As the Executive Director of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), I am looking forward to continuing to highlight our strategic priorities for the 2024-2025 school year. We are steadfast in our dedication to advancing educational outcomes through our four pivotal focus areas:

1. Utilizing data to maximize impacts for students statewide.
2. Developing targeted and intensive support for Special Education.
3. Integrating efforts among statewide Mathematics Leads.
4. Strengthening literacy initiatives in collaboration with the California Department of Education.

Our commitment to enhancing the Statewide System of Support (SSOS) ensures that California fulfills its mission of providing a quality, equitable education for every student. Key to this commitment is our focused support for Special Education, informed significantly by the first-year findings from the Special Education Resource Leads. This initiative is critical in shaping our approach to enhancing outcomes for students with disabilities by supporting capacity building, collaboration, and the implementation of best practices across various educational agencies.

Key Year One Findings and Their Significance:

• Successful Collaborations: The Leads demonstrated substantial success in forging connections with other educational initiatives and external partners, enhancing the collective capacity to support diverse learner needs. This success underlines the importance of our continued focus on creating synergies within the SSOS to prevent duplication of efforts and to maximize resource efficiency.
• Challenges with Capacity and Coordination: Despite successes, Leads faced hurdles related to staffing constraints and systemic coordination. These challenges underscore the need for strategic supports and enhanced communication channels within the SSOS, ensuring that initiatives are well-coordinated and that information flows seamlessly among stakeholders.
• Positive Impacts on Practices: The Leads reported significant improvements in educational practices for Special Education, particularly in inclusivity and the quality of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). This impact highlights the effectiveness of the targeted supports and resources provided to educators, which are essential for lifting educational outcomes for students with disabilities. These findings, combined with the recent report provided by the IEP Expert Panel Report will inform California’s efforts to support the development of a new IEP template.

Strategic Actions Based on Findings:

To incorporate these findings effectively into CCEE’s focus area of developing targeted and intensive support for the SSOS, we are preparing to support the following strategic actions:

• Enhance Inter-Initiative Collaboration: Amplify the existing successes in collaboration by establishing regular inter-lead communication forums and shared resource platforms. This will ensure that successful strategies are disseminated widely and that all Leads are aligned in their efforts.
• Structured Collaboration and Communication: Expand the SSOS website and resource hub with our partners that will ensure a structured communication framework for regular, transparent exchanges among all Special Education Resource Leads, state agencies, and partners within the System of Support. This integrated support will incorporate any monthly coordination meetings, shared digital platforms for resource exchange, and quarterly strategic reviews, alongside a centralized data-sharing platform to track initiatives and outcomes, prevent overlap, and build on collective successes.
• Expand Impact Monitoring: Strengthen mechanisms for monitoring and reporting the impacts of interventions, particularly those related to Special Education. By linking to our Data for Impact focus area and increasing transparency in reporting, we can better track the progress and scale effective practices.
• Focus on Continuous Improvement: Continue to embed a culture of continuous improvement within all layers of the initiative by training leaders and practitioners in improvement science methodologies.

By focusing on these strategic actions, CCEE will enhance its support for Special Education within the SSOS, ensuring that all students receive the benefits of a tailored and inclusive educational experience.

If you have any questions about CCEE, please visit our website. Stay tuned for more literacy coordination efforts and resources, through our events calendar and the Statewide System of Support Resource Hub.