Category: Achievement

How LEAs can start to address dyscalculia

Similar to how dyslexia can make reading, writing or spelling difficult for individuals, dyscalculia causes challenges with understanding numbers and learning math concepts. The Center for Reinventing Public Education’s August brief “The Missing Piece in Math Reform: Identifying and Supporting Students with Dyscalculia” explains the learning disability, why it’s often overlooked by schools and considerations regarding identification, intervention and policy for local educational agencies, states and stakeholders.

How Centralia ESD turned around its chronic absenteeism rates

Attendance rates plummeted among Centralia Elementary School District children during the COVID-19 pandemic just as they had in local educational agencies throughout the country. Prior to the pandemic, the district boasted just a 5 percent chronic absenteeism rate, which spiked to 22 percent. Preliminary data from the last school year shows the district’s chronic absenteeism rate is down to 8 percent, with every school site reporting declines. 

Research finds chronic absence must be addressed to improve academic recovery post-pandemic

One in four students missed at least one day of school every other week on average in 2022, with only moderate improvement occurring in the following two years, according to NWEA’s July brief “Chronic absenteeism: A continued impediment to academic recovery.” Students in high-poverty districts were absent even more often.

New research identifies fragmented systems as a key barrier to student achievement

A new report from the Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning Supports at UCLA finds that current efforts to address barriers to learning and teaching, while valuable, won’t provide lasting progress until policymakers adopt student and learning support systems that are unified, comprehensive and equitable.

Research provides recommendations to improve outcomes for youth served in alternative education settings

California’s alternative education system — particularly its Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools — is a vital but often overlooked pathway for historically marginalized and vulnerable students. A recent report from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools analyzes 2022–23 data from 894 DASS schools, representing 150,009 students, to evaluate the effectiveness of these settings.

New PACE report takes deep dive into early outcomes of Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives

With the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program, which aims to address persistent inequities in higher education and workforce participation through the development of regional intersegmental partnerships statewide, reaching its end, a new report from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) examines the outcomes of one of the programs key partnerships.