Technical Reports
California Schools’ Revenue Sources and Constraints
This report explains how California’s revenue structure shapes school funding adequacy, equity, and reliability. It helps clarify why funding levels, revenue volatility, and local constraints matter for districts’ ability to plan and support students.
California's School Facilities in a Changing Climate: Funding, Equity, and Resilience
This report examines school facilities funding, climate resilience, and equity. It highlights how buildings, outdoor spaces, and local fiscal capacity shape students’ learning environments.
District Dollars 3: Recent Patterns in California School District Finances, Trends in Teacher Compensation, and Within-District, Between-School Spending
This report analyzes recent trends in California district finances at a moment when school revenues have grown substantially. It shows how rising costs for special education, employee benefits, and retiree obligations shape what districts can do with new resources.
Pensions and California Public Schools, 2026
This report analyzes how rising pension costs affect California school district budgets. It shows how obligations from the past can shape the resources available for current students, staff, and programs.
The Fiscal Consequences of School Closures in California: Evidence from a Statewide Synthetic Difference-in-Differences Design
This report examines whether school closures improve district finances. It offers evidence to inform more careful decision-making as districts respond to enrollment decline and community change.
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.
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.
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.
Local Control in a Time of Change: The Work of California School Board Members
This report examines the characteristics and work of California school board members in a period of fiscal, demographic, and political change, including their practices, the challenges they face, the supports they have and want, and their future intentions. It shows the complexity and variation in what it means to serve and navigate the responsibilities of local governance.
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.
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.