Supporting Black Student Achievement: Lessons Learned from Year 1 of the African American Student Success Network

The partnership between the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) and the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) began in 2017 with a professional learning network (PLN) that focused on identifying the inequities experienced by African American students in California K-12 schools. The original network, made up of four districts and three county offices, examined these inequities and identified systems-change approaches to addressing them within their local educational agencies (LEAs).

In 2022, the PLN participants were reconvened for a series of in-depth discussions and a review of available data and research to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on LEA’s ongoing work to improve outcomes for Black students. The results of these sessions were summarized in a brief released in June 2022.

In the Fall of 2022, CCEE launched their Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) initiative, a network of collaborative partnerships with districts and county offices that focuses on the application of continuous improvement and research processes to examine formative and short-term outcomes and support decision-making in the early stages of systems change. Five of the original CCEE-CAAASA PLN partners have rejoined to form the African American Student Success Network–each LEA team identifying a specific problem of practice to address a challenge or barrier impeding the academic achievement or social-emotional well being of their Black students. Facilitated in collaboration with CAAASA, this network focuses on testing systems change processes to improve learning, achievement, and educational attainment outcomes for Black students.

This session will provide an overview of the work of the learning network participants, reviewing the problems of practice and lessons learned across all five LEA teams and then provide an opportunity for audience members to have a more personalized exchange with one of the teams whose problem of practice, strategies, and outcomes are of particular interest.

All attendees will receive a summary brief including the latest data and results of this ongoing network.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees of this session will learn about:

• CAAASA and the CCEE and their role in educational research opportunities for LEAs
• The application of continuous improvement cycles in supporting program implementation
• Specific strategies and programmatic decisions made by Fresno Unified, Lynwood Unified, Pittsburg Unified, Napa County Office of Education, and San Diego County Office of Education to address the needs and accelerate the learning and well-being of their Black students
• Lessons learned and challenges encountered by the LEAs in this network, particular as it relates to the collection, use, and analysis of data and measures of impact to support programmatic decisions
• How to apply the findings from this research practice partnership, as well as other educational research opportunities to support learning in their own LEA

Engagement

Attendees will be asked to engage directly with the presenters through Q&A during the main presentation as well as to identify an LEA team they would like to engage with in a more personalized setting. Depending on the size of the room and the number of attendees, we will provide opportunities for 2-5 breakouts by team for attendees to sit in smaller groups to learn more about the work of each LEA team and the results they have seen for their students.