News & Announcements

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

CCEE has posted Notices of Intent to Award for the following Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Please click on the links below to learn more about the anticipated grantees and awardees.

Learning Acceleration System Grant

Independent Evaluation Services for the High-Quality Online Instructional Materials Initiative

Independent Evaluation Services for the Reading Instruction & Intervention Initiative

Independent Evaluation Services for the Learning Acceleration System Grant

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE

Interested in enhancing and expanding your district’s community engagement efforts? Join the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI)’s Cohort III Peer Leading and Learning Network (PLLN)!

Applications are due by Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 9:00am. Interested districts can view FAQs, detailed application instructions, and a recorded information session at CaliforniaEngage.org/Cohort3. 

See what current partners are saying in the first edition of CEI’s Voices From the Field. 

2021-22 CCEE INDEPENDENT STUDY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK (ISPLN)

Join CCEE and participating districts for solution-oriented discussions focused on a problem of practice around independent study.

Learn more about the ISPLN meetings.

Register for the next meeting on Monday, April 18, 2022.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

System of Support Updates (April 2022)

Statewide Instructional Modes Survey (AB 130) – Spring 2022 Updates (3/17/22)

Introduction to the UDL Journey Guide (3/23/22)

April Resources

CAAASA FIELD GUIDES

Developed in partnership with the California Association of African-American Superintendents & Administrators (CAAASA), the CAAASA Field Guides share the experiences and reflections of our students, teachers, parents, and families of color to serve as guides for how to better support our students when they return to the classroom.

SUMMER GAME PLAN WORKSHOP SERIES

Join the Partnership for Children & Youth for its Summer Game Plan Workshop Series!  Designed for K-12 administrators, educators, and community partners, these workshops provide access to conversations with peers and nationally recognized experts, strategies to navigate the biggest challenges when planning your summer learning program, and resources to aid your planning. Register for upcoming workshops and watch past sessions on the Summer Game Plan website.

3RD ANNUAL CALIFORNIA COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY SUMMIT

Please join the California Student Aid Commission, the Education Trust West, and the Riverside County Office of Education for the 3rd Annual California College Affordability Summit. This event will be held virtually on April 20 and 21 from 9:00am–12:00pm each day.

The focus of this important event is to learn about the best practices and tools available to comply with the new FAFSA/CA Dream Act Application completion requirement. This event will include opening speakers, general sessions, and three breakout sessions.

The Summit will equip K-12 educators, high school counselors, college financial aid administrators, student advocates, and policy leaders with the information, resources, and tools at their disposal to be successful in the implementation of the new financial aid completion requirement for local educational agencies. This is a crucial time in California around its commitment to increase financial aid awareness and opportunities for low-income and first-generation students.

Session topics will cover the following areas:

• Financial aid applications and resources
• Best practices, engaging families, and building partnerships
• Beyond the financial aid application

More information will be available soon. Please register for the 3rd Annual California College Affordability Summit to receive updates.

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.

I am always amazed at how quickly education uses the phrase “building capacity” to describe the work of improving and transforming systems. The act of building capacity has so many moving parts and is often grossly underestimated as the act of “getting better at getting better.”  However, I would ask us to reconsider just how intensive this work is, particularly at a systems level.  

Building capacity takes time — something not all parties are willing to wait for. Building capacity takes changes in approach, mindset, belief systems, and collective efficacy. Building capacity involves training, support, coaching, mentoring, self-regulated goal setting, improvement knowledge, research knowledge, and professional knowledge. Most importantly it is VERY, VERY time consuming and costly. Building capacity is about systems transformation and that is a costly endeavor of time, resources, and funding. 

Led by Deputy Executive Director Sujie Shin, CCEE’s Center for Innovation, Instruction, and Impact (I3) is charged to support our agency partners with the resources, knowledge, and expertise that support capacity building for the improvement of student outcomes. There is more than enough work to go around to keep everyone busy across the state for many, many years. Please see below for some highlights of the I3 Center on ways to enhance your professional and organizational capacity.

Sincerely,

Matt J. Navo
Executive Director,
CCEE

A little more than two years after the Governor issued his historic stay-at-home order, grinding much of the world as we knew it to a halt, schools in California are now all back in person, and educational leaders across the state are grappling with how much of learning as we know it has changed. 

While there is much to be concerned about, as we address ongoing, and in some cases, growing disparities in rates of chronic absenteeism, graduation, and college-going, there is still reason to be hopeful. I’m encouraged by how many of our school communities have rallied to find innovative ways to encourage learning during a time when engagement in school has been at an all-time low. We’ve seen new and stronger community-based partnerships spring up to support student, family, and staff well-being. And we’ve seen greater investments statewide to support learning acceleration for all students.

As the Innovation, Instruction, and Impact (I3) Center within CCEE, our focus is to seek out and amplify these innovative strategies, best practices, and student-centered resources from educators and schools to expand access across the state. Aligned to CCEE’s Theory of Action, the I3 Center aims to increase access to high-quality, relevant, and usable tools, guidance, and resources to build LEA capacity in making evidence-based decisions that lead to improved student outcomes. In all three strands of our work, we link the development and vetting process with dissemination support to implement a statewide approach in sharing research and strategies that have demonstrated the power to improve outcomes for students.

One of our new initiatives I’d like to share is our work in developing what we are calling “microlearning modules.” In partnership with the California Subject Matter Projects, CCEE has begun to develop a series of very brief instructional videos featuring master teachers sharing immediately applicable strategies, ideas, and resources to support instruction and engagement for substitute teachers and other instructional staff who may not have access to more robust professional learning opportunities. These are not meant to introduce complex ideas or lessons, but to focus on a single resource or activity to support student learning in a variety of settings. 

As we work towards a Summer 2022 launch, we are hoping to find additional LEAs who are interested in partnering with CCEE to identify master teachers and instructional leaders to develop additional resources. District leaders who are interested in learning more and/or contributing are asked to submit an interest form.

More information about this initiative can be found on this flyer. 

Six Reasons for California to be Optimistic About Learning in 2022

Thank you for the opportunity to put into the California context my Op-Ed piece on ’Six Reasons to be Optimistic About Learning in 2022’. Our team is heavily involved in the California well-being and learning agenda. California’s goals for the next four or more years are bold, deep, and ambitious. They tackle the ecology of system transformation: learning, community development, reducing poverty, early learning, always learning, well-being in daily life, robust equity, and more. 

Covid unwittingly has served up a giant opportunity for big change—a once-in-our-lifetimes chance for us to make substantial reform. There is one problem. Big change is always Janus-faced. Backward to disaster; forward to the thriving of society. Either is distinctly possible. Make the Six Reasons work for you; they can interact and have multiplicative impact. It is time to move away from the old grammar of a defunct system; to recognize and work with our best allies including those who might disagree at the outset; to make well-being and learning a 24/7 proposition; to immerse ourselves in the new spirit work and science of learning development; to foster diverse leadership working on the same big transformation; and sooner than later to realize that actual system change for the better has in fact come to pass. 

Above all, take action on each and every one of the Six Reasons. As you do this, make your circle of connections ever wider and focused. Create and sustain a web of system-wide actions that can withstand the storm of big change.

SIX REASONS TO BE OPTIMISTIC IN 2022 (PDF) 

SIX REASONS TO BE OPTIMISTIC IN 2022 (WEBINAR) 

“CCEE transforms public education so that every student is inspired and prepared to thrive as their best self in the world.” That’s our vision. But what does it take to thrive in our modern world? Purpose, for one, has arisen as a key motivator in the workplace. Also, the ability to continuously learn and share that learning with others. Finally, the ability to think critically and strategically – to wrestle with ambiguity and come out on top. These are the traits our students need to be inspired and prepared to thrive. 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework for teaching and learning that intentionally builds each student’s capacity to be purposeful and motivated, knowledgeable and resourceful, and strategic and goal-directed. In other words, to inspire and prepare them to thrive. That’s why CCEE is committed to building capacity and coherence in our statewide systems to support implementation of Universal Design for Learning across California. 

On February 25th, CCEE launched the UDL Journey Guide, a website for district leaders and lead teams seeking to implement Universal Design for Learning in their schools. The UDL Journey Guide charts the path to implementation and connects users to the people waiting to help them. These include: statewide programs like the CA Coalition for Inclusive Literacy (CCIL), OpenAccess, and Supporting Inclusive Practices (SIP); county offices of education who offer training and coaching for UDL; and national leaders in UDL like the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), the founders of UDL. The guide also includes tools necessary for the journey, including self-assessments, look-fors, and more. 

As we at CCEE encounter more people and tools to share, we’ll add them to the Journey Guide. We’re also developing some resources ourselves, such as the UDL for School and District Leaders Learning Path and a growing showcase of videos, including the Plus One Approach, a great strategy for teachers to incrementally implement UDL in a way that is manageable and honors their autonomy and expertise. For more information on our UDL efforts, you can email [email protected]. 

Local educational agencies (LEAs) that have historically confronted opportunity and achievement gaps under the best of circumstances continue to encounter exacerbated disparities that will impact students’ academic needs. The lingering effects of unfinished learning due to the pandemic leave students on average five months behind in mathematics and four months behind in reading by the end of the school year (e.g. McKinsey, 2021). These learning impacts disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income communities with less access to resources to catch up.  

A systematic review of randomized evaluations demonstrates tutoring programs consistently led to large improvements in learning outcomes for students (e.g., in some studies, an effect size greater than .3 or almost one year of additional learning). Recent research reveals high-impact tutoring can double or triple the amount of math high school students learn in one year. Finally, high-impact tutoring programs can relieve the pressures of teacher shortages and strengthen teacher pipelines by ensuring teacher candidates have exposure to teaching experiences. 

To support LEAs with designing, implementing, and evaluating high-impact tutoring programs, the CCEE, in collaboration with the CDE and SBE, co-hosted a series of learning sessions in partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) North America at MIT. Tutoring is most impactful when teachers or professionals (trained and paid) provide at least three sessions a week during the school day. The collaborative learning sessions assist LEAs with adapting the evidence-based practices of effective tutoring to meet local needs and expand the potential pool of tutors through the following areas:

• Expanded and Summer Learning Tutors: Session with the Expanded Learning System of Support
• Service Sector and AmeriCorps Tutors: Session with California Volunteers and Kern County Office of Education
• #CaliforniansForAll College Corps Tutors: Session with California Volunteers, CSU Fresno, and Every Neighborhood Partnership

CCEE will continue to co-host learning sessions to support institutes of higher education, local educational agencies, and community-based organizations collaboration on the implementation of evidence-based supplemental instructional programs and support services.

Coming Soon! J-PAL is offering a 10-part learning series on high-impact tutoring. For a sneak peek, you can review Module 2 Research Overview. Interested in joining a Learning Network to design and measure the impact of tutoring or need additional resources on high-impact tutoring? Connect with Michelle Magyar, Senior Advisor of Policy Engagement & Impact Initiatives at [email protected].

Center for Innovation,
Instruction, & Impact (I3)

The Center for Innovation, Instruction, & Impact (I3) implements a statewide approach to improving LEA capacity by collaboratively developing, delivering, sharing, and spotlighting practices that have demonstrated the power to improve outcomes for students.

Meet Our Newest I3 Team Members!

Allan and Italo are the newest additions to our I3 team! Hover over their pictures to learn more about what they do.