Morgan Polikoff

January 17, 2023

Ending California’s math wars requires leadership from Sacramento

While policymakers and advocates are arguing over how best to teach math, an increasing number of California's students are failing to learn math.

Pedro Noguera and Morgan Polikoff

Math and Science

April 5, 2022

Student math scores touch off ‘five-alarm fire’ in California

The pandemic compounded the challenge of teaching math at grade level when many California students may be three or four years behind.

John Fensterwald

School Finance

March 5, 2020

Post-Prop. 13: Why a likely winner may end up California election’s big loser

Several factors — confusion with a more famous 13, tax fatigue, anxiety over the stock market — may have led to the measure’s likely defeat.

John Fensterwald

Podcast

December 13, 2019

How are students — and schools — doing in California?

This week: LA County Superintendent Debra Duardo cites low performing student groups' progress, while USC Professor Morgan Polikoff faults the dashboard design.

EdSource staff

Testing and Accountability

July 10, 2018

Pressure builds to change how California measures student progress on state tests

Student advocacy groups and academics are seeking to adopt a model other states use to calculate the impact of students’ test score growth, but state staff urge patience.

John Fensterwald And Mikhail Zinshteyn

Testing and Accountability

April 9, 2018

California makes significant gain in reading on much anticipated national test

San Diego, Los Angeles and Fresno make notable growth among urban districts in the 2017 NAEP.

John Fensterwald

Local Control Funding Formula

February 5, 2018

Contrary to critics, parents tell pollster they find California’s school dashboard useful

Depending how the question is framed, they also favor rating schools on multiple factors, not issuing a single grade.

John Fensterwald

State Education Policy

November 6, 2017

California state board asked to reject textbooks that fall short on LGBT contributions

Two K-8 texts by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not comply with state's History Social Science Framework, according to Instructional Quality Commission.