July 9, 2021 - State Board of Education

EdVoice is in support of delaying the start of the public comment period on the revised framework and recommends the State Board of Education direct the Superintendent and the Executive Director of the Instructional Quality Commission to ensure that all the applicable provisions of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations and the Education code are followed with respect to both academic grade level standards-aligned content and process, including the training of commissioners and committee members on legal requirements, as appropriate.

June 29, 2021 - Assembly Education Committee - SB 237 - Support

EdVoice is in strong support and a proud co-sponsor of SB 237, which would require the State Board of Education (SBE) to establish an approved list of evidence-based culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening tools to be used by schools to screen all students in kindergarten through second grade for risk of dyslexia, and require the results to be made available in a timely fashion to teachers and parents.

June 8, 2021 - Assembly Education Committee - SB 237 - Support

Hundreds of thousands of California students on the dyslexia spectrum struggle every day with reading at grade-level, often without the proper identification and support. Establishing a statewide policy of universal early screening is an important step toward eliminating inequities of opportunity in California’s public schools. Without universal screening, many students lacking resources and advocacy on their behalf will not be identified as being at risk or receive the appropriate instruction and support they need to reach their full potential.

March 17, 2021 - Senate Appropriations Committee - SB 237 - Support 

EdVoice is in support and a proud co-sponsor of SB 237, which would require the State Board of Education (SBE) to establish an approved list of culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening tools to be used by schools to screen all students in kindergarten through second grade for risk of dyslexia, and require the results be made available in a timely fashion to teachers and parents, as specified.

February 8, 2021 - Senate Education Committee - SB 237 - Support 

EdVoice is honored to co-sponsor and support SB 237. The bill would require the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt screening tools for dyslexia and provides that all students in California be screened for dyslexia in early elementary grades and that the results be made available in a timely fashion to teachers and parents, as specified. SB 237 would establish a statewide policy of early screening toward the goal of eliminating inequities of opportunity in California’s public schools

August 20, 2020 - CDE Guidance re: Daily Attendance & Participation per Senate Bill 98 

For purposes of this letter, the Equity Coalition is concerned about the implementation of EC §43504(d)(1), which requires districts to track each student’s participation “in whole” or “in part” on a daily basis. This section of statute not only requires that district’s track daily participation, but the extent to which that participation meets the length of day requirements, which are further defined in EC §43501. 

August 4, 2020 - State Controller - Revisions to State Audit Guide to Reflect Requirements in SB 98

The legislation enacting requirements for the 2020-21 school year, SB 98, relies on the school district auditing process to enforce requirements and ensure that all students have access to a full educational experience in 2020-21 even if all or part of that experience is delivered through distance learning. Our coalition wrote this letter to identify specific areas where the Audit Guide can monitor the educational programs that schools and districts are providing to ensure that specific required expectations are met.

May 3, 2019 - State Board of Education 

In an April 17, 2019 memorandum from Superintendent Tony Thurmond to members of the Board, the Superintendent provided an update regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) final decision on California’s request for a waiver under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The waiver, related to California’s calculations of English learner progress, was denied in a letter from ED. In that letter, notably, the U.S Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education indicates concern – apparently for a second time – that California may be out of compliance with federal law because it did not include the ELP indicator in its system of annual meaningful differentiation for the 2018-19 school year.

January 31, 2019 - Press Release - California Releases List of Seriously Failing Schools

The state’s identification today of California’s lowest-performing schools, as required by President Obama’s signature education law, is a harsh reminder of the crisis of equity and achievement in California’s public education system. Over 780 schools were flagged as seriously failing students–due to a combination of low performance across multiple indicators, including academic achievement and graduation rates.

December 6, 2018 - Press Release - Dashboard Still Lacks Transparency for Parents and Policymakers

Fresh graphics don’t change the fact that the California School Dashboard has no functionality to find student growth over time, high schools’ chronic absenteeism rates or English Learner progress. There’s no way to see if a school has been identified for support under President Obama’s criteria for low performance. Wouldn’t you like to know if the school you’re searching for has been flagged as struggling enough to need extra resources and what interventions may be on the horizon?

October 7, 2018 - Press Release - Education Equity Organizations Call on California Officials to Address Alarming Drop in 11th Grade Academic Performance

Earlier this month, the California Department of Education (CDE) released the 2018 Smarter Balanced test scores. These scores, which provide a statewide picture of student performance in math and English Language Arts (ELA), are alarming – especially for 11th graders. As an alliance of education advocacy organizations, we urge the CDE, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to take swift action to formally examine the decline in performance of California’s 11th graders.

March 9, 2018 - State Board of Education 

We support the new California Department of Education (Department) recommendation to comply with the requirement in law to include 11th grade ELA and mathematics scores from assessments administered statewide as the Academic Achievement indicator for 11th grade and high schools, as we have previously recommended. This basic compliance with the law is an important step toward achieving ESSA’s purpose in ensuring equitable high-quality education, closure of educational achievement gaps and academic accountability for California’s high schools.