Blog
In some ways, Newsom's "raid" on our board only confirms that our organization is working on the right issues with the right people — whether on the board or on staff.
Prisons are traumatic environments, especially for those who are incarcerated. But research shows that working in traumatic environments also impacts practitioners, increasing their risk of burnout, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue.
As a familiar debate continues about the elimination of federal guidance on reducing racial and disability disparities in the administration of school discipline, the need for constructive action has become even clearer.
A closer look at the intersection between trauma-related care and the relationship between gun violence in schools and the recommendations made in the Federal Commission on School Safety’s final report.
Just Equations’ report The Mathematics of Opportunity describes the limitations of traditional practices and highlights emerging approaches. The goal is to ensure that mathematics education is more equity-oriented and that math requirements are more valid and aligned across educational systems.
New consensus around the science of brain development is providing us with critical insights we can use to optimize student learning and development.
This week, the Opportunity Institute joined more than 250,000 other people and organizations in urging the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census.
It’s now the official policy of California’s community colleges that, with few exceptions, students at the system’s 112 colleges should not be compelled to take remedial math courses.
As temperatures topped 90 degrees in the nation’s capital on Saturday, thousands of people gathered at Lafayette Square in front of the White House for a rally against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” and family separation immigration policies.
Tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of people across the country are expected to march in protest of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” criminal prosecution of immigrants crossing the southern border, the forced separation of immigrant families by government officials, and the federal government’s lack of transparency regarding the location, welfare, and future of detained immigrant children.
Some of you have been reading with incredulity and disgust the newspapers, newsfeeds, and Twitter threads about the “immigration crisis” in the United States. What you have been reading — and perhaps avoiding — about “immigration enforcement” is, at heart, the latest manifestation of toxic and brutal white nationalism. And the situation is very bad.
Our new resource — Meaningful Local Engagement Under ESSA - Issue 2: A Handbook for Local Leaders on School Improvement — offers local leaders more detail about different school improvement strategies, as well as ways to collaborate more closely with community stakeholders to better assess need and align resources with chosen priorities.
New regulations that govern how students meet their college math requirements have the potential to open new doors for tens of thousands of students each year … students who in the past might have gotten stuck in remedial math courses they didn’t even need.
Local school improvement planning efforts are set to begin this upcoming fall and will have serious implications for those schools defined as “underperforming” under a given state’s accountability system. It’s imperative that communities get involved and contribute to key decision-making processes at the local level.
Yesterday, Partners for Each and Every Child released a report highlighting promising engagement processes in eight California districts. The case studies illustrate how the five pillars of engagement are integral to regular, two-way dialogue with stakeholders to support and sustain educational equity.
Nearly 300 people gathered this past Thursday and Friday for a statewide summit on building excellence for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students, organized by the Opportunity Institute and the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
The Federal Commission on School Safety has not yet had a public meeting, has not yet publicly shared any draft agendas or meeting materials, and has no members that directly represent parents, teachers, schools, states, and/or civil rights groups.
Every year, still, I feel an achy hollowness in my chest. Sometimes there’s also a tightness and throbbing—like now, as I write this.
The first time, my ache was accompanied by a deep, grumbling fear. I was in 10th grade, vice president of the student body, sitting in the gym bleachers, about to share my thoughts with about 1,500 students, the morning of April 5, 1968. And I feared for the future of racial justice.
Funding "victories" for education in the 2018 federal budget are significant, but perhaps more important is the bipartisan agreement in Congress that attention to these communities and to these issues is an ongoing national priority.
Our stake in the current debate around the relationship between school shootings and the guidance focuses on how the guidance was developed, what the guidance means, and why it matters for our nation’s schools.
As we reflect on the current logic model of federal support for education policy in states and districts, we may have occasion to look to advancements in medical science for a measure of inspiration and relief.
The Trump administration's decision to end DACA puts thousands of immigrant students and teachers squarely in the crosshairs of the federal government, threatening young people who are bettering themselves and their communities.
It can be tempting for those of us acting in the national policy sphere to see the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as an opportunity to start fresh. But “stakeholder engagement” is not new, and requiring that it be part of policy decision-making is not special to ESSA.
How can we respond to armed engagement between civilians in our public squares and to the gravely un-American statements by our president? We must embrace a renewed intensity in the struggle for opportunity.
A new report from Partners for Each and Every Child shares promising practices education leaders can use to develop high-quality, meaningful stakeholder engagement processes that help advance equity and excellence in our schools.
An innovative project at San Jose State University’s Department of Justice Studies is helping bridge the gap between tomorrow’s criminal justice leaders and those affected by mass incarceration.
A college degree can break the cycle of poverty. CSU must take steps to ensure that math requirements do not pose arbitrary and discriminatory barriers.
Formerly incarcerated scholar and Soros Fellow Danny Murillo asks, what role do formerly incarcerated students play in challenging the stigma of incarceration, advocating for policy change and seeking social justice? Through the development of a statewide network, he seeks to amplify their voices to advocate and implement an equitable system of higher education for all.
Renewing Communities is dedicated to ensuring that currently and formerly incarcerated students are welcomed into and effectively served by our state's public higher education system, now and into the future. The initiative is based on two years of research and human-centered design, and will run from 2016 through the end of 2019.
Faced with high proportions of students needing remedial math courses in college, education systems across the country are prioritizing the goal of improving college readiness. Approaches include both strengthening K12 instruction and better aligning K12 and postsecondary expectations.
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In spite of recent efforts to address inequality in California schools, the data show consistent patterns of inequality of student outcomes based on race, ethnicity, language, special education, and poverty; persistent state education policy problems impact already disadvantaged students most severely.
Partners for Each and Every Child and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) created this second handbook to support local engagement under ESSA. We hope that local leaders will use these resources together to better and more collaboratively include students, families, educators, and partners into the policymaking and implementation process.
This new report highlights the importance of diversifying math pathways in college to improve quantitative literacy and shorten students’ routes to a degree.
Partners for Each and Every Child, the Dignity in Schools Campaign, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. have developed this toolkit to serve as a call to action and to empower parents, families, caregivers, students, and other community members with the information and tools they need to take action on ESSA in schools.
Process and Protest: California examines the efforts of several California districts to fulfill the stakeholder engagement requirements of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in the development of their Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs).
Read the full toolkit for tips on how community colleges and Sheriff's Departments can work together to offer high-quality college education inside county jails.
This new publication applauds the unprecedented growth in the number of California colleges teaching in correctional facilities and reaching formerly incarcerated students in the community, but warns of failure if the state does not focus on quality and sustainability.
A handbook from Partners for Each and Every Child and CCSSO focuses on how local leaders can plan and implement an effective stakeholder engagement strategy under ESSA.
A report from Partners for Each and Every Child explores how thoughtful, meaningful, structured, and ongoing dialogue among a variety of stakeholders is not only legally required, but is essential to unlocking the promise of ESSA and advancing excellence with equity in our schools.
Partners for has produced a comprehensive tool to be used by all states to assess their current stakeholder engagement efforts and further develop their engagement strategies.
Recent changes to the CSPP Block Grant raise concerns about the impact on California’s quality rating system and the future of the state’s involvement in quality improvement.
In 2012 California Competes called for the state to articulate specific degree attainment goals to advance our regional economies and local communities. In this new report, Mind the Gap: Delivering on California’s Promise for Higher Education, California Competes finds that the state now faces a degree attainment gap of 2.4 million by 2025.
The importance of quality in early childhood programs cannot be overemphasized. High-quality early care and education programs offer the tools to close the achievement gap, or better still, prevent it before it even appears.
The Opportunity Institute, on behalf of the Renewing Communities Initiative, is accepting applications for higher education programs targeting currently and formerly incarcerated students in California. This Request for Proposals (RFP) will fund prison-based, jail-based, and community-based college programs for criminal justice-involved students.
Changes in employment practices have increased the number of hourly and part-time workers, many of whom have little control over their schedules. This fact sheet outlines the difficulties they face, and efforts in San Francisco to find solutions.
Voluntary home visiting programs provide critical support to vulnerable children and families in the hopes of setting young children off on a brighter future. This report provides county-by-county data on the availability of voluntary home visiting programs in California, as well as several estimates of the need for these programs.
The brains of infants and toddlers develop at an incredible rate, forming the foundation for lifelong learning and health. The stimulation that children receive in these early years powerfully influence not only their academic and material success, but also – critically – their physical and mental health as well.
Access to affordable child care helps families achieve economic security, offers children stability and the opportunity to thrive, and strengthens California’s economy overall. This brief highlights key pieces of research that describe California’s child care system, and reviews proposed policy changes to improve it.
Degrees of Freedom finds that California has not been adequately providing effective college opportunities for criminal justice-involved students, despite the fact that such access will help California build safer and more economically viable communities. The study is a joint project of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center at Stanford Law School and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley School of Law.
Economic and labor force changes since the Great Recession of 2007 have changed the way many American workers support themselves and their families. This issue brief highlights some of the research on unstable work schedules, and describes the provisions of legislation in San Francisco that seeks to increase predictable scheduling among certain workers.
Voluntary home visiting programs are a powerful tool to improve outcomes for at-risk children and families. Families enrolled in home visiting programs are visited by trained professionals on a regular basis who provide practical tips and information – as well as emotional support – on a range of issues.
Approximately 5 million Californians lack paid sick days protection. When, inevitably, they become ill, they can either go to work while ill, or they can stay home and lose out on a day’s pay. Sometimes, the decision to stay home can cost them their jobs. And if these workers are parents or family caregivers, the choices are harder still.
Based on The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing the Affordable Care Act to Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, and Grow the Economy for All Californians and subsequent research, Next Generation and East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) developed a set of concrete recommendations for the Legislative Analyst’s Office
California was the first state in the nation to enact legislation in response to the Affordable Care Act. This report suggests that California can take advantage of ACA implementation as a means toward increasing access to health coverage and vital benefits while also fostering work support programs and improving the statewide economy.
California will face serious economic challenges and struggle to maintain its prosperity as a state if it fails to address mushrooming childhood poverty. Prosperity Threatened, our analysis of the latest Census Bureau data found that childhood poverty is endemic among California’s fastest-growing demographic segment – Hispanics – with nearly one in three Hispanic children in California living at or below the poverty line.
American children coming of age today will work in a global, technologically advanced economy, competing with peers in India, China and other countries. This report details the progress China and India are making in expanding their labor forces to play a bigger role in the global economy and the urgent implications of these policies for U.S. competitiveness.
This report documents mistakes, incompetence, and malfeasance in our criminal justice system. Not only are these systemic errors expensive—costing taxpayers an estimated $282 million adjusted for inflation—they also have serious and lifelong consequences on the people subject to these flawed prosecutions.