The California Education Program provides high-quality analysis and commentary for the general public on K-14 education issues, as well as research and technical assistance to inform policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders. Its multiple projects include efforts to strengthen K-14 teacher and school leader quality, develop a blueprint for community college reform, and improve college readiness in high schools.
Our Approach
New America’s California Education Program focuses on improving public education in grades K through 14. The program’s goals are:
- to provide high-quality analysis and commentary for the general public on critical, state-level education issues—a need made more urgent by the deterioration of the news industry, and
- to provide valuable research and technical assistance on specific topics to inform policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders who aim to improve education in California.
Our Vision for Education in California
California’s education challenges are great, but so too is its potential for reform. Much is already known about schools that succeed “against the odds” and new policies could create the conditions for more schools to follow their lead. In the ideal policy framework, California districts and schools would have strong incentives to use research-based strategies to improve performance, but would also have room to innovate and tailor programs to the local context. They would pay close attention to student outcomes and would have information systems that could guide instruction and programming decisions, not just calculate school-level performance for accountability purposes. They would have incentives to improve student performance at all skill levels and to help students succeed in their educational and career goals. They would offer an attractive profession and workplace for adults, yet remain tightly focused on doing what is best for students. They would be part of a culture of learning and continuous improvement that extends all the way up to the state house.
Our Assessment of the Problem
Despite the emerging consensus in support of this vision for education, we are far from it in California today. An illogical system of governance, a tangled web of funding streams, and powerful interest groups have made it virtually impossible to change the status quo in any significant way. Decades of reform efforts (costing billions of dollars) have managed only to tinker at the margins of California’s education system. Student performance has improved modestly, but much more needs to be done to accelerate the rate of improvement and prepare the state’s diverse students for the challenges of a 21st century global economy. Even before financial crisis struck in California, education reform was stalled by a long-standing political stalemate centered on the issue of adequate resources. Caught in the crossfire, good reform ideas simply haven’t been able to gain traction, resulting in a lose-lose situation for California students: no further investments in education and no significant reforms.
To move forward, California needs to disrupt this perennial state of gridlock, a feat we believe can be accomplished only by developing a broader base of stakeholders—from business, labor, student advocates, the general public—who understand key problems of the state’s education system and are equipped to advocate for a sensible reform agenda to address those problems. The California Education Program’s goal is to provide accurate analysis, compelling commentary, and high-quality technical assistance to aid this process over the long term.
For Additional Information, Contact:
Camille Esch
esch@newamerica.net
