Research
CSBA’s Research and Education Policy Development Department published a trio of new literacy-related resources in May to support governance teams’ knowledge of prominent concepts, legislation, conversations on the subject and more.
The 2024 California Standards for the Teaching Profession place more emphasis on family engagement, and a recent report from the California Family Engagement Network covers field-level perspectives on related practices and obstacles.
Local educational agency trustees have always had to navigate conflicting opinions over school budgets, curriculum and more, but as clashes over pandemic-related school closures; masking and vaccine policies; programs supporting diversity, equity and inclusion and other topic went viral online, school board meetings throughout the country became more contentious, sometimes to the detriment of trustees’ well-being.
The Afterschool Alliance in May released the results of its household survey on the kind of programming parents want their children to participate in during summer and common barriers to entry.
A new report published on June 5 by the Brookings Institution, Local control, national conflict: School boards in the COVID 19 and cultural war era, analyzes what happened during the turbulent first half of this decade.
Polarized discussions on what math students should be taught and how, often referred to as the “math wars,” has been ongoing in the nation for decades. An April report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), Navigating the math wars: A practical guide to the divides and debates influencing math instruction, provides background on the issue and presents strategies that could help end the longstanding dispute.
About half of adults think their local public schools are doing an excellent or good job in preparing students for jobs and the workforce, according to a recent survey of Californian’s views on education conducted between March 26 and April 3 by the Public Policy Institute of California.
In 2024–25, California enrolled 46 percent of 4-year-olds in public early childhood education programs and 11 percent of 3-year-olds.
Using the latest data from the California Department of Education, a fact sheet recently released by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) examines trends in chronic absenteeism statewide through the 2024–25 school year. According to researchers, while rates of chronic absence have continued to decrease since their peak in 2021–22, they remain alarmingly high, with only a slight decrease over the past year. Without rapid intervention, academic recovery since the onset of the pandemic will likely get more challenging.
A May brief by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), “Accelerating English Learner Progress by Improving Reclassification,” offers five research-backed recommendations to improve the reclassification process and support student achievement.
