K-12 Education

This story is part of a series on the experiences of students attending three different California school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring 2022. It was produced through a partnership with CatchLight Local and CalMatters.  At Buttonwillow Elementary School, Lorena Hernandez ended the school year ready to graduate eighth grade and start high school, […]

This story is part of a series on the experiences of students attending three different California school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring 2022. It was produced through a partnership with CatchLight Local, CalMatters and the Salinas Californian. It’s 6 a.m. and soft light hits the home in a serene Soledad neighborhood. The sound […]

As part of the “Student Reflections: Looking Back on School during COVID” series, students in each community were given disposable cameras to document their own experiences. They photographed their friends, classrooms, changing mask mandates, recess, after school activities and senior prom.  On what it was like for her students to take pictures for the project, […]

A CalMatters investigation found that schools had wildly different approaches to stimulus spending — from laptops to shade structures to an ice cream truck. No centralized database exists to show the public exactly where the money went.

Tony Thurmond faces little opposition for a second term as California schools superintendent, but critics question how much he has accomplished. He points to task forces that are influencing education policy and says he wants to help public schools rebound from the pandemic.

Ethnic studies can teach our children about their commonalities and their unique identities. Civics can teach them how to work toward compromise. California’s plan, however, is for these lessons to be taught separately. That makes no sense.

Schools already struggling with teacher shortages reached a crisis point during the omicron surge, particularly those with high percentages of high-needs students. With substitute teachers in scarce supply and school officials worried about future staffing, one lawmaker is proposing solutions.

Last school year, growing districts weren’t funded for all their students. Their leaders say they’ve been hurt by efforts to protect the majority of the state’s districts experiencing declining enrollment.

For the first time since the start of the century, fewer than 6 million kids are attending California public schools.

According to new data from the California Department of Education, enrollment continues to drop at faster rates than before the pandemic.