Report

Across California, there are high school students dreaming of being the first in their families to attend college. For these students and families, college presents a life-changing opportunity. Many of these students have to work to help pay household bills, and tuition for a four-year college seems out of reach. They may know that financial aid is an option, but often the application process feels daunting. Some worry that applying for grants or loans will put their parents’ legal status in jeopardy.

The new Education Trust—West report, Catching up to the Core: Common Sense Strategies for Accelerating Access to the Common Core in California, finds that California has fallen far behind other states and even local school districts in implementing the new English Language Arts and Math CCSS. This lack of progress will leave millions of California students trailing their peers in other states, two years before new assessments aligned with the Common Core are expected to come online. 

The report profiles best practices for implementing the CCSS in other states and school districts, including some in California. It highlights promising work in teacher professional development, instructional materials, technology, and alignment with systems of higher education, particularly in teacher preparation.

The report concludes with common sense recommendations for California policymakers. These include improving public understanding of the Common Core, expanding educator professional development, aligning instructional materials, and addressing technology infrastructure and capacity. 

California will need an additional one million college graduates by 2025. To meet this challenge, California’s college and career pipeline must serve as a true pathway to post-secondary success for all California’s students. New data from the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) highlight major gaps in college opportunity for the low-income students and students of color who are the majority of California’s student population. Fortunately, these data also reveal high schools throughout California that are making progress in closing these opportunity gaps. To read more, click here.  

In this report, The Education Trust—West grades the 146 largest unified school districts in California on four key indicators of student performance to see how well they are serving their African-American, Latino, and low-income students. While most districts in California earn Cs and Ds on these indicators, some districts prove that more is possible.

This inaugural Equity Alert highlights California’s newest statewide rankings and uncovers all-too familiar achievement gaps. The state’s 2009 Base Annual Performance Index (API) data and statewide rankings reveal that race and class continue to play a substantial role in shaping educational opportunity, and that systemic inequity is pervasive in California’s schools. The report outlines actions state policymakers and education leaders can take to address these patterns of inequity.