News & Announcements
Request for Applications – Community Engagement Initiative 2.0 Lead Agency
The California Department of Education and the CCEE invite interested county offices of education, on behalf of a consortium of entities (e.g., LEAs, institutions of higher education, nonprofit educational services providers), to apply to be named as the Lead Agency to co-administer the expanded 2.0 work of the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI). Application details
21CSLA Research-Practice Webinar: Hate speech on social media—What can leaders do?
Featuring Dean Tina Christie and Dr. Arif Amlani (UCLA School of Education and Information Studies) in conversation with leaders from the field and facilitated by Professor Jabari Mahiri (Berkeley School of Education) on Wednesday, February 15, 3:30–4:30 pm. All webinars are free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Learn more and register here. Until then, watch recordings of past webinars.
In Case You Missed It
System of Support Updates (February 2023)
Looking Ahead
California Dyslexia Initiative Professional Learning Network
Do you want to better understand how to support struggling readers and students with dyslexia in your school?
Join Sacramento COE, the CDE, CCEE, and SBE on March 1 to learn more about identifying risk factors, setting up effective MTSS/RTI school systems to prevent reading difficulties, and delivering research-based instruction to support and remediate struggling learners and students with dyslexia.
21CSLA UTK Leadership Initiative
The 21CSLA Universal Transitional Kindergarten Leadership Initiative prepares leaders to “lead for equity” in rolling out California’s Transitional Kindergarten for all four-year-olds.
Join the 21CSLA Valley to Coast Regional Academy for two series they are hosting:
- Series 1: Leaders Envisioning Equitable TK Classrooms in Action
- Series 2: Leadership Practices to Support, Integrate, and Align UTK
Join the 21CSLA Mid-State Regional Academy for a two-day event on envisioning and leading equitable TK Classrooms they are hosting:
- Day 1: Leadership Practices to Support, Integrate, and Align P-3
- Day 2: Inquiry through Play
February Resources
African American Heritage Month
Black History Month
Youth Leadership Month
Feb 1 – Global School Play Day
Feb 20 – National Leadership Day
Our team works in alliance with educators to improve teaching, learning, and leadership so every student is inspired and prepared to thrive as their best self.
About the CCEE
The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence is a statewide leader delivering on California’s promise of a quality, equitable education for every student.
Executive Director’s Corner
The 2022 Dashboard results are out…Now what?
By Matt J. Navo, Executive Director, CCEE
The 2022 Dashboard results confirmed that the impact of COVID-19 created lasting educational challenges. Challenges that require a continued focus on providing safe and healthy school environments, an intense focus on addressing educational inequities exacerbated by learning challenges, and finding collaborative solutions for improved educational outcomes.
Now what? The good news is that there have been many investments by both local, county, and state officials to help prepare for this predictable need. The state investments in Community Schools, Expanded Learning Opportunities Grants/Programs, Universal Pre-K, Transitional Kindergarten, Social Emotional and Behavioral Health, and Learning Acceleration System Grant have all been put in place in anticipation of the challenges educators would face, and most importantly what students would need.
In this newsletter, our Teaching, Learning, and Leading Center (TLLC) team highlights some of the resources available to help educators, administrators, and other partners address the challenges ahead.
Learning From and With Each Other
By Stephanie Gregson, Ed.D., Deputy Executive Director of the Teaching, Learning & Leading Center, CCEE
As was stated in the Executive Director’s Corner, there have been substantial investments by local, county, and the state to help educators address challenges. With these substantial investments and highlighted state initiatives, there is the opportunity to learn from each other and to learn together. There were many lessons from the pandemic, one of them being we all do better, and our students do better when we are in a learning space together. The next several articles will share the different opportunities CCEE is convening and facilitating for educators across the state to share space and to learn together. These professional learning networks are just a few examples and range in topics that are timely and relevant to different areas and contexts across our diverse state. You will see threads from Fullan and Quinn’s Coherence Framework woven throughout as we advise and assist districts in cultivating collaborative cultures, deepen learning, focus their direction, and build accountability within their system. We hope to see you in one of our future professional learning networks.
Lifelong Learners: Professional Expert Learning Network
By Erik Swanson, Senior Advisor of the Teaching, Learning & Leading Center, CCEE
“When you know better, you do better.” Maya Angelou
The Teaching, Learning, and Leading Center (TLLC) works to support districts experiencing chronic systemic challenges through Direct Technical Assistance (DTA). The team that supports these districts is comprised of CCEE employees and a diverse set of experienced educators throughout our state.
As an organization focused on getting better at getting better, a year ago, after thoughtful discernment and reflection about the model guiding our support, the Center made the decision to adopt the Coherence Framework by Fullan and Quinn as the foundation of our support. This framework coupled with our intentionality on fostering compassionate systems that utilize quality improvement tools and the cycle of continuous improvement is now how we are best partnering with districts and their leadership teams.
This year, our monthly learning network meetings have been focused on grounding our professional experts in the new model. For this reason, our convenings are focused on three main topics…
- The “Coherence” book study,
- A review of the revised phases of direct technical assistance, and
- Sharing and soliciting feedback on the protocols and tools being developed to best serve our partner districts.
The conversations this year have been rich with the sharing of each members vast experiences in different contexts and how that expertise, aligned with the framework can continue to support the districts receiving Direct Technical Assistance. We are excited about the opportunity to continue to learn together in a singular effort to be more prepared to serve our districts who serve the students of California most in need.
Better Together: The Learning Acceleration System Grant Professional Learning Network
By Stacey Wedin, Assistant Director of the Teaching, Learning & Leading Center, CCEE
The Learning Acceleration System (LAS) Grant is a statewide initiative to build systems and capacity to provide California educators with professional learning around evidence-based strategies to accelerate student learning. The CCEE has partnered with three LAS grantees and their respective partner agencies to achieve our collective goals. The goals are ambitious and, indeed, strong partnerships, shared accountability, and authentic collaboration are critical ingredients to our recipe for success. The CCEE established the LAS Grant Professional Learning Network as a space where grantees, along with their teams, can cultivate collegiality, alignment, and deep learning across projects as we move through phases of implementation together.
Two primary objectives were established for the LAS Grant PLN:
- To form a learning community focused on developing, sharing, aligning, and scaling evidence-based best practices related to learning acceleration across California.
- To develop strategies for systematically evaluating learning acceleration for the purposes of improvement, sustainability, and communication.
During the quarterly PLN meetings, LAS grant partners discuss a myriad of topics, including implementation successes and challenges (along with solutions), outreach strategies, and opportunities to support, connect, or align efforts. Maintaining a trusting, vulnerable, respectful learning environment is paramount. The LAS grant work is dynamic, complex, varied, and just getting started. The PLN will serve to coalesce grantees around a shared purpose despite varied approaches, calibrate expectations around impact and success, and fuel the steadfast commitment of LAS grant partners to support educators and accelerate learning. To learn more, please visit the recently launched LAS Grant website.
Independent Study Professional Learning Network
By Gonzalo Avila, Ed.D., Senior Manager of the Teaching, Learning & Leading Center, CCEE
Is your district, school, or county office struggling with creating effective structures and processes to create a rigorous independent study program? Then this professional learning network is for you. CCEE facilitates monthly sessions where Independent Study Professional Learning Network (ISPLN) participants learn strategies, structures, practices, policies, and procedures that districts have adopted to effectively engage their local communities in support of improving student outcomes.
This year, our focus is on professionals sharing their best practices for Independent Study implementation. Districts and counties from across the State are involved in this high level collaboration. Please join our next meeting on March 6th. To join our meeting, please complete registration.
Feel free to contact Gonzalo Avila at [email protected] or visit our website for more ISPLN information.
