How School Districts Craft Coherence Towards Continuous Improvement
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This study uses qualitative case study methods to explore how educators establish system-wide continuous improvement capabilities and coherence for implementation, taking into consideration the local contexts. Educators use two bridging approaches to crafting coherence: weaving and stacking. The study contributes to understanding how leaders create shared meaning and practice in complex and dynamic educational systems. The implications for both research and practice are discussed.
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This study explores the impact of reclassification on social-emotional learning skills (SEL) of English learners (ELs) in grades 4 to 8. Using a regression discontinuity design, the study found that reclassification improved academic self-efficacy by 0.2 standard deviations for students near the cutoff threshold. The results suggest that reclassification can positively influence the academic beliefs of ELs and the authors provide recommendations for districts to create practices that foster such positive beliefs.
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This study explores the impact of county-level immigration arrests on the academic achievement, attendance, and perceptions of school climate and safety for Latinx and Latinx English learner students in California's CORE districts. The research found that there is a negative relationship between immigration arrests and these students' academic performance and school experiences. The study recommends policies and practices that can help schools and districts create safer, more welcoming environments for immigrant-origin students and families in the face of anti-immigrant actions.
The Impact of Unmotivated Questionnaire Responding on Data Quality
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This article explores the issue of satisficing, which is suboptimal responding on surveys, in the context of a large-scale social-emotional learning survey administered to over 400,000 elementary and secondary students. Despite concerns about its impact on data quality, the study found that satisficing had a more modest effect than expected. The article offers an approach for defining and calculating satisficing for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to improve the quality of survey data.
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This article assesses confusion due to negative wording on social-emotional learning (SEL) assessments using mixture IRT models. Results based on student self-reports show confusion biasing scores, especially in Grades 3-5, and correlational relationships between SEL constructs and reading proficiency and ELL status. Using positively oriented items in future SEL measures is recommended to address these issues.
Evidence From the First Large-Scale Panel Student Survey
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Self-report surveys are used to track students’ social-emotional development. This large-scale panel survey reveals that self-efficacy, social awareness, and self-management decrease after Grade 6, except for growth mindset. Female students report higher self-management and social awareness but lower self-efficacy than males in middle and high school. Students of color and economically disadvantaged students report lower levels of each construct. Policymakers should consider these trends and use self-reports to target interventions and resources.
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California's CORE districts have been collecting data since 2014 on social and emotional learning (SEL) and school climate and culture to improve K-12 schools' holistic approach to student development. Advocates argue that a focus on SEL and school culture will lead to higher academic achievement and better well-being for students. The CORE districts developed survey instruments for SEL competencies and school climate perceptions involving students, staff, and parents. Many states and districts have adopted SEL-specific curricula and disciplinary reforms.
The Impact of Unmotivated Questionnaire Respondents on Data Quality
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This paper investigates the effect of student satisficing, the act of providing suboptimal survey responses, on data quality in a large-scale social-emotional learning survey. The study examines the prevalence and impact of satisficing among 409,721 students and finds that its effect on data quality is less significant than expected. The paper offers a practical approach to defining and calculating satisficing, useful for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working with large-scale datasets.
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This paper uses mixture IRT models to evaluate whether students experience confusion due to negative wording of items on a social-emotional learning assessment. It examines the consequences of confusion on student- and school-level scores and correlations with student-level variables, finding that confusion is present and most prevalent in lower grades, and is related to reading proficiency and ELL status. The study recommends the use of positively oriented items in future SEL measures, and suggests bias corrections based on the studied mixture model to maintain measurement continuity.
Findings From the First Large-Scale Panel Survey of Students
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This article discusses the use of standardized tests as the primary tool for assessing school-level growth in student outcomes, despite the emerging importance of social-emotional learning (SEL). It presents results from large-scale surveys of students on SEL constructs, and finds significant differences across schools in SEL growth, with magnitudes of differences similar to those for academic achievement. However, caution is recommended in interpreting measures as causal impacts of schools on SEL, as the goodness of fit of the value-added model was considerably lower for SEL measures.
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This report examines the stability of school effects on social-emotional learning (SEL) over two years in California's CORE districts. The correlations among school effects in the same grades across different years are positive but lower than those for math and ELA. While these effects measure real contributions to SEL, their low stability draws into question whether including them in school performance frameworks and systems would be beneficial.

Describing Chronically Absent Students, the Schools They Attend, and Implications for Accountability
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In "Absent from School," PACE Executive Director Heather J. Hough analyzes student absenteeism using data from California's CORE districts. She explores the differences in absenteeism rates among students and schools, comparing them to other performance indicators. Dr. Hough also examines how schools' performance on chronic absence metrics corresponds to other accountability measures, highlighting the implications for reporting school-level measures of chronic absenteeism.

Evidence from the CORE Districts
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This study examines how social-emotional skills develop from Grade 4 to Grade 12 and vary by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Based on self-report student surveys administered to around 400,000 students in California, the study finds that social-emotional skills do not increase uniformly and vary across subgroups. Females have higher social awareness but lower self-efficacy than males. Economically disadvantaged students show improvement in high school. White students report higher social-emotional skills than African American and Latinx students.
Findings from the First Large-Scale Panel Survey of Students
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This paper examines the use of social-emotional learning (SEL) measures to evaluate school-level growth in student outcomes. The study finds substantial differences across schools in SEL growth, suggesting that schools may contribute to students' SEL. However, caution is recommended in interpreting measures as the causal impacts of schools on SEL due to potential measurement error and omitted variables bias.
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States and school districts across the U.S. are seeking to expand their definition of student success to include social-emotional learning. The CORE Districts, a collaborative of California districts that has developed a system of school accountability and continuous improvement that includes measures of social-emotional skills based on student self-reports, exemplify this trend. In this case study, we provide an overview of CORE's School Quality Improvement System, which was implemented in the 2015–16 school year across six districts serving roughly one million students.
Changing Mindsets and Empowering Stakeholders to Meaningfully Manage Accountability and Improvement
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The shift towards multiple-measure dashboard accountability has potential for promoting more meaningful learning, but also comes with challenges. Lessons learned from research on CORE Districts show that a shift to flexibility and capacity building efforts has challenges. Oakland Unified School District's approach suggests that districts have agency to modify mindsets by modeling inquiry, openness, and flexibility, giving stakeholders space and authority to manage accountability and improvement.
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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows states to reshape their school accountability systems. One dominant model is the letter-grade system first adopted by Florida, while California is developing a dashboard-style system that encompasses multiple measures such as student attendance and school climate. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush presents the case for summative ratings, while Heather J. Hough and Michael W. Kirst of PACE stress the importance of multiple measures.
Insights From California’s CORE Waiver Districts
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California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) aims to improve educational equity by providing additional funds to districts with disadvantaged students. Districts are required to engage with their communities and develop Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) to identify priorities and allocate funds. However, there are concerns about the quality of LCAPs, lack of stakeholder involvement, and limited transparency. To improve the effectiveness of LCFF, districts must ensure meaningful stakeholder engagement and use data to guide decision-making.
Learning from the CORE Districts' Focus on Measurement, Capacity Building, and Shared Accountability
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California and the US are undergoing a cultural shift in school accountability policies towards locally-determined measures of school performance. Lessons can be learned from the CORE districts, which developed an innovative accountability system, emphasizing support over sanctions, and utilizing multiple measures of school quality. The CORE districts' measurement system and collaboration hold promise for improving local systems, but efforts to build capacity remain a work in progress.

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ESSA allows states to design accountability systems and measures to meet new college and career readiness goals. With the lack of adequate measures, states will need to develop new measures and structures. The CORE Districts in CA, with its innovative accountability system and waivers from No Child Left Behind, is a model for other states. Reports from CORE-PACE highlight the impact of decisions such as subgroup sizes and test score growth on identifying low-performing schools. States can use the district waiver provision to help develop and refine their accountability systems under ESSA.
Multiple measures and the identification of schools under ESSA
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This report examines the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and how schools can be identified for support and improvement using a multiple measures framework. The authors find that different academic indicators measure different aspects of school performance and suggest that states should be allowed to use multiple measures instead of a summative rating. They also find that non-academic indicators are not given enough weight and suggest a clarification in federal policy.
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This analysis explores predictors of opposition to Common Core Standards (CCS) using data from a California poll. Opposition was found to be strongly associated with views about President Obama, testing, and negative conceptions about the standards. The study suggests using poll data for future understanding of public opinion on education issues.