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District Spending of One-Time Funds for Educational Recovery

By Julien Lafortune, Laura Hill, Niu Gao, Joseph Herrera ...

To address COVID-19 disruptions to education, federal and state programs directed billions in stimulus aid to K–12 schools. These programs allocated greater funding to lower-income and high-need districts—and California districts applied their early funds to health, safety, and technology. More recently, spending has prioritized learning recovery.

Fact Sheet

Student Achievement on California’s K–12 Assessments

By Iwunze Ugo, Emmanuel Prunty

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

Keeping Students Fed When School Is Out

By Caroline Danielson

The end of the academic year can increase food insecurity for California families that rely on free meals provided at school. Plans to permanently add a second mode of assistance—debit cards that can be used for groceries—aim to help families feed their children when school is out.

Statewide Survey

PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Government

By Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Rachel Lawler, Deja Thomas

Key findings include overwhelming majorities say housing affordability and homelessness are a big problem; many Californians worry younger generations will be unable to afford a home. Majorities expect bad times ahead for the state financially. Approval of Newsom and Biden has remained steady, while approval has fallen for the US Supreme Court and Congress.

blog post

Test Scores Show Six-Year Setback for California Students

By Darriya Starr, Emmanuel Prunty, Joseph Herrera, Iwunze Ugo

Recently released standardized test scores show sharp declines in proficiency among the state’s fourth graders—reversing nearly six years of progress. The declines were sharpest among Black, Latino, and low-income students but do not appear to be tied to length of school closures during COVID.

Report

COVID-19 Emergency Funding and California’s Higher Education Systems

By Jacob Jackson, Kevin Cook, Darriya Starr

Federal dollars offered timely, substantial support to the state’s higher education systems during the worst of the pandemic. Funding for students, online instruction, and social distancing measures made up key spending allocations.

Statewide Survey

PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Their Economic Well-Being

By Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Rachel Lawler, Deja Thomas

Amid rising prices and economic uncertainty, more than two in three Californians are pessimistic about how the state’s economy will do over the next year. An overwhelming majority of employed Californians are at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs, but satisfaction declines among lower-income residents.

blog post

Fewer California Adults and Far Fewer Children Are in Poverty in 2021

By Caroline Danielson, Patricia Malagon

New census data show that poverty in California declined among both adults and children last year. While economic downturns typically cause poverty to rise, pandemic relief measures drove a continued decline, especially among children.

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