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…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Teachers' Time: Collaborating for Learning, Teaching, and Leading," this case study looks at Hillsdale High School, a large, comprehensive high school located in San Mateo, California, a high-tech enclave of Silicon Valley nestled 23 miles…

This paper presents the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd's 13th annual report on the status of the teaching profession in California, focusing on the role of the principal in supporting teaching quality. More specifically, the report discusses fiscal and policy trends, the competing demands of the principalship,…

The link among the quality of principals, caliber of teaching, and levels of student achievement is a tight one. School leadership is a key factor in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers; teaching quality, in turn, profoundly influences improvements in student learning and achievement. Yet despite their central role in this equation,…

This paper reports on findings of a research study on the district-level control of principals in 12 effective school districts in California. Primary research objectives were (1) to expand knowledge on the nature of administrative control, (2) to develop a better understanding of the processes and activities in effective school districts, and (3)…

In an effort to understand teachers' and administrators' experiences with public school accountability, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), with the support of the Noyce Foundation, established the Educator Responses to Accountability Project (ERAP). During the 2002-2003 school year, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with…

As an adjunct to the California State Board of Education's 1983 report, "Raising Expectations: Model Graduation Requirements," this paper presents legislative and administrative recommendations on teacher quality and on the principal's role. The State Board's Master Plan Committee, which also produced "Raising Expectations,"…

The result of a collaborative effort to meet the needs of California educators in middle-grades reform, this volume provides access to the best ideas in research and practice, and support for local improvement efforts. The casebook format tells the strategies, problems, and diverse actions of educators focusing on the "how" of leading a…

The California Office of Child Development's child care and development program is designed to ensure an environment conducive to the development and growth of young children and provide parents the opportunity to work or prepare for employment to support their families. It is also intended to prevent or lessen child abuse or neglect and provide…

Planning for conversion to a year-round school in James Monroe School, Madera, California, began in 1984 as educators and community faced the fact that continued enrollment increases had reached a critical point. This report describes program development and implementation; an appendix with program worksheets comprises over one-half of the…

This manual is designed to help school boards and administrators avoid strikes, survive them, and recover from them when they are over. Chapter 1 distinguishes between public and private sector strikes; defines different kinds of strike strategies, negotiation goals, and strike goals; and provides a strike evaluation checklist for the employee…