Search

The transition from high school into postsecondary education and a career has become particularly challenging given today's complex, fast-moving, and highly technological economy. To combat this problem, one approach widely adopted in the United States is the career academy model, which combines a college-preparatory and career and technical curriculum with a career theme and is often structured as a small learning community within a larger high school. Shifts in the labor market, reforms to secondary education, and a growth in both high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates across the United States prompt new questions about how participating in career academies may affect current students' academic and labor outcomes. MDRC is currently conducting another long-term randomized controlled trial of career academies to help answer these questions. This study explores California Partnership Academies (CPAs), which are partially state-funded career academies within high schools across California. The study will follow participants for the eight years after expected high school graduation and look at the impacts on students' high school, postsecondary education, and employment and earnings outcomes. This report explores the impacts of CPAs on students' high school graduation and college readiness at the end of high school as well as their college enrollment during the first year after graduation. It also examines the differences between the school experiences of the students who were offered a spot in a CPA (CPA group) and of those who were not offered a spot (non-CPA group), as well as some of the early effects of the program on teachers' attention to and expectations of students and on students' collaboration with each other, their perceived relevance of schoolwork, and their plans after high school.

The California Community Colleges (CCC) Attendance Decisions Survey was designed to understand the factors influencing prospective and previously enrolled community college students' decisions to attend a California community college in fall 2022. This survey was administered in late summer/early fall 2022 and included responses from all 116 CCC by 75,497 previously enrolled and prospective (as of fall 2022) students. Key findings highlight students' increasing need to balance and navigate complex lives, including the need to work and care for dependents, as well as concerns about affordability. Students indicated they needed more flexible options (more course offerings and options such as online) financial and non-financial assistance (e.g., childcare) to help them better balance these competing priorities. In addition, there does seem to be a relationship between students' perceived value of education and their decision whether to attend/enroll in the college, whereby the less valuable they perceived a college education, the less likely they were to enroll or plan to enroll in fall 2022. As students are trying to navigate and balance their priorities, colleges may want to think about how best to emphasize the value propositions for attending college. There are three potential areas of opportunity related to recruitment, outreach, and retention efforts at the state and local levels: (1) Re-emphasize the value proposition for college to make workforce connections more explicit to help current and prospective students make informed decisions about the potential return on investment regarding their education; (2) Increase student-centered course scheduling options and resources to better support students' needs to balance school and personal/work responsibilities; and (3) Leverage state investments such as the California Virtual Campus to meet students' growing demand for and interest in online offerings and state appropriations for mental health and basic needs monies; connect students with these services to support their educational pursuits.

The California Community Colleges (CCC) launched Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) after the passage of SB164 (1969). Colleges leverage their EOPS funding to offer academic, career, and personal counseling; financial resources; and services "over and above" traditional campus supports. This latest research builds on the 2012 study that compared the outcomes of over 64,000 EOPS participants enrolled at 972 colleges between fall 2004 and fall 2007 to a statistically equivalent group of non-EOPS students enrolled at the same colleges during that time. This study is divided into two phases: Phase 1 investigates who participated in EOPS over a recent 10-year period (fall 2010 through spring 2019) and how their involvement impacted several metrics (fall 2021). Phase 2 delves into what aspects of EOPS lead to educational improvements for participants through student and practitioner focus groups and interviews (spring 2022). This technical report summarizes Phase 1 results from the EOPS Impact Study 2.0. It offers program stakeholders an updated understanding of EOPS program impact on student outcomes to determine both its continued value and areas of opportunity for improvement. Stakeholders include EOPS administrators; college deans and directors; institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) professionals; and policymakers. The report begins with a brief overview of the Phase 1 methodology, then turns quickly to the results. It first looks at who participates in EOPS and then assesses program impact using a series of metrics, including one- and two-year persistence; units earned and Grade Point Average (GPA) in the first academic year; transfer-level English and math completion rates; certificate and degree completion; and transfer achievement. It concludes with a summary of implications and next steps. [This research was funded by the California Community Colleges Extended Opportunity Programs and Services Association (CCCEOPSA).]

In 2016, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched the "Through the Gate" transfer study, aimed to identify strategies for increasing transfer among "high-leverage learners" in the California Community Colleges (CCC)--individuals who have completed all or most of their transfer requirements, but who do not make it "through the gate" to a university. Phase 1 of "Through the Gate" included quantitative research to understand the transfer landscape and identify where California is suffering the greatest transfer leaks, determining: (1) how many students in California arrived at the transfer gate, but did not go through; and (2) who they are and where they reside. Building off the wealth of knowledge gained during its first phase, Phase 2 of "Through the Gate" set out to answer the following question: For students whose course-taking indicates they are close to the gate, which factors are most salient as they decide whether or not to transfer to a university? This technical report provides additional detail on the Phase 2 research highlighted in "Students Speak Their Truth about Transfer: What They Need to Get Through the Gate" (Cooper et al., 2020). This report begins with an overview of the methodology for this phase, including: (1) the sampling methods used to arrive at the two main sources of data (the survey of 809 students across 31 colleges and interviews with a subset of 39 survey respondents); and (2) the approach to these two components of the research. Then, the survey and interview findings, including a presentation of the demographics and key characteristics of participants, an outline of transfer motivators and challenges impacting student transfer, a discussion of sources tapped to navigate the transfer journey, and a list of advice from student interviewees to their colleges for improving transfer policies and practices. Following this, the authors outline the research limitations and then summarize the conclusions from this project phase. [For "Through the Gate: Mapping the Transfer Landscape for California Community College Students," see ED590588. For "Students Speak Their Truth about Transfer: What They Need to Get Through the Gate," see ED608978.]

There is documented need for California to produce more bachelor's degree holders. Broad agreement exists that increasing community college transfer is an essential strategy for achieving this critical goal, while at the same time closing equity gaps and promoting mobility for residents of a state plagued with the nation's highest cost of living. What do students say they need to make it through the transfer gate? The RP Group's "Through the Gate" transfer study reveals a lost opportunity for California: Students who are close to transfer, yet struggling to make it to university. In the study's second phase, surveys and interviews with over 800 students across 31 California Community Colleges reveal that transfer students need colleges and universities to provide a more holistic and integrated approach to ensure they reach their goals: a bachelor's degree and economic mobility for themselves and their families. These students--high-leverage learners whose course-taking indicates they are close to transfer--offer rich and useful perspectives about factors impacting the entire transfer journey. Their input can inform both campus- and system-level efforts to achieve the California Community Colleges' Vision for Success goals, and ensure any student who sets a baccalaureate goal has the funds, knowledge, skills, and confidence to transfer. [For "Through the Gate Transfer Study: Phase 2 Technical Report," see ED608940.]

Over the past five years, the RP Group's "Through the Gate" transfer study has developed a deeper understanding of how California Community College (CCC) students experience transfer pathways. Specifically, the study focused on increasing transfer for "high-leverage" students: those who had completed all or most of the requirements for transfer but had not yet made the transition to university. RP Group's most recent research uncovered key factors impacting students' transfer success, resulting in a new framework for building students' transfer capacity (Cooper et al., 2020). To develop a better near-term understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact specifically for high-leverage learners and to prime future research related to increasing their transfer success, the RP Group conducted a spring 2021 study building on the findings from "Through the Gate" and further exploring students' transfer experiences during this unprecedented period. The survey explored students' experiences as they navigated transfer in the midst of the pandemic. Subsequently, two virtual focus groups were conducted to expand on findings from the survey and gain a deeper understanding of how the transfer process differed for students who successfully transferred and those whose transfer plans changed due to the pandemic. This technical report summarizes survey responses from 7,894 students representing 67 community colleges (58% of the 115 CCCs invited). It offers a review of students' insights and perspectives organized by the study's five core research questions: (1) How were students' transfer plans affected by the pandemic?; (2) What issues did students who were close to transfer face during the pandemic?; (3) What did students who were close to transfer know about changes that were designed to support their transfer journey--both in the CCC and university segments--and how did they leverage these changes?; (4) How are the four factors from the "Student Transfer Capacity Building Framework" currently impacting students' transfer experience?; and (5) What differences exist in student groups' experience of the four factors over the course of the pandemic? This report offers a first glimpse into the challenges faced by high-leverage students as they attempted to navigate transfer during the pandemic. It is the hope that these findings begin to shed light on the supports these students will need immediately and in the long term to remain or get back on track. [For Cooper et al.'s, "Students Speak Their Truth about Transfer: What They Need to Get 'Through the Gate,'" see ED608978. For the companion brief, "Transfer Leaders Speak: Keeping Students on the Transfer Path during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond. Through the Gate," see ED615432.]

While data on enrollment, performance, persistence, and completion can offer directional information about access and success for different student groups, they do not provide the "why" behind these measures. Asking students directly about their experiences at the institution can help with a more comprehensive understanding of how to support their success. Whether your college is considering implementing student focus groups to inform your equity agenda and Guided Pathways redesign or has already held these conversations, igniting action responsive to students' needs and perspectives requires leadership and intention. This brief offers insights from 10 California Community Colleges where the RP Group conducted student focus groups to support student-centered, equity-minded change. It offers community college practitioners interested in amplifying student voices: (1) considerations for ensuring student focus groups lead to action; and (2) ways colleges have used this type of inquiry to advance institutional change.

Science education has experienced a significant transition over the last decade, catalyzed by a re-envisioning of what students should know and be able to do in science. That re-envisioning culminated in the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. The new standards set off a chain reaction of standards adoption and implementation across states, districts, and schools, including steps taken toward transforming science professional learning, instruction, curriculum, and assessment. It was in this dynamic context that Empirical Education conducted an impact evaluation, as part of an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, of WestEd's Making Sense of SCIENCE project, a teacher professional learning model aimed at raising students' science achievement through improving science instruction. Under this grant, WestEd and Empirical Education also partnered with Heller Research Associates (HRA) to conduct an implementation study and a scale-up study of Making Sense of SCIENCE. The impact evaluation, which is the focus of this report, was a two-year cluster-randomized control trial (RCT) that took place in California and Wisconsin across seven school districts and 66 elementary schools in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. The study randomized schools to either receive the Making Sense of SCIENCE professional learning or to the business-as-usual ("control") group, which received the professional learning (delayed-treatment) after the study ended. The study found that Making Sense of SCIENCE had a positive impact on teacher content knowledge (effect size = 0.56, p = 0.006) and a positive impact on a holistic scale of teacher pedagogical content knowledge (effect size = 0.41, p = 0.026). The study also yielded positive and significant impacts on the amount of time teachers spent on science instruction (effect size = 0.40, p = 0.015) and on the emphasis that teachers placed on NGSS-aligned instructional practices, with statistically significant effect sizes ranging from 0.40 to 0.49. This suggestive evidence that Making Sense of SCIENCE changes classroom science learning experiences in ways that align with expectations in NGSS, which is a hypothesized precursor to measuring impacts on student achievement, deserves notice. In regard to student science achievement, the study did not find statistically significant results for the full sample of students (effect size = 0.06, p = 0.494), or for the sample of students in the bottom third of incoming math and English Language Arts achievement, with effect sizes of 0.22 (p = 0.099) and 0.073 (p = 0.567), respectively. Notably, with the exception of one negative effect size, additional analyses on student achievement using different measures and samples yielded positive, but not statistically significant, effect sizes ranging from 0.02 to 0.12. Evaluators offer three potential contributors to the findings of limited impact on student science achievement. First, given the timing of the study in relation to the release of the NGSS in 2013, finding a suitable NGSS-aligned student science assessment was a challenge. Second, most study schools and districts had not yet adopted NGSS-aligned curricula and did not have access to NGSS-aligned curriculum resources. Third, the sample of teachers was unstable across the two years, with the percentage of teachers leaving the school congruous to the percentage observed at the national level. [For the appendices, see ED609254; for the research summary, see ED609256.]

Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative, resulting in more than a dozen evaluation reports highlighting important themes and learnings. All reports are intended to be helpful to administrators at the school and district levels, education policymakers, and people charged with designing and/or delivering science professional learning. This report on highlights from the Early Implementers Initiative is the final report of the series. It offers high-level, major lessons learned, challenges, and strategies gleaned from the evaluation series. It also offers recommendations for policymakers and administrators for implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in their own districts.

California has embraced transfer between the state's community colleges and universities as a key mechanism for ensuring a diverse and qualified workforce while simultaneously closing equity gaps and promoting economic mobility for its residents. Yet the RP Group's "Through the Gate" transfer study finds that each year, nearly 60,000 California community college students who demonstrate the determination and academic ability to transfer do not make it to university. Who is more likely to get stuck? Students historically marginalized by our higher education systems. These "high-leverage" learners--students whose course taking indicates they are close to transfer--commonly shared that four key factors impact their readiness for university. At the same time, some factors carried more weight for certain groups of students than others. This brief offers community college practitioners a snapshot of these differences and strategies for supporting these focal student groups. Community colleges can leverage the student perspectives and insights shared in this brief to improve transfer outcomes for specific student groups experiencing disproportionate impact.

This 13th report in WestEd's evaluation of the K-8 Early Implementers Initiative for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provides an extensive response to the following question: What does NGSS science teaching look like in the classroom? The report first discusses Initiative teachers' experiences with four instructional practices that promote equitable instruction, an explicit feature of the NGSS. The report then illustrates how Early Implementer teachers enacted three additional features of NGSS instruction: (1) integrating the three dimensions of the NGSS; (2) using real-world scientific phenomena and/or engineering problems to launch and drive instructional lessons and units; and (3) having students do investigations in ways that give them the responsibility and opportunity for learning. Each vignette is followed by commentary explaining how key features of the NGSS were incorporated into the lesson, with the intention of describing the NGSS teaching in enough detail to help administrators and policymakers recognize when they are seeing NGSS-based instruction and when they aren't. The report also briefly relates specific ways that Initiative teachers have advanced in their NGSS science teaching over the years of the Initiative, and how the Initiative prepared teachers for such teaching. The report concludes with recommendations for how administrators can support teachers in implementing NGSS teaching.

The NGSS Early Implementers Initiative was created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Many educational initiatives are funded for only a couple of years. This unique initiative spanned an extraordinary six years, during which eight school districts worked toward districtwide implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which call for teachers to transform their instructional practice. This 12th report in WestEd's evaluation series for policymakers, school and district administrators, and professional learning specialists describes the Initiative's scale-up in its later years to reach all K-8 science teachers. Specifically, the report addresses the following questions: (1) In contrast to focusing in Years 1-4 on developing Teacher Leaders, what strategies did districts use in Years 5-6 to reach all other K-8 teachers of science (called "expansion teachers" in this report)?; (2) What impacts has the Initiative had on expansion teachers?; (3) Which professional learning strategies have been most and least effective for influencing the practice of expansion teachers?; and (4) What special attention was paid to providing administrators with professional learning to prompt their support of NGSS implementation?

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Administrators need learning opportunities if they are to adequately understand the substantial shifts of the Next Generation Science Standards and support teachers in implementing them. Accordingly, the K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative has consistently expanded the professional learning it provides for administrators, particularly for site administrators, who generally have the most contact with teachers. This tenth evaluation report in the series, intended for site and district administrators and state leaders, highlights: (1) the professional learning strategies used by the Initiative to engage and empower administrators to support NGSS implementation (includes two district vignettes); (2) the impact of the professional learning on administrator understanding and actions; (3) the challenges experienced by the Initiative in trying to involve administrators; and (4) recommendations for increasing administrator help with science implementation.

In response to the educational equity gaps for students of African descent on California Community College campuses, the Umoja Community Education Foundation (Umoja Community) seeks "to transform, enrich and advance the lives of students by infusing culturally-relevant pedagogy and practices." The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) was funded by the Umoja Community Education Foundation to conduct a two-phase evaluation to explore the program landscape, determine the effectiveness of support that the Umoja Community offered to the Umoja program coordinators, and highlight the experiences and academic outcomes for Umoja students. Building on the first phase of the evaluation, this report summarizes the results from Phase II of the study, which included quantitative and qualitative research designed to explore the impact of Umoja programs on students. Overall, students who participated in Umoja outperformed their non-Umoja peers on a number of academic outcomes. Umoja participation appeared to positively affect students' performance on several first-year outcomes (leading indicators of success such as unit attainment, persistence, and transfer-level English completion), as well as certain long-term outcomes (lagging indicators of success such as three-year math and English completion, transfer-readiness, and degree completion). [The Umoja Community Education Foundation provided financial support to conduct this evaluation. For the report from Phase 1 of the evaluation, see "Umoja Community: Insights and Feedback from Program Coordinators on Available Supports and Resources" (ED608939).]

This evaluation report describes a central professional learning strategy that the California NGSS Early Implementers Initiative used to help teachers effectively transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The Initiative's approach to lesson study, called a Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC), brings together teams of teachers who collaboratively plan, teach, critique, and then re-teach NGSS lessons. Trained facilitators ensure that participants feel professionally safe and supported to experiment with the substantial and sometimes daunting instructional shifts required by the NGSS. The especially strong emphasis on active collaboration is why the Initiative uses the term "TLC" rather than the more general, commonly used term "lesson studies." Initiative leaders chose to focus heavily on TLCs because, while teacher professional learning often takes place outside of the classroom, TLCs, like all lesson studies, provide true hands-on learning in a classroom setting where teachers can grapple with authentic instructional issues. All NGSS Early Implementer districts followed the same TLC model during Years 1 through 4 of the Initiative. In Year 5, when grant funding began to scale back and professional learning became less centralized, districts made a variety of modifications to TLCs to meet their local needs and circumstances. This report describes: (1) The original TLC model used Initiative-wide in Years 1-4, and its benefits; (2) District modifications to TLCs in Year 5; (3) Feedback from participants about what was gained and lost through those modifications; (4) Recommendations for using TLCs as NGSS professional learning. Like the entire evaluation series for the NGSS Early Implementers Initiative, this report provides useful information to school and district administrators, leaders of science professional learning, and state policymakers. The report is based on an extensive amount of data: evaluators' observation of 27 TLCs; responses from a dozen surveys; and over 100 interviews with teachers, administrators, district Project Directors, and K-12 Alliance Regional Directors.

NGSS Early Implementers is a six-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The Initiative has used a train-the-trainer model to maximize spread of professional learning about the NGSS in each participating district. However, they expanded upon this model by explicitly preparing teachers to not only provide leadership in how to implement NGSS teaching, but also to become catalysts for change in their districts. This evaluation report explains how the Initiative prepared teachers for leadership in NGSS teaching, including how it created a culture of collaboration that produced change agents for science education and NGSS implementation. It also conveys how the leadership experience affected teacher leaders' actions and professional growth. Intended for school, state, and district leaders, the report addresses the following: (1) The organizational structure of teacher leadership in the Initiative; (2) How teachers were prepared for leadership in NGSS teaching; (3) How the Initiative empowered and challenged teachers to be change agents in their districts; (4) The many ways that Early Implementer teachers have provided leadership in NGSS implementation; and (5) The impact of the Initiative on teacher professional growth. Finally, recommendations are provided to administrators for encouraging and leveraging teacher leadership in support of NGSS implementation.

This study reports an independent investigation of the psychometric properties of Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a teacher-rated measure of school readiness for preschool-aged children. In a sample of 2,031 low-income, 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start, we tested three measurement models: a higher order one-factor model, a seven-factor model, and a five-factor model. To explore the appropriateness of the DRDP for use with diverse populations of young children, we used multiple group and differential item functioning (DIF) analyses to determine whether the DRDP works differently for dual language learners (DLL) and non-DLLs. The proposed five-factor structure fits the data best, with greater face and statistical validity. Using this conceptually driven factor structure, the multiple group analyses were robust for DLL and non-DLL preschool students. More than half of the items on the DRDP displayed little DIF. Items measuring emergent language and literacy exhibited DIF favoring non-DLL children. [This is the online version of an article published in "Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment."]

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) impact students in substantive ways. These standards move beyond textbooks to emphasize hands-on inquiry focused on real-world phenomena -- making students, rather than teachers, the primary actors in the NGSS science classroom. The six-year NGSS Early Implementers Initiative has supported a group of California school districts in implementing the NGSS. This evaluation report -- intended for school, state, and district leaders -- describes how a diverse population of students are benefiting from their districts' participation in this Initiative. The evaluation's findings show that these diverse students are: (1) More excited about and engaged in science; (2) Experiencing more inclusive participation; and (3) Showing evidence of higher-level learning. The report discusses the results of whole-class surveys administered to students in the K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 grade spans, which suggest that not only are the Initiative's Teacher Leaders providing teaching aligned to the NGSS, but they are also fostering student confidence and promoting stronger interest in science. The report also presents an extended vignette of a 4th grade lesson to illustrate the student experiences and benefits that occur in NGSS instruction. The conclusion of the report provides recommendations for administrators to support their teachers in enhancing student engagement and learning.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) advocate an integrated model of science instruction for middle schools in which the science disciplines are connected rather than separate. This model, used by other countries that are consistently successful in science, has several key benefits, including enhanced student learning and better preparation for the new California Science Test (CAST). The California Board of Education voted in 2013 to make integrated science the state's "preferred" model. The K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative was designed to support middle school science teachers and their administrators in integrating the sciences. From the start of the Initiative, all participating districts adopted the state's integrated science model. This fifth Early Implementer evaluation report examines how schools and districts in the Initiative are negotiating the transition to the integrated science model. The report draws on substantial data collected from teachers, administrators, and Initiative leaders through surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. This report also provides two detailed examples of integrated instruction through vignettes of classroom observations conducted in grades 6 and 8.

In 2015, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) was contracted by the Joyce/Cabrillo Foundation to assess the long-term impact of the Academy for College Excellence (ACE) on students who had participated in the program between fall 2003 and spring 2014 at three California Community Colleges: Berkeley City, Cabrillo, and Hartnell Colleges. To accomplish this goal, the RP Group designed and implemented a mixed-methods research study, gathering both qualitative and quantitative data to analyze the effect of participating in ACE in both students' personal and professional lives. This report summarizes the key qualitative and quantitative research findings highlighting the ways in which the Academy for College Excellence (ACE) helped build the capacity of individuals facing numerous obstacles to success thrive as students, participants in the workforce, and members of the community. Qualitative data for this evaluation was collected via telephone surveys with 435 individuals who had completed ACE at some point between 2003 and 2014 at one of three colleges that host the ACE program: Cabrillo College, Berkeley City College, and Hartnell College. Quantitative research complemented the telephone survey with an in-depth analysis of ACE participants' educational and employment outcomes and comparison of those outcomes to a demographically similar group of students who did not enroll in ACE. Findings suggest that ACE has a positive effect on students' academic, career, and personal success. The extensive telephone interviews conducted indicate that ACE supports students' academic and social integration in higher education and delivers psychosomatic supports for underserved and underrepresented college students. Furthermore, for historically underrepresented, first-generation, and "at-risk" students, ACE promotes postsecondary education as a tool for personal and economic success and facilitates participants' effective navigation of and success in the college/professional environment. Finally, findings indicate that participation in ACE builds students' ability to complete transfer-level coursework, achieve educational awards, and increase earnings over time.

NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This evaluation report describes how site and district administrators are making critical contributions to the implementation of the NGSS. Intended for administrators and state education leaders, this report illustrates how: (1) Administrators are advancing NGSS implementation in their schools and districts; (2) Teachers are benefitting from administrators' support; and (3) The Initiative is empowering administrators' efforts. The report also describes how the Initiative is providing substantial professional learning and assistance for administrators and empowering them to advocate and actively support their teachers' NGSS implementation. The report concludes with four recommendations for NGSS implementation at the site and district levels, including: (1) Communicating that science is a priority school subject; (2) Giving teachers flexibility to try the substantially new science instruction of NGSS, including some freedom to integrate science and other school subjects; (3) Increasing both teacher-to-teacher and teacher-with-administrator collaboration around teaching science; and (4) Providing resources for science instruction.

In 2016, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched a two-part transfer study called "Through the Gate" to take a fresh look at addressing California's transfer challenges. When a more nuanced look at this population is taken, a "transfer continuum" emerges, revealing students at different points along a transfer path: transfer explorers, momentum students, students near the transfer gate, students at the transfer gate, and transfer achievers who made it through the transfer gate. This research aims to identify strategies for increasing transfer among "high-leverage" California Community Colleges (CCCs) learners--individuals who have completed all or most of their transfer requirements, but who do not make it "through the gate" to a university. It specifically focuses on the Inland Empire and Central Valley, as students in these areas of the state have lower college completion and transfer rates, which suggests that they may face unique challenges and barriers along their transfer journey. The report details findings from the study's first phase and maps the landscape for a sample of students who have made significant progress along the transfer continuum. It shares findings on high-leverage students who are near or at the gate, and transfer achievers who made it through the gate to university, zeroing in on: (1) how many students in California stop short of the transfer gate; (2) who they are and where they reside; and (3) what can be gleaned about opportunities to increase their transfer success.

NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement Next Generation Science Standards. The Initiative focuses on NGSS implementation in grades K-8 and incorporates the integrated course model (preferred by the California State Board of Education) for middle school. This evaluation report discusses the integration of science and English language arts (ELA) in the school districts. Intended for school, state, and district leaders, the report addresses the following questions: (1) How much time are teachers spending on integrating science and ELA?; (2) What does integration look like in classrooms?; (3) How are students benefitting?; (4) How is the Initiative empowering teachers to integrate these subjects?; and (5) What are recommendations for administrators to support integration of science and ELA? Key findings after three years of the Initiative include: (1) About half of elementary and middle school teachers now teach 60 minutes or more per week of science integrated with ELA; (2) Five ELA standards are now being addressed in science by 62 to 93 percent of teachers, and, across the Initiative, all Common Core State Standards-ELA are being addressed in science by at least some percentage of the Initiative's teachers; (3) Teachers use tools and strategies promoting both ELA and science learning, including using the 5E instructional model to scaffold lessons; helping students make sense of science through writing in notebooks; and using Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) and questioning strategies; and (4) To support integration, administrators at a minimum need to endorse counting integrated science-ELA instruction as some part of required ELA instructional time.

This brief summarizes the key qualitative and quantitative research findings highlighting the ways in which the Academy for College Excellence (ACE) helped build the capacity of individuals facing numerous obstacles to success to thrive as students, participants in the workforce, and members of the community. The main goal of ACE is to prepare students to navigate and succeed in college, work, and life. In particular, ACE is designed to help individuals who have historically faced a wide range of challenges to academic and career success--such as underrepresented groups, foster youth, veterans, and more--achieve their educational and employment goals. The program is designed to foster intrinsic engagement and motivation among community college students, providing support through curriculum and instruction that holistically addresses students' needs (Navarro, 2017; Navarro & Hayward, 2014).

Extant research on scholarship programs provides foundational knowledge on student enrollment patterns, different types of programs and their students, and outcomes for scholarship recipients in different sectors of higher education. Despite this growing body of research, however, looming questions remain about the measurable impact of scholarship funding. In this study, an experimental research design was used to estimate the impact of a race-conscious scholarship program for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students attending three Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) community colleges: City College of San Francisco, De Anza College, and South Seattle College. The primary goal was to understand the lived experiences of AAPI students attending community college and the relative impact of the funding on their educational experiences and academic achievement. Among the key findings are: (1) There is a high level of financial vulnerability among AAPI community college students; (2) AAPI community college students are more likely to work and work longer hours; (3) Work interfered with students' academic engagement; (4) AAPI community college students have a wide range of family responsibilities; and (5) AAPI community college students have a high rate of immigrant-origin backgrounds. A technical appendix is included. [This report is a publication from the Partnership for Equity in Education through Research (PEER), a collaborative effort between the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE), APIASF, and three campus partners--City College of San Francisco, De Anza College, and South Seattle College.]

January 2014, Governor Jerry Brown announced in his budget proposal an unprecedented line-item designation for student equity in community colleges. His proposal of $100 million for student equity set the stage for the past year and a half of enhanced activities locally and statewide on student equity issues. Most prominently, the 112 community colleges updated their equity plans as required under Title 5 in order to receive the funding. The Community College League of California ("League") also enhanced its own activities statewide both to advocate for funding and to support the colleges in their efforts to develop and implement their student equity plans. Now is the time for California community colleges, with guidance from the State Chancellor's Office and support from organizations such as the League, to fulfill their mission of student success for all -- that is, student equity. This paper aims to reflect on the League's own institutions and how their employees and trustees of the "system" need to see their own role (intentionally or unintentionally) in perpetuating the inequities, or more importantly, in helping to achieve student equity -- especially now with an unprecedented amount of funding. The goals of this policy paper are the following: (1) Make the case for continued, focused funding for student equity; (2) Provide some tools and recommendations for colleges to implement, integrate, and institutionalize their equity plans to achieve groundbreaking outcomes; and (3) Encourage a statewide, open and honest conversation about student equity. In addition, this paper: (1) Provides a historical perspective of the circumstances in law and policy as they relate to community colleges that have led us to this point; (2) Describes the League activities over the past 5 years; (3) Identifies some partner organizations' activities over the past year on student equity; (4) Provides some observations made by the State Chancellor's Office, leadership (Trustees and CEOs), League membership (colleges), and League Staff on student equity funding and activities; and (5) Provides some recommendations for the League and our colleges in achieving outcomes to justify the expenditure of funds.

This report shares findings from a three-year longitudinal study of three Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)--one of the newest minority serving institution (MSI) designations--and provides evidence for the impact of federally-funded campus programs on persistence, degree attainment, and transfer to four-year institutions for low-income Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. The three community colleges in this study include: (1) De Anza College; (2) City College of San Francisco; and (3) South Seattle Community College. This report demonstrates the important role of inquiry in enhancing the capacity-building efforts of institutions that serve disproportionately high concentrations of low-income minority students. For each campus, the impact of grant-funded programs that were either new or modified interventions were studied with explicit goals to address challenges that the campuses identified as barriers to student success. The study utilized a research design that compared AAPI students in AANAPISI-funded programs (participant) to a comparable group of AAPI students who did not participate in the AANAPISI-funded program (comparison group). The analysis was based on cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort data that contain information on student demographics, course-taking behavior, and course outcomes. The metrics for evaluating student outcomes were aligned with the stated goals of each program's intervention: (1) Short-Term Outcomes: transition from developmental to college level courses, credit accumulation, and course performance (i.e., grade point average); and (2) Long-Term Outcomes: persistence from one academic term to the next, degree attainment, and transfer from two- to four-year institutions. The report builds on the assessment's findings to provide projections for how the program can have a larger campus-wide impact on student outcomes if brought to scale and includes a set of recommendations for practitioners and policymakers. A technical appendix is included. [This report is a publication from the Partnership for Equity in Education through Research (PEER), a collaborative effort between the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE), Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and three campus partners--City College of San Francisco, De Anza College, and South Seattle Community College.]