This technical supplement provides details on the survey methodology and results presented in the report "Developing Effective Principals: What Kind of Learning Matters?" The full report shows that principals' access to high-quality learning opportunities varies across states and by school poverty level. To draw these conclusions, the…

Data governance is a core obligation for leaders and staff across any agency that collects, stores or uses individuals' data. It ensures that individuals' personal information is protected, and can support the continuous improvement of data quality and use, particularly when it includes well-defined processes, structure and responsibilities.…

An innovative system-building initiative known as the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) is transforming U.S. STEM education through cross-sector partnerships between schools, afterschool and summer programs, libraries, museums, and businesses, among others. Although logic models exist to describe how SLEs can make positive…

School closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically changed the conditions in which students learn and experience schooling. Disparities in students' access to learning and in their academic outcomes are likely to exacerbate longstanding challenges and inequities. Now more than ever, educators need information that will help…

California's education data, at least as they currently are collected, managed, and made available, are not sufficient for understanding and addressing the needs of California's students. That's the conclusion of the first three reports in the series "California Education Policy, Student Data, and the Quest to Improve Student Progress,"…

There is overwhelming evidence that children's early years, from birth through preschool, are a crucial time for their development, and that high-quality early learning opportunities support children's school readiness, promote later life success, and yield a return of up to $7 for every $1 invested. Unfortunately, despite having the sixth-largest…

Background/Context: Researchers have amassed considerable evidence on the use of student performance data (e.g., benchmark and standardized state tests) to inform educational improvement, but few have examined the use of nonacademic indicators (e.g., indicators of social and emotional well-being) available to educators, and whether the factors…

Enterprise software implementations are subject to high failure rates. Organizations of higher education can be particularly resistant to technology implementations as they can be perceived as eroding the traditions of the institution. The California State University (CSU) system is moving into a new phase of data-driven accountability for…

The challenges facing our children in the 21st century are rapidly changing. As a result, schools bear a greater responsibility to prepare students for college, career, and life and must be held accountable for more than just testing and reporting on a narrow set of outcomes aimed at minimum levels of competency. Thus, scholars, educators, and…

California's alternative education options for youth vulnerable to dropping out of school have been established at different historical points and for different student age and target populations. For purposes of this brief, "alternative school" is defined as belonging to one of six legislatively authorized types of public (non-charter)…

Education is overloaded with programs and data. The growth of digital power has aided and abetted the spread of accountability-driven data--Adequate Yearly Progress, test results for every child in every grade, Common Core standards, formative and summative assessments. Technology accelerates the onslaught of data. All this information goes for…

In response to the need to develop leaders to guide the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Carnegie Corporation of New York provided funding to WestEd to develop a framework that defines the leadership knowledge and actions needed to effectively implement the NGSS. The development of the framework entailed…

This report commemorates the fifth anniversary of the Getting Down to Facts project, which sought to provide a thorough and reliable analysis of the critical challenges facing California's education system as the necessary basis for an informed discussion of policy changes aimed at improving the performance of California schools and students. The…

In the context of an emerging national focus on evaluating school personnel, the 2009 federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) program requires that states collect data from all local education agencies about their practices for evaluating teachers and principals. In response, the California Department of Education designed and administered…

For years California has been a leader in public education. In 1999, the state implemented some of the strongest content standards in the country through its main accountability metric, the Academic Performance Index (API). The state has also signed onto the Common Core State Standards, taking important steps to ensure its students are college-…