English learners (ELs) constitute one of the largest subgroups enrolled in the US public education system. The state of California has an estimated 1.5 million ELs in kindergarten through Grade 12. This mixed methods study employed improvement science principles to understand how three high school physics teachers implemented project-based…

School site leaders historically have experienced high levels of burnout and turnover. Principals cite long work hours, increased responsibilities with local, state, and federal accountability, increased stress and low pay as a few of the reasons jobs are abandoned within the first five years. LEAD currently provides professional learning for…

Evidence confirms that student skills other than academic achievement and ability predict a broad range of academic and life outcomes. This evidence, along with a new federal requirement that state accountability systems include an indicator of school quality or student success not based on test scores, has sparked interest in incorporating such…

The research featured in this paper is part of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership, through which Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) has partnered with the CORE districts to conduct research designed to support them in continuous improvement while simultaneously helping to improve policy and practice in California and nationwide.…

The research featured in this paper is part of the CORE-PACE Research Partnership, through which Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) has partnered with the CORE districts to conduct research designed to support them in continuous improvement while simultaneously helping to improve policy and practice in California and nationwide.…

This is the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of…

Nationally, there are dozens of established indicators of school performance and thousands of possible combinations of those indicators to create an accountability framework. How do policy makers decide which variables are most important? This relates to measurement modeling -- that is, how to incorporate all pieces of the puzzle into a…

Recent work suggests the importance of collaboration among district-office and school leaders. Most studies examine prosocial relationships, but negative social ties, which may be more consequential, are rarely examined. We collected survey data from 78 educational leaders on perceptions of culture and negative relationships and used…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed to ensure that 100 percent of students would be proficient by 2014. Progress toward that goal is measured annually and results suggest that while some schools improve, increasing numbers are identified as in need of improvement (INI) and are subject to sanctions. We examined perceived levels of threat…

The recent calls for increased accountability in higher education, and the rising demand for workers with middle skills, have combined to raise public awareness of the critical role of community colleges in educating the workforce. The accountability measures used by the institutions in answering this call, completion and retention rates, may not…