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 Closing the Gap: Meeting California's Need for College Graduates by Hans Johnson and Ria Sengupta California faces a shortage of almost a million college-educated workers by 2025. Taking a practical approach, this report finds that this education-skills gap could be cut in half by modest investments in programs aimed at expanding college attendance rates, increasing transfer rates from community colleges to four-year institutions, and boosting graduation rates at four-year institutions. As the state’s economy becomes increasingly reliant on highly skilled workers, a confluence of trends—the retirement of baby boomers, and demographic shifts toward groups with historically low rates of college attendance—makes these investments all the more crucial to the state’s continued economic success. To obtain a copy of the entire report click here
CBEE Partner EdResults.org and PRI Launch California School Finance Portal The Pacific Research Institute and Educational Results Partnership (www.edresults.org) announce the launch of the California School Finance Center database (http://schoolfinancecenter.org). It compiles publicly-available information on public school revenue, achievement, and student demographic data from a dozen California Department of Education sources to present the most complete picture possible of California public school funding so that parents, teachers, school board members, and policy makers can more readily access the information they need to make informed decisions about education policies affecting millions of school children each year. The goal is to provide a tool that helps school districts become more efficient in their quest to raise student academic achievement. For the entire press release click here
A new report finds that California's colleges and universities are not producing enough graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- or STEM -- fields, which could result in a talent deficit in key industries in the state. The need for STEM graduates is detailed in the new study entitled "Technical Difficulties: Meeting California's Workforce Needs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Fields," released by the Campaign for College Opportunity, the Sacramento State Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy (IHELP) and the Bay Area Council. To obtain a copy of the entire report click here
California's Hidden
Teacher-Spending Gap: How State and District Budgeting Practices
Shortchange Poor and Minority Students and Their Schools Federal and state policies increasingly stress the need to educate all students to high academic standards. These policies assume, and indeed require, that additional resources and supports be directed to those schools that face the biggest challenges in meeting that goal. As a fair-minded people, most Americans support these policies and believe that kids who arrive behind should be given extra help to catch up. But the majority of states do exactly the opposite. Instead of providing more resources to the schools and districts that serve concentrations of low-income and minority students, they provide less. To obtain a copy of the entire report click here
Failing Our Future: The Holes in California’s School Accountability System and How to Fix Them Co-authored by James S. Lanich, Lance T. Izumi, and Xiaochin C. Yan, reveals the shortcomings of California’s current school accountability system in contrast to the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The study also profiles two exceptional California schools, the C.A. Jacobs Intermediate School in Dixon and Laton High School in Laton. Both have strong accountability systems and are on track to meet grade-level proficiency goals for all students. Finally, the study gives important recommendations to reform the current system. Click here to read the Executive Summary
Rising Above The Gathering Storm "Rising Above The Gathering Storm" is a report from the prestigious National Academies in 2005 that warned the nation about the dangers of falling behind the world in math and science education. This was the inspiration for the founding of the National Math and Science Initiative, a proactive new non-profit organization dedicated to helping U.S. educators and students regain the competitive edge in math and science. Click here to read the entire Report
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