Explanation of a large educational settlement in California

The state of California last week settled a lawsuit that had been brewing for more than three years, since the height of the debate over pandemic school closures. The case was nationally notable; there are few others like it. And the settlement included an eye-popping number: $2 billion.

Several families in Oakland and Los Angeles had sued, accusing the state of failing to meet its constitutional obligation to provide equal education to all children in the state because lower-income black and Hispanic students tended to have less access to education at distance in the state. the spring and fall of 2020 than other students.

It is important to note that the state – that is, the taxpayers – will not be paying out any new money under the settlement. Instead, it will take money already set aside for pandemic recovery — as much as $2 billion of it — and schools will be directed to use it to help students who need it most catch up to get. There will be demands to spend the money on interventions that have a proven track record. You can read more about the settlement here.

Why does this matter?

Because new national data released last week, in a study led by researchers at Stanford and Harvard, made clear that students across the country are nowhere close to catching up on the learning gains lost during the pandemic .

This applies to students of all backgrounds, but especially to poor students. Schools in poor communities tended to remain closed longer than those in more affluent areas, and when they did, students lost more ground. When schools reopened, students from wealthier families tended to catch up faster than students from poorer families in the same districts, the new data shows.

Still, there have been some surprising variations.

In California, Compton unitednear Los Angeles, And Delano united, north of Bakersfield, are examples of lower-income school districts that have recovered remarkably well, at least judging by standardized test scores. You can read more about bright spot districts, including Delano Unified, in an article I wrote with my colleagues Claire Cain Miller and Francesca Paris.

Some more affluent districts have seen moderate recoveries in reading, math or both Santa Monica-Malibu united, Menlo Park City in the Bay Area, and Arcadia united in the San Gabriel Valley, northeast of Los Angeles.

Look up your school district and see how it compares to nearby areas and the rest of the state. (Note: This data includes scores for students in third through eighth grades in most public school districts; some minor ones are not included. The graphs show math scores only.)

Lakisha Young, the founder of Oakland REACH, a parent organization that worked closely with some of the families involved in the lawsuit, told me that the plaintiffs would receive no personal compensation from the settlement.

She said she hopes the settlement will ensure more students across the state get the help they need.

“We have a lot of families who don't open the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times — they'll never know this lawsuit happened,” she said. But when those parents see their children making progress in reading and math, she said, “then they've won.”

Sarah Mervosh is an education reporter for The Times, focusing on primary schools.

Tell us

The new Sixth Street Bridge in LA The Sundial Bridge in Redding. The exceptionally long San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.

Which bridge in California is your favorite, and why?

Tell us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your name and the city in which you live.

And before you go: good news

A recent study in the scientific journal Nature found that sea otters have helped slow erosion in marshes near Monterey. This is reported by the Associated Press.

The study measured the impact sea otters had on erosion in a tidal estuary called Elkhorn Slough, where the once dwindling otter population began to recover in recent decades thanks to habitat restoration efforts.

The study compared erosion rates in the estuary before the otters' return with more recent data and found that the animals had helped reduce erosion significantly by eating crabs that burrow deep into the wetland and make the banks less resistant to storms and rough water.