Briefs

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Showing 10 of 44 resources

Brief

Reducing Student Suspension Rates

Stephen Kostyo

Jessica Cardichon

Linda Darling-Hammond

Oct 03 2018
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Suspensions from school can disrupt student learning and inhibit students’ success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides opportunities for states to address suspension rates and other non-academic indicators that affect student success. This brief describes how states can use data on suspensions, what some states are doing, and policies to reduce suspension rates. It is part of the report Making ESSA’s Equity Promise Real: State Strategies to Close the Opportunity Gap.

Topics Accountability and Improvement, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Educating the Whole Child: Improving School Climate to Support Student Success

Linda Darling-Hammond

Channa Cook-Harvey

Sep 07 2018
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Students living with the toxic stress and trauma of poverty and crime can struggle to learn. Research on science of learning & development shows that these struggles can be addressed through whole child and positive school climate approaches that support academic, physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development — systems that put students’ healthy growth and development at the center of the classroom.

Topics Deeper Learning, Deeper Learning: School Organization & Design
Brief

How Money Matters for Schools

Bruce D. Baker

Jul 17 2018
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This brief is based on a report reviewing research on the role of money in determining school quality. The research found that schooling resources that cost money are positively associated with student outcomes. In addition to summarizing the report, the brief offers these policy recommendations: Ensure school finance reforms are linked to thoughtful standards and supports for students and teachers, invest more in students who have greater needs, and invest in human resources.

Topic Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Encouraging Social and Emotional Learning: Next Steps for States

Jun 15 2018
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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides an opportunity for states to include measures of students social, emotional, and academic development when assessing outcomes. This brief offers recommendations for ways state agencies can encourage social and emotional learning in schools to support the whole child, through their systems of accountability and continuous improvement under ESSA.

Topics Accountability and Improvement, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Deeper Learning
Brief

Diversifying the Teaching Profession Through High-Retention Pathways

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Apr 19 2018
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More and more states and districts are recognizing that recruiting and retaining teachers of color can help meet their students' needs while also helping to curb critical teacher shortages. But prospective teachers of color encounter unique barriers to entering and staying in the profession. High-retention pathways—combining high-quality clinically rich preparation with financial support—can be especially effective at reversing those trends.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Education and the Path to One Nation, Indivisible

Linda Darling-Hammond

Feb 27 2018
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In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) to examine racial division and disparities in the United States. In 1968, the Kerner Commission released a report concluding that the nation was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” Without major social changes, the Commission warned, the U.S. faced a “system of apartheid” in its major cities. Today, 50 years after the report was issued, that prediction characterizes most of our large urban areas, where intensifying segregation and concentrated poverty have collided with disparities in school funding to reinforce educational inequality.

Topics Equitable Resources and Access, Accountability and Improvement
Brief

Understaffed and Underprepared: California Districts Report Ongoing Teacher Shortages

Leib Sutcher

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Linda Darling-Hammond

Feb 05 2018
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For the 2017-18 school year, 80% of California districts reported shortages of qualified teachers and 82% reported hiring underprepared teachers, according to an LPI survey completed by 25 California school districts. Those districts collectively serve a quarter of the state’s students and include urban, suburban, and rural areas. This brief examines how districts experienced teacher supply in the fall of 2017.

Topic Educator Quality
Brief

Money and Freedom: The Impact of California’s School Finance Reform

Rucker Johnson

Sean Tanner

Feb 02 2018
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This study of California’s recent major school finance reform, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), is among the first to provide evidence of LCFF’s impacts on student outcomes. We found that LCFF-induced increases in school spending led to significant increases in high school graduation rates and academic achievement, particularly among children from low-income families. The evidence suggests that money targeted to students’ needs can make a significant difference in student outcomes and can narrow achievement gaps.

Topics Equitable Resources and Access, Accountability and Improvement
Brief

Building an Early Learning System that Works: Next Steps for California

Hanna Melnick

Beth Meloy

Madelyn Gardner

Marjorie Wechsler

Anna Maier

Jan 23 2018
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This brief provides California policymakers with recommendations on how to improve access to high-quality early childhood education (ECE) for all children. It is based on a report that examines the ECE practices in 10 counties that vary by region, population density, and child care affordability. The report upon which this brief is based describes the landscape of ECE at the local level as it is shaped by federal and state policies, illuminates challenges that counties face in providing access to high-quality programs, and highlights promising practices.

Topic Early Childhood Learning
Brief

The Promise of Performance Assessments: Innovations in High School Learning and Higher Education Admissions

Roneeta Guha

Tony Wagner

Linda Darling-Hammond

Terri Taylor

Diane Curtis

Jan 18 2018
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This brief describes performance assessments and their value for guiding and evaluating high school students' learning, as well as informing colleges and universities about what students know and can do. It explores state and local policies that support the use of such assessments, along with emerging higher education efforts to incorporate them in college admission, placement, and advising. It discusses steps that can help ensure that performance assessments are high-quality, rigorous, and well understood and that can facilitate the use of these assessments in higher education decisions.

Topics Deeper Learning: Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment, Deeper Learning: College, Career & Civic Participation, Deeper Learning

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Brief

Untangling the Evidence on Preschool Effectiveness: Insights for Policymakers

Jan 31 2019

Research on early learning programs in the 1960s and 1970s revealed enormous benefits for children that lasted into adulthood, sparking investment in preschool programs, but two evaluations of large preschool programs that yielded mixed results created confusion about the wisdom of such investments. A review of rigorous and more recent research into the impact of preschool clarifies that students who attend high-quality preschool programs reap benefits that can last throughout their lives.

Brief

Essential Building Blocks for State School Finance Systems and Promising State Practices

Dec 05 2018

Creating equitable and adequate school finance systems is a challenging-but-achievable task. It's also an essential one, as the cost of failing to properly invest in high-quality public education for all children impacts not just students but society at large. This new study shares essential state-level strategies and examples to help policymakers develop equitable and effective school finance systems.

Brief

Learning to Lead: Understanding California’s Learning System for School and District Leaders

Oct 15 2018

A study including a survey of California principals and interviews with principals, former principals, and superintendents finds that California’s education leaders experience only some elements of high-quality preparation and professional development, and often miss out on the most valuable elements of quality learning experiences. Moreover, their participation in professional learning opportunities that support them in leading schools that develop students’ deeper learning and social and emotional competencies is inconsistent. They do, however, want more of it.

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