by Leslie Lingaas Woodward Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, affecting up to 20 percent of the population. This means that, statistically, every classroom in California has several students with dyslexia who struggle to acquire literacy skills. In 2015, the California State Legislature passed […]
Category: Closing the Achievement Gap
Closing the Achievement Gap
How one district practices inclusive education
By Adam Breen Inclusion is more than an educational buzzword at San Benito High School in Hollister, Calif., where students with special needs are not just included, but embraced and accepted by their general education peers. The school has no fewer than 10 programs that […]
ESSA approved ending months of negotiations with SBE
The State Board of Education unanimously approved final changes to Every Student Succeeds Act plan at its mid-July meeting. On July 12, the U.S. Department of Education approved California’s plan ending a monthslong process of negotiations with the U.S. DOE. The State Board developed the […]
California aims to be a language leader in the classroom
Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean, Armenian, Mandarin and are just some of the languages taught in California schools. A new initiative announced last week by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Global California 2030, aims to expand the teaching and learning of world languages and […]
New federal data offers insights on school safety, STEM courses and more
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education released its Civil Rights Data Collection for 2015–16, offering the public new statistics on enrollment demographics, opportunity gaps and other civil rights issues that affect K-12 public school students. The U.S. Dept. of Education also released two accompanying […]
Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. California has been home to communities of Asian heritage since before its entrance into the United States in 1850. According to […]
New report explores strategies for closing English learners’ achievement gap in math
Combine the entire K-12 student populations of Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Vermont, Wyoming and Nevada — that group of children is the same size as California’s 1.4 million English learners. To look at that number another way, consider that of California’s 6.2 million public school […]
NAEP results show progress but achievement gaps persist
California received mixed results on this week’s release of national test scores known as the “nation’s report card,” showing modest gains compared to generally static national results. On the positive side, California showed some improvement in eighth- and fourth-grade reading on the National Assessment of […]
Mendez v. Westminster: 72 Years Later
In the 1940s, more than 70 percent of all Mexican-American students in California attended “separate but equal” schools. And one court case changed that: Mendez v. Westminster (1946). Appalled that their three children—who were all fluent in English—were not permitted to attend a neighborhood school […]
Recent studies show U.S. public schools facing resegregation
Today’s student population is becoming increasingly diverse, yet American public schools are not reflecting that. Almost 65 years after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) deemed school segregation unconstitutional in the United States, recent studies are showing that the vision of a desegregated school system has […]