During her term on the California State Board of Education, Naomi Porter realized that student and adult board members alike struggle to effectively engage their primary constituents--students. Student state board members face the added challenges of making an impact during relatively short terms of service and of identifying mentors who can help…

Today, we revisit our initial stance of eliminating standardized test scores from the college admissions process to improve equity and student diversity. With refreshed data about test-optional admissions, we address the import of institutional responsiveness to redress persistent equity gaps that impact our state's workforce diversity and hiring…

This knowledge brief is part of a continuing series designed to inform California education leaders about new research findings on key state policy topics. It summarizes recent findings on improving the access to, and the use of, teacher workforce data in California, and focuses on the importance of instituting a statewide teacher data system that…

Confusion among stakeholders regarding some aspects of the special education process--chiefly the triennial reevaluation--leads to misapplication of rules across districts and states based on interpretations of informal lore-based reasoning. Local education agencies (LEA) can determine that no additional data are needed and advise parents to…

This paper presents a collection of case stories from five Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) within colleges of education, four from institutions in Texas and one from California, to present a micro cross-sectional narrative interpretation of what constitutes excellence in educator preparation. The broad framework utilized in this…

For several years, WestEd's Measure to Learn and Improve (MLI) project team has kept California state policy leaders informed about the statewide implementation of the California Academic Standards in English language arts and mathematics, by summarizing and disseminating results from the RAND Corporation's annual American Educator Panel (AEP)…

In educational contexts where many domains subject to improvement are interdependent and causal evidence is frequently lacking it is difficult, if not impossible, for policymakers and educational practitioners to decide which domain should be invested in. This paper proposes a new method that uses Conditional Mean Independent Correlations (CMIC)…

California's school system is under tremendous long-run fiscal pressure; allocating resources efficiently is therefore paramount. Economic analysis--making sure districts and schools are spending their budgets wisely--is the method used to identify effectiveness and efficiency. This method responds to the question educational professionals face:…

In March 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court decided "Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association," a case addressing the constitutionality of "agency fees" for non-union teachers in California. Although the Court's 4-4 decision in the wake of Justice Scalia's death upheld the constitutionality of agency fees, several similar…

California faces an increasing demand for affordable higher education and a need for adequate facilities suited to a rapidly evolving economy. The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) estimates that by 2030 the supply of college graduates will fall 1.1 million short of workforce demand. This report is an overview of California's higher…

Research generally finds that college students are more likely to complete a program of study if they choose a major that aligns with their interests and goals. Yet many new community college students do not have clear goals. Nearly 40% of community college students report being undecided about their major at the end of their first year (authors'…

Academic institution structure is both hierarchical and committee-based. It is hierarchical in the Administration including staff, similar to business corporations. It is committee-based for the Faculty body in a fashion similar to US Congress. It can exploit the best of both models for better governance and rightfully democratic decisions. The…

In 2013, California moved to drive more resources for students with higher needs, create more spending flexibility and let districts decide how to spend substantial new dollars by adopting a new watershed state finance policy, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). As California's Weighted Student Funding (WSF) law enters Year 5 of…

Tight budgets are a reality for many school districts across California, leading some to believe that a growing charter sector is squeezing the finances of traditional school districts. One common criticism of charter schools centers on special education: charter schools directly serve fewer students with disabilities, and thereby drive…

When the nation shut down in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, states had to figure out what education would look like for the remainder of the academic year. These abrupt changes affected not only students' ability to learn but also their access to the support system that would help prepare them for steps beyond high school. This Policy…