More than 5 years after the passage of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), California school districts continue to develop and refine strategies to act on the opportunities and expectations associated with the state's school finance system. A new project called the LCFF Test Kitchen has enabled three school districts to make progress by…

In 2019, career pathways were offered in one-third of U.S. school districts, including more than 500 in California. A new brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform, "The Career Pathways Approach: A Way Towards Equity?," examines the equity promise and challenge of pathways. At a time when traditional school experiences…

California's transition to a new governor, superintendent of public instruction, legislators, and members of the state board of education is an opportunity to reflect on the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Namely, has the school finance system achieved its original goals of promoting local control, equity, and greater…

California educators continue in their struggle to communicate district plans to parents, teachers, and other members of the school community. Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), have ballooned into jargon-laden stacks of tables, impenetrable to all but the most sophisticated reader. Envisioned as a tool to improve transparency, the LCAP…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) has introduced positive and much-needed change to California's approach to K-12 education funding by allocating resources according to student need and freeing districts to make decisions that address local priorities. For all of LCFF's advantages, however, the Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) in…