Contacts

June H Lee-Bayha Senior Research Associate 858.530.1076 jlee@wested.org As Senior Research Associate for WestEd's Health & Human Development Program, June Lee-Bayha leads the statewide evaluation of California's Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathways Initiative. Funded by the California Community College Chancellor's Office and California Department of Education, the CTE Pathways Initiative, also called the Governor's CTE Initiative, aims to improve linkages and career technical education pathways between high schools and community colleges for the benefit of students in both education systems. As lead Evaluator for the initiative, Lee-Bayha oversees site visits, interviews, and focus groups with key stakeholders, and data collection and analyses. In July 2008, the CTE Pathways Initiative annual report, in which Lee-Bayha was a key author, was released to the California Legislature, Governor, and Director of Finance. The report includes findings and recommendations of how "CTE Pathways Initiative grants can assist the State in achieving its broad and bold vision for an integrated and coherent CTE system and in creating a well-educated workforce." Lee-Bayha also serves as Evaluator of federal grants awarded to local educational agencies addressing safe schools/healthy students, alcohol reduction programs, character education, and elementary counseling. She coauthored Ensuring that No Child is Left Behind: How are Student Health Risks and Resilience Related to the Academic Progress of Schools? Based on data from WestEd's California Healthy Kids Survey, this report underscores the importance to academic achievement of key risk and youth development factors. According to this report, policies and practices that focus exclusively on raising test scores, while ignoring the comprehensive health needs of students, are likely to leave many children behind. Previously at WestEd, Lee-Bayha worked on statewide high-stakes assessments, school-to-career projects, and various evaluations with the agency's Assessment and Standards Development Services program. She helped the California Department of Education and the California Community College Chancellor's Office develop adult learning content standards for adult education and community colleges; managed the development and organization of the Curriculum Guide for Career Development and Occupational Studies, funded by the New York State Education Department; worked with the National Skill Standards Board to develop a crosswalk between academic standards and occupational skill standards; and developed surveys and conducted data analysis for school-to-work and other evaluation projects. While a member of WestEd’s Policy Center, Lee-Bayha hired and managed consultants, organized meetings with clients, and oversaw data analysis, research projects, and budgets. She also managed and coordinated the study of La Frontera school districts funded by the school board associations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Her responsibilities included data collection, analysis, and a final report, Voices from La Frontera: Study of School Districts Along the United States/Mexico Border. Cowritten by Lee-Bayha, this report offers a broad sketch of what life is like for school districts in the region within 100 miles of the United States/Mexico border, referred to as La Frontera. Findings from the La Frontera study were presented to various audiences, including participants at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. She also researched, developed, and wrote several WestEd Policy Briefs: Using School-Community Partnerships to Bolster Student Learning; Making Sure Exit Exams Get a Passing Grade; and Teacher Supply and Quality: The Changing Role of Community Colleges. Before joining WestEd in 1998, Lee-Bayha worked as a Research Associate at the University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA's) National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. She worked closely with staff, principals, and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to implement the Comprehensive Student Assessment project, developed by UCLA and funded by LAUSD. Lee-Bayha recruited and contacted teachers to participate with UCLA in designing and developing performance-based assessment tasks for students, and evaluated quantitative data for standards-setting issues related to performance-based assessment tasks. She also evaluated parent involvement programs in LAUSD, and researched and identified indicators of success for the district's online report card, a project funded by then Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Lee-Bayha has presented her research at numerous annual conferences, including the American Educational Research Association, Educating for Careers, and the California Community College Association for Occupational Education. She received a BA in history and government from Claremont McKenna College and an MA in public policy from the Johns Hopkins University.

Cindy Wijma Research Associate 858.530.1078 cwijma@wested.org

Carol Kim Program Assistant 858.530.1077 ckim@wested.org

Nicholas Catechis Senior Program Associate 858.530.1179 ncatech@wested.org Nicholas Catechis, Senior Program Associate for WestEd's Teacher Professional Development Program, develops and provides research-based instructional materials, workshops, and other activities to help teachers raise the academic achievement of English learners. As a project staff member for Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL), Catechis gives teachers theoretical and practical strategies for teaching the academic language, conceptual understandings, and skills that help English learners succeed academically. Using research-based tools and processes developed with colleagues, Catechis presents linguistically and culturally relevant theory and pedagogy so that educators' learning experiences mirror that of their students. In his overall work with the Teacher Professional Development Program, Catechis addresses all aspects of teacher professional development, from preservice education to teacher leadership. Prior to joining WestEd, Catechis served as a school district administrator, assistant principal, and English as a second language teacher in the New York City Department of Education. There he led teams of instructional staff in the implementation of high-quality, research-based instructional initiatives for English learners. One such initiative resulted in teachers developing and using targeted strategies for engaging high school English learners in thinking, reading, writing, and speaking about literature. Catechis received an MA in educational administration from New York University and an MA in teaching of English to speakers of other languages from Hunter College at the City University of New York.