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School value-added models are increasingly used to measure schools' contributions to student success. At the same time, policymakers and researchers agree that schools should support students' socialemotional learning (SEL) as well as academic development. Yet, the evidence regarding whether schools can influence SEL and whether statistical growth models can appropriately measure this influence is limited. Recent work shows meaningful differences across schools in changes in SEL scores by grade (Loeb, Christian, Hough, Meyer, Rice, & West, 2019), but whether these differences represent the effects of schools is still unclear. The current paper builds upon this earlier work by examining the stability of the estimated school-by-grade effects on SEL across two years, using a large-scale SEL survey administered in California's CORE districts. We find that correlations among school effects in the same grades across different years are positive, but they are lower than those for math and English Language Arts (ELA). Schools in the top or the bottom of the school effect distribution are more persistent in their impacts across years than those in the middle of the distribution. Overall, the results provide evidence that these school effects measure real contributions to SEL. However, the low stability of effects from one year to the next draw into question whether including these school value-added measures of self-reported SEL in school performance frameworks and systems would be beneficial.

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) set rigorous standards for each of grades 6, 7 and 8. Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) has been working with two school districts, Oakland Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School District, to evaluate extant policies and practices and formulate new policies based on the CCSS-M shifts that promise to work better for students. This work has culminated in school board adoptions of new policies in both districts. This report focuses on the problems, solutions and designs that that have been found in the CCSS-M and can be of immediate use to other districts and states.

This paper presents part of the results of a completed study entitled "A Longitudinal Study of Minority Ph.D.s from 1980-1990: Progress and Outcomes in Science and Engineering at the University of California during Graduate School and Professional Life." It focuses particularly on the graduate school experience and degree of preparation for the professoriate of African American doctoral students in the sciences and engineering, and presents the results of a survey of 33 African American STEM Ph.D.s from the University of California earned between 1980-1990. Relationships with thesis advisors and principal investigators are evaluated by the study participants in fifteen specific areas from highly-ranked intellectual development to low-ranked training in grant writing. Deficits in training and socialization are discussed along with the tension between being both an African American and a graduate student. Career choices and outcomes are presented. These findings, in conjunction with current analyses of graduate education in STEM, suggest ways in which graduate training for all could be improved. (Contains 1 table.) [Financial support for this project was provided by the U.C. Industry-University Cooperative Research Program; and the U.C. Berkeley Graduate Division.]

Between 2003 and 2013, the proportion of California 8th graders enrolled in Algebra or a more advanced course nearly doubled to 65 percent. In this paper, we consider the organizational processes that accompanied this curricular intensification. Facing a complex set of accountability, institutional, technical/functional, and internal political pressures, California schools responded to the Algebra-for-all effort in diverse ways. While some schools detracked by enrolling all 8th graders in Algebra, others "tracked up," creating more advanced geometry opportunities while increasing algebra enrollments. These responses created a new differentiated course structure that is likely to benefit advantaged students. Consistent with the Effectively Maintained Inequality hypothesis, we find that detracking occurred primarily in disadvantaged schools while "tracking up" occurred primarily in advantaged schools. [This paper was published in the "American Education Research Journal" v53 n4 p1229-1266 Aug 2016 (EJ1111102).]

The California Department of Education is in the process of revising the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Model Curriculum Standards. The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) conducted an investigation of the draft version of the Health Sciences and Medical Technology Standards (Health Science). The purpose of the study is to understand how the Health Science Standards relate to college and career readiness and foundational English language arts (ELA) and mathematics content, as represented by California's exit level augmented Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This study utilized an alignment methodology analyzing the relationship between the Health Sciences Standards and (a) California's grade 11-12 CCSS in English Language Arts and Literacy and (b) California's High School CCSS in Mathematics and the Standards for Mathematical Practice. The augmented Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by the California State Board of Education (SBE) on August 2, 2010. The augmented CCSS represent a set of expectations for student knowledge and skills that high school graduates need to master to succeed in college and careers. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills necessary for success in college and careers. The goal of the updated CTE Model Curriculum Standards is to provide a clear and coherent message about what students need to know and be able to do in order to be successful in postsecondary education or job training programs within 15 industry sectors. These standards aim to provide a framework of what to teach without stipulating how to teach it. In this pilot study, however, only the standards within the Health Sciences and Medical Technology Sector were examined. This alignment study examines two dimensions of alignment, looking at both content and cognitive complexity. Using a modified version of the methodology developed by the Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest, this study addresses the following research questions: (1) To what extent are the knowledge and skills found in the CA CTE Health Science Standards the same or different (aligned) to the augmented CCSS?; and (2) How does the cognitive complexity of the CA CTE Health Science Standards compare to the augmented CCSS? Appended are: (1) Standards Used in Study; and (2) Revised Standards. (Contains 35 figures, 15 tables, and 8 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).]

As states are working to align their education systems with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in support of the goal of graduating all students ready for college, careers and life, academic and career and technical education (CTE) leaders at the state and local levels can and should maximize this opportunity to finally break down the silos between their disciplines and collectively find ways to ensure that the new standards rigorously engage all students in both academic and CTE courses. Bridging this divide, however, will happen only with intentionality and forethought at the policy and program levels. A substantial gap remains between the opportunity and need for engagement of the CTE community and CTE's current level of involvement in the implementation of the CCSS. Nearly half of the states that responded to an Achieve survey report that they have no CTE representation on their CCSS implementation teams, implying that in their states the CCSS are (currently) being viewed as purely an academic initiative, despite interest from CTE leaders to be involved. This paper aims to provide guidance to state education leaders about how they can maximize the opportunity to better align academics and CTE through the implementation of the new CCSS by: (1) Summarizing what state leaders are currently doing to integrate the CCSS and CTE; (2) Providing specific strategies and supporting examples of what particular states are doing; and (3) Identifying common barriers and challenges that state leaders face. The Survey and Its Findings are appended. (Contains 2 endnotes.)

To date the authors have completed 23 studies of knowledge monitoring and its relationship to learning from instruction. Their earlier work, 12 studies in all, is summarized and reported elsewhere (see Tobias and Everson, 1996; Tobias and Everson, 2000). In this paper they continue this line of research and summarize the results of 11 studies that have been conducted over the past three years. The work reported here attempts to address a number of general issues, e.g., the domain specificity of knowledge monitoring, measurement concerns, and the relationship of knowledge monitoring to academic ability.

The study examined the effectiveness of an intervention designed to teach mathematical concepts through music. Specifically, it investigated the effect of the intervention on third-grade students' understanding of fractions. Sixty-seven students from one northern California elementary school participated in the study over a period of six weeks; of those, about half received both music instruction and mathematics instruction, while the other half received regular mathematics instruction. The study reported that students in the music intervention had greater understanding of fraction computation, but not fraction concepts, than students who did not receive the music intervention. The results reported in the paper are based on an analysis that "does not meet WWC (What Works Clearinghouse) evidence standards" because a required statistical adjustment for initial differences between the students who received the music intervention and those who did not was not included. The authors described an additional analysis which may have included the statistical adjustment, but the results of that analysis were not presented in the paper. A more thorough review (forthcoming) will examine whether this analysis may "meet WWC evidence standards with reservations." [The following study is reviewed in this What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review: Courey, S. J., Balough, E., Siker, J. R., & Paik, J. (2012). "Academic music: Music instruction to engage third-grade students in learning basic fraction concepts." "Educational Studies in Mathematics," 1-28. doi:10.1007/s10649-012-9395-9.]

This paper investigates the elementary school principal's role in helping to sustain implementation of a complex math and science program designed to foster the development of higher order thinking skills, particularly for language minority students. The study predicted a positive relationship between coordination and program continuation; if the principal organized conditions enabling teachers to implement a new and complex program, then the quality of what occurred in the classroom would be maintained over time. The innovation studied is a math and science curriculum called Finding Out/Descubrimiento (FO/D), boasting 17 physics and chemistry themes and 130 associated activities. The study was conducted in eight school districts of varying sizes in the San Francisco Bay Area (California). Data were collected using one classroom observation instrument and two questionnaires for principals and teachers, respectively. Findings showed little association between administrative coordination and the quality of program continuation after the first implementation year. One explanation could be the teachers' strong understanding of the program and delegation of authority, which might require less principal involvement. Also, teachers might require a different type of administrator support in subsequent years. Eight tables are appended. (18 references) (MLH)