History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
The Latest from IDEA
A newsfeed on the most current research, news, and events at IDEA.
Sept. 21: Long trace for lack of diversity at UC
The University of California system does not reflect the diversity of the state, despite efforts to promote diversity among the students, faculty and staff, according to a recent report.
Reported in an article for the Daily Californian, Berkeley's publication, students from certain racial/ethnic backgrounds are still underrepresented across all nine UC campuses.
Latinos, who make up 34 percent of the state's population, only account for 14 percent of the undergraduate student body.
IDEA Director John Rogers said funding at the K-12 level plays a crucial role in the make-up of colleges and universities. The majority of the state's minority students attend chronically underfunded schools located in lower-income neighborhoods.
"The fact that those schools are so underfunded and unequal contributes to these broader problems of inequality," Rogers said.
Sept. 5: 'Who asked us'? Council of Youth Research work highlighted in ethnic media
IDEA associate director
IDEA associate director Ernest Morrell and Council of Youth Research students were interviewed about the importance of conducting their own educational research.
In a Sept. 5 article titled "WHO ASKED US: What's the Matter with CA schools? L.A. students poll their peers," students were interviewed during their trip to Sacramento, where they spoke to state leaders about California's public education system and resources.
"You could bring in an adult to do a two-day evaluation of a school and come up with some conclusion... but if you [consult] a student who actually attends the school, that student deals with the school every day, so he or she is an expert at knowing what their peers need," Locke student Dimitri Meighan, 16, told New America Media.
The Council participated in a five-week summer seminar that culminated in a presentation of their research at Los Angeles City Hall last month. Their exploration focused on the state of California's public education 10 years after the filing of Willams v. California, a class-action lawsuit that highlighted the inequitable distribution of resources among public schools, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
Check out our website for more information on CYR students' work and presentations.
Aug. 23: Value Added is No Magic
Drawing inspiration from Goethe's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," IDEA Director John Rogers compares the Los Angeles Times' forthcoming teacher effectiveness database with the inability to control magic.
Like the orginal German poem, the Disney cartoon or live-action movie, the sorcerer's apprentice uses a little bit of magic to ease his chores. Before long, the animated mops and buckets have created an unintended flood.
Similarly, Rogers said, the Times could expect a "flood of unintended consequences" when it publishes the database of 6,000 third- through fifth-grade teachers from most effective to least. Writing on the Huffington Post, Rogers cites the faults with the value-added analysis and how that data could be used by parents, teachers and others in the community to make rash decisions and negatively affect the school environment.
"Although the apprentice had enough knowledge to set magic in motion, he could not think ahead to what he did not know," Rogers wrote, "...The Times should not believe in the magic of this data, and should realize that it cannot foresee or control all of the consequences."
Read full piece on Huffington Post.
Aug. 23: IDEA comments on LA Times piece
IDEA Director John Rogers was one of a handful education professionals to remark on the Los Angeles Times' series using value-added analysis to gauge teacher effectiveness.
Appearing in Sunday's op-ed section, Rogers said there would be serious consequences to the publication of the database ranking 6,000 third- through fifth-grade teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, especially since the National Academy of Sciences has identified problems with value-added analysis.
"Value-added methods are a limited and underdeveloped tool. By focusing narrowly on standardized tests, these analyses ignore much learning that matters to students, parents and teachers and cannot stand alone as a measure of 'effectiveness,' " Rogers wrote in the Times.
Student research presentations available online
After a month spent gathering data, surveys and interviews, the Council of Youth Research presented its findings Friday at Los Angeles City Hall.
To an audience of about 150 people, the students shared what they learned about the state of education in California today, with particular interest in the areas of curriculum, teaching, learning resources, social and physical environments and leadership.
Each group created a PowerPoint and video documentary, which are now available on the website. Please visit the Projects & Presentations page to view the students' work.
For more information, contact Claudia Bustamante at 310-267-4408 or bustamante@gseis.ucla.edu
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