We take seriously our responsibility to push policymakers to improve education for all California schoolchildren and when they don’t, we call them on it publicly. EdTrust-West works in partnership with policymakers, advocates, and community groups to:

 

Act as a Watchdog: Alert the public when policies do not serve the interests of California’s neediest students and fight the passage of legislation that would have a detrimental impact on California’s students.

 

Promote and Protect High Standards for All Students: California’s standards are among the highest in the nation. In order to prepare our students for the demands of college and the workplace, it’s vital that we maintain our high standards and do whatever is necessary to make sure our students can meet them. This means we support district-level and state-level policies to provide a college ready, work ready curriculum to all students. Click here for more information on College and Work Prep Curriculum for All. 

 

We also believe that the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) is absolutely necessary to ensure that all high school students can master the minimum level of skills that they will need after high school. Click here for a statement describing our position on CAHSEE.

 

Ensure that Schools and Students Are Provided with the Resources They Need to be Successful: It’s clear that resources in California’s public schools are far from equitably distributed. Teachers are the most important resource we have to improve student achievement and yet, recent research done by the EdTrust-West shows that poor and minority students are seriously shortchanged when it comes to quality teaching. Click here for more information on our report, California’s Hidden Teacher Spending Gap, which reveals huge disparities in the spending on teachers between high- and low-poverty and high- and low-minority schools within the same district.

 

Ensure that Educators and the Public Have the Data They Need to Assess How Well Schools are Serving Students: There are far too many questions that we can’t answer about how California’s schools and students are doing because we lack the capacity to track students and teachers over time. The EdTrust-West support efforts underway to develop a high-quality longitudinal data system and teacher data system. We also support efforts to improve the availability and transparency of data.