Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers have transitioned to online learning. The transition required changes in teaching practices to accommodate for an online learning environment. However, there are no studies characterizing physical educators' and school health experts' perspectives on physical education via distance…

To ensure a robust and comprehensive educational experience, every K-12 learner must have access to high quality Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) education. To make this happen, their teachers must be effectively prepared to provide excellent art education experiences. Although arts education is required in many states (including California) as…

The California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) Toolkit for Instructional Materials Evaluation (TIME) is a suite of tools and processes for evaluating and selecting instructional materials aligned with the CA NGSS. This 11th report in the NGSS Early Implementers Initiative evaluation series is intended for school and district…

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…

The stakes are incredibly high in California to provide access to a high-quality education in a safe environment for all students. As districts across the state resumed full-time instruction and began the task of pandemic recovery, members of the California Collaborative on District Reform convened three times in 2021-22 to continue and deepen…

Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative,…

In California, 55 teacher preparation programs have embedded a standardized four-task teaching performance assessment (CalTPA) as a requirement for initial teacher licensure. Guided by the frameworks of transactional experience and the theory of formative assessment, this phenomenological study addressed the meaning and role ascribed to the CalTPA…

The Colin standards for online courses are widely used by educational institutions across the world, including the University of California (UC), which uses them in its formula for determining whether or not a high school course can be used to meet minimum eligibility requirements for admission to the University. To date, however, there has been…

The United States is facing a bilingual teacher shortage, a fact that is particularly troubling as the emergent bilingual population continues to grow nationwide. Prior research suggests that the shortage of bilingual teachers may affect the quality of instruction emergent bilinguals receive, yet little is known about the potential effects of this…

A growing body of research and legislative policies support the importance of high-quality early intervention systems for preschool children with disabilities. Inclusion programs are viable means for providing this support, yet limited progress has been made in the past decade to increase the placements of children in inclusive settings or define…

Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This article synthesizes the results of 16…

There is growing concern that the California school system is failing to ensure equity and excellence for all students. This research sought to understand the perceptions of teacher educators at a California public university in the Central Valley with regards to what they believe multiple-subject preservice teachers need to know, be able to do,…

Focused on an equity of educational access issue, this qualitative study identified grade 4-6 teacher perceptions of English language learning in Southern California. The historic failure of English language learners (ELLs) on standardized tests in Southern California was presented as an important problem to solve. The literature review for this…

Many educators view school climate and student achievement as separate considerations. For some, the idea of promoting a high quality climate can seem like a luxury in the face of the current high stakes assessment climate in which student achievement gains are the paramount consideration. However, the results of this study suggest that climate…

This study examined the relationship between school climate and student achievement ratings in urban school districts in five states (N = 230). Many educators view school climate and student achievement as separate considerations. However the results of this study suggest that climate and student achievement were highly related. In fact, the…