The PPIC Statewide Survey was inaugurated in 1998 to provide a way for Californians to express their views on important public policy issues. The survey provides timely, relevant, nonpartisan information on Californians' political, social, and economic opinions. It seeks to inform and improve state policymaking, raise awareness, and encourage…

Two recent reports contend that the introduction of school choice can promote economic development in economically distressed urban areas. The first report, published by EdChoice, presents a case study of a charter school that has, according to the report, contributed to the economic development of the city of Santa Ana, California. The second…

In this invited response to Moe and Anzia (2014), we describe both the points of convergence and divergence between our prior research (2007a, 2007b) and that of Moe (2005) and Moe and Anzia (2014). We also respond to Moe and Anzia's critique of our published work. Moe and Anzia's study helps to refine the policy discussion around seniority…

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) requires faculty from educator preparation programs to provide evidence of credential candidates' impact on K-12 student learning. However, there is a paucity of information on preparation programs' use of direct assessments of student learning to gauge credential candidate…

Education researchers are increasingly working in practice-based partnerships in order to direct their research efforts toward important problems of practice. We argue for the creation of an infrastructure to support routine and sustained interaction among researchers, practitioners, and designers in order to make partnership efforts more…

The green concept has tremendous value in schools, especially when it reflects the central purpose and mission of schools: educating young people to participate and civically engage in society. School communities that keep greening the school on the periphery of their awareness will reap advantages, but those that align this idea with the…

Math in Common® (MiC) is a five-year initiative that supports a formal network of 10 California school districts as they implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M) across grades K-8. In spring 2015, WestEd administered surveys to understand the perspectives on Common Core State Standards-Mathematics (CCSS-M) implementation…

In each of its teacher workforce reports over the past dozen years, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd (CFTL) has combined solid research, thoughtful analysis, and plain language to describe who is teaching California's 6.2 million students. This year the author and his colleagues have expanded that focus to include the…

As public servants who work most closely with children, teachers have first-hand knowledge of the needs of the changing demographics of urban public schools in the United States. Teachers who engage in research, and researchers who are former teachers, enjoy unique positions in conducting investigations and sharing and implementing findings.…

This paper presents the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd's 13th annual report on the status of the teaching profession in California, focusing on the role of the principal in supporting teaching quality. More specifically, the report discusses fiscal and policy trends, the competing demands of the principalship,…

The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe and analyze the ways in which newly inducted supervisors (in the first three years of their work) tasked with clinical supervision, cognitive coaching, and similar forms of developmental instructional supervision were engaged in a "reflective dialogue" between their supervisory…

This document presents the technical appendices accompanying the report, "Funding California Schools: The Revenue Limit System." Included are: (1) Revenue Limit Calculation and Decomposition; (2) Data and Methods; and (3) Base Funding Alternative Simulation Results. (Contains 5 tables and 26 footnotes.) [For the main report,…

Accreditation bodies for institutions of higher education like the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) require colleges and universities to create campus climates and experiences for students that foster diversity. In particular, schools of education have the…

This article investigates the role of autoethnographic research as the methodological tool of choice for a Chicana who positions herself along the liminal perspective. I posit that "testimonios", autobiographical educational experiences, must be used as valid ethnographic research to contribute to existing knowledge around issues of…

This is a technical appendix for the report, "Pathways for School Finance in California" (ED515651). "Pathways for School Finance in California" simulates alternatives to California's current school finance system. This appendix provides more information about the revenues used in those simulations. The first section describes…