Turning around a low-performing district “seems so basic, and makes so much sense: Take what you know has worked well somewhere else and put it in place,” says district administrator Wilson. Yet no two contexts are entirely alike, so customization is key.
A National Science Foundation–funded study found that students whose teachers participated in Making Sense of SCIENCE training outperformed their peers by nearly 40 percent; gains were greatest for English language learners and low-performing students.
“While assessment data is critical to helping teachers understand students’ academic performance, it’s only one piece of a much larger body of knowledge that educators can, and should, tap into,” explains Ellen Mandinach, Director of WestEd’s Data for Decisions Initiative.
Asked what she would tell adults trying to understand why students drop out of high school, Andrea quietly responds: “Just because a student wants to drop out of school doesn’t mean she’s stupid or she’s lost hope. Listen to her. It might be the best thing you ever do.”
Currently, 92 percent of the nation’s community colleges assign students to remedial classes based on the results of a single standardized placement test. But the research shows that these tests can have high rates of “severe error,” particularly when used as the sole basis for course placement.
In San Francisco, where an explosion of innovation in the tech sector has fueled acute demand for talent, many employers are having trouble finding qualified local candidates. Enter TechSF, an information technology (IT) workforce development initiative that helps local residents — particularly those traditionally underrepresented in the IT sector — enter and advance in the IT workforce.