Publications

The Cruel Divide: How California’s Education Finance System Shortchanges its Poorest School Districts

A new report released today paints a step-by-step picture of startling inequities in California’s system of education funding that harm our state’s poorest school districts. In The Cruel Divide: How California’s Education Finance System Shortchanges its Poorest School Districts, The Education Trust—West reveals that California’s highest poverty districts—those with the largest concentrations of low-income students—receive $620 less per student from state and local sources than the state’s wealthiest districts. For a mid-sized school district of 6,000 students, that amounts to over $3.7 million per year.

ETW has put together a web tool that allows you to search for a school district's per-pupil state and local revenues.  Click here to access the tool.   

Publication date: 
February 23 2012
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Learning Denied: The Case for Equitable Access to Effective Teaching in California’s Largest School District

The Education Trust—West releases the findings of a two- year-long study of data from the second largest school district in the nation, revealing profound inequities in access to effective teaching.  In Learning Denied: The Case for Equitable Access to Effective Teaching in California’s Largest School District, The Education Trust—West finds that low-income students and students of color in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are less likely to be taught by the district’s top teachers – the very teachers capable of closing the district’s achievement gaps. These inequities are exacerbated by teacher mobility patterns and quality-blind layoffs.

Publication date: 
January 12 2012

Teaching Counts: Recommendations for Reforming California's Teacher Evaluation System

Parents know what researchers confirm: The single most important school-based factor affecting student academic performance is the quality of the teacher in the classroom.

Teachers matter because when they have high expectations of their students, their students rise to meet them. Teachers count because they not only play an important role in raising student achievement, but they also have the potential to close long-standing achievement gaps that persist between low-income students and students of color and their more advantaged peers. Teachers matter to all students, but great teaching makes the most difference for our highest need students, who are least likely to have academic supports outside of school. 

Publication date: 
January 2 2012

Improving Teacher Evaluation in California

Most teachers say they teach because they love their students, and because they love helping them to learn. And it shows. Research shows that the single most important school-based factor in improving student academic performance is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Students who have strong teachers year after year soar academically. 

Unfortunately, too many teachers—from those who are the best in the state to those who are growing professionally— receive limited feedback, whether it is praise for a job well done or constructive feedback to help them grow in their craft. 

Publication date: 
November 17 2011

Turning Back the Clock: The Inequitable Impact of Shortening California’s School Year

California’s education system has long failed to meet the needs of the low-income students and students of color who are now a vast majority of our state’s student population. To close persistent achievement gaps, we must dramatically improve the learning outcomes of our highest-need students by leveraging proven strategies such as increasing the amount of time students spend in school.

Yet, for the last two years, California’s policymakers have made the inequitable decision to systematically reduce the amount of instructional time that school districts are required to provide. Given that California has some of the widest achievement gaps and lowest student performance in the nation, reducing learning time in our schools should not be an option.

Publication date: 
October 31 2011

Diploma Matters: A Field Guide for College and Career Readiness

Diploma Matters:  A Field Guide for College and Career Readiness (Jossey-Bass) is written for practitioners who believe fully that the K-12 experience should prepare all students equally well for the full array of opportunities that await them after high school.  Whatever they choose, high school graduates should be equipped with the knowledge and skills that will make them successful in both college and careers. 

This field guide is intended to help state leaders, district superintendents, principals, and other site and district leaders gain a deep understanding of what it takes to ensure that students from all backgrounds have access to a rigorous course of study that leads to college and career readiness. It can also be a useful resource in the higher education arena as part of teacher preparation and administrator leadership programs. Readers will find a "toolkit" developed by The Education Trust-West.  The tools in the kit help school leaders and teachers examine the current high school experience (Educational Opportunity Audit), and then develop a detailed action plan (Blueprint) to transform curriculum so that their students are ready for college and work. 

Publication date: 
August 2 2011

Unlocking Doors and Expanding Opportunities

To meet California’s demand for a more educated workforce, high schools must dramatically increase the number of students who earn diplomas and graduate with meaningful preparation. Yet disturbingly, few students graduate with the college-ready coursework needed to access our state’s public university system. This is especially true for low-income students and students of color, who are also disproportionately tracked into less rigorous “career education” courses.

Publication date: 
July 25 2011

A Report Card on District Achievement: How Low-income, African-American, and Latino Students Fare in California School Districts

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.

Publication date: 
April 27 2011

The Education Trust-West 2011 Policy Agenda

As 2011 begins, California faces significant challenges that threaten the future of its students. California ranks in the bottom 15 percent of the nation in reading and math on national assessments, and wide opportunity and achievement gaps persist in our schools. Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget projects a $25 billion shortfall and proposes significant cuts to the state’s universities and community colleges. While the governor seeks to spare K-12 education from cuts of more than $2 billion, spending levels will still fall in 2011-12 as one-time federal stimulus money dries up.

Publication date: 
March 1 2011

Victims of the Churn: The Damaging Impact of California’s Teacher Layoff Policies on Schools, Students and Communities in Three Large School Districts

California’s students, particularly its poorest students, need great teachers. Unfortunately, California’s seniority-based teacher layoff system puts adult privileges over student needs. Newer teachers are laid off first, regardless of how well they do their jobs. This system is especially damaging to schools serving the highest numbers of low-income students, which are more likely than others to experience layoffs and mass personnel shuffling. Their students become victims of the churn.

Publication date: 
February 23 2011