Resource Library

This brief describes distributive leadership, shares an example of a California district using this practice to implement reform, surfaces potential challenges, and offers questions to consider.

Successful reform can go beyond a single classroom or school, and outlast an individual. Successful, ongoing reform initiatives exist and they are supported by some key attributes—chief among them is the practice of distributive leadership. This brief describes distributive leadership, shares an example of a California district using this practice to implement reform, surfaces potential challenges, and offers questions to consider.

Research, Lessons Learned

In this brief, Erik Rice identifies three strategic practices schools, districts, and communities can use to help prepare students for college and career success.

Research, Lessons Learned

Traditionally, challenges such as how to sustain district reform, how to build a leadership pipeline, how to create an integrated project, or how to best intervene with struggling students would be resolved with a team of “experts” developing a solution in isolation of the stakeholders involved. By contrast, design thinking centers on the knowledge and experiences of those on the front lines—in the same spirit as student-centered learning, differentiation, and other user-centered approaches in education.

Rice suggests that to best impact systemic challenges, design thinking should be practiced as part of an aligned set of focused priorities across schools and districts. To nurture a culture of innovation, district leadership should thoughtfully integrate design thinking into already existing appropriate structures including strategic planning forums, curriculum development sessions, and teacher and principal leadership development.

Research, Lessons Learned

An executive summary highlighting key findings from the second-year evaluation report.

Research, Lessons Learned, Outcomes

This case study describes how Porterville Unified School District (PUSD), a rural school district in California’s Central Valley, began to fulfill its vision to transform high school and career education through the implementation of Linked Learning. The case explains how Porterville’s district leadership team made Linked Learning the centerpiece of its district-wide reform effort and describes the key strategies the leadership team developed in collaboration with stakeholders to implement a system of pathways across five high schools.

Research, Leadership Development, Lessons Learned

This is the story of how Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) is creating sustainable high school reform. PUSD, through a set of district leadership practices, thoughtfully built the capacity of and sense of ownership among essential stakeholders to design, implement, and support a system of Linked Learning pathways. Though firmly anchored by the visionary leadership of a superintendent, the PUSD Linked Learning story extends to school sites, civic and industry partners, and the broader community. This story also highlights the impact that a change in leadership can have on reform efforts, the ways that ownership of an initiative can be expanded to a wider pool of key stakeholders, and how those stakeholders can increase capacity to sustain the vision and implementation of reform beyond one leader.

Research, Leadership Development, Lessons Learned

This report examines preliminary data on student outcomes from four selected Linked Learning districts. Each of these districts focuses on pathways to college and career that meet criteria for quality certification by ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, the national hub for Linked Learning practice. This summary also assesses implementation progress across all nine school districts participating in this initiative, drawing on interviews, student focus groups and student surveys.

Research, Lessons Learned, Outcomes

This case study tells the story of how Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) has managed to integrate Linked Learning into its own district reform through staffing, reorganizing, and building capacity within the district. The study notes some early indicators of improvement including increases in API scores and decreases in dropout rates at some SCUSD high schools.

Research, Leadership Development, Lessons Learned

The study, conducted over two years, highlights the connection between quality implementation of Linked Learning and equity and college and career access. The key findings in this report reinforce the need for consistency in the non-negotiable elements of Linked Learning as districts strive to take this approach to scale.

Research, Equity, Lessons Learned

This guide is designed to answer questions about how high schools are practicing Linked Learning, shedding light on the ways they address practical challenges, set high expectations, and adapt to changing circumstances. This guide does not provide a set of requirements or prescriptions to implement Linked Learning "the right way." Rather, it lays out in plain terms how real schools do the hard work of preparing all students for college, careers, and life beyond high school.

Research, Lessons Learned