This article describes the educational and public engagement outcomes of an activity called the "ChemClout Challenge" that was implemented in a general chemistry course at UC Riverside. Students worked in groups to make chemistry-themed videos, posted them to social media platforms, then voted on their favorite videos. The majority of…

The "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" posits that the practice of asking questions in order to deepen inquiry and understanding is a key element of information literacy. While the "Research as Inquiry" frame is teachable in library instruction, it can be difficult to scale. Popular instructional design…

This paper describes a reading assignment that resulted in students completing 80-90% of the assigned reading in a content-heavy science course taught in a flipped format. Students reported almost unanimously that the assignment was valuable in helping them learn the material, and a majority reported that other professors should adopt a similar…

This is the technical appendix for the report "From Insights to Impact: Fostering Innovation through Texas" which examines the current national landscape of higher education research and development to help gauge Texas' current position and identify opportunities to drive further innovations into the future. This appendix includes the…

This article analyzes an episode of classroom mathematics activity mediated by graphing technology from 3 different theoretical perspectives. An important line of research in the learning sciences focuses on graphs as "inscriptions", foregrounding learners' interactions with and around the material properties of graphical displays.…

As COVID-19 continues to impact various business sectors, university administrators have steadily pushed for all academic units to resume on campus operations and activities; conversely, faculty and students have expressed increased interest in continuing online teaching/learning. We aim to mitigate this "tug-of-war" between…

This paper explores the ways ESOL writing instructors implement and assess participatory writing practices in the classroom using digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participatory writing practices are largely sociocultural in nature and thereby resist the notion of standardized and individualized practices to focus on co-creating a…

For several years, WestEd's Measure to Learn and Improve (MLI) project team has kept state policy leaders informed about statewide implementation of the California Academic Standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, by summarizing and disseminating survey results from the RAND Corporation's annual American Educator Panel (AEP)…

This article explores prevalent stories about "Gen Z" students that unintentionally undercut both their success and learner-centered pedagogies. The authors consider how those beliefs might be reframed to serve all learners more effectively. We also explore how the racial reckoning, health pandemics, social unrest, and additional…

This ethnographic case investigates the relationship between the daily organizing work of one education technology "intermediary organization" (IO) in Silicon Valley, California and federal education technology policies. I argue that the IO constructed policy knowledge that reified discourses of "digital meritocracy": a belief…

As California schools move into online testing and online learning, an adequate technology infrastructure is no longer an option, but a necessity. To fully benefit from digital learning, schools will require a comprehensive technology infrastructure that can support a range of administrative and instructional tools. An earlier PPIC report found…

Like schools across the country, Green Dot Public Schools California closed its campuses in mid-March and kept them closed for the rest of the school year. Early in the crisis, the network focused on distributing food, Chromebooks, and hotspots to its roughly 11,000 students. It conducted wellness checks by phone with all of its families. Over the…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have generated considerable media interest, more than other education initiatives such as Open Education Resources (OERs). In this article the author argues that this can be seen as an example of the battle for narrative in open education. MOOCs attracted media interest because they appealed to broader…

When schools swiftly transitioned to virtual learning, program partners across this established out-of-doors environmental education project were challenged to rethink and retool the learning experiences from place-based programs to virtual learning, as most Project-supported programs were delivered outside of the traditional classroom. Meeting…

In educational contexts where many domains subject to improvement are interdependent and causal evidence is frequently lacking it is difficult, if not impossible, for policymakers and educational practitioners to decide which domain should be invested in. This paper proposes a new method that uses Conditional Mean Independent Correlations (CMIC)…