Report Assessing Transitional Kindergarten’s Impact on Elementary School Trajectories By Julien Lafortune, Laura Hill Oct 23, 2023 California’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program provides an early year of schooling within the K–12 system. Launched a decade ago with limited eligibility, TK will soon be open to all four-year-olds. Taking stock of the program’s impact so far—especially among multilingual and special education students—can help TK expansion succeed.
video Drought and Floods in California By Ashlyn Perri Oct 10, 2023 “Weather whiplash,” “atmospheric rivers,” “severe drought”—if you live in California, this is probably not the first time you’ve seen these phrases. But why are these wild weather swings happening, and what do they mean for California?
blog post School Vaccination Rates Vary across California By Shalini Mustala, Shannon McConville Oct 10, 2023 Maintaining adequate school vaccination rates is essential for public health and community well-being, but many schools across the state could be vulnerable to disease outbreaks due to lower vaccination rates.
blog post Video: Examining the Reach of Targeted School Funding By Stephanie Barton Sep 22, 2023 All school districts in California saw large funding increases over the past decade, through the Local Control Funding Formula. PPIC researcher Julien Lafortune explores how districts managed these funds—and how they affected student outcomes.
blog post Did Pandemic Aid Narrow the Digital Divide? By Darriya Starr, Joseph Hayes, Niu Gao Sep 18, 2023 As part of a multifaceted package of pandemic assistance, the federal government in 2021 allocated nearly $7 billion to help schools and libraries expand access to digital devices and internet connectivity. We examine what this has meant for digital equity among California students.
event Examining the Reach of Targeted School Funding Sep 14, 2023 Under California’s ten-year-old funding formula, districts with higher shares of high-need students receive added dollars on top of base funding. Join PPIC research fellow Julien Lafortune for a presentation on a new report that looks at how these added dollars impact student outcomes, how districts spend these funds, and whether dollars are fully directed to the students and schools that generate them.
blog post Private Schooling Played a Small Role in Declining Public School Enrollment By Emmanuel Prunty, Julien Lafortune Sep 11, 2023 Private schooling in California increased substantially during the pandemic. Still, it accounts for a small share of total K–12 enrollment and is not a major factor in public school declines, which are driven largely by broader demographic shifts.
Policy Brief Policy Brief: Examining the Reach of Targeted School Funding By Julien Lafortune, Joseph Herrera, Niu Gao, Stephanie Barton Sep 6, 2023 The Local Control Funding Formula gives California districts additional funds for low-income and other high-need students as well as flexibility around how to spend this money. But this flexibility has raised concerns over whether districts are spending in ways that reach the high-need students and schools who generate the added funds.
Report Examining the Reach of Targeted School Funding By Julien Lafortune, Joseph Herrera, Niu Gao Sep 6, 2023 Under California’s ten-year-old funding formula, districts with higher shares of high-need students receive additional dollars on top of base funding. Districts have flexibility around spending these funds, but when money is not fully directed to the intended students and schools, the impact on achievement gaps is diluted.
