Report Full-Day Kindergarten in California: Lessons from Los Angeles By Shannon McConville, Jill Cannon, Alison Jacknowitz, Gary Painter Sep 17, 2009 Almost half of California public school kindergarten students attend full-day classes. To understand how a longer class day might benefits students, the authors examined about 200,000 kindergarten records in the Los Angeles Unified School District and found that full-day kindergarten does seem to help reduce the chances of being retained in early grades. But full-day students do not seem to have better second-grade test scores, nor do English learners improve their English fluency at higher rates. Certain subpopulations might benefit more than others; given current budgetary constraints, policymakers may find it more effective to target full-day classes to schools most likely to benefit, such as those with low API rankings. This report was supported with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Fact Sheet Public Pensions in California By Radhika Mehlotra, Patrick Murphy Mar 15, 2019 State and local governments face large and growing pension obligations. This fact sheet provides a snapshot of California’s public pensions and liabilities, their impact on local budgets, and policy changes that aim to tackle rising costs.
Fact Sheet Crime Trends in California By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin Oct 17, 2023 Violent crime in California has ticked up in recent years, with a pronounced increase in incidents involving guns since 2019. Property crime has also risen steadily statewide, and rates now stand slightly above pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
blog post College Applications Are Up and Admission Rates Are Down By Hans Johnson Nov 12, 2019 The popularity of many of California’s public universities has grown substantially in the past decade, while admissions rates have declined.
blog post Preliminary Data Show Higher Crime Rates in 2015 By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin Feb 17, 2016 Preliminary data from the FBI offer discouraging news about crime trends in California’s largest cities. However, the data also show that cities in other states are also experiencing increases in crime.
Fact Sheet Student Achievement on California’s K–12 Assessments By Iwunze Ugo, Emmanuel Prunty Jun 27, 2023 The results from California’s 2022 Smarter Balanced Assessments suggest that pandemic disruptions to K–12 education reversed nearly six years of academic progress. Declines in proficiency were widespread, but there was substantial variation across grade levels and demographic groups.
blog post ‘Tis the Season for College Applications By Hans Johnson Nov 29, 2018 Eight of the top 10 most popular colleges and universities in the US are in California—the state's colleges and universities also lead the nation in rejecting applicants.
