Redwood City School District (RCSD) has a long history of attending to the needs of its students and their families, and it has responded to this moment of crisis by setting a goal that by June 2024, every student will receive "appropriate social-emotional supports designed to meet their needs." The plan for achieving this goal includes…

Research increasingly highlights the significant benefits of multilingual instructional programs for English Learners. Yet, these programs remain relatively rare across California. Regional and local practitioners play an essential role in driving meaningful change by implementing strategies that enhance these programs--ultimately improving the…

College Promise programs--initiatives designed to guarantee tuition and fees for eligible students--have swept across the country, unlocking the opportunity of higher education for students in more than 200 communities across 44 states, including 16 statewide programs that have passed through legislation or executive orders. These forward-thinking…

Purpose: This research was intended to identify some of the factors that impact student veterans' well-being, based on their unmet needs. Research by the USC School of Social Work Center for innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families USC-CIR (2015) found that many service members separate from the military ill-equipped to begin…

For the past several decades, the construct of parent involvement (PI) has framed much of the literature on school-family-community partnerships. In this study, the authors used a qualitative form of meta-analysis called "thematic synthesis" to explore a programmatic alternative to conventional PI known as "collective parent…

This study investigated the prevalence of increasingly popular animal-assisted stress relief programs at higher education institutions across the United States. Although research on animal-assisted programs is increasing, there is still a lack of information documenting implementation of these programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to…

Within California, there is widespread understanding and consensus that college affordability is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Along with this consensus on the nature and implications of California's college affordability problems, there is also emerging agreement about how to tackle it. While this convergence can form the backbone of a…

Creative Youth Development (CYD) is a long-standing practice that fuels students' potential by intentionally integrating creative skill-building, inquiry and expression with positive youth development principles. In CYD programs, young people create original work through arts experiences and apply their creative skills to solve problems. These…

The purpose of this study is to examine a community college district Grow Your Own (GYO) leadership program in the Western United States, the Multi College Leadership Development Institute (MCLDI). The MCLDI was developed in-house for a multi-campus community college district and offered to interested employees at all position levels with the…

Background: Most studies of teacher professional development (PD) do not rigorously test impact on teaching practice and student learning. This makes it difficult to define what is truly "effective." The "Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis" (STeLLA) PD program, in contrast, was studied in a cluster randomized…

College Promise programs are thriving in California, and with the continued growth comes a need to understand the features of these diverse efforts and the perspectives of the communities in which they exist. In 2018, the James Irvine Foundation supported California College Promise Project (CCPP) at WestEd to study the College Promise landscape in…

Early college high school models are designed to encourage and assist traditionally underrepresented groups of students- low income, Latino, and African-American- to persist in and graduate from high school while earning college credit. Some of the models target high school dropouts, with the aim of helping them acquire the education and training…

In this article, the authors discuss the creation of an Urban Dual Credential Program (UDCP) at a large, comprehensive state university in California, a program meant to prepare dually-certified teachers in general education (California Multiple Subject Credential) and special education (California Education Specialist Credential in mild/moderate…

The purpose of the study was to examine elementary principal leadership during change by analyzing various strategies used by the principals to create change systems within the context of Common Core State Standards. More specifically the study set out to explore: (1) what planning and program design do elementary principals use during the…

This study investigated structural features of a newcomer program housed within a comprehensive high school and language practices among newcomer students and their teachers. Findings indicate efforts to provide newcomer students with "safe spaces," opportunities for language and literacy development in English and Spanish, and access to…