Carolyn Jones
CalMatters-
A new state law bans private colleges from considering an applicant鈥檚 ties to family members who are alumni or donors. California鈥檚 public universities don鈥檛 use legacy admissions. -
The Smarter Balanced scores show improvement for both math and English language arts. Black, Latino and low-income student scores climbed more than the state average, although they still had lower scores overall. -
Schools that banned phones a few years ago have advice for other districts as the governor calls for a crackdown. -
The overall number of 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten has increased. But as the program is being phased in, the percentage of eligible children enrolling has dropped. -
Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the community school initiative with $4.1 billion in grants to connect students and their families to medical care, counseling and other services. -
Supporters of a California trans youth ballot measure wanted to change the name assigned by the attorney general, but a judge said no. -
California schools got $23.4 billion in federal pandemic relief money. Low-income schools that got the most may be hardest hit when the funds expire this year. -
At some rural schools construction projects are left undone, teaching jobs are unfilled and students who need specialized services don鈥檛 get them. -
Despite a few improvements, the data shows students are still struggling on several fronts. -
In 2020, the state agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit that claimed too many students were not learning to read. As part of that agreement, the state spent over $50 million on 75 schools with the lowest reading scores. -
Small, rural districts often struggle to pass local bond measures to pay for school construction and repairs. In some cases, leaking roofs, dry rot and broken air conditioners haven鈥檛 been fixed in years. -
A new law requires K-12 schools to add media literacy to curriculum for English language arts, science, math and history-social studies. Among the lessons will be recognizing fake news.
