News Update

Michael Kirst takes new position at institute established by Linda Darling-Hammond

Michael Kirst is picking up where he left off nearly two years ago when he retired as president of the State Board of Education, with a new venue to contemplate education policy in California.

Kirst announced last week that he is now Senior Fellow in Residence at the Learning Policy Institute in Palo Alto. His initial task, he wrote in an email, will be an analysis and revision of the state’s system of education reform that combines many components, including classroom instruction, community schools and district operations such as human resources and budgeting. This will include “new and more comprehensive strategies” and “much tighter linkages between K-12 and postsecondary education,” he said.

Kirst, an adviser for former Gov. Jerry Brown for five decades, was a co-author of what came to be the Local Control Funding Formula, the new system for allocating state funding for school districts. During his eight years as state board president, he oversaw the integration of new academic standards and assessments and a new, still-evolving system of school accountability. His successor as board president, Linda Darling-Hammond, is president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and a longtime collaborator and colleague at Stanford University, where both are professors emeriti.

Kirst said his the deadline for presenting his initial report is June 2021.


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