In the year following the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic-related school closures in March 2020, educators began to sound the alarm about increasing chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student missing at least 10 percent of school days (i.e., 18 days in a typical 180-day school year) for any reason, whether excused or…

How do attitudes and beliefs about assessment affect teaching and learning in your school? This document is intended to help school and district leaders understand these dynamics. While it is not designed for use as a step-by-step toolkit to support evaluation, this document does provide a foundation for leaders to learn more about their school or…

As outlined in the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan; digital health, safety, and citizenship skills reflect the full set of knowledge and habits students can adopt to protect themselves and others in online spaces. For schools and districts, protecting student health and safety while those skills develop means taking an approach that can…

School librarians support access to information and resources in the school library. In a time of misinformation and fake news, access to accurate and timely information is key. School librarians work to serve the needs of all students in every learning environment including alternative, remote, and face to face. At the same time, school…

Croft presents her study results that explored how district leaders can be equipped to support their school librarians in the absence of an official district school librarian supervisor. Croft offers suggestions for practice to assist school librarians in partnering with district leaders to provide the knowledge and experience district leaders…

This Playbook aims to assist school districts and school leaders as they develop or revise their policies to guide the presence and use of personal devices in schools. It outlines a process by which school district and school leaders can engage students, educators, and parents as partners in the development of school district or school-based…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented education equity crisis in California. K-12 schools continue to remain closed and it is yet unclear if they will re open in the fall. Similarly, the University of California and California's Community Colleges have not yet announced a systemwide decision, but the California State University's…

For decades safety has been an integral component of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and CTE (career and technical education) instruction. Given today's litigious society, safety in P-12 STEM education and CTE has received greater attention. This in part is the result of the rise in popularity of collaborative learning…

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented education equity crisis in California. Since mid-March, almost all California schools and colleges have closed in response to the pandemic, requiring education leaders and administrators to stretch their resources to create or improve distance learning plans, support students' basic needs, and…

Research illustrates the importance of supporting a pipeline of teachers of color at every stage of the teaching career, from preservice to veteran teaching status. While more teachers of color are being recruited than in years past, their turnover rates are high, in part due to inadequate preparation and mentoring, poor working conditions, and…

Several years ago, the Legislature adopted significant amendments to the basic conflict of interest statute for local elected officials, primarily in the area of financial thresholds, but also in the area of scope of enforcement. This is an important area of the law for board members and superintendents, so a current and thorough knowledge of the…

"Improving School Board Effectiveness" offers a clarifying and essential look at the evolving role of school boards and how they contribute to efforts to improve student learning. It examines how board members can establish effective district priorities, and it explores those board policies and actions that result in shared, districtwide…

This report argues that requiring faculty members to sign confidentiality agreements as a requirement to serve on university committees is in most cases inconsistent with widely accepted standards of shared governance and with the concept of serving as a representative. This argument does not apply to faculty serving on promotion and tenure…