The Trump administration's push to scale back the federal role in education could mean more autonomy for states. But this increased decision-making power will also make state K-12 accountability more important than ever. States must ensure education funding is used effectively, especially for those students furthest from opportunity. While some…

"The Instructional Leadership Cycle" introduces a multifaceted model for continuous school and system improvement, founded on an adaptable set of professional practices for K-12 leaders. Daniel Allen draws on a breadth of education system experience, spanning from classroom to top office, to outline a flexible framework--the…

California does not have a statewide data system that tracks student progress through K-12 and higher education and into the workforce. As a result, educators and policymakers cannot answer critical questions about student progress, which limits their ability to make evidence-based changes to support better and more equitable opportunities for…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to immediate school closures resulting in online learning. Online learning under such circumstances has presented challenges for teachers of students with mild to extensive support needs. The current study interviewed twenty special education teachers about the strategies they used when teaching online and the…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in schooling have been particularly difficult for students learning the English language. Recent research indicates that nearly 40 percent of English learners (ELs) nationwide were not receiving the services and support they needed to successfully engage with academic content during distance learning…

States can and should continue to measure student growth in 2021. Growth data will be crucial to understanding how school closures due to COVID-19 have affected student progress and what supports they will need to get back on track. Education leaders will also need growth data to ensure that any recovery efforts are equitable as well as effective…

"AASA Learning 2025: Student-Centered, Equity-Focused, Future-Driven Education" is a movement that calls for a holistic redesign of the public school system by 2025. This initiative is grounded in the foundational work of the AASA Learning 2025 National Commission, comprised of thought leaders in education, business, community, and…

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), every state must develop a plan to provide a quality education to all students, hold schools accountable for how all students achieve, and identify and help schools that are struggling. It matters greatly how California designs its accountability system and supports school improvement. Getting this…

In the wake of COVID-19, the California legislature mandated that local educational agencies (LEAs) develop detailed Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs) to address student learning and progress during the 2020-21 academic year. This brief summarizes results of an analysis of nearly 1,000 LCPs from public school districts across the…

As the COVID-19 crisis disrupted schooling, recovery efforts to ensure educational continuity in California included the adoption of Senate Bill 98, which mandated local educational agencies (LEAs) to complete Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs). These plans act as critical snapshots of sensemaking in the midst of crisis; however,…

The Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) are a series of measures designed to assess for arithmetic calculation skills and calculation fluency in children ages 6 through 18. There are five main purposes of the MFaCTs: (1) identifying students who are behind in basic math fact automaticity; (2) evaluating possible delays in arithmetic…

This policy brief is part of a larger research report, "Making ESSA's Equity Promise Real: State Strategies to Close the Opportunity Gap," that describes how states are using opportunities in ESSA [Every Student Succeeds Act] to better support historically underserved students through the thoughtful selection of specific equity measures…

In the first of this four-part series of policy briefs on student data in California, we noted a disconnect in the views of state policy staff and local educators on the need for a statewide longitudinal student data system (see "About This Series"). The local educators we interviewed expressed a readiness to participate in a state data…

For more than a decade, states have evaluated school performance largely through a single measure--test scores--and rated schools on whether they improved students' performance in reading or math. The idea was to focus schools' attention on the outcomes that mattered most and to focus states' attention on the schools that needed the most help in…

Conventional wisdom suggests that local educators tend to be wary of efforts by the state to gather more information from their institutions, due to the burdens that such requests often entail. But California's current education landscape, with its shift from state to local control of funding and accountability in the K-12 system, its massive…