Publications
PACE Publications are available as free PDF files that you can download and print yourself. However, if you would like us to mail a printed copy, please download the Publication Order Form, fill it out, and mail it to the address on the form. Please note that PACE publications must be prepaid by check. PACE cannot accept purchase orders. Please make checks payable to the UC Regents. Printed Policy Briefs, Working Papers, Technical Reports – $10.00 each. Printed Crucial Issues and Conditions of Education papers – $15.00 each
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In a new PACE Policy Brief, Susanna Loeb and David N. Plank argue that to raise student performance and satisfy public expectations California’s education system must be transformed into a continuously improving system that encourages innovation, carefully measures the impact of different policies and practices, and—most importantly—learns from experience. Loeb and Plank identify the essential features of a continuously improving system, which include clear and specific goals, timely and reliable data, strong capacity to support change, decision-making flexibility, and aligned incentives. They explain how each of these features supports continuous improvement, and discuss the differences between a continuously improving system and the education system that California has now.
Six of California’s largest urban school districts have joined together in the Partnership for Urban Education Research (PUER), to address the most pressing issues in urban education. The six PUER districts have agreed to work together to increase data availability, enhance internal research capacity, and promote collaboration and information sharing across district lines for the benefit of their students. PUER seeks to build a partnership in which participating districts can use their collective research capacity to carefully evaluate their own instructional programs and practices. In a new report, six PUER school districts—Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)—joined efforts to identify opportunities for improving the current dropout reporting system, and to review district efforts to reduce dropout rates. The PUER districts are working with PACE to review and publish their research.
In this PACE Policy Brief, Julia E. Koppich puts forward a set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the quality of teaching in California’s schools. She argues that California can help to bring about sustained improvement in teaching and learning by experimenting with new policies in several areas, including professional development, evaluation, compensation, and the structure of teachers’ careers. Her policy brief includes descriptions of innovative programs in each of these areas that are now being implemented in school districts across the U.S. As Koppich notes, many of the changes that she proposes will have to be negotiated at the local level, in bargaining between school boards and teachers unions. The state can nevertheless play a critical role by providing incentives to support policy innovation, by carefully evaluating the effectiveness of alternative policies, and by developing partnerships and networks to share new knowledge about effective policies and practices.
February 2, 2008 by pace |
Jennifer Imazeki of San Diego State University analyzes recent performance trends in California’s education system in Meeting the Challenge: Performance Trends in California Schools, a new PACE Policy Brief. Imazeki shows that California students have generally held steady or improved their academic performance across grades and subject areas in recent years, in spite of growing financial and demographic challenges in the state’s schools. Per pupil spending in California is well below the national average, and the ratio of adults to children in the system is lower than in almost any other state. A majority of California’s students are poor, and nearly one quarter are English learners. Despite these challenges, scores on state and national assessments have been rising, not only on average but for poor and minority students as well. The number of students taking advanced courses in math and science has increased, and so has the number of students satisfying the “a-g” requirements for admission to the University of California or California State University. Performance levels in California’s schools continue to fall short of the state’s ambitious educational goals, and the need for systemic reforms remains urgent, but the performance gains that Imazeki documents testify to the commitment and hard work of the California’s educators.
February 1, 2008 by pace |
“Untangling School Governance”
Dominic Brewer – University of Southern California
Dominic Brewer’s research on educational policy issues has included work on charter schools, class-size reduction, and teacher labor markets, among other subjects. Dr. Brewer contributed a wide-ranging study of California school governance to “Getting Down to Facts,” which evaluated the state’s governance system on five key criteria: stability, accountability, responsiveness, transparency, and efficiency. In this seminar, Dr. Brewer reviewed the main findings from his study, and identifed strategies that might strengthen California’s school governance system over time.
Our apologies, but this seminar predates our audio recording feature
February 1, 2008 by pace |
A PACE Policy Brief by Susanna Loeb, Tara Beteille and Maria Perez of Stanford University explains why California must accelerate its efforts to create an effective data system for collecting and using vital school information. Building an Information System to Support Continuous Improvement in California Public Schools highlights the elements of an effective data system, with a particular focus on issues related to data collection. It reveals that despite efforts to improve California’s education data system, the state continues to lag behind other states in data collection and management, in policy evaluation and data use and in funding for local school districts to support the collection and maintenance of reliable education data. The authors show that valuable lessons can be learned from the high quality data systems that have been created in other states, and in organizations in both the public and private sectors. They argue that data, if used wisely, can help to transform California’s education system.
January 11, 2008 by pace |
“Making Resources Count”
Goodwin Liu, Assistant Professor of Law at UC Berkeley
Michael Kirst, Professor Emeritus of Education and Buisness at Stanford
Jon Sonstelie, Professor of Economics at UC Santa Barbara
The Getting Down to Facts studies made it clear that California ’s schools finance system is in need of fundamental reforms. In PACE’s January 11 seminar a team from the Warren Institute at the University of California, Berkeley presented their proposal for a new school finance system that links district revenue to student needs and regional costs, while holding all districts harmless at current funding levels. The seminar was presented by Goodwin Liu, Assistant Professor of Law at UC Berkeley; Michael Kirst, Professor Emeritus of Education and Business at Stanford and Founding Director of PACE; and Jon Sonstelie, Professor of Economics at UC Santa Barbara.
Our apologies, this seminar predates our audio recording feature
October 19, 2007 by pace |
In a PACE document prepared for the Convening on California Education Policy on October 19, 2007, Julia E. Koppich and Amy Gerstein present a set of policy recommendations that address issues related to human capital and personnel in California’s education system. They offer nine specific recommendations under three main headings: Differentiated Roles and Compensation, Evaluation and Accountability, and Making Successful Practices Visible.
