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Why California’s Expanded Learning Needs More Than a Bigger Budget
Starting this week, California’s after-school programs will be required to provide more parent notification and consent — flowing from federal executive orders — another top-down mandate for programs already navigating considerable bureaucracy and funding uncertainty. While robust two-way communication between after-school providers and parents is vital, the notion that regulatory checklists and heightened administrative oversight...
By Patricia Burch, Jon Fullerton and Anna Saavedra | September 17, 2025
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Education as a Ladder: Charters Uplift Communities One Generation at a Time
This August, a group of wide-eyed sixth graders stepped off a school bus and onto Cal State Northridge’s campus. Some sixth graders look awestruck while others seem nervous. We often hear whispers like, “Do you think we’ll go here someday?” That line of thinking is exactly the point. At PUC Schools — Partnerships to Uplift...
By Jacqueline Elliot | September 11, 2025
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What California Teachers Are Trying, Building, and Learning with AI
One California teacher used an artificial intelligence tutor to support students below grade level. Another used AI to create lesson plans. A third tried the technology for sorting students into small groups. AI has the potential to address many fundamental barriers in education — if it’s implemented effectively. Headlines tout its rapid adoption and a...
By Chelsea Waite, Lisa Chu and Steven Weiner | August 12, 2025
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California’s Culturally Divisive Conflict is Costing Schools Too Much
These are lean times in public education. Public school enrollment is declining nationwide and in California. Major federal funding cuts to public education are looming, and California’s own budget woes mean that it will not be able to backfill these shortages. Lean times should call for intentionality in allocating scarce resources and conservation of the...
By Huriya Jabbar and Rachel White | August 6, 2025
Across All Ages & Demographics, Test Results Show Americans Are Getting Dumber
Parents, Medical Providers, Vaccine Experts Brace for RFK Jr.’s HHS Takeover
After Declaring NAEP Off-Limits, Education Department Cancels Upcoming Test
Interactive: Data From 9,500 Districts Finds Even More Staff and Fewer Students
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Girls’ STEM Skills Slipped During COVID. Here’s What to Do
This story was originally published on EdSource. For nearly 20 years, academic strategies, support and policies focused on closing long-standing achievement gaps in STEM between boys and girls. These efforts paid off, and by 2019, girls’ achievement in math and science equaled or exceeded boys’. Then the pandemic hit, and the gaps that took two decades to...
By Megan Kuhfield | July 31, 2025
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California Shows How States Can Step Up for Young Students With Disabilities
Imagine being 4 years old and ready to start preschool, eager to learn, play and make friends, only to find out there’s no classroom available to you because you have a disability. That’s a reality for too many young children despite the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which for 50 years has mandated a...
By Sarah Johns | July 22, 2025
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School’s Out for Summer, Parents Need Support With Youth Mental Health
School’s out for summer, and for many California parents, that means worrying a little extra about how kids will fare over the next few months. Will their new routines and activities be rewarding or will they add stress? Will they stay connected with the mentors who support them? Will they have setbacks without the structure...
By Steve Bullock, January Contreras & Carlos Curbelo | July 15, 2025
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It’s Time to Reject Chronic Absenteeism as the New Normal in Student Attendance
The day education leaders, researchers and advocates have feared is here: It is now clear that student attendance will not return to pre-pandemic rates on its own. The number of students missing more than 10% of the school year skyrocketed in the COVID years from 15% in 2019 to 28% in 2022. Five years after...
By Liz Cohen | July 7, 2025
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California Students Have Fallen Behind, These Two Solutions Can Help
Across California, students face a daunting academic reality. In January, scores from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that students in our state performed significantly below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math. Gaps between low-income students and their wealthier peers widened. As the world becomes more complex, it is critical that youth are...
By Lida Jennings | June 23, 2025
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Last School Year Was the Hottest on Record. How Do We Protect Students?
As spring showers give way to rising temperatures, teachers and families across the country are bracing for another record-breaking hot summer — and this time, they’re heading in with even fewer resources and protections. A slew of funding cuts from the Trump administration impact everything from school heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to...
By Paige Shoemaker DeMio | June 18, 2025