PBS KIDS Mathematics Transmedia Suites in Preschool Homes: A Report to the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative
This study evaluates the efficacy of three PBS KIDS Transmedia Suites in increasing preschoolers’ mathematics skills and enhancing their parents’ ability to support mathematics learning in the home.
Transmedia suites comprised thematically linked content presented across media platforms. The three suites used in this study are The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That, Curious George, and Sid the Science Kid, plus accompanying parent support materials.
Some key findings from this WestEd study:
- The three transmedia suites, along with their support materials, helped parents support their child’s mathematics learning over the course of the intervention
- The suites were positively associated with gains in children’s numerical knowledge and skills
- The suites and corresponding parent support materials gave parents a platform to get involved in their children’s mathematics learning
- The suites helped families understand children’s mathematics development; create conditions at home to promote mathematics activities; and apply the online mathematics games to support children’s mathematics learning
- Parents’ awareness of their children’s mathematics development significantly increased over the course of suite implementation
- Parents were highly involved in supporting their children’s mathematics learning
Download the executive summary, report body, and highlights.
Ambitious Teaching and Formative Assessment: Creating Conditions for Equity
Remote and online learning is surfacing existing inequities in schools and classrooms across the country and is raising critical questions about how we support students to develop the agency and autonomy required for learning.
This recorded session is the first in a series of online conversations, Perspectives on Formative Assessment, Student Agency, and Equity, that highlights both scholarly and practitioner perspectives on the intersections between student identity, classroom culture, and formative assessment as levers for promoting agency and equity.
Led by WestEd’s Nancy Gerzon and Barbara Jones, these conversations explore emerging ideas, practices, and research, and professional contributions to the study and promotion of student agency.
This archived session features Lorrie Shepard, University Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. Her research focuses on psychometrics and the use and misuse of tests in educational settings. She has led research on the use of assessment and testing in a wide range of testing areas, including the effects of high-stakes accountability testing, grade retention, teacher testing, and the use of classroom assessment to support teaching and learning.
In 2019, in preparation for the National Council of Measurement in Education Special Conference on Classroom Assessment, she and her colleagues convened national experts to develop Classroom Assessment Principles to Support Teaching and Learning, a publication that describes how classroom assessment can best be enacted to support deep learning. These principles provide a framework for teachers, leaders, and policymakers to develop new conditions for learning that foster student agency and self-regulation.
View suggested readings and materials for this session.
View additional session recordings from this series.
Listen to the Audio Recording
From the Brink of Closure: Key Factors in One Charter School's Successful Turnaround
Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School (Perry Street) in Washington, DC, is one of the few charter schools to conduct a comprehensive improvement effort and do so independent of another operator. Instead, Perry Street’s board chose to work with a third-party turnaround partner to initiate, support, and build capacity to sustain change.
Recent results indicate the turnaround has been largely successful. Perry Street moved from being one of DC’s lowest performing schools to one of the highest performing in five years. And an independent evaluation conducted by WestEd showed the turnaround efforts resulted in significant, positive impacts to student achievement compared to similar students at other charters and traditional schools.
Written intentionally for school leaders, board members, and authorizers, this report and the video below share Perry Street’s story of comprehensive improvement and describes the necessary conditions for turnaround success.
Key Takeaways
Turnaround takes time with urgent focus on goals. Turnaround is a multi-year undertaking that requires everyone to work with urgency, dedication, and focused effort in order to make continuous progress toward goals.
Turnaround requires a systemic approach. At the heart of the improvement effort at Perry Street was the transformation of processes and systems, which enabled educators to focus on meeting students’ needs. This required a comprehensive overhaul of the core components of Perry Street: leadership/governance, human resources/talent, instruction, culture, and fiscal/operations.
Turnaround requires building capacities to drive and sustain change. Perry Street collaborated with its partner, TenSquare, to build the capacity of the board, leadership, and staff to operate and sustain the new processes and systems in the ways their students needed.
An Ecological View of Assessment for Learning
Remote and online learning is surfacing existing inequities in schools and classrooms across the country and is raising critical questions about how we support students to develop the agency and autonomy required for learning.
This recorded session is the third in a series of online conversations, Perspectives on Formative Assessment, Student Agency, and Equity, that highlights both scholarly and practitioner perspectives on the intersections between student identity, classroom culture, and formative assessment as levers for promoting agency and equity.
Led by WestEd’s Nancy Gerzon and Barbara Jones, these conversations explore emerging ideas, practices, and research, and professional contributions to the study and promotion of student agency.
This archived session features Professor Bronwen Cowie, Associate Dean of Research in the Division of Education, at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. Bronwen’s research focuses on early secondary and primary school, and early childhood settings. She is particularly interested in the nature of teacher-student interactions as part of formative assessment within the wider ecosystem for science education. A feature of her assessment for learning work is attention to how teachers invite in and notice, and recognize and respond to children’s ideas. She has explored the role funds of knowledge have to play as part of culturally responsive science teaching and assessment, the frameworks teachers use to attend to student learning, and the provision of peer feedback in support of students’ writing.
View suggested readings and materials for this session.
View additional session recordings from this series.
Listen to the Audio Recording
Leadership for Learning, Leadership for Equity
Remote and online learning is surfacing existing inequities in schools and classrooms across the country and is raising critical questions about how we support students to develop the agency and autonomy required for learning.
This recorded session is the fourth in a series of four online conversations, Perspectives on Formative Assessment, Student Agency, and Equity, that highlights both scholarly and practitioner perspectives on the intersections between student identity, classroom culture, and formative assessment as levers for promoting agency and equity.
Led by WestEd’s Nancy Gerzon and Barbara Jones, these conversations explore emerging ideas, practices, and research, and professional contributions to the study and promotion of student agency.
This archived session features Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director of the National Center for Innovation in Education (CIE). Gene leads national initiatives to advance systems that seek greater equity in how children develop the identity, community, agency, and competency that pave the way for greater equity in our larger society. Through his tenure, CIE has contributed to developing and sustaining a wide variety of learning communities for leaders, educators, and community members committed to build and reshape systems so that they are, by design, always seeking greater equity. Prior to his work at CIE, Gene led educational initiatives at all levels as a classroom teacher, district leader, state superintendent, and national policy advisor. While at Council of Chief State School Officers, Gene spearheaded the states’ collective action to adopt the Common Core Standards, and founded the multi-state Innovation Lab Network. He brings expertise focused on transformational leadership, reshaping educational priorities, and re-envisioning assessment and learning to generate student autonomy and agency, and advance societal equity goals.
View suggested readings and materials for this session.
View additional session recordings from this series.
Listen to the Audio Recording
Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being: Information, Tips, and Resources
Project Cal-Well, a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education, produced this easy-to-use guide with input from families, educators, mental health professionals, and youth. The guide helps parents, other adult family members, and caregivers support the overall well-being and mental health of school-aged children. It offers information about the social and emotional development of young people and explains warning signs that may signal mental health challenges. It equips caregivers with targeted strategies, tools, and resources that help them advocate for their family, address each child’s specific needs, and access professional help.
Key topics and tips include:
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- conversation starters to help open the lines of communication with children and teens;
- enjoyable ways to connect, develop wellness routines, and create well-being practices as a family;
- information addressing mental health myths, including the specific needs and increased challenges facing young people who identify as LGBTQ+;
- information on how to recognize signs that a child is bullying or being bullied;
- tools to create a family media plan that sets boundaries around technology and gives children the skills to be online safely using age-appropriate platforms; and
- advice for partnering with schools to access mental health and family wellness resources and supports.
Share This Guide
Share this guide with families in your district! The authors recommend providing this guide alongside referrals to local resources to support your community.
The Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being can be shared with this one-page handout containing a QR code for a digital copy of the guide and online resources.
Check out the Spanish-language version of the guide.
Esta guía fácil de usar ayuda a los padres y los cuidadores a apoyar el bienestar general y la salud mental de los niños y jóvenes. Equipa a los cuidadores con estrategias, herramientas y recursos específicos.
Three Structures in the Garden Grove Unified School District That Support Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics
In District Where Schools Consistently Exceed Predicted Math Scores, WestEd Identifies Three Key Structures
Math in Common® (MiC) is a five-year initiative that supports a formal network of 10 California school districts as they implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M) across grades K–8. To gauge how districts across the state are faring with respect to student math achievement, WestEd compared how schools in each of the 10 districts performed over two years compared to predicted scores.
Garden Grove Unified School District showed a large proportion of schools that outperformed their predicted scores for 2016. Of the district’s 52 elementary, K–8, and intermediate schools, 31 exceeded predicted scores and only two performed below their predicted level. This report examines the district’s implementation efforts and identifies three structures that support implementation:
- Curriculum and pacing guide. Significant teacher input, pilot-testing, and implementation guidance from an outside consultant helped Garden Grove schools effectively transition lessons and pacing guidelines to meet CCSS-M standards.
- Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs). Garden Grove’s TOSAs provide a bridge for passing instructional expertise between administrators and teachers. They are highly visible across district layers, spending dedicated time at both school sites and the central office. TOSAs are encouraged to build long-term relationships with teachers and to focus on being “customer-facing.” Due to the district’s robust leadership pipeline, TOSAs also often become principals and administrators, helping the district to spread ideas about instruction.
- Professional learning system. While “Super Week”—the district’s stipended summer professional learning program—is optional, all teachers are expected to implement learning from Super Week. Professional learning opportunities are well-attended across staff positions, are consistent and planned early, encourage continuous reflection on instructional strategies, and incorporate teacher feedback.
For a detailed look at these structures and their implementation, download “Three Structures in the Garden Grove Unified School District That Support Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.”
A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn
California can ease its critical teacher shortage and encourage teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools by making meaningful improvements to the teaching and learning environment.
Based on an online survey of nearly 2,000 teachers, this report provides insights into the reasons teachers leave, and offers recommendations on what California policymakers and education leaders can do to get more qualified teachers to stay.
The report cites research showing 22 percent of California teachers leave the profession after their first four years in the classroom. Additionally, 10 percent of teachers transfer away from high-poverty schools each year. California spends more than $455 million each year to recruit, hire, and prepare replacement teachers.
The most serious consequence of high teacher turnover is the loss of continuity, experience, and expertise that negatively impacts the education experience of students.
How Online Professional Development Can Support the Common Core Standards Roll-Out—Arizona's Vision
Arizona Department of Education staff showcase the process they are using to implement the eFE model in their state to support training around the Common Core State Standards.
In this webinar, they also discuss the work of the e-Learning for Educators Consortium in continuing the work established in the eFE project.
Topic Sections:
- Addressing the challenge
- Arizona’s experience —background
- Arizona’s response— retooling the system
- A 3-phase approach to professional development
- E-learning for educators to support the Common Core roll-out
Innovative and Creative Uses of the Online Professional Learning Modules for the CCSS
The Professional Learning Modules developed by the California Department of Education are an excellent resource for teachers and staff as they address the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
What do teachers really need when it comes to CCSS implementation? The presenters and participants address this key question.
This webinar is designed to help you:
- Gain a deeper understanding of the Professional Learning Modules available for CCSS in mathematics and English language arts
- Discover how to use these resources to create local professional learning activities for teachers and administrators
Professional Learning Modules discussed in this webinar are:
- Overview of the Common Core State Standards for California Educators
- Mathematics: Kindergarten through Grade Eight Learning Progressions
- Mathematics: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve Standards for Mathematical Practice
- English Language Arts: Informational Text–Reading