TOPIC

Continuous school improvement & support

Continuous School Improvement and Support

California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) process encourage the use of multiple measures of school performance used locally to support continuous improvement and strategic resource allocation. Similarly, the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reinforces this local control, requiring more comprehensive assessment of school performance and a less prescriptive, local approach to school support.

Calls for “continuous improvement” in California’s K-12 education system are central to current discussions about school improvement in the state. Yet, definitions of continuous improvement vary, and knowledge of what continuous improvement looks like in practice is limited.

PACE research addresses the challenges of those working in this changing accountability landscape by providing descriptions of continuous improvement in diverse educational organizations and by identifying the supports and challenges necessary to take new improvement approaches to scale.

Recent Topic Publications
thumbnail
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in schooling have been particularly difficult for students learning the English language. Recent research indicates that nearly 40 percent of English learners (ELs) nationwide were not receiving the…
Strengthening Community Schools Through Improved Data Systems
At a time when students of families living in poverty have experienced the worst of the economic trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, community schools have reemerged as a promising intervention for addressing lack of access to quality education…
Early Indicators of Systemic Improvement: A Case Study of Two High-Poverty School Districts
A Case Study of Two High-Poverty School Districts
This report examines two districts—Azusa Unified and Dinuba Unified—that have begun to shift district structures, policies, and culture to have a measurable effect on student outcomes. Both districts have committed to reducing the D/F rate for…
Report Hough July21 thumbnail
Views from the 2021 PACE/USC Rossier Poll
Growing inequities and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic together with billions of dollars in new funding present an opportunity to make substantial changes to K–12 education to better serve all students in California. In May 2021, PACE…