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
Issues
English Learners
The needs of students classified as English language learners are specific and important. Especially in the state of California where English learners make up a significant portion of the student population, the need to provide the educational tools and support for this segment of young people is imperative. Studies and reports have shown that English learners have a disproportionate incidence of poor achievement in schools and lower graduation rates, in addition to inadequate attention paid to their circumstances. Education advocates have noted that efforts to adjust schooling for those learning English, particularly as it relates to preserving methods of bilingual education, have proved effective for improving achievement for English language learners.
Multiple Pathways
Today’s high school students often attend schools where the programs and classes necessary for college, careers, and responsible participation in public life are not available to every student. Not only does this seriously limit the options of some students’ after high school, it also leads other students to simply opt of high school altogether. As a result, Multiple Pathways has emerged as an approach to high school education that offers students and their families choices among a variety of high school programs. Based on students’ interests and on the unique strengths and opportunities that exist in their communities, these program are intended to prepare students for both college and careers, as well as to centralize the importance of civic responsibility.
“Multiple Perspectives on Multiple Pathways” is a collection of fifteen essays written by distinguished California scholars. The papers in this collection explore the link between current educational structures, including Career and Technical Education and academic education, and inequity. Examining research that examines the intersection between California’s changing economy, its population diversity, its widening social and economic inequality, and its patterns of school failure across racial and ethnic communities, the authors put forward analyses of alternatives that can provide multiple pathways to high school graduation and postsecondary options that include both college and career.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act is a federal education law passed by Congress and signed by President George H.W. Bush in 2001. NCLB mandates increased accountability for schools, school districts, and states. The higher standards associated with this accountability are measured by testing public school students at various times in their schooling. NCLB also intends to increase the flexibility parents have in choosing the schools their children will attend. Critics of NCLB point to this increased standards-based testing as negatively affecting instructional quality, and they see NCLB as an incentive for states to lower standards. The bill's emphasis on math and science at the expense of other portions of an education curriculum is a further concern. IDEA research and analyses inform these ongoing controversies over how to best improve public education in California and local communities.
Opportunity Gaps and Achievement Gaps
Schools that serve majority White and Asian students receive more support and, on average, have more highly qualified teachers and better facilities and materials. Schools with majority Latino and African American enrollments produce students who are less competitive and who perform worse on tests. IDEA scholars study gaps in opportunities and resources that are strongly associated with gaps in achievement.
Overcrowding
Many urban and poorly funded schools across California are systemically overcrowded, with high school classes of over 30 or 40 students common in many schools. Much of the work of IDEA and its community partners has focused directly and indirectly on overcrowding. Schools that cannot offer students individual attention and force them in large classroom settings often produce lower achieving students. Individual attention and healthy classroom environments has been shown to increase the quality of education for students. Overcrowding in many of these schools is also inextricably linked to more systemic problems of schooling that many communities face: with a lack of adequate funding, facilities, and resources, schools have forced students to learn in overcrowded conditions and have consequently lowered student achievement. This problem, as expected, disproportionately impacts schools that have a majority of students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.
Williams v. California
Williams v. California was a lawsuit concerning the quality of California's public school system for low-income students of color.
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