INITIATIVE

Continuous Improvement and Support Systems in California

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Over the past 15 years, California has made significant changes to its educational systems, including adopting new academic standards, transforming its approaches to funding and accountability, and shifting toward a more decentralized system of governance and finance. These shifts have been implemented with continuous improvement as the vision for California’s approach to advancing experiences and outcomes for students. Given these recent significant shifts, PACE saw the need to take stock of what we know about the implementation of these policies and what we still need to know to continue moving policy and practice in a positive direction. To this end, on October 15–16, 2019, PACE hosted a meeting of key actors in policy, practice, and research to assess the current status of the implementation of continuous improvement in schools in California and to develop a research agenda to better understand and strengthen California’s continuous school improvement and support systems. Together, this PRP discussed the latest research on the systems to support continuous improvement in the state, surfaced knowledge needs, and co-developed strategies for using research to equip policymakers and practitioners in advancing outcomes for students.

Recent Initiative Publications
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2019–20 Through 2022–23
This report examines the CORE Districts’ Breakthrough Success Community (BTSC), which focused on improving ninth-grade on-track rates through evidence-based changes in daily practice. Some schools effectively adapted BTSC strategies, fostering…
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Learning from California Education Partners’ Collaborations
This brief introduces a three-part series describing California Education Partners’ multistage approach to supporting school districts with improving their students’ outcomes in literacy and mathematics. The approach addresses persistent barriers to…
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Translating Sierra House Elementary School’s Pilot Practices Across Lake Tahoe Unified School District
This case study explores how Lake Tahoe Unified School District worked to improve math instruction, starting a pilot at Sierra House Elementary School. Partnering with California Education Partners, LTUSD addressed stagnant test scores by developing…
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Grass Valley School District’s Progress Towards P–3 Coherence in Literacy
Grass Valley School District (GVSD) partnered with California Education Partners through an initiative to improve literacy instruction. Over three years, GVSD implemented new literacy assessments and phonics practices, emphasizing teacher leadership…
Policy Research Panel Members