The Puente Project is a national award-winning program that has improved the college-going rate of tens of thousands of California’s educationally underrepresented students since 1981. Its mission is to increase the number of underrepresented students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees […]
Category: Achievement
CSBA webinar covers CAASPP results, advocates for comprehensive state-level plan to increase support for LEAs in their work to close achievement gap
An Oct. 9 webinar hosted by CSBA featured initial analysis of results from the 2025 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and CSBA issuing a challenge to the state to create a state-level plan focused on what state agencies and policymakers will do differently to better support local educational agencies in closing the achievement gap.
Tracking students’ academic progress post-high school to improve transition to higher ed
The 13th annual High School Benchmarks report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center offers a glimpse into postsecondary progression and outcomes for young people after graduating from high school.
Report gives solutions for the K-12 math program
More than five years after the onset of the pandemic disrupted the academic lives of the nation’s K-12 students, recovery in math is slow for many with some continuing to fall further behind. A new report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) gives recommendations how to remedy the issue.
Recommendations to improve middle schoolers’ reading abilities
The Northwest Evaluation Association’s (NWEA) recent brief, “Policy recommendations for addressing the middle school reading crisis,” provides insights on how state and local educational agency leaders can improve literacy outcomes.
New report identifies legislative trends targeting student data
Hundreds of bills aimed at ensuring that students, families and policymakers have access to the secure, timely information needed to navigate and understand education systems and the workforce were introduced across the country in 2025, according to Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) latest report, Education and […]
Improving outcomes for students with disabilities begins with assessment
Despite decades of advocacy, students with disabilities often face significant gaps in educational outcomes. If local educational agencies aim to turn things around for this student group, WestEd experts suggest starting with supportive, coherent and effective assessment systems. An Aug. 14 webinar featured panelists discussing […]
Attendance Awareness Month: Study highlights immigration enforcement as factor in increasing absence rates
September is Attendance Awareness Month, a time when governance teams often look to re-examine policies and data related to school climate, chronic absenteeism, student wellness and more to address underlying causes of high absence rates among young people. School districts in California’s Central Valley experienced […]
Early literacy assessment outcomes show promising progress
A new report from Amplify, a curriculum and assessment company, provided a mixed bag of good and bad news surrounding early literacy. First, the good news: more young students are on track to learn to read and fewer are behind than during the pandemic. End-of-year […]
Preparing students to succeed in Algebra I
Too many teens enter Algebra I with significant gaps due to instructional inconsistencies and interruptions in their mathematics learning during their middle and elementary years, but new research provides recommendations on how to turn the trend around. A report released in May by TNTP, an […]











