California’s Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA)

The Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA), one of California’s most ambitious intervention programs for low-performing schools, is now in its sixth year of full implementation in nearly 400 schools across the state. From its inception in 2007-08, the California Teachers Association (CTA) has funded an independent, multi-year study of QEIA schools and has released the first two installments of a five-part publication series detailing the implementation and impacts.

In this new era of increased local control, the responsibility of district-level decision makers to “choose wisely” argues for more practice-based evidence to determine which strategies, structures and decisions can contribute to increased student and school success; QEIA sites provide a valuable cohort for gathering that evidence.

In this seminar, Jane Robb and Courtney Malloy will share findings—including information from case studies of 34 QEIA schools—that examine the extent of QEIA program implementation, explain why QEIA works in some schools while other schools continue to struggle, investigate the various impacts of QEIA and uncover promising practices that can be shared with all schools. The implementation of interventions ranging from class size reduction to teacher collaboration will be discussed.

Speakers include:

• Jane Robb, Instructional Specialist, California Teachers Association
• Courtney Malloy, Senior Researcher, Vital Research, LLC