Technical Reports
Assessing Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) Using Generative AI
This report uses generative AI to analyze thousands of LCAP goals and actions across California. It raises important questions about how local planning tools could become more measurable, strategic, and useful for improvement.
California Community Schools: Past, Present, and Early Impacts of the California Community Schools Partnership Program
This report examines the impact of California's $4.1 billion investment in community schools and illustrates how local leaders leveraged state funds to drive these outcomes. It highlights how the strategy has enabled early adopter sites to improve chronic absence and achievement, with historically underserved student groups (including Black students and Engish learners) benefitting the most.
California Principals: Trends in Supply, Preparation, Distribution, Retention, and Turnover
This report examines principal supply, preparation, distribution, retention, and turnover across California. It highlights how leadership stability and support shape schools’ capacity to sustain improvement.
California’s System of Special Education Staffing
This report analyzes California’s special education workforce needs across teachers, related service providers, and paraeducators. It highlights strategies for improving recruitment, preparation, role design, and retention.
Does Your Math Pathway Make a Difference? High School Mathematics and College Outcomes
This report studies high school math pathways and their relationship to college enrollment. It highlights how four years of math and access to advanced coursework can expand opportunity, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
High School Coursetaking in California: A Primer
This report examines students’ access to college- and career-preparatory coursework. It shows how course-taking patterns shape postsecondary opportunity and why access to advanced and A–G coursework matters.
Imagining the Educational Futures for Black Children in California
This report centers Black families’ aspirations for their children’s education. It describes schools that affirm identity, cultivate curiosity and dignity, and expand students’ sense of what is possible.
Learning from California’s Prior Reading Reforms
This report studies California’s recent literacy initiatives and what can be learned from their design. It shows that professional learning, funding, planning, and support can improve reading outcomes.
Material Hardship, Emotional Distress, and Early Learning Supports Among California Families with Young Children: Evidence from the RAPID California Voices Survey
This report uses the RAPID California Voices Survey to examine the lives of families with young children. It connects material hardship, emotional well-being, and early learning supports to broader questions about how California can support children before they enter school.
Navigating the Transition to College: LGBTQ+ Students’ High School Experiences and Academic Plans
This report examines LGBTQ+ students’ high school experiences and how these may influence their college plans. It highlights both challenges in school climate and students’ strong aspirations for postsecondary education.
Paraeducators in California: Current Trends and Recommendations for Policy
This report examines California’s growing paraeducator workforce, which is increasingly central to student support. It identifies ways to strengthen training, role clarity, compensation, professional support, and career pathways.
Recent Academic Achievement Trends in California
This report analyzes two decades of California achievement trends. It shows where the state has made progress and where persistent disparities, especially in mathematics, continue to demand attention.
Supporting Immigrant-Origin Students in California’s Schools
This report examines immigrant-origin students’ educational experiences in California schools. It highlights the preparation, policies, and supports educators need to serve students and families of immigrant backgrounds well.
Teacher Certification Policies: Balancing Quality and Access in the Teaching Profession
This report examines California’s teacher certification system and the pathways educators navigate to enter the profession. It identifies ways to make those pathways clearer, more coherent, and better aligned with both quality and access.
Teacher Preparation for English Learners and Bilingual Education in California Schools
This report examines California’s preparation system for teachers of English learners and bilingual classrooms. It highlights regional access, teacher qualifications, and the preparation needed to support multilingual instruction.
The California State Role in Supporting District Capacity for TK-8 Math Improvement
This report examines district capacity to improve instruction in TK–8 mathematics and how current education governance and policies are insufficient to meet district needs. The findings have implications for reorganizing the system of support to create meaningful accountability for district improvement and changing policy approaches to improve focus and coherence.
The Impact of Intervention: LCAP, Differentiated Assistance, and Resource Effectiveness in California School Districts
This report studies Differentiated Assistance and LCAP spending. It asks how intervention systems can better connect planning, resources, and improvement for districts needing support.
The State of Chronic Absenteeism in California: Projections, Reasons, and Solutions
This report documents California’s chronic absenteeism trends during and after the pandemic. It considers what it will take to accelerate recovery and support students whose attendance remains disrupted.
Trends in California's Teacher Workforce: Understanding Supply, Demand, and Shortages
This report examines California’s teacher supply, demand, and shortages, with attention to where shortages are most acute. It highlights how preparation, retention, and distribution matter for students’ access to fully credentialed teachers and what factors matter for recruiting and retaining a well-prepared, diverse, stable workforce.
What California’s Latine Students, Families and Communities Want From and For Their Schools
This report centers the voices of Latine students, families, and communities. It describes the kinds of schools families want: places that offer safety, belonging, cultural affirmation, multilingual support, and meaningful engagement.
Who Benefits from Public PreK Expansions & Increased K-5 Spending? Dynamic Complementarity in California’s Education Policies
This report shows how California's investments in CSPP, TK, and elementary school spending delivered substantial, equity-enhancing gains in student achievement, and their effects reinforce one another across the preschool and early elementary grades. The results suggest that sequenced public investments in educational opportunity can produce developmental multiplier effects that exceed the sum of their independent effects.
Who Stays, Who Leaves: Five-year Retention Patterns by Teacher Entry Pathways
This report follows teachers across their first five years in the profession. It shows how entry pathways, preparation, and school context shape early-career retention and the stability of the teacher workforce.