Welcome to the California Student Success Project!

Mission Statement

CSSP will focus attention on the immediate policy window to actively engage policymakers, business leaders, educators, labor leaders and civic leaders in the need to design and implement a comprehensive change framework that is aligned to higher student and educator outcomes and has the resources needed to dramatically improve the future for California's children and the state.

 

Schools Chief Jack O’Connell Announces New Report Outlining Framework to Develop a Comprehensive Educational Data System in California

The state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction joined business leaders, educators, and community based organizations to release a new report which outlines a framework for building a comprehensive data system for California public education. The robust data system called for by the report will provide data to allow California policy makers to make highly informed decisions about education; give educators the tools they need to better target limited resources and implement strategies to improve student achievement; and, in so doing, provide the state’s employers the highly skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. The report—jointly commissioned by the Office of Governor Schwarzenegger and the Department of Education, and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—reflects more than a year of research and analysis, including in-depth interviews with parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers and student/school advocates.

To view the McKinsey Report please visit: http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/pc/

 

Upcoming Events

PACE Seminar Series
Seminars for Education Policymakers and Scholars 2008-2009

January 23, 2009

“Funding Student Learning: How to Align Education Resources with Student Learning Goals”

Jacob Adams - Claremont Graduate University

Jacob Adams is Professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University, and Chair of the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning. Professor Adams will present the findings and recommendations of the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning regarding how to redesign K-12 finance so that it can better support the state's ambitious new student learning goal.

Unless otherwise noted, all PACE seminars are held at Basement Conference Room, 1130 K Street (Old Weinstock's Building), Sacramento from 11:30-1:30 P.M. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to (916) 669-5425 or sandram@sia- us.com

 

OP-ED Video

The California Student Success Project has just released a new VIDEO OP-ED featuring California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.  Superintendent O’Connell discusses closing the achievement gap, improving our education system and the need for a comprehensive statewide information system.

Please be patient as this video may take a few minutes to download.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO

The California Student Success Project Releases New Data/Information Systems Video

More Than A Number: Education Information Systems in California

“Data can be used as a hammer or a flashlight,” says Dr. Laura Schwalm, superintendent of the award-winning Garden Grove Unified School District in Southern California. Education data, in other words, can be used to identify and punish teachers and principals based on a single high stakes test, or data can be used to engage principals and teachers in a process of continuous improvement of instruction.

Too often, teachers and principals are provided data that they view as meaningless because the data come from a single, multiple-choice test that was administered the previous school year (when the students had different teachers) and that was developed to hold schools accountable for meeting general standards.

What teachers and principals need—according to those interviewed for this video—are data that come from tests given throughout the current school year, are given to them in a timely fashion and in an environment that values collaboration and problem solving, and allow them to adjust instructional strategies. It is only in this way, they argue, that significant gains in student achievement will be realized.

Garden Grove Unified School District and other districts across the state have developed systems and environments in which this continuous improvement process takes place. It needs to take place, however, on a much wider and systematic basis. For it is only in this way that data become “more than a number”—data become the “voices of children telling us what they need.”

See what others are saying about the video