Agency Overview

For years, Central Union High School, situated in a low-income California neighborhood just north of the Mexican border, was struggling with poor test scores and overall low student academic achievement. But thanks to hard work by the school's teachers, administrators, students, and parents, the high school has, in recent years, been achieving significant academic growth. In 2007, Central Union was named by the state as a Distinguished School because it had substantially higher performance than predicted. This designation is especially encouraging given that many of the students are English learners.

Central Union's turnaround began in 2000 when it began a partnership with WestEd's research-based Teach for Success® team — a collaboration that ultimately led to Central Union High students performing above the levels of their peers in similar schools.

"Whenever we discuss our history of instructional program improvement, we always talk about the fact that WestEd provided us the foundation that we needed to get us started down the long and still difficult road," says Sheri Hart, Central Union High School's Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services.

Central Union's success is just one example among many of how we are achieving one of our main goals — improving the nation's low-performing schools, reflecting WestEd's longstanding commitment to helping underserved children.

Across the country, working as individuals or teams, in partnerships with schools, education agencies, policymakers, and others in the education and human development communities, WestEd's approximately 600 staff members remain focused on our mission: promoting excellence, achieving equity, and improving learning for children, youth, and adults. Led by WestEd CEO Glen Harvey, WestEd is guided by knowledge from research and practice, drawing on an ever-growing and constantly refined database in development for more than four decades, since our inception in 1966.

A nonprofit agency* working at local, state, and federal levels, WestEd develops research-based programs, intervention strategies, and other resources, including publications and services. Whether it's research, evaluation, policy support, or technical assistance, we work to find the best answers to enduring challenges and emerging questions in education and human development.

We help our clients assess students' knowledge of science, develop mentoring programs, create fair and effective standardized assessments to inform instruction, and improve programs for English learners and students with disabilities. We develop and share knowledge with educators and community leaders about youth resiliency and health, teaching and learning mathematics, technology to enhance learning, and day care centers and preschools. And that's just the beginning of an extensive list of WestEd program initiatives.

We are also a vibrant and growing agency — with revenues topping $112.9 million in 2008. We bring in the best talent from across the country to help us tackle the complex issues related to education and human development.

We're proud of our agency and invite you to find out more on the pages of this website, WestEd.org. Explore our Bookstore, which offers a variety of free downloadable products, video clips, and other tools. We also encourage you to view our five-minute animated Flash presentation. Look for us at education conferences — we'd be delighted to meet you. If your questions aren't answered in any of these features or on our Frequently Asked Questions page, please contact us and we'll be happy to assist you.

^* WestEd is a Joint Powers Agency, authorized by a California Joint Powers Agreement and governed by public entities in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah, with Board members representing agencies from these states and nationally. A nonprofit, public research and development agency, WestEd is tax exempt under Section 115(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code. Because of this status, our work meets the giving guidelines of philanthropic organizations.