This commentary suggests that new school design is a fertile policy context for advancing research-practice partnerships. The authors represent four public universities that have created new school designs in partnership with urban school districts. Unlike the laboratory schools of previous generations, these university-partnered public schools…

Two recent reports contend that the introduction of school choice can promote economic development in economically distressed urban areas. The first report, published by EdChoice, presents a case study of a charter school that has, according to the report, contributed to the economic development of the city of Santa Ana, California. The second…

Although there has been a great deal of debate about the effectiveness of charter schools in the research literature, there has been surprisingly little attention paid to English language learners (ELLs) in charter schools. Moreover, the charter school research has predominantly focused on whether or not charter schools are effective rather than…

This article features an interview with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings. In this interview, Hastings relates that he told the "Wall Street Journal" in 2008 that he started looking at education--trying to figure out why our education is lagging when our technology is increasing at great rates and there's great innovation in so many other areas…

Many vocational education, technology education, and now technology and engineering education leaders have made their mark on their profession. Their legacy is something that members of the profession enjoy and have a responsibility to continue and build upon. This is the third in a series of articles entitled The Legacy Project, which focuses on…

The FAIR Education Act (SB 48) was signed into law in California in July of 2011, amending the Education Code by requiring representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in the social sciences. In this article, the author uses James Banks' model of the Four Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content to suggest ways in which…

For nearly 50 years, California's higher education system has been shaped by the tripartite division of the vaunted Master Plan. The 1960 document's bold vision of access and quality safeguarded a system of selective research universities (the University of California) and provided baccalaureate education through less-selective campuses (the…

The vast majority of public employees--including teachers--are enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans. These plans are usually the product of state legislation that determines eligibility, benefit formulas, employer and employee contributions, and how payments will be calculated when an employee retires or leaves the system. Once an employee…

This article presents an interview with Eric Barela, a K-12 school district internal evaluator who conducted the Title I Best Practices study for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Research and Planning Division (formerly known as the Program Evaluation and Research Branch). In this interview, the author focuses not only on the…

Presents agenda for action determined by a needs assesment conference of California educators. Recommendations are made for improving the conceptualization of global education, developing policy support, retraining teachers, expanding and improving exemplary efforts, and improving access to content resources. (KC)

Within the context of group behavior theories, discusses the responses of the Tuesday Night Group (TNG), an informal lobbyist organization, to California's Proposition 13. Concludes that TNG exemplified the statewide educational collective in pursuit of the collective good, general aid, and whatever private rewards the leaders feel they can…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the current fiscal picture of education in California and provide insight into the issues facing policymakers as they attempt to resolve the complex and difficult budgetary issues facing this state. The paper is divided into four sections. The first describes the current fiscal issues in California school…

California's top educator talks about education and politics. (Author)

A professor of law favoring the California proposal for a statewide voucher system emphasizes the significance of family choice; a superintendent of public schools argues against the proposal, raising the possibility of administrative problems and the negation of efforts toward equal opportunity. (SS)

Criticism of Stephen Karshen's June 2002 "Kappan" article "Whole Language and the Great Plummet of 1987-92: An Urban Legend from California." Argues that Karshen's analysis of the California Achievement Program reading scores is wrong. (PKP)