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Articles by Michael Kirst
Kirst: California needs stronger state role in education — without abandoning local control
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By Michael Kirst I have strongly supported local control in my career, but local control has never meant no state role. The evidence now makes clear California also needs a coherent state role — something its history has never quite forced it to build.
A new state role for experienced teacher improvement
Since 2009, nearly every U.S. state has adopted specific standards and teaching frameworks for literacy and math. Yet, despite these efforts, the implementation of these standards in classrooms has often fallen short. As I reflect on my six decades in education policy—including 12 years as president of the California State Board of Education—I’ve come to believe that one of the most persistent challenges in American education is the gap between state-level policy and effective classroom practice.
UPDATE: Faculty unions sue Trump administration over Columbia funding cuts
News Brief Tuesday, March 25, 2025 — 9:06 am The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit today in the Southern District of New York alleging that the Trump administration unlawfully cut off $400 million in federal research funding to Columbia University to force it to restrict speech on campus.
UPDATE: San Diego State announces hiring freeze
News Brief Tuesday, March 25, 2025 — 8:20 am San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre has announced a hiring freeze for most positions on the campus due to state funding cuts, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Faculty and staff learned of the hiring freeze in an email on March 20. University leaders are looking for other ways to reduce the budget, which could have a deficit amounting to tens of millions of dollars this fiscal year and the next, according to the Union-Tribune.
COMMENTARY: California can strengthen its teacher workforce; here’s how
A teacher reviews students’ project notes on a computer. Credit: Allison Shelley for EDUimages California’s teacher workforce needs stronger stewardship. Our state has established high standards for English, math, science and history that lay out what students must know and be able to do. But, as I have argued before, California has failed to adequately ensure even a majority of local educators are trained on — and equipped to teach to the level expected by — these standards.
UPDATE: New data system meant to track student progress is delayed
News Brief Monday, March 24, 2025 — 10:45 am The release of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comprehensive, statewide data system to track student progress from preschool through employment has been delayed — again, CalMatters reported. The data system, Cradle-to-Career, is meant to be a multi-year initiative to collect preschool, K-12 district, college and career training program data for use in public dashboards.
UPDATE: Berkeley Unified may layoff or reduce staff for its understaffed afterschool program
News Brief Monday, March 24, 2025 — 9:49 am Last week, around 100 employees, students and families implored the Berkeley Unified School District board to avoid eliminating coordinators for LEARNS, an afterschool program that “is joy-filled, safe, happy and welcoming,” Berkeleyside reported. Berkeley Unified is one of many California school districts turning to layoffs to balance a multimillion dollar budget deficit.
UPDATE: Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing private data at Education Department, other agencies
News Brief Monday, March 24, 2025 — 12:56 pm A federal judge Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing private personal data at federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education, Treasury Department and Office of Personnel Management, as reported by the Associated Press.
UPDATE: Supreme Court could approve public funding for religious charter schools
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News Brief Tuesday January 28, 2025 10:37 am The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case that could pave the way for religious charter schools. The court will decide if a religious school operated by the Catholic church can open in Oklahoma as a charter receiving public money. The court is expected to hear the case in late April and to decide it by early summer, according to the Associated Press.
By Amy DiPierro Verified, MIchael Burke, Michael Burke Verified, John Fensterwald Verified, Michael Kirst
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EdSource
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UPDATE: New report offers guidance to improve genocide education in California
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News Brief Tuesday January 28, 2025 8:29 am The Governor’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education released a report yesterday on International Holocaust Remembrance Day with recommendations to improve genocide education in California schools. The report, “Holocaust and Genocide Education in California: A Study of Statewide Context and Local Implementation,” found that instruction on the subject in many districts depends on the initiative of individual teachers.
By Amy DiPierro Verified, MIchael Burke, Michael Burke Verified, John Fensterwald Verified, Michael Kirst
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EdSource
Verified
UPDATE: Bucking federal moves, San Francisco State focuses requirement on climate change
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News Brief Tuesday January 28, 2025 2:46 pm Moving against the tide of Trump Administration orders rolling back action on climate change, San Francisco State plans to debut a new twist on an old graduation requirement about the environment. Starting next fall, courses meeting an existing environmental sustainability requirement will teach undergraduate students that climate change has an unequal toll – and will explore how people are finding ways to adapt.
By Amy DiPierro Verified, MIchael Burke, Michael Burke Verified, John Fensterwald Verified, Michael Kirst
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EdSource
Verified
UPDATE: Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District closes four campuses Monday due to road dangers
News Brief Monday January 27, 2025 9:08 am Four campuses in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will be closed Monday as a result of dangerous road conditions and other challenges with access, KTLA reported. The four campuses include: Webster Elementary, Malibu Elementary, Malibu Middle School and Malibu High School.
UPDATE: Pasadena Unified charters affected by fires prepare for new beginnings
News Brief Monday January 27, 2025 9:40 am The Pasadena Unified School district is continuing its phased reopening of campuses affected by the Eaton Fire — despite severe damage of five of its campuses, according to a statement issued by Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco Monday morning. The campuses most damaged include Eliot Arts Magnet Academy, Franklin Elementary, which closed in 2020, and three campuses home to a charter school.
UPDATE: Modesto Junior College program that supports refugees expresses uncertainty amid Trump policies
News Brief Monday January 27, 2025 9:28 am Many of the students at a Modesto Junior College program that teaches English and life skills are refugees and asylees, The Modesto Bee reported. Yet, the program could be disrupted because of a Jan. 20 executive order from President Donald Trump that suspends the Refugee Resettlement Program. Roughly 30% of the students at Modesto Junior College’s language learner program are refugees, according to English professor Ruth Luman.
UPDATE: Sonoma State coaches organize legal challenges to proposed sports cut
News Brief Monday January 27, 2025 4:29 pm Sonoma State University coaches and sports supporters have filed a federal civil rights complaint against the university and are threatening further legal action after the campus announced plans to pull the plug on all intercollegiate athletics programs. The university contends that the sports elimination and several other severe cuts are needed to fill a nearly $24 million budget deficit following a decade-long slide in enrollment.
COMMENTARY: How to ingrain instructional quality in all California schools
Riverside County teachers collaboratively learn with the Riverside County Office of Education math team around increasing student thinking. Credit: Riverside County Office of Education When I became president of the California State Board of Education in 1975 for the first of two stints in this role (1975–82), three different offices created state curriculum frameworks, instructional materials and assessments, without much coordination or integration.
Declining NAEP Scores Are Flashing Red Lights for the Covid Generation
Last week brought the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s Long Term Trend series, and they were sobering. Just before the pandemic kicked in, U.S. thirteen-year-olds saw statistically-significant declines in both math and reading—a first in the study’s nearly fifty-year history. Black, Hispanic, and low-achieving students saw the largest declines. The question is why, and the answer is: Nobody knows for sure.
A Sharp Critique of Standards-Based Reform
Beyond Standards: The Fragmentation of Education Governance and the Promise of Curriculum Reform by Morgan Polikoff Harvard Education Press, 2021, $60; 192 pages. As reviewed by Natalie Wexler The many education reformers who have relied on academic standards to boost student achievement might outline their theory as follows: States broadly define what students should know and be able to do at specific grade levels.
The NAEP Sounded Red Alert for Students with Disabilities Before Covid-19
The National Assessment of Educational Progress recently released national science results for 2019, and the news disappointed again. The science results reinforced a previous trend in the data—lackluster overall results driven by a disturbing decline in the results for students with disabilities. All six of NAEP’s 4th and 8th grade exams show at least modestly positive trends for students without disabilities between 2009 and 2019.
Local Control Is Part of the Problem, a New Book About Education Contends
In his new book, Beyond Standards, USC associate professor Morgan Polikoff contends that the impact of the standards movement in public education has been undermined by local educators’ failure to deliver consistent, high-quality curriculum in the nation’s classrooms. FutureEd Editorial Director Phyllis W. Jordan spoke with Polikoff, a FutureEd senior fellow, about the standards movement and how to achieve the movement’s goal of educating many more students to higher levels.
Ethnic Studies in California
Among California’s many distinctions, the state stands out for the minimal requirements it imposes for high-school graduation, among the most lenient in the United States. California is one of a handful of states that require just three years of English and two years of math to earn a high-school diploma. The last revision to the list of 13 required courses was back in 2003, when state lawmakers added Algebra I.
For Schools To Open in Spring 2021, Teachers and Students Need to Mask Up
Americans are rightly concerned about the negative educational effects of the pandemic, especially for underserved student groups like low-income students of color and students with disabilities. All across the country, there is growing pressure to find ways to safely get as many children as possible back in schools. Despite our best efforts, online learning is just not as good as in-person, and the consequences of a full year online may be devastating.
Reopening Decisions Are Mostly a Matter of Trust
If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that this crisis has thrown all of us for a loop. We humans aren’t built for something so unnerving, so unprecedented in our own lifetimes, so mysterious and hard to understand and out of control. We might view our own brains as perfectly rational, but despite our best efforts, we’re going to grasp for the familiar in times like this, including familiar ways of thinking.
Steer Federal Stimulus Money to Poor Students
After months of anticipation, Senate Republicans finally released their bid for the next big Covid-19 relief bill this week, dubbed the HEALS act. The headline news for K–12 education is the proposal to steer the bulk of education aid to schools that open for in-person instruction, which is triggering angry reactions from most of the education establishment. It’s hard to imagine that idea surviving negotiations with House Democrats.
In California, Common Core Has Not Failed - Education Next
This commentary is inspired by the Spring 2020 Education Next forum, “A Decade On, Has Common Core Failed? Assessing the Impact of National Standards,” and it aims to reply to the negative view from Tom Loveless in particular (“Common Core Has Not Worked”) about the effects of Common Core.
COMMENTARY: UC Regents should consider impact of college admissions tests on public schools
When testing requirements are properly aligned, the best test prep is regular classroom instruction CREDIT: iStock_Ryan-Balderas CREDIT: iStock_Ryan-Balderas Michael Kirst and Saul Geiser March 18, 2020 The University of California Task Force report that recommends retaining the SAT and ACT in admissions ignores a more fundamental concern: the tests’ adverse effect on California’s public schools.
The Case for Limitlessness Has Its Limits
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live without Barriers by Jo Boaler HarperCollins, 2019, $26.99; 256 pages. As reviewed by Daniel Ansari Perhaps it’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover—but the bright splashes of color on the cover of Limitless Mind certainly suggest that this book will be full of positive messages. And it is.
A State School Board that Works - Education Next
By Michael W. Kirst 03/29/2019 Print | NO PDF | Share Checker Finn’s reflections on his four-year “sentence” on the Maryland state board of education may well capture frustrations shared by many of those who are called into this form of public service, but my own experiences in California suggest that these frustrations are not inevitable. I served for 15 years on the California state board of education, most of it as board president.
California School Dashboard provides opportunity for schools ‘to turn data into action’
CREDIT: Alison Yin / EdSource Fourth/fifth grader combination class at Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, May 17, 2017. CREDIT: Alison Yin / EdSource Fourth/fifth grader combination class at Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, May 17, 2017.
New funding system making a difference for California schools
California is making major improvements in public education to ensure that all 6.2 million students in our diverse state have the support they need to be successful in college, careers, and life. These changes include a new, equity-focused funding system; a new school accountability system that has dramatically improved data transparency, making disparities impossible to ignore; new, challenging K-12 learning standards; and a new state-of-the-art online testing system.
California’s education plan affirms commitment to local control
California is fast approaching the September 18 deadline to submit its draft Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan to the federal government. This plan – essentially a grant application – allows California to makes its case for utilizing federal funds to assist low-income students across the state.
Strong, locally generated data key to school improvement strategies
For California’s local schools, the availability of educational data is undergoing dramatic change, and along with it, the politics of how to use that data. Improving student outcomes requires improving instruction and services in classrooms and schools. The state’s new educational initiatives, including the Local Control Funding Formula, recognize that improvement happens locally, so there has been an intentional focus on access and use of data locally for improvement efforts.
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...
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 school accountability requires new approach
At the State Board of Education meeting Sept. 8, the board will take an important step in developing a new accountability system for public schools based on the Local Control Funding Formula. Passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula significantly changed how local educational agencies receive funding and how the state holds them accountable for improving student performance.
California school accountability requires a new approach: Guest commentary
At the State Board of Education meeting Sept. 8, the board will take an important step in developing a new accountability system for public schools based on the Local Control Funding Formula. Passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula significantly changed how local educational agencies receive funding and how the state holds them accountable for improving student performance.
California must move ahead on new approach to school accountability
The State Board of Education has been working for several years to develop a new accountability system based on the Local Control Funding Formula, which the Legislature and governor passed in 2013. In September, the state board will take an important step forward by establishing a new way to measure progress and identify problems in our schools and districts, giving parents, teachers and community members a better idea of what is happening at their schools.
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Time to begin implementing new science standards in our schools
A strong science education is an important part of learning for students at all grade levels. California’s new science standards emphasize science in early grades and ensure students use what they learn in connection with other core subjects. The new standards help students solve problems, think creatively and make sense of a rapidly changing world.
Transformation goal is to narrow achievement gap, promote college and career success
California’s public education system is in the midst of systemwide transformation designed to narrow the achievement gap and elevate low-achieving students to be ready for college and career success. At the core of the change are higher academic standards for all students, regardless of their achievement level, socioeconomic status, ethnicity or family background.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal Department of Education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous coursework in high school, developing college-level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal Department of Education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous coursework in high school, developing college-level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal department of education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous course work in high school, developing college level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal department of education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous course work in high school, developing college level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal Department of Education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous coursework in high school, developing college-level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal department of education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous course work in high school, developing college level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal department of education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous course work in high school, developing college level knowledge and skills.
Michael Kirst: California students better prepared for college
Early in my career as a budget analyst for the federal Department of Education, I became familiar with national education rankings. Over the years, I have reviewed countless reports. While measures are becoming more sophisticated, most national rankings oversimplify California's results and mask significant progress. Today more students than ever are succeeding in rigorous coursework in high school, developing college-level knowledge and skills.
COMMENTARY: AP results indicate impressive gains for state’s top students
Michael Kirst / commentary There is some good news in California student achievement trends. High performers, as measured by passage of the Advanced Placement exam, are increasing, and rank very high in interstate comparisons. AP is college level work in high school, and indicates that students attending California’s most selective colleges are better prepared than ever.
1st school test score results: Half of students meet standards
Books that new SFUSD teacher Ashli Duncan acquired for her second grade classroom sit in a box next to other books given to her from an outgoing teacher at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School on Wednesday, August 12, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Books that new SFUSD teacher Ashli Duncan acquired for her second... Test results released Wednesday by the California Department of Education set a new baseline for academic performance of students, schools and districts.
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