Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

State awards Common Core test contract
With the State Board of Education’s approval, California became the ninth state Wednesday to award a contract to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium for the standardized tests in the Common Core State Standards that students will take next spring. EdSource

---

Truancy package marks half-step in reforms
It’s September – which state schools chief Tom Torlakson has declared attendance awareness month – but that doesn’t mean Gov. Jerry Brown will celebrate by signing a package of bills aimed at reining in truancy and chronic absenteeism. S&I Cabinet Report

---

As the third-largest school district in state, Long Beach thinking smaller
As students file in for the first day of school Wednesday in the Long Beach Unified School District, more will find themselves at smaller schools and matched with close-knit learning communities as the district works to reinvent its campuses and curriculum. LA Register

---

Child care hard to find in parts of Los Angeles
Looking only at infants and toddlers, the area doesn’t even have enough space in licensed childcare centers for 1 percent of the nearly 4,000 children 2 and younger who live here, according to the study. KPCC

---

Majority of students are minorities, but most teachers are still white

A majority of the public school students heading back to school this September aren’t white. But the teachers leading their classrooms are still overwhelmingly so. Huffington Post