Schools and Classrooms
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19
Technical Report
Adolescence and the Reimagined High School: Scientific Perspectives on Development, Learning, and Civic Reasoning
This report draws on developmental science, neuroscience, and field studies of California secondary teachers, along with organizational research, to identify how high school design influences possibilities for adolescent development, including the development of transcendent thinking.
Technical Report
Adoption Windows and Reform: California’s Math Pathways in the Post-Common Core Era
This report studies changes to middle and high school math pathways after the Common Core transition. It shows how decisions about the timing of Algebra I and the structure of high school courses can shape students’ achievement and opportunity in advanced mathematics.
Technical Report
AI and Education across California Schools: Calls for More Professional Development and AI Literacy
This report documents how AI is already entering California schools. It highlights the need for clear policies, professional learning, and AI literacy so that adoption is guided by educational purpose rather than left to chance.
Technical Report
Beyond the Whole Class: Systematizing Engaging, Individualized Support at Scale
This report examines high-impact tutoring and individualized support. It asks how California can organize staffing, time, and instruction to meet students where they are more consistently.
Technical Report
California Community Schools: Past, Present, and Early Impacts of the California Community Schools Partnership Program
This report examines the impact of California's $4.1 billion investment in community schools and illustrates how local leaders leveraged state funds to drive these outcomes. It highlights how the strategy has enabled early adopter sites to improve chronic absence and achievement, with historically underserved student groups (including Black students and Engish learners) benefitting the most.
Technical Report
Curriculum Adoption and Implementation in California
This report examines how California districts and teachers select and use instructional materials. It highlights opportunities to strengthen guidance, quality, and implementation support so curriculum choices better serve instruction.
Technical Report
Does Your Math Pathway Make a Difference? High School Mathematics and College Outcomes
This report studies high school math pathways and their relationship to college enrollment. It highlights how four years of math and access to advanced coursework can expand opportunity, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Technical Report
Learning from California’s Prior Reading Reforms
This report studies California’s recent literacy initiatives and what can be learned from their design. It shows that professional learning, funding, planning, and support can improve reading outcomes.
Technical Report
Material Hardship, Emotional Distress, and Early Learning Supports Among California Families with Young Children: Evidence from the RAPID California Voices Survey
This report uses the RAPID California Voices Survey to examine the lives of families with young children. It connects material hardship, emotional well-being, and early learning supports to broader questions about how California can support children before they enter school.
Technical Report
Strategic School Staffing in California: Opportunities and Barriers
This report examines the evidence on strategic school staffing, a framework for rethinking how schools organize educators’ roles, time, and pay to better align teacher expertise with student needs. It presents evidence of demonstrated impact on teacher and student outcomes, investigates California principals' interest in and perceived barriers to implementation, and concludes with implications for state policy to further support more innovative staffing.
Technical Report
Structuring Charter School Accountability: How State Policy Shapes Authorizer Practice in California
This report examines how California’s charter authorizing system works in practice. It considers how state policy can support clearer expectations, more consistent oversight, and stronger accountability.
Technical Report
Supporting Immigrant-Origin Students in California’s Schools
This report examines immigrant-origin students’ educational experiences in California schools. It highlights the preparation, policies, and supports educators need to serve students and families of immigrant backgrounds well.
Technical Report
The Learning Experiences that Matter and AI’s Role
This report asks how AI might support the learning experiences students most need, including targeted direct instruction, and caring and supportive relationships. Rather than treating AI as a standalone tool, it considers how technology could become part of the infrastructure that helps schools create richer learning at scale.
Technical Report
Who Benefits from Public PreK Expansions & Increased K-5 Spending? Dynamic Complementarity in California’s Education Policies
This report shows how California's investments in CSPP, TK, and elementary school spending delivered substantial, equity-enhancing gains in student achievement, and their effects reinforce one another across the preschool and early elementary grades. The results suggest that sequenced public investments in educational opportunity can produce developmental multiplier effects that exceed the sum of their independent effects.
Research Brief
Curriculum Policy for California Schools
This brief examines California’s curriculum policies and offers recommendations to improve coherence, quality, and equitable access to high-quality instructional materials across schools.
Research Brief
Artificial Intelligence, Learning, and the Future of California Schools
This brief explores the implications of artificial intelligence for California schools, focusing on how AI can support learning while raising important questions about equity, implementation, and future system readiness.
Research Brief
High School as a Launch Point: Opportunity, Development, and Redesign in California
This brief examines California high schools as a critical launch point for opportunity, highlighting the need for redesign to better support student development, engagement, and postsecondary pathways.
Research Brief
English Language Arts and Literacy in California: Progress, Capacity, and Implementation
This brief examines English Language Arts and literacy in California, highlighting progress in student performance alongside ongoing challenges in instructional capacity and consistent implementation across schools.
Research Brief
Mathematics in California: Gaps, Capacity, and Implementation
This brief examines mathematics education in California, highlighting persistent achievement gaps and challenges in instructional capacity and implementation across the state.