By Brooke Donald

Five years ago, Stanford's Institute for Research on Educational Policy and Practice (IREPP) released a landmark report on the state of education in California called "Getting Down to Facts." That project, led by education Professor Susanna Loeb, examined the state's K-12 educational finance and governance systems. The project concluded that the state's education system could not make significant improvements without increased spending on schools and a comprehensive policy overhaul. 

This month another Stanford research center, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), issued a progress report evaluating the last five years and looking ahead to the future. The Stanford News Service spoke with PACE's executive director, Professor David Plank, about the improvements made and the challenges that remain.

What were the findings of the original report five years ago?

California is not spending enough on schools, for one. The original report found that the amount we spent fell short of any reasonable standard of adequacy. It also found that the system was inefficient and ineffective in the way it used available resources. That meant that simply putting more money into the system would not necessarily lead to the outcomes we wanted. Finally, it found the school system was overseen by a completely incoherent governance and finance structure that did not target resources to the schools and students who needed them most.

What prompted the follow-up?

The first study was requested by the state; this was not. Here, we wanted to look back and figure out how much progress California has made over the past five years in pursuing the goals laid out in "Getting Down to Facts."

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