Accountability and Continuous Improvement Resources

California is in the midst of a historic drive to further educational equity and promote school success—but will the outcomes match the state’s ambitions? In its 2016 Symposium, Making it Work: Implementing California's New Vision for School Success, EdSource will offer a timely, in-depth look at these reforms. Attendees will leave with need-to-know information about the changes and the extent to which new ways of assessing success can translate into improved education outcomes.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) contains a number of new provisions that can be used to advance equity and excellence throughout our nation’s schools for students of color, students from low-income families, English learners, students with disabilities, and those who are homeless or in foster care. The Learning Policy Institute will convene a briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss these provisions and share information from a new report that outlines the equity implications of ESSA and offers recommendations on how states, districts, and schools can leverage key provisions in the new law to improve educational opportunities, especially for our most vulnerable students.

The Alliance for Excellent Education and the Learning Policy Institute held a webinar on using the Every Student Succeeds Act and its accompanying regulations to advance equity and educational opportunity. Designed for state policymakers and education stakeholders, the webinar focused on how states can effectively design multiple-measure accountability systems to assess overall school performance and progress—including gaps in student performance—and drive evidence-based interventions and continuous improvement across all schools and for all students.

At this July 18 briefing, panelists shared findings from the report Encouraging Social and Emotional Learning in the Context of New Accountability. Speakers discussed opportunities states and districts have under the Every Student Succeeds Act to broaden their definitions of student success to include students’ social and emotional learning (SEL).

On September 7, 2018, Policy Analysis for California Education and the Learning Policy Institute hosted Supporting the Whole Child: Practice, Policy, and Measurement, an event on how schools can be organized to support the whole child, which featured a series of panels with leading researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

In this webinar, co-hosted by the Learning Policy Institute and the National Urban League, we shared and discussed tools and resources designed to support advocates and policymakers as they work to leverage opportunities to inform and support continuous improvement across all schools as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented.

On February 5th, the Learning Policy Institute and the National Urban League hosted a webinar entitled, “Using School Climate Data to Meet Student Needs" on how states are measuring, collecting, and reporting on a variety of school climate and social and emotional learning indicators under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

On Thursday, February 21, the Learning Policy Institute and EdSource co-sponsored the forum, Reaching for Equity and Excellence: California’s Educational Progress and the Path Ahead. The event was designed to highlight education exemplars in California and spur dialogue among stakeholders about progress, challenges, and next steps for California.

Decades of research show that whole child education is essential to students' academic and life success and can reduce the negative effects of poverty on achievement. Speakers at this briefing examined federal policy levers that state and local policymakers can use to invest in research-based whole child approaches to learning, including integrated student supports, community schools, and other approaches that foster academic enrichment.