Featured Articles on EdSource

November 17, 2014

Common Core stays after school

As California school districts implement the Common Core State Standards in English and math, more of them are looking to after-school and summer programs to help acquaint both teachers and students with the new approach to learning.

Susan Frey

November 17, 2014

Congress approves child care grant program

Congress has finally updated the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, which provides billions in state aid each year to help low-income families afford child care services. The Senate on Monday voted 88-1 to approve the bill, which the House passed in September.

Lisa Fine

November 17, 2014

Poll: Voters know little about Common Core

More than half of California voters say they know nothing or very little about the state’s new Common Core standards for English language arts and math, according to a new report by the Policy Analysis for California Education/USC Rossier School of Education.

Laurie Udesky

November 17, 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 16, 2014

LA groups model of community engagement

Community groups in East and South Los Angeles have spent the past decade making L.A. Unified officials listen and respond to their needs, long before districts were required to do so under California’s new Local Control Funding Formula.

Susan Frey

November 14, 2014

National Children's Study put on hold

A ground-breaking national study that would track the health of children from birth to adulthood may not happen after all. It has been put on hold over concerns about its costs and whether the research methods planned are outdated.

Lisa Fine

November 13, 2014

School groups ask to delay API scores

The State Board of Education, as expected, voted Thursday to move ahead in the spring with the new Smarter Balanced tests on the Common Core State Standards while leaving open, for now, the decision on what to do with the test results.

John Fensterwald

November 13, 2014

District LCAPs must include student input

School districts must specifically seek student input in developing their Local Control and Accountability Plans under the revised regulations being considered for adoption by the State Board of Education Friday.

Karla Scoon Reid

November 13, 2014

Report: School kitchens need equipment

Nearly every school kitchen in California needs equipment to be more successful at serving lunches that meet federal nutrition standards, according to a report released Thursday.

Jane Meredith Adams

November 12, 2014

School lunch programs ordered to spend more

At long last, some school food service departments in California are going shopping, under orders from the California Department of Education to spend millions of dollars in federal and state school lunch funds that districts have failed for years to use for student meals.

Jane Meredith Adams

November 12, 2014

Financial aid protected some UC, CSU students

State and federal financial aid has protected low-income and some middle class families from state universities' big tuition and fee increases – but not enough eligible families sought help, a report from the Public Policy Institute of California concluded.

John Fensterwald

November 11, 2014

Reworking remedial education

The California Acceleration Project aims to revise and shorten the traditional remedial education sequence, helping increase the number of community college students who pass credit-bearing math and English within their first year of starting college.

Michelle Maitre

November 9, 2014

Hayward community tackles truancy

Hayward school officials, police, businesses and churches are taking a gentle approach to reducing high truancy rates among students. Merchants are refusing to serve school-aged youths during school hours, and if students persist, police take them back to school to get them help staying in class.

Susan Frey

November 7, 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

Districts embrace local control but struggle

A new study that examines the implementation of California’s Local Control Funding Formula revealed that district leaders welcome a need-based local funding model but that they were hindered by a lack of time, information, skills and resources.

Erin Brownfield