Teacher education has underutilized the inclusion of art museum education experiences for preservice teachers (Henry, 2004). Teacher educators recognize that learning by doing is effective, which is why some early field experience is required in most teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Teacher education places preservice teachers…

The education sector is embracing the hope that continuous improvement will lead to more beneficial student outcomes than standards-based reform and other approaches to policies and practice in prior decades. This report examines attempts in California to realize the potential of continuous improvement in some of the state's largest districts.…

The purpose of this pilot study is to understand the impact of Family Group Conferencing (FGC) on the collaboration among general education and special education teachers, teachers' attitudes toward family outreach and perceived outcomes of preschool students with and without disabilities enrolled in inclusive classrooms during distance learning.…

While teamwork has been a central concern in engineering education, little research has systematically examined how conflict is managed in engineering teams of students. Socio-constructivism provides a solid base to explain how teamwork can foster innovation through the use of cultural artifacts, such as "boundary objects." The purpose…

This knowledge brief is part of a continuing series designed to inform California education leaders about new research findings on key state policy topics. To better understand the reopening planning process and other issues related to education during the pandemic, WestEd conducted telephone interviews with County Office of Education (COE)…

In the past 20 years, both school choice policies and dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs have proliferated across the US. This project examines the intersection of the two trends, examining how school choice policies have shaped DLBE at the district, school, and program level, through the eyes of 22 public school administrators in…

This study explores the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students in California's community college Dual Enrollment (DE) programs. The study investigates how DE staff describe an understanding and commitment towards equity for Black and Latinx students in DE programs and how staff engage in equitably aimed praxis to serve Black and Latinx…

With emerging evidence about the efficacy of integrated support programs for college students and increasing attention nationally to creating such programs, it is important to understand implementation barriers that might affect program success. This study is one of the first to examine implementation of integrated programs, with a particular…

Recent educational programs and initiatives hinge on effective collaboration between education professionals, such as school social workers, school psychologists, teachers, and principals. Our inquiry seeks to build on prior conceptual work to unpack the collaborative stance of school social workers by examining how they conceptualize their role…

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…

For the past six years, California has been revising its preparation system for school and district administrators, including developing the California Administrator Performance Assessment (CalAPA), the first required performance assessment for preliminary administrator certification. In this study, researchers from the California Comprehensive…

California's community colleges continue to play a crucial role in the state's economy by providing students with the skills and knowledge to succeed and by advancing the economic growth and global competitiveness of California and its regional economies through the Economic and Workforce Development Program (EWD). Under the Doing What Matters for…

Archdioceses and dioceses around the United States continue to brainstorm innovative ways to market their schools in an education system that provides a number of choices to parents and their children. Applying Wenger's (1998) learning theory entitled Communities of Practice (COPs), the purpose of this case study was to investigate one such plan…

This study describes core dispositions of school district superintendents who have been identified as technology savvy leaders by a prominent educational technology newspaper. The superintendents in this study described how they accomplished their technology initiatives and offered suggestions for other superintendents who aspire to be more…

California's three public higher education systems (University of California, California State University, the California Community College System) enroll nearly 3 million undergraduate students and employ almost 100 thousand faculty. In 2012, the California State Legislature directed the three systems to create an online library of open…