A new report that explores the experiences that make educators feel as though they matter correlates burnout to whether they perceive their role and contributions as valued by their school communities.
How to make educators feel like they matter
Author: Heather Kemp
Report finds an influx of book bans in public schools
In 2025–26, 11,982 books were banned in public schools, according to PEN America’s latest spotlight on national findings about the subject. “This is the highest number of recorded bans in a single year since PEN America began tracking book bans in 2021,” according to the organization.
High school student perspectives on cellphone restrictions
With 80 percent of high school students attending campuses with some form of a cellphone ban in place, a new brief covers national research conducted by Hopelab and Data for Progress in summer 2026 on teens’ perspectives.
An overview of education funding in California
Staying roughly equivalent with inflation, state funding for K-12 education increased by 24.2 percent between 2020–21 and 2025–26 hitting record highs in recent years, according to the Public Policy Institute of California’s October fact sheet “Financing California’s Public Schools.”
Marin COE supports districts in AI discovery
To build collective understanding about artificial intelligence and its potential role in education, in 2026–27, the Marin County Office of Education is hosting a multi-part AI Policy Development and Adoption Series for local district leaders.
Fast facts on California’s students with disabilities
The percentage of students with disabilities served by California schools has increased 4 percentage points in the last decade — even as overall enrollment has declined — making up a total of roughly 15 percent of the population (more than 880,000 students) in 2025–26, according to the Public Policy Institute of California’s October fact sheet on the subject.
Report outlines strategies for strategic teacher pay
The National Council on Teacher Quality’s (NCTQ) September report on teacher pay found that in California, nearly $28 billion went toward teacher salaries in 2024–25.
Report provides international look at education, teacher shortages
Considering internationally comparable data, 9.1 percent of primary and secondary teachers in the dozens of countries tracked by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were not fully qualified in 2024–25, according to its Education at a Glance 2026 report.
Immediate college enrollment rate remains steady among high school graduates
There were minimal changes in the rates of high school seniors who enrolled in college immediately after graduation (the following fall) between 2024 and 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s 14th annual High School Benchmarks report.
State-level strategies to help districts address facilities issues
In 2024–25, roughly one in five districts (19 percent) had to cancel school days due to facilities issues, impacting 2 million students, according to a September report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).