Indigenous students in the United States experience disproportionate outcomes in school, including high rates of special education identification, suspension, and chronic absenteeism. Despite the systemic inequities that affect Native students, state educational agencies (SEAs) employ few staff who specialize in the education needs of these…

Federal law defines English learner (EL) eligibility differently for Indigenous, compared to non-Indigenous, students, allowing for broader entry into the EL category, along with its accompanying resources and services. We interviewed EL leaders from 25 state departments of education to learn about their level of understanding of the…

As part of its effort to make universal prekindergarten (UPK) available to four-year-olds, California has recently expanded transitional kindergarten (TK) in its public schools. TK will be a full pre-K grade level in all districts by the 2025-26 school year. Other states that seek to broaden access to early care and education (ECE) can learn…

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in 2020 included significant aid to state education systems. These included direct aid to K-12 districts and higher education institutions, and funds to be used at the discretion of Governors through the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER). We examine…

Since states closed school buildings to protect students from COVID-19, schools have had to adapt quickly to keep students learning. Nearly all states put out guidance or resources to help districts and schools institute continuous learning and surmount the challenges faced by students in homes with limited or no internet access and those with…

All youth need the support of parents, family members, and other caring adults. Parents and families are children's first teachers and, in many respects, their most influential role models and motivators. Among the varied efforts to ensure that children succeed and thrive, there is growing acknowledgement of how critically important it is to…

In December 2017, the California Department of Education released the new California School Dashboard, replacing the field test version from March 2017. The web-based dashboard includes new, up-to-date data and comes with higher stakes than the earlier version. Using multiple color-coded measures, with Red representing the lowest rating and Blue…

Legislative mandates on sexual discrimination do not necessarily guarantee enduring change, as is demonstrated by the reinterpretation by the United States Supreme Court of Title IX of the Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the landmark decision in "Grove City College v. Bell" in 1984, the court ruled that Title IX,…

The California Postsecondary Education Commission adopted a declaration of policy in 1988 in order to clarify and communicate its responsibility to advance educational equity in the context of the demographic changes occurring in California. A committee on educational equity examined the Commission's past actions and activities relating to…

Online learning holds promise for providing new educational opportunities to a wide range of students across the country. The rapid expansion of K-12 online learning, however, threatens to outpace the development of appropriate state-level policies that serve to fulfill the promise. As the National Association of State Boards of Education warned…

This booklet presents the proceedings of a conference on the relationship between bilingual education and desegregation in California. The topics covered by the speakers at the general session were: (1) Desegregation and Bilingual Education: A National Perspective; (2) Legal Requirements Related to Desegregation and Bilingual Education; (3) Role…

The three case studies in this report describe state-level efforts to address diversity and equity in postsecondary institutions in California, Maryland, and Washington. A preface provides some background on affirmative action programs, litigation history, and the roles of state coordinating agencies and institutional governing boards. The…