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Enrollment increased slightly at both the California State University and University of California systems in fall 2020, but the effects of the pandemic on enrollment in the California Community College system are mostly unknown and might differ substantially from the effects on 4-year colleges. This paper provides the first analysis of how the pandemic impacted enrollment patterns and the academic outcomes of community college students using administrative college-level panel data covering the universe of students in the 116-college California Community College system. We find that community college enrolment dropped precipitously in fall 2020 -- the total number of enrolled students fell by 4 percent in spring 2020 and by 15 percent in fall 2020 relative to the prior year. All racial and ethnic groups experienced large enrollment decreases in spring and fall 2020, but African-American and Latinx students experienced the largest drops at 17 percent in fall 2020. Enrollment fell the most for first-year students in the community college system, basic skills courses, and fields such as engineering/industrial technology, education, interdisciplinary studies, and art. There were smaller decreases for continuing students, academic courses transferable to four-year institutions, and business and science fields. Enrollment losses were felt throughout the entire community college system, and there is no evidence that having a large online presence in prior years protected colleges from these effects. In terms of course performance, there was a larger disruption to completion rates, withdrawal rates, and grades in spring 2020 than in fall 2020. These early findings of the effects of the pandemic at community colleges, which serve higher percentages of lower-income and minority students, have implications for policy, impending budgetary pressures, and future research.

This research brief highlights the findings of a study looking at the impact of a project-based approach to science instruction in middle school. Stanford University experts and middle school teachers developed the project-based program, Learning Through Performance (LTP). Researchers found that the approach boosted student achievement in science by 11 percentage points and increased student engagement. The students using the LTP curriculum also outperformed their peers on state assessments in mathematics (from 12-18 percentage points in years one and two, respectively) and English language arts (from 8-10 percentage points in years one and two, respectively), indicating they grew in those subject areas as well. And English language learners outperformed their peers on a test used to measure language proficiency, by 8 percentage points in the first year and 28 percentage points for students whose teachers who were in their second year of teaching the LTP curriculum. Teaching practices shifted too. The study found LTP teachers improved at facilitating groupwork, increased their use of activities that involved real-world, hands-on application of science, increased their use of language-rich assignments and discussion strategies, and grew in their use of performance assessments. [This brief is based on the research paper, "Project-Based Learning as a Lever for Engaging the Next Generation Science Standards," written by Rebecca R. Deutscher, Nicole C. Holthuis, Saúl I. Maldonado, Raymond L. Pecheone, Susan E. Schultz, and Ruth Chung Wei.]

This brief examines California's Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which is a framework designed to identify and assist students performing below grade level. MTSS involves at least three tiers of support; Tier 2 includes personalized assistance. Unfortunately, Tier 2 services are not adequately resourced so it is not surprising that California students rank only 38th in the nation in reading and math. To move higher, it is important that the state provide categorical funding for Tier 2 services. California teachers already have a full-time job. To successfully implement MTSS, they need additional Tier 2 personnel (e.g., paraprofessional instructional aides and trained clerical staff to manage student progress monitoring) to assist them.

Early childhood teachers routinely face insufficient teaching supports and inadequate rewards for their education and commitment (e.g., low pay, lack of professional supports, and lack of benefits). These shortcomings contribute to poor program quality and fuel high levels of teacher turnover, preventing program improvement and making it increasingly challenging to attract well-trained and educated teachers to work in early learning programs. To facilitate the process of bringing teachers' voices into quality improvement strategies, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) developed Supportive Environmental Quality Underlying Adult Learning, or SEQUAL, as a tool to document contextual information about workplace conditions that impact teacher practice and program quality and to build a vocabulary for the field around teachers' needs for workplace supports. It is a multi-purpose, validated tool that addresses five critical areas of teachers' learning environments: (1) Teaching supports; (2) Learning opportunities; (3) Policies and practices that support teaching staff's initiative and teamwork; (4) Adult well-being; and (5) How supervisors and program leaders interact with staff to support their teaching practice. SEQUAL has been used by Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) administrators and policymakers to understand the interplay between teacher education and the work environment, the relationship between teachers' work environments and indicators of quality, and as a technical assistance tool, to guide improvements to program policies, practices, and conditions necessary to support teachers' work with children. This report presents the findings from the SEQUAL study focused on teaching staff employed in programs participating in Quality Counts in the spring of 2016. Almost all of the programs represented in this report were contracted with the California Department of Education or Head Start to provide services, and accordingly are held to more rigorous standards than other licensed non-contracted programs in the county. This report, describes the design of the study, including information about the sample, the survey instrument, and the data collection and analysis procedures. The report next presents findings beginning with teaching staff responses to items in each of the five SEQUAL domains, including an analysis of how responses varied by site characteristics and quality ratings. The next section provides a detailed description of the personal and work characteristics of teaching staff and explores whether teaching staff assessments of their work environment varied with respect to these characteristics. The report concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and recommendations for action targeted towards funders and policymakers.

If a rational system of teacher compensation, aimed at recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, were designed from scratch, it is unlikely it would bear any resemblance to the system that is currently in place. In this paper, the author takes a deep look into how the method of paying teachers evolved. He shows that compensation systems have unintentionally become dysfunctional. He shows how efficiencies can be gained through rethinking decisions such as how many teachers a district actually needs. [An extensive list of resources is included.]

The University of California at Berkeley now delivers more to the public of California than it ever has, and it does this on the basis of proportionally less funding by the State government than it has ever received. This claim may come as a surprise, since it is often said that Berkeley is in the process of privatizing, becoming less of a public university and more in the service of private interests. To the contrary, as the State's commitment to higher education and social-welfare programs has declined, UC Berkeley has struggled to preserve and even expand its public role, while struggling simultaneously to retain its competitive excellence as a research university. This paper delineates how UC Berkeley has striven to retain its public character in the face of severe financial pressures. A summary of the indicators invoked can be found in the chart at the end of the text.

The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program funds reforms in low performing schools. Congress provided $3.5 billion for SIG in fiscal year 2009, and a total of about $1.6 billion was appropriated in fiscal years 2010-2012. SIG requirements changed significantly in 2010. Many schools receiving SIG funds must now use the funding for specific interventions, such as turning over certain school operations to an outside organization (contractor). GAO examined (1) what, if any, aspects of SIG pose challenges for successful implementation; (2) how Education and state guidance and procedures for screening potential contractors and reviewing contractor performance compare with leading practices; and (3) to what extent Education's technical assistance and oversight activities are effectively supporting SIG implementation. GAO surveyed SIG directors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia; analyzed Education and state documents; and interviewed officials from 8 states and school districts in those states, SIG contractors, and education experts. GAO recommends that Education (1) provide additional support to states about making evidence-based grant renewal decisions and (2) ensure that contractor performance is reviewed. Education generally supported our first recommendation but disagreed with the second. We modified our recommendation to address some of Education's concerns. Appended are: (1) Objectives, Scope, and Methodology; (2) Comments from the Department of Education; and (3) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 3 figures and 30 footnotes.)

Since the early 1990s, Congress has supplemented the Department of Education's (Education) Impact Aid program by providing funds for the Department of Defense's (DOD) Impact Aid program to compensate school districts with a high number of military dependent students. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 required GAO to review the use of these funds. GAO reviewed (1) what is known about the utilization and effectiveness of DOD Impact Aid funds, (2) the challenges faced by school districts in serving military dependent students, and (3) how DOD and Education have collaborated on their assistance. To address these issues, GAO conducted a Web-based survey of all 154 school districts that received DOD Impact Aid in any year from 2001 to 2009, with a response rate of 77 percent. GAO also interviewed officials from DOD and Education and seven school districts in five states, ranging in school district size, location, and percentage of military dependent students. The findings from these visits cannot be projected nationwide, but illustrate valuable perspectives. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Education determine whether to require school districts to report data on the academic outcomes of military dependent students, and if so, to determine the need for any additional legislative authority. Education agreed with GAO's recommendation, and DOD provided oral concurrence. Appended are: (1) Objectives, Scope, and Methodology; (2) Information on Additional Mandate Provisions; (3) The 13 Objectives from Education and DOD's MOU; (4) Comments from the Department of Education; and (5) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 2 tables, 7 figures, and 42 footnotes.)

University of California (UC) Berkeley's chief academic officer explores the historical sources of Berkeley' academic excellence. He identifies five key factors: (1) wealth from many sources; (2) supportive and skilled governors; (3) leadership from key UC presidents; (4) the pioneering ethos within the State of California; and (5) a process of continuous devolution of authority within the State and the University. He then addresses the extent to which these factors continue as causal drivers today. He concludes by identifying optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, based on contrasting assumptions about the strength of those causal drivers, and ends with a call for the State and the UC system not to inhibit efforts by UCB's leaders to do what is needed to sustain Berkeley's academic excellence. (Contains 14 footnotes.)

The main objective of the authors' proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of math placement policies for entering community college students on these students' academic success in math, and their transfer and graduation rates. The main research question that guides the proposed study is: What are the effects of various basic skills mathematics paths on the course-taking patterns of community college students? Their study combines descriptive analyses with a regression discontinuity (RD) design to estimate the effect of developmental education. They have two closely related goals: (1) To provide a descriptive analysis of the course taking patterns (basic skills and college level) of community college students; and (2) To use a regression-discontinuity design to test the effect of assignment to different levels of basic skills courses in mathematics on subsequent educational outcomes. The sampling frame for their analysis consists of about 158,000 community college students who were placed into mathematics in one of nine Los Angeles County Community Colleges between June 2001 and September 2009 and for whom a Continuous Placement Score (CPS) is available in the management information system maintained by the Los Angeles Community College District. The authors have been able to identify the assessment and placement practices in 4 of the 9 community colleges. Table 1 describes the placement rules for these 4 colleges. This evaluation provides insights to the district and the state about the effect of placement on successful course sequences that have the potential to promote persistence and save millions of dollars to the state. (Contains 4 tables.)

Higher education has become more accessible than ever before, although students from some demographic groups still face challenges in attending college. To help improve access to higher education for minority and low-income students, Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act, as amended, provide grants to strengthen and support institutions that enroll large proportions of these students. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to testify on the Department of Education's (Education) oversight of institutions receiving Title III or V grants and progress Education has made in monitoring the financial and programmatic performance of Title III and V grantees. GAO's testimony is based primarily on its recent report, "Low-Income and Minority Serving Institutions: Management Attention to Long-standing Concerns Needed to Improve Education's Oversight of Grant Programs" (GAO-09-309, August 2009) and updated information provided by Education. In that report, GAO recommended that Education, among other things, (1) develop a comprehensive, risk-based approach to target monitoring and technical assistance; (2) ensure staff training needs are fully met; (3) disseminate information about implementation challenges and successful projects; and (4) develop appropriate feedback mechanisms. No new recommendations are being made in this testimony. (Contains 4 tables and 7 footnotes.)

This report presents findings from a study conducted by The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (GW-CEEE) under the sponsorship of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze school-based decision-making practices relevant to the inclusion and accommodation of English language learners (ELLs) in the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which was administered as part of the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). This study investigated how school personnel in urban districts make decisions regarding the inclusion and accommodation of ELLs in NAEP. The study explored the following research questions for a sample of four of the 11 TUDA districts for the 2005 administration of Reading and Mathematics assessments in NAEP at Grades 4 and 8: (1) What factors influenced decisions of school personnel regarding whether to include or exclude ELLs in NAEP?; (2) What factors influenced decisions of school personnel regarding the use of accommodations for those ELLs who were included in NAEP?; and (3) What was the relationship, if any, between the decision to include and the decision to accommodate? For ELL inclusion decisions, decision makers at 26 of the 29 sample schools across the four districts said they relied on ELL-responsive criteria--e.g., "language-related," "academic-related," "time-related," and "opinion-related" criteria. Data further indicated that decision makers applying ELL-responsive criteria had selected from a wide range of criteria from within this category. For accommodations decisions, the application of SD criteria was equally as prevalent as the application of ELL-responsive criteria. A review of the accommodations decision-making practices for the 29 schools indicated that 13 schools relied on ELL-responsive criteria, while almost as many schools (12) relied on criteria intended for students with disabilities. In sum, findings from this study reflect the complex interaction of decision-making practices with the school culture, district and state policies, and the pressures of daily existence in schools. These findings support the conclusion that (1) reliance on state assessment policy or classroom practice for NAEP inclusion and accommodations criteria may result in inconsistent and/or inappropriate decisions; (2) that school decision makers need a greater understanding of the needs of ELLs in relation to high stakes testing, in particular regarding the distinction between the needs of ELLs and those of students with disabilities; and (3) that stronger guidance may be needed from NAEP in order to assure the use of appropriate criteria to support the decision-making process. Appended are: (1) Interview Protocol for NAEP School Decision Makers; (2) Analysis Codes; and (3) District Overviews and School Profiles for the Four TUDA Districts. (Contains 3 figure, 34 tables, and 10 footnotes.)

Enrollment increased slightly at both the California State University and University of California systems in fall 2020, but the effects of the pandemic on enrollment in the California Community College system are mostly unknown and might differ substantially from the effects on 4-year colleges. This paper provides the first analysis of how the pandemic impacted enrollment patterns and the academic outcomes of community college students using administrative college-level panel data covering the universe of students in the 116-college California Community College system. We find that community college enrolment dropped precipitously in fall 2020 -- the total number of enrolled students fell by 4 percent in spring 2020 and by 15 percent in fall 2020 relative to the prior year. All racial and ethnic groups experienced large enrollment decreases in spring and fall 2020, but African-American and Latinx students experienced the largest drops at 17 percent in fall 2020. Enrollment fell the most for first-year students in the community college system, basic skills courses, and fields such as engineering/industrial technology, education, interdisciplinary studies, and art. There were smaller decreases for continuing students, academic courses transferable to four-year institutions, and business and science fields. Enrollment losses were felt throughout the entire community college system, and there is no evidence that having a large online presence in prior years protected colleges from these effects. In terms of course performance, there was a larger disruption to completion rates, withdrawal rates, and grades in spring 2020 than in fall 2020. These early findings of the effects of the pandemic at community colleges, which serve higher percentages of lower-income and minority students, have implications for policy, impending budgetary pressures, and future research. [Note: Data from fall 2020 might overstate enrollment losses due to misinterpretation of data that coincides with variation in college/district submission and verification as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The California Community College Chancellor's Office is reviewing the processes in consultation with college and district stakeholders to produce complete, accurate, and verified revised data.]

A study examined what a third grader might understand about composing a common genre like the narrative, given the degree of variance among approaches and experience. Data were collected from different school sites over a period of several years. These sites shared common geographical areas: three schools were located in the Sonoran desert shared by Arizona, California, and Baja California, Mexico; and two schools were located in the higher plateaus of New Mexico and Sonora, Mexico. Data include rural and urban populations, two languages, and various representative populations. Data represent samples from two different approaches to schooling--those used in the United States and those used in Mexico. Each group used a process approach for creating their stories, and each group used the same prompts--students were allowed to choose from one of four line drawings. The stylistic characteristics of both Mexican and Mexican American students from El Centro, California, are generally associated with written uses, whereas those of the Quechan and Dine are generally associated with conversational uses. The variation among the groups suggests some reevaluation of assumptions behind curriculums and teaching approaches. While the Mexican-American students had developed composition along with reading, their Mexican counterparts had not. Yet, generally these three groups used language appropriate to written narratives. This may reflect the overall emphasis on literacy itself. Mexico prides itself on a high rate of literacy. (Contains 2 tables, and several writing samples.) (NKA)

This report, intended for local and state policy makers and practitioners, summarizes the findings and implications of class-size reduction (CSR) in California. The report's findings provide a comprehensive picture of California's CSR initiative during its first 2 years, covering such topics as implementation, resources, teacher qualifications, teaching practices, parent involvement, and student achievement. The paper offers a synopsis of the legislative background of CSR and describes some of the responses to implementation of the law. For most schools, the greatest obstacle to implementation was a lack of space, followed by insufficient funding, insufficient time to plan, and a lack of qualified staff. The report offers an overview of how the teacher workforce changed with CSR. Although teaching practices did not change significantly with implementation, teachers reported being able to spend more time with problem readers and less time disciplining students. Parents had more contact with teachers and expressed more satisfaction with their children's education. Small gains in children's academic achievement, regardless of ethnicity, income status, or English-language ability, were evident. However, CSR led to overcrowding in many schools, and poorer districts were unable to attract as highly qualified teachers as the better-off schools. (RJM)

In July 1996, California began its Class Size Reduction (CSR) Initiative. To gauge the effectiveness of this initiative, an analysis of its objectives and an overview of proposed strategies for evaluating CSR are presented here. An outline of the major challenges that stand between CSR and its mission are provided. These include logistical challenges, financial challenges, the impact on teaching and learning, unanswered questions in the literature, and the value of a systematic evaluation of the program. The text outlines the design and key research questions that must be addressed by any evaluation plan and recommends six principles that call for a single, integrated evaluation; a comprehensive review; and a summative evaluation. A conceptual model of the evaluation plan is also provided. Overviews of how CSR will affect the following areas are included: state, district, and school policymaking; resource allocation; integration with other reforms; teacher quality, assignment, and training; classroom practices; parental involvement; and student outcomes. It is claimed that students' engagement with schooling, as measured by attendance, promotion/retention, homework completion, and frequency of disciplinary actions, may also change with the introduction of reduced class size and therefore should be assessed as part of the evaluation of student outcomes. A methodology section discusses evaluating the implementation of the class size reduction initiative with discussion on overall design, data collection, sampling, data analyses, an advisory board, and deliverables. Contains 29 references. An appendix discusses the importance of evaluating class size reduction to California educational policy. (RJM)

An essential component of effective leadership is the cultivation of followers. This study examined whether 67 California and Ohio elementary and secondary school teachers understood the role and importance of followership in influencing school leadership. Teachers provided demographic data and completed the Teacher Sentiment Inventory, which assessed the extent to which their specific actions and characteristics reflected their understanding of followership. They ranked statements associated with particular actions or beliefs concerning the relationship between the teacher and the principal. Results indicated that teachers fell into one of three styles of followership: exemplary followers (with high levels of active engagement and independent thinking), pragmatist followers (who perform required tasks well but seldom venture beyond them), or conformist followers (with high active engagement but low independent thinking). None of the teachers were classified as alienated (independent thinking only) or passive (neither independent thinking nor actively engaged) followers. Both men and women scored high on independent thinking in their work. Female teachers reported higher levels of active engagement in the role of follower than did male teachers. (Contains 26 references.) (SM)

This report addresses the issue of how to reform and or restructure the educational system to respond more effectively to the needs of minority students and to prepare minority students for productive service and a better quality of life. In particular, the report discusses the achievement patterns of minority youth enrolled in California public schools and factors that contribute to the differences in the achievement patterns of minority and non-minority youth. Following an introduction, a section on the contextual background highlights the conditions under which California public schools operate. The next section contains a description of achievement patterns and provides profiles of the general achievement patterns of students statewide, with an emphasis on minority student performance. The following section presents the findings of a study of factors contributing to differences in achievement, which used multiple regression analysis with data collected from 6 school years. A section on resource allocation issues notes the difficulty of analyzing information in this area and recommends changes that would make comparison possible. The final section presents the report's four conclusions and three policy recommendations. Included are 13 figures and 34 references. (JB)