Achievement Gaps and Graduation Requirements in California’s Schools

This event highlights two new reports on K–12 education.

Achievement Gaps
California has adopted new K–12 policies designed to close achievement gaps between socioeconomic and demographic groups. What can we learn from the first year of new standardized tests about how high-need students are faring? PPIC researcher Laura Hill will talk about a new report on school- and district-level results for English Learner and low-income students.

This research was supported with funding from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

Graduation Requirements
College preparatory coursework is now a graduation requirement in many of California’s large urban school districts—including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Oakland. Julian Betts, a PPIC adjunct fellow and a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, will outline a new report that examines the benefits and potential pitfalls of this reform.