The California Diploma Project convened its final Alignment Institute in San Francisco at the end of October, to discuss the technical analyses of the EAP assessment conducted by Achieve and to plan for next steps on the project.
Materials from this meeting are available here.
A new PACE policy brief presents an overview of the current state of school leadership in California. Susanna Loeb and Jon Valant from Stanford University examine the challenges that California must overcome to recruit, hire, train, and retain strong and talented principals, with a particular focus on the limitations of current state and district policies. Loeb and Valant note that California principals are underpaid relative to their colleagues nationwide, and many report feeling overworked, constrained by state policies, and doubtful that they will remain in the principalship until retirement. The authors propose a set of actions that policymakers can take in order to ensure that great principals are providing leadership in all of California’s schools.
A new PACE policy brief summarizes the findings from a study investigating the impact of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) on California’s lowest performing students. Utilizing longitudinal data from four large urban school districts, Sean Reardon from Stanford and Michal Kurlaender from UC-Davis compare students scheduled to graduate just before (2005) and after (2006-07) the exit exam became a requirement for graduation from California high schools. They find that the CAHSEE requirement had no positive effects on students’ academic skills, and a large negative impact on graduation rates that fell disproportionally on minority students and on female students. The authors conclude that policymakers should reevaluate the utility of the high school exit exam in California’s accountability system.
This policy brief reviews the recent experience of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) with the development and approval of Proposition A. Proposition A (also known as the Quality Teacher and Education Act, or QTEA) included a parcel tax mainly dedicated to increasing teachers’ salaries, along with a variety of measures introducing flexibility to the current salary schedule and strengthening accountability for teacher performance. Based on interviews with key stakeholders in the district, Hough describes how the district and union worked together in SFUSD both to increase general compensation and also to introduce new compensation strategies that support closer alignment between school district goals and expenditures for teacher salaries.
In June 2008 San Francisco voters approved Proposition A, a parcel tax initiative dedicated to improving teachers’ salaries in the San Francisco Unified School District. Proposition A also provided funding for a number of innovative teacher compensation programs, including extra pay for teachers in difficult-to-staff schools and difficult-to-fill subject areas. In this policy report, Heather Hough presents a comprehensive review of Proposition A, including the process of consultation, negotiation and compromise that led to its approval and an assessment of the programs that will be funded with parcel tax revenues. Her report is based on interviews with key participants in the development and passage of Proposition A, along with a review of public documents.
I’m pleased to welcome you to the redesigned PACE website. The new site features a comprehensive, fully downloadable archive of PACE publications from 1983 to the present, along with information on current and upcoming activities including our seminars in Sacramento. We think the redesign makes the PACE website more attractive and easier to use, and we look forward to introducing new content and new features over the course of the coming year that will make our site an essential source for information on educational policy in California. For now we welcome your comments and suggestions on the new design, and we hope that you will check back often to find out what’s new as we roll out further improvements.