K-12 Education

California's Legislature is downsizing a plan to require ethnic studies for high school graduation—and not for the reason you might think.

California schools may need to use over half of all their new money to cover growing pension obligations—prompting some districts to predict deficits and many to begin cutting programs, reducing staff or drawing down reserves.

Advocates for struggling students say measuring progress over time is key to closing the achievement gap.

A bill advancing in California's Legislature would allow students to transfer to a school outside their own district, but only if they are foster children, migrants, previously or currently homeless, plus one other category with a broader scope: kids being bullied.

The nation’s second-largest school system has enjoyed a major infusion of funding since the bone-deep cuts it endured during the recession. But in coming years, school officials project growth in employee pension and healthcare costs will eclipse the change in revenue.

Charter school supporters may be an effective counterbalance to the prevailing influence public-employee unions have long exerted on Democratic politics in California. But the billions in campaign donations by pro-charter tycoons also points to the outsized sway personal wealth can have on elections.

California’s poor students performed worse on a national exam than needy kids from all but one other state, according to results released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics.

If extremely low, declining performance on math and reading exams alone were enough to trigger state support, the number of California districts that could expect special state help would almost double from 228 to more than 400, a CALmatters analysis shows.

Several small, cash-strapped California school districts are using a loophole in state law to boost their revenue by overseeing a raft of far-flung charter schools, according to a recent report published by the state auditor. The result, the report says: dismal academic results for thousands of students and a lot of extra money for the districts, one of which increased its revenue more than 10-fold.

San Francisco, a progressive enclave and beacon for technological innovation, has the worst black student achievement of any county in California. Only 19 percent of black students passed the state test in reading, compared to 31 percent of black students statewide. The problem in San Francisco may be severe, but it’s not unique. Huge gaps between black kids’ scores and those of their white peers have existed in California for decades. And average reading test scores statewide show the problem persists, even as districts make progress narrowing the achievement gap between Latino and white students.