Executive Director of @edpolicyinca; public school parent in @DJUSD; committed to the educational success of all California students #CAEdData #CAEdChat
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Articles by Heather Hough
PACE Event - Reenergizing Learning Strategies for Getting Beyond Stagnant Test Scores
PACE Event Strategies for Getting Beyond Stagnant Test Scores Two years after schools returned to in-person learning, the state’s Smarter Balanced scores show disappointingly little improvement. Nearly two-thirds of California students failed to meet math standards for their grade level, and more than half fell short of the standards for English. But while the pandemic was devastating for families, students and schools, test scores were languishing even before Covid.
Diet has room for personal taste, cultural heritage
Myth: One must give up their culturally specific foods in pursuit of a “healthier” diet. There are times in health and wellness spaces when “diets” are suggested to a patient. Diets like the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or DASH diet, the Mediterranean diet, or a low carbohydrate diet are sometimes offered as a suggestion when someone is being handed the diagnosis of a major health issue such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
Dispelling cultural myths in health, wellness
The health and wellness space should be one of safety and care, but due to underlying bias and racism it is sometimes a place of harm. The Myth: One’s weight defines one’s health. The truth is weight does not equal health and this myth is harming people living in marginalized bodies. If you delve into the inception of weight recommendations and the BMI or Body Mass Index, you will find an origin story lacking in validity in the way these measures are brought up in health conversations today.
Opinion: An exodus from traditional public schools
When California’s schools reopened their classrooms at the beginning of this school year, educators were confronted by a critical question: Where did all the students go? Since the beginning of the pandemic, California public schools have lost more than 4% of their enrollment, about 270,000 students. That’s a lot of kids — and a lot of funding for public schools. An exodus of low- to middle-income families being priced out of the state is probably one factor in the decline.
The COVID era has seen an exodus from California’s traditional public schools. This is why | Opinion Original
When California’s schools reopened their classrooms at the beginning of this school year, educators were confronted by a critical question: Where did all the students go? Since the beginning of the pandemic, California public schools have lost more than 4% of their enrollment, about 270,000 students. That’s a lot of kids — and a lot of funding for public schools. An exodus of low- to middle-income families being priced out of the state is probably one factor in the decline.
PACE - Assessing Voters’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Current Threats to Public Education
The 2022 PACE/USC Rossier Poll Summary The 2021–22 academic year was profoundly challenging for California schools.
COVID-19, the educational equity crisis, and the opportunity ahead
As the one-year anniversary of campus closures due to COVID-19 passed last March, nearly half of America’s children were attending schools operating remotely or open only on a hybrid basis. In California, more than 70% of students were attending schools that were fully remote. But spring brings new hope.
CalMatters Commentary: Classroom closures won't doom learning if we adopt new techniques
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced that all K–12 schools in California counties with rising COVID-19 infections should close for in-person instruction. As a result, 90% of California’s more than 6 million students could start the school year with distance learning. This decision to begin the school year remotely, while necessary, is troubling for students, parents and educators alike.
CalMatters Commentary: Classroom closures won't doom learning if we adopt new techniques
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced that all K–12 schools in California counties with rising COVID-19 infections should close for in-person instruction. As a result, 90% of California’s more than 6 million students could start the school year with distance learning. This decision to begin the school year remotely, while necessary, is troubling for students, parents and educators alike.
Reopening schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Your questions, our answers
With the arrival of summer break, school systems across the country have mostly signed off of their remote teaching, and school leaders’ focus now shifts to reopening schools for live instruction in the next academic year. On May 21, the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings hosted a webinar that addressed how schools in the United States should approach questions around reopening in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
CALmatters Commentary: Schools should be priority as state recovers from pandemic
By Heather Hough, Special for CALmatters The coronavirus pandemic has pushed California and the nation into uncharted waters, especially with the impact on our schools. California schools are some of the nation’s poorest funded, with the state ranked 39th in the country in education spending. Recent research has concluded that California would need to spend an additional $26.5 billion above 2016-17 levels on K-12 education annually to meet the state’s goals for student achievement.
Commentary: As California recovers from impact of coronavirus, schools should be a priority
By Guest Commentary published: April 10, 2020 Our children’s education should be a priority as California recovers from coronavirus The financial impact of the coronavirus will come when California schools need more money, not less, to serve our children’s educational needs. Photo via iStock The coronavirus pandemic has pushed California and the nation into uncharted waters, especially with the impact on our schools.
Identity crisis: Multiple measures and the identification of schools under ESSA
Authors: Heather Hough, Emily Penner, Joe Witte Year of publication: Publication: Policy Analysis for California Education The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) makes sweeping changes to the way school performance is measured. Using the innovative measurement system developed by the CORE Districts in California, the authors explore how schools can be identified for support and improvement using a multiple measures framework.
Tricks of the Trade: State Legislative Actions in School Finance Policy That Perpetuate Racial Disparities in the Post‐Brown Era
Abstract This article discusses the tricks of the trade that legislatures in formerly de jure segregated states might use to maintain racial funding disparities in existence before Brown and whether such ploys might be vulnerable to legal challenges. The first section provides an overview of modern school finance formulas and explains how legislatures in de jure segregated states might use state aid policies to produce racial funding disparities.
Californians and Public Education: Views from the 2019 PACE/USC Rossier Poll
Authors: Morgan S. Polikoff, Heather Hough, Julie A. Marsh, David N. Plank Year of publication: Publication: Policy Analysis for California Education With a new Governor, State Superintendent, and Legislators in Sacramento and a diminished federal role in education, there is an opportunity for California’s leaders to take stock of recent educational reforms and make necessary improvements.
Student success: Much more needs to be done - Capitol Weekly
The new comprehensive analysis of California’s PreK-12 education system, Getting Down to Facts II, revealed that the state is moving in the right direction with reforms put in place over the last decade, but more importantly it showed much more must be done to support student success.
Trends in Student Social Emotional Learning: Evidence from the CORE Districts
Authors: Martin R. West, Libby Pier, Hans Fricke, Heather Hough, Susanna Loeb, Robert H. Meyer, Andrew B. Rice Year of publication: Publication: Policy Analysis for California Education Mounting evidence demonstrates that social-emotional skills are important for students’ academic and life success, yet we have limited evidence on how these skills develop over time and how this development varies across student subgroups.
Using Surveys of Students' Social-Emotional Skills and School Climate for Accountability and Continuous Improvement
This report and accompanying policy brief show that there is good reason to pursue the measurement of social-emotional learning (SEL) and school culture/climate (CC) as a way to better understand student and school performance.
How Should States Design Their Accountability Systems? Forum with Jeb Bush, Heather Hough, and Michael Kirst
Education Next talks with Jeb Bush, Heather Hough, and Michael Kirst By Jeb Bush, Heather Hough and Michael W. Kirst Print | PDF WINTER 2017 / VOL. 17, NO. 1 With the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, states have gained substantial new freedom to reshape their school accountability systems, including criteria for how to measure and communicate school performance to the public.
California’s Dashboard Data Will Guide Improvement - Education Next
After more than a decade of strict federal mandates and measures of school success, a new education law is inviting policymakers across the country to rethink “accountability.” The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) takes a more comprehensive approach to assessing school quality than the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), moving beyond NCLB’s focus on annual test performance to also consider factors like student academic growth, graduation rates, and rates of proficiency for English language...
Making use of waivers under ESSA
Executive Summary The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) devolves many decisions to states about how to design their accountability system and the measures to use in these systems in order to meet new goals of college and career readiness. Because few states presently have adequate measures for the new goals, they will need to develop the measures along with accountability structures. ESSA includes a provision that would allow district waivers to their state’s programs.
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