The stakes are incredibly high in California to provide access to a high-quality education in a safe environment for all students. As districts across the state resumed full-time instruction and began the task of pandemic recovery, members of the California Collaborative on District Reform convened three times in 2021-22 to continue and deepen…

With students, families, and the education systems that serve them still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a $3 billion state investment in community schools offers an opportunity for system transformation that can address urgent and persistent whole-child needs and their impact on teaching and learning. Although the possibilities…

In the nearly 2 years since the SARS-CoV-2 virus burst on the American scene, more than 850,000 Americans have died, and elections have literally been won or lost on public officials' positions and actions in response to COVID-19. Nowhere have the tensions and leadership demands been more visible than in the school systems that serve elementary…

A year after school closures and transitions to remote instruction, early evidence suggests that the negative effects of the pandemic on student learning have been greatest among our most vulnerable student populations. Although districts were quick to provide meals and devices that addressed students' basic needs, disparities in opportunities to…

In 2019, career pathways were offered in one-third of U.S. school districts, including more than 500 in California. A new brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform, "The Career Pathways Approach: A Way Towards Equity?," examines the equity promise and challenge of pathways. At a time when traditional school experiences…

A trio of crises--the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting financial instability, and racial injustice--has disrupted learning environments and the relationships, structures, and supports that students depend on to thrive. The consequences are far-reaching, but they have been felt most acutely by our most vulnerable youth. In the face of these challenges,…

The COVID-19 pandemic creates unprecedented conditions for K-12 teaching and learning, and education leaders everywhere are working quickly to make the best policy decisions possible. Knowing that the current context is dramatically different than previous school years and that students' access to learning from home varies, how should schools…

School closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically changed the conditions in which students learn and experience schooling. Disparities in students' access to learning and in their academic outcomes are likely to exacerbate longstanding challenges and inequities. Now more than ever, educators need information that will help…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, and in many cases exacerbated, disparities among students that result from their socioeconomic status, language background, race and ethnicity, and disability classification. Now more than ever, school systems need to understand student needs and respond with targeted supports that address these needs. One…

Policy development is fundamentally a process of negotiation. Legislation or other regulatory guidance often requires the support of a range of stakeholders to actually become policy. The resulting policy is therefore a compilation of interests, all partially represented in a final product that sufficiently satisfies enough key stakeholders to…

In the face of stagnant achievement and persistent achievement gaps in mathematics, school districts have enacted a variety of changes to varying levels of success. On the heels of an Algebra for All model that failed to generate desired outcomes of students, San Francisco Unified School District adopted a policy in 2014 that dramatically changed…

In the January 2019-20 State Budget Proposal, Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a K-12 education spending plan with an all-time high of $80.7 billion dollars. The budget proposal makes significant investments in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), special education, state preschool, and partial relief for pension liabilities. In addition, it…

More than 5 years after the passage of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), California school districts continue to develop and refine strategies to act on the opportunities and expectations associated with the state's school finance system. A new project called the LCFF Test Kitchen has enabled three school districts to make progress by…

California's transition to a new governor, superintendent of public instruction, legislators, and members of the state board of education is an opportunity to reflect on the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Namely, has the school finance system achieved its original goals of promoting local control, equity, and greater…

In the 2017-18 school year, the California State Board of Education rolled out a new statewide system of support for local education agencies, with the goal of moving away from punitive accountability policies toward working alongside schools and districts to respond directly to local needs and contexts. Distilling lessons from prior research,…