California's current school finance system is a tangled web of funding programs, restrictions, inequities and confusion. Building a stronger finance system to benefit from resources is an important step in strengthening California's K-12 education system and better meeting the needs of its students. Gov. Brown has recently proposed the Local…

Today, over a third of the nation's English language learners attend school in California, where they comprise more than a quarter of all its students. However, one million 18- to 24-year old Californians, about 30 percent of this age group, do not have a high school diploma. Regarding high school graduation rates, California ranks 45th among the…

Discusses major challenges facing California's education system. By spring 2002, academic subject scores will be fed into the Academic Performance Index. Standards scores will be reported by performance levels. The high-school exit exam will be mandatory in 2004. Equity and implementation issues are discussed. (MLH)

Over the past three years, the Riverside County Office of Education's County Achievement Team, as a recipient of a California Department of Education (CDE) grant, has worked with eight pilot schools and districts in the state to bring about systems change with equitable attention and results for each subgroup. The project, Riverside County…

Describes reasons for California's budget deficits and their impact on school finance. Offers five possible solutions to the school funding crises: Restructure the state's tax and revenue system, restore school district revenue-sharing abilities, initiate a top-to-bottom mandate review, provide greater fiscal and program flexibility, and revamp…

For the last decade, much of the work of California school administrators has been shaped by the accountability of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now as they stand at the precipice of Common Core Standards and next generation assessments, it is important to reflect on the proficiency educators have attained in using data to improve instruction and…

Education, it seems, is increasingly driven by the numbers. Whether it is measuring student performance or a school district's ability to balance the books, one will find data out there about it. So much data, in fact, that it is difficult to sort through all the numbers to get the needed information. This article describes California's Ed-Data…

The effects of linking school districts' funding directly to the students they serve and providing local school districts and communities with more control over how that money is spent could ripple through the entire K-12 system, from the state Capitol to the classroom. For district leaders anxious to improve their schools and better support…

It is widely recognized throughout the health care industry that the United States leads the world in health care spending per capita. However, the chilling dose of reality for American health care consumers is that for all of their spending, the World Health Organization ranks the country's health care system 37th in overall performance--right…

This article discusses the new school finance concept known as adequacy, which attempts to estimate the costs of meeting state-established education standards for all of a state's public education students. Moreover, this article will attempt to shed light on the subject by highlighting recent trends within the adequacy movement, the political…

West Putnam Elementary School Principal Katherine Johnson knew she had to make some changes at her Porterville school. In 1999, the school was on California's Underperforming Schools Program list. Johnson and her team had to come up with a new school plan to raise student academic achievement. Porterville Unified School District curriculum…

Good reforms can have harmful results if equity effects are ignored. As California implements its accountability system, certain questions must be addressed concerning the system's data use, measurement features (consistency, meaningfulness, achievement growth, achievement gaps among groups), instructional improvement focus, incentives for…

Describes a system's approach to literacy requiring a continuum of differentiated interventions and core instruction for all students in California. (PKP)

Today, the principal's role has shifted from managing and evaluating individual instructors to creating and maintaining data-driven collaborative cultures. With a clear focus upon the achievement of all students, the principal must serve as both instructional leader and learning leader. This requires new skills sets. The principal must now be able…

Describes successful efforts by the Monrovia Unified School District in California to develop an accountability system to improve student achievement. (PKP)