NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This evaluation report describes how site and district administrators are making critical contributions to the…

An ever-increasing proportion of high school students in the United States today aspire to graduate from college. Yet statistics indicate that the percentage of college students receiving bachelor's degrees has remained relatively constant over the past 25 years, that it now takes on average 6 years to get a four-year college degree, and that…

Schools working to raise student achievement need the help of an organized, focused central office. Yet many districts lack unified direction, agreement on the central office role in supporting school improvement, and coherence and alignment between goals and strategies. Drawing on the findings of a three-year study of several districts focused on…

This user-friendly tool for retaining quality teachers--especially those in special education--contains a framework for action that can be used to create a plan at the school or district level, or to strengthen existing plans. Target audiences include state and local administrators for general and special education, including superintendents,…