Policy development is fundamentally a process of negotiation. Legislation or other regulatory guidance often requires the support of a range of stakeholders to actually become policy. The resulting policy is therefore a compilation of interests, all partially represented in a final product that sufficiently satisfies enough key stakeholders to…

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons…

This report in brief shares findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs (PPPs)--which prepare the…

In the January 2019-20 State Budget Proposal, Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a K-12 education spending plan with an all-time high of $80.7 billion dollars. The budget proposal makes significant investments in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), special education, state preschool, and partial relief for pension liabilities. In addition, it…

During the global pandemic of the 2020-21 school year, school districts rapidly transitioned from the traditional in-person structure of school to distance learning. This research study sought to understand how superintendents envisioned virtual learning as an option within their school district portfolio, exploring the barriers faced in its…

A customized guide about liberatory design thinking processes that have been tested within college settings to support changes that enhance equity in policies and practices within institutions. This research is based on case studies of several institutions, including focus group interviews with the campus design teams and an analysis of artifacts.…

Within California, there is widespread understanding and consensus that college affordability is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Along with this consensus on the nature and implications of California's college affordability problems, there is also emerging agreement about how to tackle it. While this convergence can form the backbone of a…

Purpose: The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful…

Purpose: Alternative routes to teacher certification, such as California's Intern Program, have increasingly gained support in the past decade. A significant and growing percentage of all new teachers, close to 30% in California, now enter classrooms through alternative paths and are considered highly qualified under No Child Left Behind. This…

The results of a one-year project to determine the status of provisions for consumer education throughout the country are reported in this document. A section on the observations and recommendations of the advisory committee of the consumer's education project serves as the document's introduction. Part I, background and overview, analyzes the…

This article by Patricia Whitelaw-Hill, Executive Director of READ, addresses the issue of the education of limited-English students in public education. New York has joined California in concluding that bilingual education programs are not working as well as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs in helping language minority students become…

As a result of a study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission on the feasibility of extending secondary school-community college articulated career programs to the baccalaureate degree level, the 1988-89 state budget provided $410,000 to support the development of a 3-year 2 + 2 + 2 pilot program. In November 1988, 18 projects were…

For many years, teacher education has been the subject of persistent concerns, many of which were reflected in a 1997 evaluation of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP). The evaluation noted the lack of a common view of the purpose of STEP, resulting in "contradictory practices and mixed messages"; fragmented coursework; faculty…

The experiences of five California school districts in implementing English immersion instruction for all limited-English-speaking students are described and compared. The districts range from populous urban settings to small, isolated rural communities. The first part of the report profiles the five districts, and the second part sets forth three…

Legislative and programmatic efforts to improve teacher quality have become a major focus of state policymaking in recent years. States have employed numerous strategies in response to concerns about the preparation, quantity, and capacity of the teacher workforce. In this chapter, the authors introduce conceptual frameworks for understanding…