The Big Squeeze finds that in order to offset the costs of required and growing contributions to the state’s unsustainable pension system, California school districts are increasing class sizes; cutting enrichment opportunities like art, music and after-school activities; reducing counseling and health supports; and making other compromises that stifle learning.

Over the course of one year, three districts embraced a user-centered design approach to foster local innovation and develop better solutions to persistent LCAP challenges. The results of their work are available in these two new briefs.

A homelessness crisis is exploding, mostly out of the public view, in Monterey County, just down the bay from the upscale high-tech capital of San Francisco. In this report, our findings highlight the role of region’s soaring housing costs, lower wage jobs and scant social services infrastructure in the growing crisis.

Pivot Learning’s expert team of district and school improvement specialists came together for a webinar on continuous improvement in special education. This targeted webinar focused on building the capacity of special education leaders, teachers, and related service providers to serve as instructional leaders.

A panel of experts, including school district, community, and city leaders and researchers will discuss the state of education in the Antelope Valley. They will provide recommendations to expand and improve educational opportunities for the large numbers of African-American, English Learners, low-income, homeless, and foster youth in the region.

On May 22, 2017, the Pivot Learning Board of Directors approved the acquisition of the Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc. (CORE) through a generous gift from the founder and owner Bill Honig, as well as owners Catherine Honig and Linda Diamond. This gift brings together two of the longest tenured and most respected education service providers to districts and schools in California and the nation.

On February 7th, 2017, Pivot Learning launched the California Curriculum Collaborative in partnership with EdReports.org. Calcurriculum.org offers free independent analysis of K-12 Math and English Language Arts materials from national publishers as well as best practices for curriculum adoption.

Pivot hosted the first in a series of Change Design webinars, "Building Trust with Your Community," to review key lessons for leaders working to engage their communities in big change. We also explored specific resources and tools that can guide change design projects towards success.