Educators face a dilemma of staying up-to-date with evidence-based practices while dealing with superficial ideas. Continuous improvement methods can help in testing new ideas but if seen as add-ons, they may not yield sustained improvement. This brief describes the CORE Districts’ five-driver model that deepens educators’ ownership and sustains improvement over time.

This brief is one in a series aimed at providing K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students during and following the novel coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about the EdResearch for Recovery Project and view the set of COVID-19 response-and-recovery topic areas and practitioner-generated questions here. The central question of this brief is: How can schools and districts monitor students’ social and emotional well-being across the year?

This brief outlines Ayer Elementary's journey of continuous improvement since 2016 and how their organizational conditions were tested during the COVID-19 crisis. Despite the challenges, the school invested in improvement practices to strengthen student engagement in distance learning and build staff capacity for when students return to school.

This brief discusses how traditional methods of grading have been disrupted due to the pandemic and suggests flexible grading and assessment practices that can support student learning and measure it meaningfully. The goal is to improve both learning and reporting during this time of disruption.

COVID-19 has disrupted California’s education system in fundamental ways. Districts across the state are quickly creating strategies to serve all students, and many are designing their response around the needs of their most vulnerable students. This brief highlights the response of Mother Lode Union School District (MLUSD) to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which district staff and teachers were able to collaborate—despite the unprecedented crisis—to meet student needs.

COVID-19 school closures may intensify the typical academic "slide" observed in math and reading over the summer break. Schools can consider online summer programs, ramped-up assessment, targeted instruction, and one-to-one tutoring to mitigate learning losses.

This brief discusses how the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) in California is addressing the challenges of COVID-19 through family engagement and instructional access for English learners. The district has a history of serving all students through bilingual programming and a whole-child approach, and over 40% of its population are classified as English learners. PVUSD is a member of the national League of Innovative Schools and is known for its inclusive, data-driven decision-making.

California has added student attendance to its accountability system to emphasize its importance, but chronic absenteeism's causes are not well-understood. Schools face the expectation to address absenteeism, but myths about attendance persist. The brief covers local efforts to improve attendance and highlights the steps required to build schools' and communities' capacity to get and keep kids in school.

California Governor Gavin Newsom proposes $10 million to develop a statewide longitudinal data system to track student outcomes and align the education system with workforce needs. The lack of a coherent education database in California is a barrier to fulfilling continuous improvement policy goals. Experts discussed essential questions at a PACE conference in February 2019 to guide the development of a coordinated data system.

This brief identifies persistent challenges in serving students with disabilities in California despite recent policy changes. It highlights the need for additional policy action such as increased funding, modified governance, and accountability structures, and expanded teacher preparation and training. The brief also showcases several public school districts and charter schools finding ways to meet the needs of students with disabilities in the current policy context.

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) changed California's education policy in 2013 by transferring control of most education dollars to local school districts. It aims to address educational inequities and empower districts to allocate resources to meet students' needs. This brief examines promising practices of three school districts implementing LCFF's equity mission and highlights the new role of county offices of education.

This study explores ten "outlier schools" in California's CORE districts that have strong social-emotional learning outcomes. The brief and infographic summarize the various practices found in these schools and the common implementation challenges faced. The findings offer lessons that can help other schools and districts implement social-emotional learning at scale.

Flexible funding formulas have made high-quality summer learning programs more accessible for school districts seeking to close the achievement gap. Programs that combine engaging summer camp activities with intentional learning goals can help students develop a love of learning and prevent summer learning loss. These programs incorporate lesson plans and evaluations of learning into a fun and engaging environment.

Child poverty in California limits educational success for disadvantaged children, but schools struggle to identify effective solutions. Colombia's Escuela Nueva model has successfully educated marginalized rural children since 1975, raising academic and non-cognitive outcomes in tens of thousands of schools worldwide. This brief describes how Escuela Nueva works and discusses how California's schools might implement core aspects of the model to better serve disadvantaged students.

Achievement gaps in education cannot be solved by looking at the school day alone, as young people also have varied experiences outside of school. Free and affordable learning experiences after school and in the summer are essential strategies for equalizing student outcomes. California districts have greater regulatory and financial flexibility to address achievement gaps under the Local Control Funding Formula. This brief describes how local education leaders are mobilizing expanded learning to close the opportunity gap and recommends key steps for districts.