"Getting Down to Facts: A Research Project Examining California’s School Governance and Finance Systems" is our site of the day

"Getting Down to Facts" is a research project of 23 studies about California's school finance and governance systems. The first half of these studies was released yesterday at a news conference attended by Jack O' Connnell, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Fabian Nunez, the Speaker of the California Assembly, and Don Perata, the President pro Tem of the State Senate, officials from the Schwarzenegger Administration and others. The second half is being released today.

To say this is a blockbuster set of reports would be an understatement. We will be hearing about these reports for months, if not years to come. This is about "reform" of the California kindergarten to 12th grade education system and the level of funding necessary to bring about improvement of our schools.

To say there is a lot here to read and digest is also an understatement. But you can and should at least take a look at this site that contains the reports and see what is there. If you are serious about understanding this research, you may want to read one or more of the studies, especially if something said in the media catches your fancy or just sounds like it might not be true.

This is how the Institute for Research on Education Policy & Practice at Stanford University describes the report:

Over an 18 months period from September 2005 to March 2007, the Getting Down to Facts Project brought together an extraordinary array of scholars from 32 institutions with diverse expertise and policy orientations. It represents an unprecedented attempt to synthesize what we know as a basis for convening the necessary public conversations about what we should do. …

The project is not designed to recommend specific policies. Rather it aims to provide common ground for understanding the current state of California school finance and governance and for a serious and substantive conversation about necessary reforms.

The project addressed three broad questions:
1. What do California school finance and governance systems look like today?
2. How can we use the resources that we have more effectively to improve student outcomes?
3. To what extent are additional resources needed so that California's students can meet the goals that we have for them?

This is an independent research project and received grants from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and The Stuart Foundation. It was commissioned by the Governor, Speaker, President pro Tem of the Senate, and the State Superinendent of Public Instruction. Hopefully, it will be considered carefully by our elected policymakers and not just gather dust as so many reports of all kinds have in our state.