to provide technology, assess student learning, and offer tiered levels of support, broader opportunities for reform and implementation accountability in education policymaking are needed post-pandemic.
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The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative effect on the oral reading fluency (ORF) of US students in grades 2-3 in over 100 school districts, with students falling 30% behind expectations. While there was some recovery in the fall, it was insufficient to make up for the spring losses. The impact is particularly inequitable, with lower achieving schools being hit harder, and 10% of students not being assessed. Addressing accumulated learning losses and supporting struggling students is necessary.

Lessons for COVID-19
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This brief discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student absenteeism and academic and social-emotional outcomes using panel data from California's CORE Districts. Absenteeism has a negative effect on student outcomes, with math being more affected than English language arts, and middle school students suffering more than elementary or high school students. The study also shows that absenteeism negatively impacts social-emotional development, which can have further implications for student outcomes.
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This study used data from California CORE Districts to explore whether changes in students' self-reported social-emotional learning (SEL) predicted changes in academic outcomes and attendance. The findings revealed that within-student changes in SEL were positively associated with improvements in English language arts (ELA) and math achievement, as well as attendance, and were consistent across various student subgroups.
Evidence from the 2020 PACE/USC Rossier Annual Poll
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California voters generally support policies to increase teacher diversity and require high school ethnic studies courses, according to a 2020 PACE/USC Rossier poll. Support for increasing teacher diversity was higher when respondents were informed of its positive impact for students of color. Support varied by race/ethnicity and political party, with white and Republican respondents showing less support than African American, Latinx, Democrat, and Independent respondents.

The Impact of Unmotivated Questionnaire Respondents on Data Quality
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This paper investigates the effect of student satisficing, the act of providing suboptimal survey responses, on data quality in a large-scale social-emotional learning survey. The study examines the prevalence and impact of satisficing among 409,721 students and finds that its effect on data quality is less significant than expected. The paper offers a practical approach to defining and calculating satisficing, useful for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working with large-scale datasets.
Evidence from California’s CORE School Districts
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This paper examines which social-emotional skills are most important for student success and how they vary among student subgroups. It uses longitudinal data from over 200,000 fourth through seventh grade students in California to explore growth mindset gaps across student groups and shows the significant predictive power of growth mindset for academic achievement gains, even when controlling for other social-emotional skills and background characteristics.
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This paper uses mixture IRT models to evaluate whether students experience confusion due to negative wording of items on a social-emotional learning assessment. It examines the consequences of confusion on student- and school-level scores and correlations with student-level variables, finding that confusion is present and most prevalent in lower grades, and is related to reading proficiency and ELL status. The study recommends the use of positively oriented items in future SEL measures, and suggests bias corrections based on the studied mixture model to maintain measurement continuity.
Consistent Gender Differences in Students’ Self-Efficacy
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This brief examines the consistency of the drop in academic self-efficacy during middle school across various student groups, such as demographics, achievement level, and school of attendance. The study finds that the drop is essentially universal across all groups, despite some showing lower self-efficacy than others. Additionally, schools vary in their students' level of self-efficacy, but do not differ much in this trend. The drop in academic self-efficacy is steeper for female students, resulting in lower self-efficacy for girls than boys throughout middle and high school.
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This study uses value-added models to explore whether social-emotional learning (SEL) surveys can measure effective classroom-level supports for SEL. Results show that classrooms differ in their effect on students' growth in self-reported SEL, suggesting that classroom-level effects may be larger than school-level effects. However, the low explanatory power of the SEL models means it's unclear if these are causal effects. The SEL measures also capture growth not measured by academic test scores, indicating that classrooms within schools may impact measurable student growth in SEL.
Evidence from the CORE Districts and the PACE/USC Rossier Poll
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The increase in students opting out of standardized tests is a threat to accurately measuring student achievement. This brief examines the effects of opting out in the CORE districts and models how it could affect accountability measures. More opt-outs could significantly impact some metrics, but the growth measure is largely unaffected. Metrics tracking achievement by cohort are at risk of bias, even with low levels of opting out. Adjusting for characteristics of students who take the tests could be a solution.

Evidence from California’s CORE Districts
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This paper uses a large dataset to confirm that self-management skills predict student success and are a better predictor of student learning than other socio-emotional skills. Students with higher levels of self-management experience almost 80 days of additional learning. The paper also describes self-management gaps across student groups.
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This study examines the impact of target setting for non-academic indicators on school quality ratings in CORE districts' elementary schools. The authors found that non-academic measures of school quality vary over time, are not consistently associated with demographics, and are sensitive to small changes in rating thresholds. The results suggest a need for more research on target setting for non-academic indicators in school quality systems.
Evidence from California
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This paper examines how the growth of charter schools affects traditional public schools' financial health in California. The study finds that higher charter enrollment is associated with lower per-pupil spending and fiscal health in traditional public schools, but the effects are smaller than in other states. However, the proportion of expenditures allocated to different activities, goods, or services does not differ. The paper provides lessons for policymakers and suggests that California's economic and policy context may explain the differences from similar analyses in other states.
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This report examines the stability of school effects on social-emotional learning (SEL) over two years in California's CORE districts. The correlations among school effects in the same grades across different years are positive but lower than those for math and ELA. While these effects measure real contributions to SEL, their low stability draws into question whether including them in school performance frameworks and systems would be beneficial.

Evidence from the CORE Districts
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This study examines how social-emotional skills develop from Grade 4 to Grade 12 and vary by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Based on self-report student surveys administered to around 400,000 students in California, the study finds that social-emotional skills do not increase uniformly and vary across subgroups. Females have higher social awareness but lower self-efficacy than males. Economically disadvantaged students show improvement in high school. White students report higher social-emotional skills than African American and Latinx students.
Findings from the First Large-Scale Panel Survey of Students
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This paper examines the use of social-emotional learning (SEL) measures to evaluate school-level growth in student outcomes. The study finds substantial differences across schools in SEL growth, suggesting that schools may contribute to students' SEL. However, caution is recommended in interpreting measures as the causal impacts of schools on SEL due to potential measurement error and omitted variables bias.
An Inventory of Existing Technology
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The paper inventories technology programs available for middle school math—not as a guide. Some descriptions may not be accurate, and web addresses are included for reference. The report showcases the variety of programs available but notes few have been rigorously evaluated. Policymakers and educators have many options to incorporate technology into middle school math.
Chaffey College’s Long Journey to Success
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Chaffey College in California's Inland Empire is renowned for its "risk tolerant change-oriented culture" and impressive student support programs, which have led to exceptional outcomes for Chaffey students. In this working paper, researchers visited Chaffey and other California colleges to examine the quality of instruction in basic skills and the integration of student support services. Chaffey's success story highlights the importance of developing a broad structure necessary for success both in developmental education and for all students.
Their Heterogeneity and Readiness
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This paper examines basic skills education in California Community Colleges and the heterogeneity of students in developmental classrooms. Some students simply need to brush up on existing skills while others have learning disabilities or mental health issues. The paper argues that colleges need to be further differentiated to respond to the variety of student needs and offers suggestions for doing so.
Their Possibilities and Limits
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The voluntary nature of student support services in California Community Colleges means that many students who need them do not use them, due to competing demands or stigma. The lack of funding for student services and the prevalence of adjunct faculty further complicates their use. Challenging conventional practices and norms of community colleges could make the entire enterprise of developmental education more effective.
The Landscape and the Locus of Change
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This PACE working paper examines six types of innovations to improve developmental education in California Community Colleges: individual practitioner efforts, departmental developments, learning communities, K-12 initiatives, Faculty Interest Groups, and innovation from the middle. The authors find that there are many good ideas for improving developmental education, but success depends on nurturing the right conditions for innovation. Innovation from the middle, with the joint efforts of senior-level faculty and middle-level administrators, seems necessary for widespread reform.
Charter, Magnet, and Newly Built Campuses in Los Angeles
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This paper examines the impact of pupil mobility in urban districts like Los Angeles, where families are encouraged to switch schools due to the growth of mixed-markets of charter, magnet, and pilot schools. African American and White students are more likely to exit their schools, while overcrowding in low-income Latino neighborhoods leads to higher exit rates. Charter and magnet school students exit less. The district's commitment to relieve overcrowding leads to Latino students moving to newly built schools. The opening of new high schools reduced pupil mobility.
The Dominance of Remedial Pedagogy
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This working paper examines the instructional triangle of basic skills education in California Community Colleges through classroom observations in 13 colleges. The study identifies the prevalence of remedial pedagogy, which relies on sub-skill drill and practice and lacks connections to subsequent courses or adult roles. This approach is ineffective and violates precepts of effective instruction. The paper outlines alternatives to remedial pedagogy, including hybrid and constructivist teaching. These alternatives are further developed in Working Paper 3.