John Affeldt
California’s new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) signifies a welcome shift from the “no excuses” education “reform” crowd and their D.C. dominance. Contrary to Washingtonian rhetoric about addressing poverty by getting tough on bad teachers and closing bad schools, California proposes to address poverty by, well, addressing poverty.
Indeed, the LCFF reform shifts the conversation back to a focus on the extra resources and support that low-income students and English Learners need to succeed. And rather than shutting down low-performing schools first and asking questions later, LCFF proposes to send schools that have high concentrations of low-income students even more resources.
LCFF also pushes much more decision-making to the local level, rather than having policymakers decide how best to serve students. And when it comes to holding districts accountable for improving student achievement, LCFF signals a significant shift away from defining achievement solely along the lines of a standardized test score.
Instead, the new law calls for a new system based on a “holistic, multidimensional assessment” of
Despite drop in number of foster youth, significant educational obstacles remain - by Kathryn Baron
Children’s advocates are welcoming a new report showing a sharp drop in the number of foster youth in California, but also caution that less isn’t necessarily a sign of improvement. This is especially the case in education, where most schools still have not figured out how to help foster youth succeed academically. “The truth is that schools and school districts have not historically... [[ This i