California has a notable history of investing in educational leaders' professional learning. In 1983, the state launched the California School Leadership Academy (CSLA), which it funded until the academy was discontinued due to statewide budget cuts in 2003. Research showed that CSLA was a source of high-quality professional development. In 2019,…

The Student Success Center Network (SSCN) Coaching Program engages community colleges in institutional transformation through institutional coaching. In the most recent phase of work, supported by Ascendium Education Group, Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) engaged with grantee Centers in four…

The intent of this study was to understand the experiences of female superintendents, including those of color, serving in public school districts across California as they navigate the politics associated with culturally divisive conflict. The sample comprised 12 female superintendents serving various lengths of tenure in nine counties in…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) in 2013 to develop and support middle leaders in community colleges across California. Each year LFM produces an internal evaluation report that presents participants' perspectives about what they learned from their experience and…

This is the executive summary for "Middle Leaders in College Redesign: Leading from the Middle 2019." The report focuses on the roles middle leaders play in Guided Pathways. This summary is organized by the three overarching outcomes of Leading from the Middle (LFM), moving from the broadest institutional level to the individual…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) in 2013 to support the development of middle leaders across the California Community Colleges. Every year LFM produces an internal evaluation report presenting what participants learned from their experiences; academy leaders…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) in 2013 to support the development of middle leaders across the California Community Colleges. Every year LFM produces an internal evaluation report presenting what participants learned from their experiences; academy leaders…

The Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP) in Alameda County, California blends service coordination, intensive case management, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help transition-age youth in foster care engage with available support systems and subsequently improve their outcomes. As part of a formative evaluation of YTP, Chapin Hall…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) Academy in 2013 to support the professional development of middle leaders. This is an executive summary to the full report that captures reflections from both leaders of and participants in the 2016 LFM Academy, with the goal of…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) Academy in 2013 to support the professional development of middle leaders. This report was developed for campus executive leaders and other administrators who are in positions to support and encourage leadership development at their…

Though scholars agree that professional development (PD) is a key mechanism for implementing education policies that call for teacher change, and that PD generally needs to be content-focused, active, collaborative, coherent, and sustained, the application of this framework has yielded mixed results. In this qualitative study, we employed…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) Academy in 2013 as a professional development experience for community college educators--faculty, administrators, and staff--who have formal or informal leadership responsibilities. Based on a commitment to learning from experience,…

Every adolescent faces challenges as they navigate their teenage years, but for some these challenges imperil their ability to complete their education. While these four students' experiences are dramatically different, they have one thing in common: high school didn't work for them, meaning that each faced long odds of ever attaining a diploma,…

This paper describes the development of a partnership between three campuses to develop a (DL) education program-serving employees of county and tribal Health and Human Service Departments in remote rural areas of California. Specifically, the program supports the development of a career pathway for students living in isolated regions of Northern…

This brief summarizes successful strategies for creating a strong and stable teaching force. These strategies are drawn from "positive outlier" districts in California that have excelled at helping African American, Latino/a, and White students achieve at high levels on assessments of academic standards in English language arts and…