TOPIC

Educational governance & policy

Educational governance & leadership

California made a fundamental change its approach to education in 2013, bringing greater local discretion over local decision making in public education. These changes were intended to support both equity and system improvement in California’s schools.

Districts are primarily accountable for school improvement and receive assistance from the Statewide System of Support. As part of this System of Support, county offices of education are responsible for (1) annually approving their districts’ Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), in which districts outline their intended activities and resource allocation strategies to meet the eight state priorities delineated in the LCFF legislation; and (2) providing direct assistance when districts fail to meet expectations in priority areas.

The 2013 Local Control Funding Formula also shifted the way California governs and funds its schools, giving greater authority over resources to locally elected school boards and districts, and emphasizing the importance of local stakeholder engagement. 

PACE research in this area is designed support the continued development of these systems, and strengthen educational governance at all levels. 

Recent Topic Publications
pb_cottingham-dec2021
Lessons from Kern County
Counties, districts, and schools have had to respond to ever-shifting issues related to COVID-19. This brief describes the complex challenges that district superintendents faced, which often required expertise in areas beyond traditional…
r_hahnel_nov21
California enacted a groundbreaking shift to its school-funding system when it passed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013. The law sought to make funding more equitable and also aimed to increase local control based on the premise that…
In 2002 Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), authorizing the creation of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) as the research, evaluation, statistics, and assessment arm of the Department of Education, and crystallizing the federal government's commitment to providing national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through postsecondary study. IES shares information on the condition and progress of education in the
Critical Actions for Recovery and the Role of Research in the Years Ahead
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently issued a report providing guidance on the future of education research at the National Center for Education Research and the National Center for Special Education Research, two centers directed by…
pb_governance_thumbnail
Evidence from the 2021 PACE/USC Rossier Poll
In this brief, we use data from the 2021 PACE/USC Rossier Poll to report on California voters’ attitudes towards and engagement with local school district governance. Generally, our findings show relatively high support for school boards among…