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California's school system is under tremendous long-run fiscal pressure; allocating resources efficiently is therefore paramount. Economic analysis--making sure districts and schools are spending their budgets wisely--is the method used to identify effectiveness and efficiency. This method responds to the question educational professionals face: "Am I making the most efficient decisions given the resources I have and the goals I need to meet for my students?" In this report, the authors look at the role of economic analysis in decision-making in California's school system. The goal is to show how economic evaluations can be more straightforward, more useful, and more influential for decision-making. The authors describe cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), one of the primary methods for economic evaluation. They provide a summary of this method, along with templates for framing the research analysis. The authors include a worked-through example to illustrate the key steps in performing CEA. They also describe case studies where such analyses have been performed that show the broad applicability of the method. [This report was written in partnership with Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.]

All youth need the support of parents, family members, and other caring adults. Parents and families are children's first teachers and, in many respects, their most influential role models and motivators. Among the varied efforts to ensure that children succeed and thrive, there is growing acknowledgement of how critically important it is to engage parents and families and to intentionally create connections between schools and other community resources. This publication is designed to: (1) provide clarity on what systemic engagement is and what it looks like in practice; (2) provide an analysis of how systemic practices are being implemented in the family and community engagement field through exemplars of systemic engagement (district engagement briefs); (3) share promising practices that promote systemic engagement while leveraging engagement to advance equity (regional capacity-building models); and (4) provide insights and recommendations to practitioners, funders, policymakers, and other key constituencies regarding family engagement practices and potential areas for additional research.

The current economic crisis hit Californians with less education hard and brought greater attention to the role public workforce training can play in an equitable recovery. To support workforce needs and the economic success of residents, California invests heavily in access to education beyond high school. The state deployed between $6 and $7 billion annually to workforce education in the years leading up to the pandemic. By understanding how best to target these investments, California can build training programs that offer the greatest benefit to workers and employers. The California community college system is the largest provider of publicly funded career education in the state. Community colleges are therefore critical for effective and equitable workforce training, even as the system has a governance and financing structure that creates challenges to connecting college programs to careers. Furthermore, we lack complete information about whether, how, and who completes job training programs in a timely manner and who then finds quality employment that offers economic mobility. To fill in some of these gaps, we investigate the trajectories of nearly one million students who have pursued career education at California community colleges over the last decade. We also use stakeholder interviews to probe how employers and workforce intermediaries support these students in completing programs and gaining skills valued in the labor market. We find: (1) The vast majority of students who pursue career education in the community colleges never earn a credential. One quarter of career education students earn a credential within six years; students who pursue health pathways are more successful--over half complete a credential within six years; (2) Students who earn an initial credential, re-enroll, and complete a second one in the same field--a stackable credential path--are even more rare. About 5 percent of all career education students earn multiple credentials in the same discipline, though this includes students who earn an associate degree. Among those who first earn a certificate, the share jumps to about 25 percent; (3) Students who complete credentials take about 2.5 years to do so. Even short-term certificates that require far fewer credits take students about two years; completing a stackable credential pathway takes over four years, on average; (4) Black and Latino students are less likely to complete a credential, as are younger students and men. Equity gaps in completion emerge relatively early, particularly for Black and younger students; (5) Students who complete at least one full-time term have much higher completion rates. These students also tend to earn credentials in a timely manner; and (6) Stakeholders cited challenges to partnerships with employers, including funding siloes, lack of resources, and coordination needed within individual colleges. Employer and industry partnerships with community colleges can create effective career education programs, and recent state and federal investments are supporting more strategic employer-college relationships. After the economic disruption of COVID-19, students need better career education pathways that connect them to stable work. To better target investments around equity, the state could invest in supports that help more students access and complete career education programs--employers and colleges we interviewed cited technology, wage-replacement, and enhanced flexibility as promising areas. Furthermore, pairing supports with more flexibility--particularly for working adults--so they can take full-time course loads could go a long way to improving completion and connecting students more quickly to better jobs. [For the technical appendices, see ED614746.]

These are the technical appendices for the report, "Supporting Student Parents in Community College CalWORKs Programs." The appendices include: (1) CalWORKs and EOPS Programs at California Community Colleges; (2) Survey of Program Directors; (3) Survey Instrument; (4) Survey Summary Statistics; and (5) Analysis of CalWORKs Students. [This report was written with research support from Emily Morton. For the full report, see ED611525.]

Reading skills are the key building blocks of a child's formal education. Yet, the national statistics on literacy attainment are profoundly distressing: two out of three American fourth graders are reading below grade level and almost one third of children nationwide lack even basic reading skills. This study reports on an evaluation of the Reading Partners program, which uses community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring to struggling readers in under-resourced elementary schools. In the years since its inception, Reading Partners has grown to serve more than 7,000 students in over 150 schools throughout California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Washington, DC. To answer questions about the effectiveness of the Reading Partners program and the potential for volunteer tutoring more generally to help improve the reading proficiency of struggling readers, the evaluation included an implementation study, an impact study (in which students were randomly assigned within schools to receive Reading Partners or to a control condition) and a cost study. Together, these three facets of the evaluation are designed to address the following broad research questions: (1) In what context was the Reading Partners program implemented and was it implemented as intended or with fidelity? How much variability in fidelity of implementation was observed across the sites? What factors contributed to any observed variability?; (2) On average, did the Reading Partners program have a positive impact on students' reading proficiency across three key components of early reading ability: sight word reading efficiency, reading fluency and comprehension?; and (3) What resources are needed to implement the Reading Partners program as described in the evaluation and what proportion of the costs of implementing the program are borne by the school? The sample for the study consists of 19 Reading Partners schools that were recruited to participate in the evaluation. The 19 participating schools were spread across 12 school districts. There were 16 schools in California, two in New York, and one in Washington D.C. All of the schools were established Reading Partners sites; eight of the 19 schools were in their second year of operating, while the rest had been operating a Reading Partners center for 3 or more years. A total of 1265 2-5th grade students in the 19 schools participated in the evaluation. The final respondent sample (those that took at least one follow-up assessment) included 1166 students. This represents a response rate of 91.9 percent for the program group and 92.4 percent for the control group. The findings all suggest that the Reading Partners model "works"--i.e., it produces measurable impacts in reading skills among participants and that the program was effective in helping students with a fairly broad range of reading abilities and from a variety of different grade levels and backgrounds. The cost data will shed light on how much the program costs relative to the reading impacts it generates. Tables are appended.

This report aims to fill the gap in research on English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at California's community colleges and the effectiveness of reforms aimed at improving student success. A number of colleges have implemented curricular reforms in recent years--accelerating coursework, integrating skills courses, and the like. These reforms are likely to become more widespread in the wake of Assembly Bill (AB) 705, signed into law in 2017. In addition to mandating that community colleges amend how students are placed in remedial courses, AB 705 requires that credit ESL sequences--which offer credit-bearing courses for which students pay tuition--maximize the probability that students enter and complete transfer-level English coursework within three years. Our research suggests that while many colleges are moving in the right direction, more could be done. Specifically, this study finds that: (1) Most degree-seeking ESL students do not successfully complete transfer-level English; (2) Nearly half of colleges offer no more than five levels of ES; (3) Colleges have made great strides in moving away from a traditional approach; (4) Many colleges offer ESL courses; and (5) Many colleges still offer ESL sequences. [This report was written with research support from Sergio Sanchez and Stephanie Pulles. For the accompanying Technical Appendices, see ED598070.]

California's community colleges are in the midst of numerous reforms to improve developmental (also known as remedial or basic skills) education. Developmental education is supposed to help prepare students for college work, but it has long been an obstacle to student success: most students in developmental courses never go on to complete a college-level course in English or math. In this report, the authors focus on reforms to developmental English pathways at California's community colleges. They examine different approaches to reform and their prevalence, and present new evidence on the effectiveness of one of the most common reforms, one-semester acceleration. They find that: (1) The structure and length of developmental English pathways vary considerably; (2) One-semester acceleration substantially shortens the typical developmental pathway; (3) Students who take one-semester acceleration have better outcomes; (4) Despite improvements, most students in accelerated courses do not complete college composition; and (5) Equity gaps remain large for underrepresented students.

This document updates California's 1966 guidelines for school district determination of land size needs to support their education programs. The guide reflects the changes in educational programs that have affected school site usage and size requirements and includes recommended changes in site acreage for very large schools; equal access for female athletes; classroom size and class size reductions; the need for a master plan of the site and functional link between educational specifications and site size; and site requirements for county community schools, community day schools, and continuation high schools. Also provided are numerous dimensional figures for athletic fields and courts. The document's final section presents procedures for developing a site plan. Appendices contain a comparison of school site sizes for 1966 and 2000; and lists site requirements for small schools and elementary through high school facilities, county community schools, community day schools, and continuation high schools. (GR)

The goal of developmental education (also known as remedial or basic skills education) is to help students acquire the skills they need to be successful in college courses, but its track record is poor. In fact, it is one of the largest impediments to student success in California's community colleges. Many students do need additional work to be ready for college, particularly in math. In this report, a follow-up to the authors' earlier statistical portrait of developmental education, they analyze two new reforms in developmental math, known as statistics pathways and compressed math pathways. Both approaches aim to reduce the amount of time students spend in developmental math by reducing the amount of coursework and eliminating exit points--transitions where students are likely to leave the developmental sequence due to failure to re-enroll in the next course in the sequence. Statistics pathways also aim to create an alternative non-algebra based sequence for students in majors that only require statistics (art, sociology, English, journalism, psychology, and other liberal arts and humanities fields). In comparing outcomes for students in these two approaches to those for students in traditional developmental pathways, the authors find that: (1) Outcomes are substantially better for students in the statistics pathway; (2) Outcomes for students in the compressed algebra pathway are somewhat better; (3) All student groups--including underrepresented students--have better outcomes in the statistics and compressed algebra pathways; and (4) The lowest levels of developmental math do not work.

Maintains that the rich and interesting subject matter of social studies makes it a natural complement to literacy programs. Briefly describes instructional strategies for literacy and discusses how these can be used in conjunction with the "History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools." (MJP)

A study was undertaken to improve the quality of student follow-up data submitted by the California community colleges in compliance with federal Vocational Education Data System (VEDS) reporting requirements. The objectives of the study were to conduct a follow-up of vocational education students from 14 community colleges, standardizing data collection methods and definitions; to assist community college vocational administrators in developing a plan for using study data; and to provide technical assistance to colleges in meeting VEDS requirements. Study procedures included a review of the college catalogs and class schedules of 14 selected colleges; an in-class survey of occupational students; the development of a student follow-up survey instrument; and the conduct of follow-up studies by the individual colleges. Study findings demonstrated that the quality of data collected through the VEDS could be enhanced by attending to college information needs and providing coordination among colleges involved in follow-up activity. Background material, assumptions, detailed procedures, and a bibliography are included. Appendices include an occupational skills and knowledge list, information on follow-up procedures and instruments, summary follow-up data, and estimated costs. (Author/EJV)

The way that college business programs address international dimensions was studied, based on a survey of business curricula in 11 colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Information was gathered in 1982 from catalogs and written materials as well as from telephone interviews. All of the schools studied, except Stanford University, offer a bachelor's degree in management or international business administration. All but two offer at least one undergraduate course in international business administration. In 1983, four of the schools offer a specialized concentration in international business. However, undergraduate student enrollment in international business programs is small, and the number of students going abroad to work or study is even smaller. All 11 colleges offer at least one master's level course in international business. The average number of courses per school is 9.5, ranging from 31 courses to 1 course. Only two schools report systematic use of foreign students as sources of cross-cultural knowledge. A profile of the curriculum, its underlying philosophy, and its faculty is presented for each of six specialized master's programs in international business. Appendices include interview questions and a list of business and related courses offered at Bay Area schools. (SW)

This report defines policy and practices for child care assistance for welfare recipients in New York, and explores ways in which the state could use the newly enacted federal welfare reform legislation to create opportunities for children of welfare recipients. The six sections of the report are based on a survey of child care policies and practices at state, county, and city levels. Provided are: (1) a brief look at the child care components of two widely discussed welfare-to-work programs, the Employment and Training Choices Program in Massachusetts and the Greater Avenues to Independence Program in California; (2) a description of current employment, training, and child care policies in New York; (3) a review of results of surveys and interviews that provides a description of child care for welfare recipients in New York; (4) an overview of federal and state funding, regulation, and law governing provision of child care to welfare recipients; (5) a detailed look at the provisions of the newly enacted Family Support Act of 1988; and (6) recommendations for ways in which the state can implement the new federal law. A table of selected child care expenditures by county, and details of the survey methodology, are appended. (RH)

Discusses a new history and geography-centered curriculum for elementary and secondary school students that was developed in California and describes efforts to adopt instructional materials that include new technology and formats. Three specific technology developments in the history-social science curriculum are described. (LRW)