This research brief provides an overview of the statistics presented in a report by Anne Danenberg, Christopher Jepsen, and Pedro Cerdan, "Student and School Indicators for Youth in California's Central Valley" (2002) [ED497305]. Twenty percent of California's public-school students attend schools in the Central Valley. Many of these students are at risk of poor educational outcomes: One-quarter of the children in grades K-5 do not speak English or do not speak it well; one-half of all K-12 students participate in a subsidized lunch program. This sourcebook provides a statistical portrait of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education in the Central Valley. The authors examine trends over time in school resources, course enrollment, and student achievement in the major regions of the Central Valley, comparing trends in these regions to those in the rest of the state. This is the first of two reports from a study commissioned by The James Irvine Foundation undertaken to: (1) Understand the school and family circumstances of youth in the Central Valley; (2) Provide information that can be used by policymakers, private foundations, and community-based organizations to target programs; and (3) Present a statistical portrait that will help measure the success of ongoing and future policy efforts.