Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative,…

Managing student behavior is often looked upon as a sidebar in teaching. The lack of formal classroom management training in teacher education programs reveals the low importance placed on this skill. As a result, teachers are often very well prepared to instruct, but in terms of effectively understanding the behavior of students--particularly…

The first step in the Validity and Reliability Study summarizes the history and purpose of California's quality rating and improvement system (QRIS), reviews findings from other QRIS evaluation studies, and describes the approach to validating the system in California. The majority of this report focuses on providing context for the California…

Some American schools are providing students with conflict resolution skills as part of their education. Three elementary and secondary school mediation programs in Hawaii, New York, and California that help youngsters solve their own problems are described. (RM)

The Simi Star Project, a collaborative grant among six southern California school districts (Simi Valley, Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Orcutt, and Point Hueneme) and IBM, tested the effectiveness of computers in the classroom and the effects of integrating technology into the curriculum. Six networked computers were placed in kindergarten and…

Intended to provide the schools of California with a standard for assessing their existing writing programs and a tool for designing new programs, this handbook addresses both the content and the teaching methodology of a writing program. Sections of the handbook provide (1) background information on the teaching of writing; (2) a discussion of…

This document provides a framework for academic and career/technical teachers who want to raise students' achievement through real-life projects reflecting the rigorous academic and technical standards needed for further learning in the workplace and postsecondary education. The document begins with definitions of the six A's of project-based…