California Report Card 2001
Factors for School Success, November 2001

California Report Card 2001
This 44-page report provides an overview of issues facing California's children, such as economic security, health, safety and early care.
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Introduction
Children's educational success ranks high on the priority list of parents, voters, public officials and business leaders. This concern has engendered numerous initiatives to improve how children are taught in public schools.

In the last decade, efforts to improve educational outcomes in California have included class size reduction in the early grades, further professional development for teachers, new statewide academic content standards, and student testing with public reporting and accountability measures.

While these and other school-based actions are obviously important in affecting children's achievement, factors both inside and outside the classroom significantly influence how well children will do in school. In fact, an extensive body of research suggests that given the close connection between learning and certain conditions, such as adequate nutrition, schools will not be able to accomplish all we want for all children unless such factors are addressed concurrently with other school improvement efforts.

This California Report Card and accompanying County Data Book document how economic, health and other conditions affect children's learning and how California children are doing, county-by-county, in terms of their economic security, health, safety and educational outcomes.