Category: featured posts

As California looks to strengthen academic outcomes, a critical question is emerging: How do we move from identifying students who are struggling to changing instruction in ways that respond to their learning needs? A new Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) report, Learnings From CCEE’s Intensive Assistance Model After 3 Years, examines CCEE’s first-of-its-kind, three-year pilot across five California districts. Through sustained instructional coaching and structured professional learning communities, the Intensive Assistance Model sought to strengthen teaching practices, improve student achievement, and build capacity for districtwide improvement. The findings are promising: A majority of participating schools improved English language arts and math proficiency, four of seven pilot schools earned external recognition, and teachers increasingly used common assessments to coordinate instruction and targeted interventions.

The study highlights an important shift from reviewing student performance to acting on it. Teachers increasingly used common assessments to identify learning gaps, coordinate reteaching, and adjust instruction across classrooms. These practices create opportunities to better recognize and respond to common learning barriers, including processing speed, working memory, task initiation, organization and sequencing, attention shifting, and regulation load. The findings also underscore that sustained improvement depends on protected collaboration time, instructional coaching, and district leadership that supports consistent implementation.

These findings are particularly timely as California advances implementation of its Mathematics Framework, expands statewide investments in instructional coaching and professional learning, and strengthens systems of targeted academic support. In her October 2026 testimony to the Assembly Education Committee, Linda Darling-Hammond emphasized many of these same priorities: coherent curriculum, well-prepared teachers, sustained coaching, and interventions responsive to individual student needs. For superintendents, the IAM evaluation offers both an opportunity and a challenge: Having instructional improvement structures in place is not the same as knowing whether they are changing what students experience. As statewide expectations and supports continue to evolve, the findings reinforce the importance of building district systems capable of translating professional learning into responsive instruction, stronger student outcomes, and sustainable improvement.

Related References:

• Hot Topics: Pioneering Educational Excellence with the Intensive Assistance Model Pilot in California
• Accelerating Academic Achievement through CCEE’s Intensive Assistance Model
• Hot Topics: What CCEE is Learning About Deep System and Instructional Recovery
• Hot Topics: Madera Unified Schools Set the Standard in Intensive Assistance Model Pilot
• Hot Topics: Fillmore Unified’s Intensive Support and Math-Focused Initiatives
• Hot Topics: Madera Unified Intensive Assistance Model
• Hot Topics: Nishimoto Elementary Intensive Assistance Model

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

The California Secondary School Redesign Pilot Program is a statewide effort to rethink the middle and high school experience so that students are better known, more deeply engaged in learning, and better supported to succeed. The initiative is grounded in concerns about student connectedness, engagement, and meaningful participation, and defines redesign as more than adding new programs, it involves coordinated changes to how schools organize time, relationships, learning experiences, and support structures.

Building on an initial $10 million investment in 2025, California added $50 million in 2026 to expand the work. The initiative now connects schools, districts, county offices, and redesign partners across the state through networks, demonstration sites, working groups, and shared learning focused on areas such as deeper learning, belonging, authentic assessment, staffing, leadership, and conditions for sustainability.

The broader goal is to learn from what schools are changing, identify the conditions that make redesign possible, and use those lessons to inform practice and state policy. The initiative is moving toward a statewide learning system that can document promising approaches, surface implementation and policy barriers, and build the capacity needed to scale and sustain effective models of secondary school redesign across California.

To learn more about the initiative, click on the Secondary School Redesign Pilot Program buttons below.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

California’s new statewide Individualized Education Program (IEP) template represents an important opportunity to strengthen support for students with disabilities, their families, and educators. Developed through years of collaboration, the template promotes a more asset-based, student-centered approach by elevating student strengths, voice, aspirations, meaningful participation, and ambitious goals. Its significance extends beyond the document itself: it offers the field a shared resource that can help build greater coherence in IEP practice, strengthen professional learning, and connect the IEP process more intentionally to instruction, access, opportunity, and student outcomes.

This work also aligns with the broader purpose of California’s Statewide System of Support by providing LEAs with a common resource that can support continuous improvement while remaining responsive to local context and need. The opportunity before us is not simply to introduce a new digitzed template, but to use it as a tool to strengthen practice, deepen partnership with students and families, and expand opportunities for students with disabilities across California. To learn more, please select the Digitized Student-Centered IEP Template to review the statewide IEP template and access supporting resources.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

CCEE’s 2025-2026 Annual Report highlights a year of partnership, learning, and measurable progress across California’s public education system. From strengthening data practices and advancing community engagement to supporting districts through Direct Technical Assistance, school redesign, and learning acceleration, the report showcases how CCEE works alongside local educational agencies, county offices of education, and statewide partners to improve outcomes for students. Read the full report to learn how CCEE is helping deliver on California’s promise of a quality, equitable education for every student.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

How does a district move Universal Design for Learning from a shared vision into meaningful classroom practice? Join CCEE’s Open Door session, “From Vision to Practice: How Lompoc USD Built Momentum with UDL,” to hear directly from Lompoc Unified School District about the strategies, structures, and partnerships that helped turn inclusive instruction into action.

This one-hour webinar will spotlight Lompoc USD’s implementation journey, including how the district built momentum through intentional rollout planning, senior leadership support, empowered site-based instructional leaders, and honest reflection on both the successes and challenges of implementation. Participants will also learn how Open Access and the UDL Learning Network supported the district’s efforts to create more flexible and accessible learning experiences for students.

For administrators, this session offers a practical look at how district and site leadership can create the conditions for lasting instructional change. For educators, it provides real-world examples of how UDL can help remove barriers, strengthen teacher buy-in, and expand access for all learners. Attendees will leave with ideas they can apply right away and a clearer sense of where to begin and how to build momentum in their own systems.

Session: From Vision to Practice: How Lompoc USD Built Momentum with UDL
Date/Time: Thursday, June 4, 3:30–4:30 p.m.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

The 21st Century California School Leadership Academy (21CSLA) is reaching leaders across the state while staying grounded in local context. In 2024–25, 13,324 leaders from 95% of California’s counties enrolled in 21CSLA offerings provided at no cost to Title II–funded schools and districts. That scale matters because it builds common language and shared improvement routines across roles and regions.

What the evaluation found: leaders are changing practice

The external evaluation provides consistent and concrete evidence of changes in leadership practice tied to 21CSLA participation. Most survey respondents (70.9%) reported adjusting at least one leadership practice as a result of their 21CSLA offering, and 16.5% reported adjusting practices across all nine practice areas measured. The most common shifts were:
• Discussing equity-focused leadership perspectives or strategies with colleagues (75.9%)
• Creating a shared purpose/vision among multiple stakeholders (72.1%)
• Leading the identification of root causes of an equity-related problem of practice (62.6%)
These are not small moves, and reflect the day-to-day behaviors that create coherent systems of support and sustain improvement over time.

Attendance matters and so does sustained learning

The evaluation also found a statistically significant relationship between participation and reported change: respondents who attended all of an offering were more likely to report adjusting at least one leadership practice than those who attended half or less (coefficient = 0.62, se = 0.30, t = 2.09. p < .05). This reinforces a familiar lesson for districts: sustained professional learning, paired with practical application, drives stronger transfer into practice.

Why leaders say it worked: collaboration + usable improvement routines

Participants rated 21CSLA offerings highly across features of effective professional learning, with an average usefulness rating of 4.26 out of 5 across nine domains. The highest-rated feature was opportunities to collaborate with colleagues (mean 4.43). In other words, leaders valued learning that was interactive, job-embedded, and connected to peers, conditions that mirror how change actually spreads within and across districts.

What “changes in practice” look like on the ground

Open-ended responses bring the numbers to life. Across roles, leaders described using cycles of inquiry, strengthening data routines, widening staff voice in decision-making, and redesigning systems with an equity lens. The examples below illustrate how 21CSLA supports leaders to strengthen and integrate their local systems of support, so that improvement efforts become coherent, not fragmented.

Leaders’ voices

“One clear example of how I adjusted my leadership practice was in supporting a school site to redesign their Student Support Team (SST) process with an equity lens. After engaging in 21CSLA coaching, I facilitated a cross-site leadership learning session to explore how current practices might unintentionally contribute to disproportionality in intervention referrals, especially for English Learners and students with IEPs.

I used that learning to coach principals through a revision of our SST protocols. We implemented a policy requiring all SST conversations to include an analysis of culturally and linguistically relevant data (e.g., ELPAC levels, prior interventions, instructional access), and provided professional development on distinguishing between language acquisition needs and learning differences. I also co-facilitated training sessions with site leaders to unpack bias in placement decisions and ensure alignment with the CA EL Roadmap and UDL principles.

In doing so, I created opportunities for teachers and specialists to lead the work, positioning them as content experts on inclusive practices and forming cross-role school teams to co-lead implementation. This shifted our approach from compliance to shared leadership and from deficit-based to asset-based decision-making.”
— District office leader

“One way I’ve adjusted my own leadership is by initiating and facilitating regular equity-focused discussions with colleagues across my district. For example, after engaging with 21CSLA, I connected with a district leader colleague to examine how our district policies were impacting historically marginalized student groups. Through these conversations, we analyzed student data through an equity lens and identified disparities in disciplinary actions and access to advanced coursework. As a result, we recommended revising our placement criteria to be more inclusive and implementing restorative practices to address behavior more equitably. These ongoing dialogues have not only influenced my leadership decisions but have also helped build a shared commitment to equity across a number of our schools.”
— District office leader

“One example of how I adjusted my leadership practices was by creating structured opportunities for teachers to take on leadership roles focused on equity. After engaging in 21CSLA coaching, I facilitated professional learning communities (PLCs) where teacher leaders examined school-level data related to English learners and co-developed strategies to improve academic outcomes. I also supported staff in identifying and challenging instructional biases through reflective discussions and collaborative planning. Additionally, I shared key insights from the 21CSLA sessions with other site and district leaders, helping expand our collective understanding of asset-based practices and more equitable instructional models. These efforts helped foster a more inclusive school culture and built capacity among staff to lead with an equity lens.”
— Site leader (school leader)

Bottom line for districts

The external evaluation shows early evidence that 21CSLA is moving beyond awareness to action: leaders report shifting how they collaborate, build shared vision, diagnose root causes, and run improvement cycles, the practical work of strengthening an integrated system of support. As districts continue to navigate complex improvement needs, 21CSLA offers a scalable model for building leadership capacity that can translate into more equitable, coherent supports for schools.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.

California’s chronically underperforming districts face a compounding problem: the pressure to improve is real, but generic technical assistance rarely moves the needle. CCEE’s Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) team set out to change that by grounding its approach in the research on what actually drives improvement in complex, high-need systems.

The result is a research-to-practice crosswalk that defines four evidence-based behaviors at the center of high-quality DTA. It is designed for DTA Leads, COE partners, and district leadership teams who want a principled framework to improve student academic outcomes.

“High-quality DTA should leave behind stronger routines, clearer roles, and greater internal efficacy, not merely a set of completed meetings or added services.”

Four behaviors. One integrated framework.

The crosswalk anchors each behavior in a primary research base and draws a direct line to the DTA design. Together, they form a continuous improvement cycle, not four separate activities.

The Three C’s as a cross-cutting condition

Running through all four behaviors is a practical partnership structure built on Collaboration, Clarity, and Courage. These are not aspirational values, they are operational expectations that define how LEA, COE/Geo Leads, and CCEE work together in embedded DTA. The research crosswalk explains how each C shows up differently depending on which behavior is in focus.

The crosswalk also includes an implementation lens, the Four Quadrants of School Transformation, to help DTA Leads diagnose whether a school or district is primarily constrained by will, skill, or both, and plan support accordingly.

Read the full crosswalk. The full paper includes the research rationale for each behavior, implications for DTA design, LCAP review guidance, and a complete reference list. It is intended as a working document for teams planning and delivering direct technical assistance to California’s most challenged LEAs.

For additional updates, visit the CCEE website, events calendar, Resource Center, and the Statewide System of Support Website.