Education

After months of controversy over far-right speakers on the UC Berkeley campus, the US Department of Justice has weighed in. Attorneys for the department filed a brief Thursday in support of a federal lawsuit by the Berkeley College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation alleging that the university’s public event policies discriminate against conservatives.

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.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s landmark school funding formula would not only win more money under the state budget blueprint he released Wednesday but also be subjected to the sort of transparency and accountability lawmakers and advocates for needy kids have been seeking since its adoption almost five years ago.

A veteran teacher reveals the challenges and frustrations she faces every day as she tries to close an achievement gap for her students in San Francisco’s Bayview.

This post is part of our Open Reporting at CALmatters, in which we share progress on stories as we’re developing them, while also inviting you to share thoughts and comments to help inform our research. Our goal: more transparent and effective journalism. We welcome your feedback.

In the past year, CALmatters, Capital Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times have partnered to examine the history of the state’s pension woes and how key decisions to boost public workers’ benefits without setting aside extra money to pay for them have threatened the bottom lines for universities as well as state and local governments. Now, we’re turning our attention to schools.

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.

California’s African-American students are struggling with standardized tests. Statewide, only one in three black public school students passed the English portion of this year’s exam, while only one in five black students passed the math section. By comparison, a majority of white and Asian-American students met state standards in both subjects. African-American students are disproportionately […]

A tale of two Common Core tests and the mind-boggling results of each.