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Topic

Early Learning

Quality early care and education are critical to prepare California children for school and their lives in general. But a large percentage of children do not have access to high quality early childhood education programs. The coronavirus pandemic has caused financial strife for early learning programs trying to meet health and safety guidelines and keep staff and children safe. But the public health crisis has also illuminated the essential nature of the early learning and care field and reinvigorated hopes to expand preschool access to more children.

Commentary
September 13, 2022

Opportunity begins in kindergarten

Attendance in kindergarten should not be optional, and voluntary participation results in too many parents delaying their child’s entrance into school until first grade.

Alberto M. Carvalho and Pedro Noguera
Legislation
September 6, 2022

Dozens of community colleges offer remedial classes; bill to ban them awaits Newsom’s signature

Five years after California adopted a law transforming remedial education, some colleges still have remedial classes. New legislation would make it difficult to keep them.

Michael Burke
Commentary
August 18, 2022

What it will take to ensure literacy for all California students

After decades of underfunding its public schools, California's investments in equity and literacy are showing progress.

Linda Darling-Hammond
California's Reading Dilemma
August 17, 2022

A movement rises to change the teaching of reading

Scientists, teachers, and parents battle over the best way to teach reading amid a literacy crisis.

Karen D'Souza
Transitional Kindergarten
August 15, 2022

What parents should know about getting kids ready for transitional kindergarten

This year even more than usual, teachers say, parents might want to help their children prepare for TK.

Karen D'Souza
Student Well-Being
August 10, 2022

What’s new this school year? Changing Covid protocols, universal TK, later start times and more

California's school year will begin with fewer Covid protocols, universal transitional kindergarten, more afterschool programs and community schools, and later start times for older students.

Diana Lambert
Early Learning
July 27, 2022

Can infants learn math? State-backed pilot project in Fresno aims to find out

A statewide pilot project in California is aimed at boosting the confidence of early childhood educators, child care providers and elementary school teachers to teach math.

Ashleigh Panoo
K-12 Enrollment
July 24, 2022

Enrollment decline: LAUSD's Carvalho says families leaving the state or choosing to home-school

LAUSD and other school districts nationwide are still trying to figure out the whereabouts of children who did not return to school after the pandemic.

Thomas Peele
Commentary
July 11, 2022

More teachers, outreach needed to support California's youngest English learners

California can create a national model for expanding educational opportunities for students and crafting groundbreaking policies that serve to properly identify and serve dual language students.

Patricia Lozano and Feliza Ortiz-Licon
State Education Policy
July 1, 2022

California's new budget includes historic funding for education

The $128 billion total for schools and community colleges gives a big boost for the funding formula and after-school programs, with a promise for an expansion of Cal Grants for college assistance.

John Fensterwald And Yuxuan Xie
Commentary
June 29, 2022

Child care access is key to pandemic recovery for California's children, working families

California must expand and support access to child care options even as transitional kindergarten rolls out.

Connie Leyva
Commentary
June 28, 2022

Even incremental support for early ed teachers can help ease the child care crisis

Incremental changes could go a long way toward addressing the teacher shortage and provide more families with access to child care.

Anthony Felix
Credentialing
June 17, 2022

California to create teaching credential covering pre-K through 3rd grade that requires literacy training

State commission hopes new credential will help attract thousands of teachers for transitional kindergarten; literacy advocates press for strong literacy standards.

John Fensterwald
Commentary
June 2, 2022

We can stop the Head Start classroom crisis

Low wages for Head Start teachers are causing classrooms to close, leaving children without services and risking our financial future.

Anna Ioakimedes
Early Learning
May 20, 2022

Should kindergarten change in California?

Children from low-income families often start school with fewer academic skills than their more affluent peers, experts say, an issue exacerbated by the pandemic.

Karen D'Souza