Louis Freedberg
Louis Freedberg led EdSource as executive director from July 2011-April 2021. For more than two decades, Freedberg has analyzed and reported on local, state, and national education policy. Before coming to EdSource, Freedberg was the founding director of California Watch at the Center for Investigative Reporting. He spent 15 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was an award-winning education reporter, Washington correspondent, columnist, and member of the editorial board. He has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in child development from Yale University.
All articles by Louis Freedberg
High turnover in school district leadership
While the leadership turmoil in the Los Angeles Unified School District has attracted widespread attention in recent months, short tenure is a prominent feature of California schools, especially in large urban districts.
Louis Freedberg
December 8, 2014
Impact of teacher preparation rules unclear
The Obama administration last week announced draft regulations to evaluate the effectiveness of more than 2,000 teacher preparation programs nationwide, but how exactly they would apply to California is unclear.
Louis Freedberg
December 2, 2014
Network on school discipline launched
In response to efforts in many California school districts to reduce suspensions and expulsions, EdSource is convening an Educators Network for Effective School Discipline to help school and district officials as well as teachers share best practices and collaborate on successful strategies.
Louis Freedberg
November 24, 2014
Children key to deportation relief
California will be the main beneficiary of President Barack Obama's historic announcement on Thursday night of a program granting temporary relief from deportation to unauthorized immigrants – and in most cases children will be the key to them taking advantage of it.
Louis Freedberg
November 21, 2014
Students in high poverty schools lose learning time
Even though schools across California offer similar amounts of instructional time each week, and instructional days during the school year, students in high poverty schools get far less time for actual learning, a new report concludes.
Louis Freedberg
November 18, 2014
State board approves school funding rules
After soliciting input for over a year from education groups, research and advocacy organizations, students and parents, the State Board of Education on Friday approved final regulations governing how districts spend funds they receive through the Local Control Funding Formula, the state's new school financing law.
Louis Freedberg
November 17, 2014
Common Core unscathed in California elections
The Common Core State Standards, the principal reform now underway in California schools, emerged unscathed from the state's fall electoral battles, including one of the most combative races for state superintendent of public instruction in decades.
Louis Freedberg
November 7, 2014
Torlakson victory ensures continuity in reforms
One immediate consequence of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s rebuff of challenger Marshall Tuck is to ensure the continuance of the cohesion in state education policy that has been forged since Gov. Jerry Brown returned to Sacramento four years ago.
Louis Freedberg
November 5, 2014
State implements new kindergarten cutoff age
Of the panoply of reforms now being implemented in California schools, the one affecting the state’s youngest public school students passed almost unnoticed this fall. California children now have to be 5 years old by Sept. 1 to enroll in kindergarten.
Louis Freedberg And Laurie Udesky
October 27, 2014
Teacher preparation enrollments plummet
Enrollments in teacher preparation programs in California are continuing to decline at a precipitous rate, according to new figures from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Between the 2001-02 and 2012-13 school years, enrollments in teacher preparation programs dropped 74 percent.
Louis Freedberg
October 9, 2014
EdSource Report: Preparing effective teachers
The crucial challenges of recruiting, preparing and retaining teachers has gotten short shrift in the reform debates over the last few years, despite the fact that effective teachers will be crucial to the success of a range of current reforms.
Louis Freedberg
October 8, 2014
California, other states to set test cutoff scores
During the next few weeks California educators will play a pivotal role in a crucial phase of work for the new Smarter Balanced assessments California students will take this spring: setting the cutoff scores that will indicate how well a student is performing.