Report Does Diagnostic Math Testing Improve Student Learning? By Julian Betts, Andrew C. Zau, Youjin Hahn Oct 11, 2011 Available to all math teachers in the state, the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP) offers course-specific assessments that give teachers timely feedback on their math students’ strengths and weaknesses. This report examines San Diego’s use of MDTP test results to guide the placement of students into appropriate classes or summer school. San Diego’s experiment had positive effects and could provide lessons for other districts in the state. This report was supported with funding from the Donald Bren Foundation. The California Academic Partnership Program also provided support to the authors for related research.
blog post Trends in Math Reforms at Community Colleges By Bonnie Brooks Jun 28, 2018 Beginning in 2019, California community colleges will be required to make changes to increase students' chances of completing college-level math and English within a year. Some have already started by making improvements to remedial math courses.
blog post California Needs More College Prep Courses By Niu Gao Nov 30, 2017 To improve student readiness for college, districts and schools need to increase the number of college prep courses.
blog post Equity Gaps Narrow in Community College Courses, but More Work to Do By Marisol Cuellar Mejia, Olga Rodriguez, Hans Johnson May 27, 2021 Major reforms to placement and remediation for California community college students has significantly broadened access to transfer-level English and math courses. But racial equity gaps persist.
blog post Ready for College? By Hans Johnson Mar 6, 2014 By several measures, a large and growing share of the state’s high school graduates are ready for college-level work.
press release Less than a Third of State’s 9th Graders Likely to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree Nov 27, 2017
Report Alternatives to Incarceration in California By Ryken Grattet, Brandon Martin Apr 17, 2015 Three-plus years after implementing a major realignment of its public safety systems, California continues to face pressure to reduce both its prison and jail populations. California relied on some alternatives to custody-based punishment before realignment but it has been expanding its use of others. Current research on the effects of incarceration and its alternatives offers a general endorsement of the idea that increasing reliance on community-based alternatives is not likely to result in large increases in crime and recidivism. The evidence suggests that the effectiveness of both incarceration and community-based supervision depends on a number of factors, including the rate of incarceration in a given community, the offender characteristics, and the nature of the response to violations during and after supervision. Finally, intensive data collection on county implementation efforts can help the state identify the community-based strategies that produce the best outcomes.
