The 2010 EdSource Forum, held on March 19 in Santa Clara, focused on the obstacles and opportunities in the road ahead for public schools and community colleges. The Forum included four sessions. Two are covered in this report: (1) A sobering discussion of California's fiscal crisis by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor; and (2) A lively Q&A…

California entered 2010-11 with a longstanding imbalance between ongoing spending and income. To help close that gap, state policymakers suspended Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for K-12 schools and community colleges. In total, revenues for K-12 schools are down nearly 10% this year compared with 2007-08. Yet more cuts loom as the…

This playbook draws from the findings of "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades," the largest empirical study of this grade level conducted to date. The "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades" study was designed to find out what higher-performing schools do differently. The result is a compelling set of specific, actionable…

When the concept of charter schools was first implemented in California in 1993, the goal was to allow the modification of existing public schools or the creation of wholly new ones that would be less rule-bound than traditional public schools but more accountable for student achievement. For some charter advocates, simply providing such…

This report provides a roundup of the rather modest set of actions the state Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger took on education in 2005. It also sets the stage for what those who care about education might expect in the coming year. To provide some structure for addressing a wide breadth of topics, the report is organized into four…

This report is a follow-up to "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades" (Williams, Kirst, Haertel, et al., 2010). That study specified a comprehensive set of actionable practices that differentiated higher academic achievement among 303 middle grades schools in California. In doing so, the study provided a compelling and coherent account of…

This analysis of charter school performance addresses two critical questions: (1) how does the academic performance of California charter schools differ from that of noncharters; and (2) how does the academic performance of different kinds of charter schools vary? This study examined achievement data for charter and traditional public schools with…

EdSource's annual public education budget report, "School Finance 2006-07: State Leaders Settle Up with Education," offers a comprehensive look at this year's funding decisions for schools, recent budget history, and how the state's schools are funded. In contrast with last year's budget battles, the process for 2006-07 notably lacked…

This study contributes to the field by identifying a broad range of traditional and newer middle grade policies and practices, and determining in California which of these differentiate higher- from lower-performing schools serving similar student populations, with performance measured by the state's standards-based tests. Based on a sample of 303…

In the 2008-09 school year researchers from EdSource and Stanford University conducted a large-scale study of 303 middle grades schools in California. The team surveyed 303 principals, 3,752 English Language Arts (ELA) and math teachers in grades 6-8, and 157 superintendents of the districts and charter management organizations that oversee the…

These cards give fingertip access to the latest information about California's education system. They are separated into 4 sections that cover related topics: (1) Finance Data; (2) Finance and General Background; (3) Performance/Students; and (4) Staffing/Higher Education. There are a total of 28 cards. Each tan section card includes references to…