To improve access to high-quality early childhood education, California has made historic investments in Universal Prekindergarten (UPK), including the California State Preschool Program (CSPP). The state's UPK initiative elevates the importance of multilingualism and the early identification of disabilities in children. This report offers…

In 2019, the national Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd (the Center) solicited ideas from state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) regarding their most urgent and important needs to successfully support whole-person development. The concept of the "whole person" refers to a…

To support state education agency (SEA) leaders in establishing a statewide vision for serving the whole person, WestEd drafted and piloted the guide, "Serving the Whole Person: An Alignment and Coherence Guide for State Education Agencies," in collaboration with several SEAs. This case story describes Delaware Department of Education…

In math classrooms, actively engaging with the subject matter can be crucial to learning. However, not all students speak up, ask questions, or express their ideas. Aware of the importance of the equitable participation of all students, mathematics education experts developed an observation tool called Equity Quantified In Participation, or EQUIP.…

As student populations become increasingly diverse, more schools are recognizing the importance of providing safe, engaging, and supportive school environments. As a part of these efforts, national attention has focused on promoting instructional equity and respect for diversity. Although some research has examined students' perceptions of equity…

In California and across the United States, the K-12 education system continues to perpetuate disparities in learning experiences and outcomes for students, based on race/ethnicity, language, income, and ability, to name a few. This study examines how education leaders think about and use continuous improvement to address equity issues. Key…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on education. Science teaching, in particular, has faced specific challenges given the field's emphasis on high-quality instruction that has students "do" science collaboratively rather than just read about it or hear about it in a lecture. This brief provides: (1) a summary of data collected…

California Senate Bill 74, Budget Act of 2020, required the California Department of Education (CDE) to conduct a study to examine the state's current governance and accountability structures that support California students with an individualized education program (IEP). The study was intended to focus on the end goals of improving outcomes for…

This 13th report in WestEd's evaluation of the K-8 Early Implementers Initiative for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provides an extensive response to the following question: What does NGSS science teaching look like in the classroom? The report first discusses Initiative teachers' experiences with four instructional practices that…

To inform the "Leandro v. State of North Carolina" Action Plan, the Learning Policy Institute examined the within-school and out-of-school barriers to obtaining a sound basic education facing students who attend North Carolina's high-poverty schools. High-poverty schools are schools where 75% or more students are at risk because their…