Project: California’s New School Finance Law: Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2015
Contact: Isabel Alegría, 415-431-7434, ialegria@publicadvocates.org
Statement of John Affeldt, Public Advocates Managing Attorney, on California Department of Education release of CAASPP Results:
“The state is to be applauded for taking on teaching and testing to the more challenging standards all students need to succeed in the 21st century. The most concerning aspect of the CAASPP results is the very large and persistent achievement gap for low-income, African American and Latino students and English learners. These results underscore the need for the state’s new school accountability system to identify and redress ongoing achievement gaps in districts and schools. It remains to be seen if the State Board’s upcoming decisions shaping school accountability will adequately focus on equity concerns.
Similarly, it is important that the State Board set performance expectations that drive districts and schools to improve on these results and not merely deem average performance as “acceptable” as the State Board is currently considering.”
Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit civil rights law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity. We spur change through collaboration with grassroots groups representing low-income communities, people of color and immigrants, combined with strategic policy reform, media advocacy and litigation, “making rights real” across California since 1971.
