http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/ucb_education/rss Recent eScholarship items from Berkeley School of Education Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:42:05 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8qs9w7mr The third edition of the Leadership Connection Rubric was developed amidst the increasingly polarized national context that has challenged our conception of equitable schooling and threatened our democracy. Holding steadfast to our commitment to preparing, inducting, and supporting inclusive, justice-oriented school leaders, in this edition, we aim to respond to the current climate that leaders must traverse. As our students and alumni grappled with crises at the site and systems levels, upheavals from the COVID pandemic, and reckonings around racial justice, we found ourselves testing the strength of our conceptual frameworks for social justice leadership. What does it mean to lead in this context? What skills and dispositions are needed for the current and future education landscape? Rather than returning to “normal” operations, the current context requires leaders who are savvy about local and national political tensions and strategic in their approach to creating a more just... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8qs9w7mr Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tredway, Lynda Cheung, Rebecca Sablo Sutton, Soraya Nguyen, Viet Stephens, Daphannie Leader-Picone, Linda Hernandez, Janette https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2d6941nz The COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the ongoing social and political movements in the United States,has dramatically impacted the work of school leaders. Over the past year and a half, school leaders have navigated unprecedented challenges of crisis leadership while finding ways to lead schools for equity (Grissom &amp; Condon, 2021). Such immense pressures have put school leaders in jeopardy of burnout and work-related fatigue, which may further escalate the already high turnover of principals. The 21st Century California School Leadership Academy (21CSLA) and the University of California Berkeley Leadership Programs launched the Resilient Leadership Project in the spring of 2021 to investigate individual and contextual factors that influence Californian principals’ resilience and wellbeing. The aim of this longitudinal project is to better understand which groups of principals are most vulnerable to burnout and what factors protect them from burnout or exacerbate their risk... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2d6941nz Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stomski, Meg Lin, Xueqin Luo, Hua Cheung, Rebecca Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14d380wr This study explores the relationship between dual enrollment (DE) math and English gateway course-taking and academic momentum indicators — earning 30 credits by the end of the first year, first-year credit accumulation, and persistence to the third semester. The study is based on a sample of first-time freshmen at the City University of New York who participated in the citywide DE program, College Now, and utilizes quasi-experimental methodology to identify a balanced sample of former DE students who took math and English gateway courses in DE compared to former DE students who did not. Taking DE gateway courses has a modest, but positive association with credit momentum, particularly first-year credit accumulation when DE credits are included, but had no relationship with persistence. We found an increase in credit momentum for Black/African American students who took a math gateway DE course, as compared to Black/African American and students of any race who did not take a... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14d380wr Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Campbell, Vandeen A Britton, Tolani https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0856-3783 Chelliah, Birunda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5f13h58m <p>Despite a widespread recognition of the need for greater equity in mathematics, inequities persist in the subject for those historically marginalized in math—such as students of color, students labeled as English learners, students labeled with a dis/ability, and women. In this paper, I argue that equity can only be achieved via an integrated understanding of the ways in which mechanisms of oppression have served to exclude students in education writ large and in math specifically. Drawing on the framework of Critical Inclusion (InCrit), I aim to integrate efforts seeking to dismantle such mechanisms—including racism, linguicism, colonialism, ableism, and the specific exclusionary culture of math—into a unified whole. I contend that this vision of critically inclusive mathematics might offer a vehicle by which to envision an emancipatory mathematical future for all students.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5f13h58m Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 McClam, Rachel Saperstein https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4745-6094 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3tx3r55m In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sudden rupture in the normal day-to-day of schooling. Predictable structures and ways of doing school came to a halt as leaders and communities moved to rethink possibilities and procedures for the remainder of the 2020–2021 school year and the years to come. Since that time, while many parents and educators have called for the “return to normal,” some education scholars and leaders have called for a broader reimagining of schooling and the pursuit of a “new normal” that breaks from the longstanding patterns of inequities that have only been exacerbated by the current health and political context. As many educators, parents, and families celebrated the return to some version of in-person schooling in 2021–2022, some school leaders pursued opportunities to extend and expand lessons, learnings, and innovations from distance learning. While much of schooling looked the same, notable shifts offered opportunities for greater equity and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3tx3r55m Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Esboldt, Joy Luo, Hua Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2q15v436 <p>In 2014, Puerto Rican educators were recruited to teach in Oklahoma City Schools. The resulting labor migration is no minor illustration of the colonial educational experiments that mark the militaristic and capitalist relations between the U.S. and its territories. How do we understand the interplay of the conditions and characteristics of two geo-political contexts that are distinct, but have much in common as “forgotten places” in the colonial project: the occupation, relocation, and political subjugation of Indigenous peoples; the establishment of military bases; the economic plunder of schooling; educational repression; and, the denial of civic personhood through carcerality and territorialization? Through newsmedia, interviews and observations, and archival data, we examine the role of education and educators in the larger network of colonial relations between militarized, occupied territories, sovereign nations, and states. In this concept-forming piece, we observe this... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2q15v436 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ortiz, Lisa Vaught, Sabina https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9ps2x6xq This report examines Transitional Kindergarten (TK) teachers’ perceptions of school climate and its associations with compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and turnover intention. The survey involved 143 teachers from approximately 45 school districts in California, focusing on how school climate affects teachers’ professional experiences. The majority of TK teachers (97.9%) reported a positive perception of their overall school climate. However, despite this overall positivity, it is important to note that each category of school climate may carry different meanings and should also be examined separately. Differences in perceptions based on race and gender are evident, with Caucasian/White and Asian/ Asian American teachers showing higher average levels of agreement with positive perceived school climate. Male teachers also reported higher average satisfaction compared to female and non-binary teachers. Additionally, our findings indicated that a positive school climate... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9ps2x6xq Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Zhang, Yijing Rho, Ella Dong, Quennie Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k4962j9 The Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California, Berkeley, has three areas of work: preparation, induction, and leadership outreach. All programs are designed based on the principles of equity and social justice and focus on improving education for the most vulnerable and historically underserved public school students. In 15 cohorts, PLI has prepared over 500 educational leaders who are 50% students of color, 95% working in public education, and 88% working in the Bay Area. Leadership Support Program, PLI’s induction program, has inducted over 100 leaders in 11 years. Originally designed as a continuation of the preparation program, Leadership Support Program now inducts PLI alumni who work in the San Francisco Bay Area, selected new leaders who graduate from other preparation programs and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as alumni of our sister program, the Principal Leadership Institute at University of California, Los Angeles. There are... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k4962j9 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sr660sr Over the past several years, hate speech and hate-related incidents have become a growing concern in American schools and across the world. Online spaces, in particular, have emerged as one of the settings where hate speech occurs. Given that nearly 97 percent of U.S. teens report using the internet daily and the percentage of teens who use the internet “almost constantly” continues to grow from 24 percent in 2014–2015 to 46 percent in 2022, young people born in the digital age are especially vulnerable to negative content online. In recent years, researchers interested in the well-being of children and adolescents have expanded their focus from traditional bullying behavior and victimization situated in physical spaces to similar phenomena in cyberspace. Although limited, research on hate speech is growing. In this brief, we draw from recent empirical studies and systematic reviews pertaining to online hate speech and its impact on student well-being to inform reflection questions... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sr660sr Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Luo, Hua Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Esboldt, Joy Kim, Moonhawk Murata, Aki Munzer, Alison https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rz582h0 The Tripartite Framework for Leadership Evaluation provides a comprehensive examination of the leadership evaluation landscape and makes key recommendations about how the field of leadership evaluation should proceed. The chief concern addressed by this working paper is the use of student outcome data as a measurement of leadership effectiveness. Since leaders do not have direct influence over student achievement and mediate instructional influence with students through teachers, we find that the use of student test scores as a measurement of leadership effectiveness is neither fair nor useful. The collective actions of teachers and the leader lead to improved student achievement, but the leader should concentrate his or her work on teacher working conditions and teacher motivation as a part of that collective responsibility (Leithwood, 2012). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rz582h0 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tredway, Lynda Stephens, Daphannie Hedgspeth, Carol Jimes, Cynthia Rubio, Rudy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rn0s5kj Inquiry is a process that supports not only student learning but also the professional learning of educational leaders pursuing equity in schools. Inquiry is an approach to continuous improvement that operates on a cycle beginning with identifying a question to investigate, collecting data and evidence to respond to that question, analyzing and making meaning of that information, and then communicating that new knowledge to relevant partners. When rooted in equity, inquiry can support educational leaders in improving pedagogical practices that help students—especially those who are systemically marginalized and historically underserved—thrive. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rn0s5kj Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Munzer, Alison Bae, Annie Virrueta-Peters, Melissa Esboldt, Joy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8gz5t4qp Online learning is increasingly embraced in K-12 teaching, professional development, as well as graduate education, because the interactive tools and platforms of Web 2.0 have the potential to offer learning opportunities that help transcend distance and maximize time. But howcan the depth of learning and connection that is derived from face-to-face interactions bereplicated in the online environment, especially when engaging in deep reflective equity centered conversations? For three years, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California at Berkeley engaged in experimentation and discussion around four related questions: What are the barriers for equity centered discussions in the online space? What are the facilitation challenges and adaptations needed? How and when does the online space best support equity centered discussions? What support is needed for participants and facilitators who are new to online environments? Through our extended experimentation,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8gz5t4qp Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8f8874kx This project brief considers how self-determination theory can support the design and facilitation of communities of practice (CoPs) with educational leaders to promote equity in schools by providing opportunities for autonomy, competence, and belonging. This study investigated how CoPs met the basic psychological needs that contribute to engagement and deeper learning through a sense of well-being and motivation. We collected data through in-depth interviews with nine CoP facilitators, revealing that effective CoPs foster autonomy by centering educational leaders’ contexts and interests, nurture competence through lifelong learning skills, and enhance relatedness while extending a sense of belonging by creating supportive environments. The findings emphasize the importance of designing CoPs that address these psychological needs to enhance engagement and promote learning for equity. Practical implications include strategies for facilitators to involve educational leaders in decision-making,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8f8874kx Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dong, Quennie Murata, Aki Lin, Xueqin Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8489s0qn There is increasing interest in the field of leadership preparation about the opportunities that robust performance assessments may provide to capture and evaluate the complexity of school administrators’ work. Heretofore, the conversation about administrator performance assessment in leadership preparation has mainly centered on the development and impact of large statewide assessments that grow out of a Cartesian epistemology of individual knowledge possession, in which individuals must demonstrate mastery of a set of static knowledge and skills. We analyzed the characteristics of a performance assessment system that deliberately accounts for the organizational complexity of practice and knowledge generation in its design. Candidates are assessed by faculty and coaches on state-wide and program standards, but instead of producing evidence of their practice as individuals, they are assessed within simulated practice-based scenarios that require them to both draw on their extant... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8489s0qn Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Charles, Jessica E. Cheung, Rebecca Rosekrans, Kristin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8196d3f7 In October 2012, UC Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) published an impact report focused on the breadth of regional impact and strength of the PLI model. This 2013 report describes PLI’s impact as identified by alumni and district administrator feedback from our four partner districts, Berkeley Unified School District, Oakland Unified School District, West Contra Costa Unified School District, and San Francisco Unified School District, who employ 50% of our graduates. The triangulated results of alumni surveys, district partner feedback, and quantitative and qualitative studies indicate that UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute consistently provides rigorous and effective preparation for school leaders in the Bay Area and beyond. These studies highlight PLI’s strengths, including a focus on equity, social justice, instructional leadership, and the formation of leadership identity and relationships. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8196d3f7 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tr423g9 The high rates of principal turnover coupled with the increasing levels of isolation and burnout in the profession exemplify the urgent need for cultivating self-care as an essential practice for equity-focused educational leaders. The national attrition rate for school principals reached a staggering 11% between the 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 school years, and despite a slight stabilization, the 8% turnover rate in the 2023–2024 school year remains significantly higher than pre-pandemic benchmarks. This instability is most acute in high-poverty and rural schools, where the loss of experienced leaders further marginalizes vulnerable student populations. The high turnover rate coincides with continuously increasing demands on school leaders, including expectations that they address needs not otherwise met in the school system, and the superhero principal narrative persists. Additionally, recent upheavals including the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration enforcement, a youth mental health... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tr423g9 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Virrueta-Peters, Melissa Lin, Xueqin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t93t618 Education is engulfed in an age of accountability and evaluation. Teachers have been subject to several waves of evaluation, first in the 1980s with teacher competency exams, and more recently in efforts to measure effectiveness with value-added measures (or test score gains) plus other mechanisms like teacher observations. States imposed their own test-based accountability systems on schools during the 1990s; then the federal government created its own accountability system in No Child Left Behind, based on state tests but with different consequences. In theory these accountability systems could be used to improve the quality of schooling, but much more often they have served to punish (and only sometimes reward) teachers and schools. Now accountability and evaluation have spread to principals and other school-level leaders, usually with the understanding that they may be second in importance only to teachers. A small empirical literature has tried to ascertain what specific... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t93t618 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Grubb, W. Norton Liao, Patrick Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t175496 California is the most populous state in the U.S. and contains a significant number of rural districts serving a sizable, diverse population of rural students including recent immigrants, migrant students, emergent bilinguals, and Indigenous children. It is important to address the state’s rural contexts from an asset-based perspective that both leverages their unique strengths and attends to their specific needs through localized and differentiated equity-centered leadership. Research and practice often frame rural contexts in direct comparison to urban contexts, creating a lens through which the inherent strengths and unique positionality of rural contexts become de-emphasized. This is particularly true in educational settings within which strengths are often cited as secondary to or resulting from challenges and barriers. Three key issues illustrate important assets embedded in rural contexts: terminology and definitions relevant to rural contexts, Indigenous education, and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t175496 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Munzer, Alison Bae, Annie Virrueta-Peters, Melissa Esboldt, Joy Wikle, Anna https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7n11b6cz Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) have emerged as a promising approach for school improvement and promoting equity. For the sake of this brief, we address RPPs as long- term commitments between a research organization (e.g., university) and an educational institution (school or district). RPP participants focus on using research to address problems of practice and are committed to mutualism and reciprocity among diverse experts (leaders, practitioners, and researchers). RPPs are intended to provide locally relevant data, centering practitioners’ perspectives, that can immediately inform practice. Equity-focused RPPs explicitly address relations of power and privilege both within problems of practice and the structures and relations of RPPs. Yet, navigating their complexities can present challenges. This brief provides an overview of three considerations for school and district leaders to attend to with a specific lens on equity: 1) establishing relationships, 2) defining purposes,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7n11b6cz Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Esboldt, Joy Bae, Annie Munzer, Alison https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d33f2qj Founded in 1999, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California, Berkeley, has three areas of work: aspiring leader preparation, early career leader induction, and professional learning support of a diverse community of equity focused leaders who will improve education for vulnerable and historically underserved students in California. Fifteen years ago, Berkeley PLI began the practice of leader induction as an innovative model for early career support. Originally designed as an invitational and voluntary continuation of the preparation program, the current mission of PLI’s Leadership Support Program (LSP), is to induct a diverse community of equity focused school leaders who will improve education for vulnerable and historically underserved students in California’s public schools in support of social justice. In total, LSP has inducted over 300 leaders in California to earn the Professional Clear Administrative Services Credential or full administrative... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d33f2qj Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Gong, Nathan Nguyen, Viet https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7cm5j2v9 Researchers have turned attention toward principal turnover and its impact, especially in hard-to-staff schools. For example, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Learning Policy Institute recently issued a report indicating that nearly one in five principals leave their position every year (Levin, Bradley, &amp; Scott, 2019). To inform the issue with the perspective of practicing principals, the Principal Leadership Institutes at UC Berkeley and UCLA, with support from the Stuart Foundation, launched a state-wide initiative entitled the Change Maker project, to support the well-being and improve retention of alumni principals. Change Makers includes a small cohort-based model of professional learning that focuses on reflection, networking, and content related to understanding well-being. Then in June 2020, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project developed a first-of-its-kind survey focused on what erodes and supports the resilience of school... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7cm5j2v9 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Stomski, Meg Gong, Nathan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c252035 The Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) policy is a cornerstone of California’s broader efforts to expand early childhood education under the Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) initiative. As the state progresses toward making early childhood education accessible to all four-year-olds by 2026, the role of teachers in the early implementation of UTK is vital. Exploring the professional and social support networks and systems available to UTK teachers will help identify opportunities for improving their effectiveness in early childhood education. We collected survey data from 143 UTK teachers, and conducted interviews with 21 of the survey respondents. Teachers reported receiving professional support from an average of 3.1 individuals out of a possible 6 and social support from an average of 2.67 individuals out of a possible 6. However, there was a notable gap, with 38.5% of teachers reporting no social support, and 17.5% reporting no professional support. This highlights... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c252035 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Rho, Ella Dong, Quennie Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/78f5f7bs This study investigates the transformative learning process of school leaders for transformative leadership and the role of professional communities in their learning. Two bodies of knowledge—transformative school leadership and transformative learning theory—were used to frame this study. Eight school leaders who serve economically and socially marginalized communities in California were interviewed to explore their professional learning experiences and challenges around leading for equity. Our analysis of the interview data shows that critical reflection is the key to transformative learning, which is often motivated by school leaders’ unmet assumptions while leading school communities. When leaders sought out others (who share similar professional experiences) to make sense of the unexpected experiences, the collective reflection generated transformative actions. All eight leaders emphasized the importance of the professional community for their professional learning, and how... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/78f5f7bs Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Murata, Aki Dong, Quennie Lin, Xueqin Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6t22085f The Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) policy is fundamental to California’s extensive initiatives to improve early childhood education through the Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program. As the state advances towards ensuring early childhood education is accessible to all 4-year-olds by 2026, the involvement of educators in the initial execution of UTK is crucial. This research brief examines the current perceptions of transitional kindergarten (TK) educators in California regarding the efficacy of various family engagement practices and identifies the specific supports that may be needed to enhance their ability to address academic, social, and emotional needs in students. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6t22085f Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kodaiarasu, Krandhasi Rho, Ella Dong, Quennie Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6rn766jh In 1999, as a response to teacher and principal shortages across the state, Governor Davis and the California Legislature man- dated the creation of Principal Leadership Institutes at UC Berkeley and UCLA. The Principal Leadership Institutes were part of Gov. Gray Davis’ education initiatives that were enacted soon after he took office in 1999. In a written statement, California Education Secretary Gary Hart noted that by proposing the institutes, “Gov. Davis hopes to offer world-class management training to school principals in order to help them create more successful schools.” Assembly Bill ABX1 of 1999 earmarked new funding for the University of California to provide scholarships for outstanding students committed to making a difference in hard-to-staff schools. This funding has created a virtuous cycle, enabling many young people from low-income and working class communities to return to their neighborhoods as highly trained teachers and school administrators. Re-authorized... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6rn766jh Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Parachini, Nancy Rogers, John https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p70320r The COVID-19 pandemic sparked various, unprecedented challenges to public education, including transitions among remote, hybrid, and in-person learning as well as increased attention to the emotional and physical well-being of teachers, students, families, and communities. School principals were tasked with responding to these new realities as they practiced crisis leadership (Grissom &amp; Condon, 2021), but also aimed to lead for equity, excellence, and accountability. Unsurprisingly, these new demands and additional duties exacerbated already heightened levels of job-related stress for principals. Principal turnover in U.S. schools is at a crisis point: a 2021 survey from the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP; 2021) revealed that 40% of principals expect to leave the profession within three years, thereby threatening school improvement and stability. Given that it typically takes five to seven years for school leadership to effect meaningful change... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p70320r Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stomski, Meg Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kd1c5w1 UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute is composed of three areas of work: leadership preparation, leadership induction, and leadership outreach. The preparation program is a fourteen month program leading to a Master’s degree and the issuance of the Preliminary Administrative Services Credential. The induction program, Leadership Support Program, is a two year program leading to the issuance of the Professional Clear Administrative Services Credential. Leadership Connection (outreach) consists of short term programs for supporting PLI alumni, as well as local and visiting educational leaders. Founded in 2000, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has prepared over 500 educational leaders for the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Ninety- five percent of PLI alumni work in public education, 88% in the Bay Area, 50% in our four partner districts: Berkeley Unified School District, Oakland Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, and West Contra... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kd1c5w1 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tredway, Lynda Cheung, Rebecca Nguyen, Viet Stephens, Daphannie Leader-Picone, Linda Hernandez, Janette https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bd9262p The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to the world’s educational systems since March 2020. As schools adapted to distance learning, new challenges and concerns emerged for students who are historically marginalized and underserved. Students with multiple and intersecting marginalized identities are disproportionately more likely to be impacted negatively by the pandemic not only academically but also psychologically. However, in the face of adversity, many educators have responded by devising innovative approaches to support students and families. Lessons from such innovations may productively shape educators’ practices in future contexts, even beyond the pandemic-induced distance learning. This brief summarizes recent research on some innovations and provides reflection questions to support educators in carrying forth these creative solutions. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bd9262p Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Luo, Hua Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Esboldt, Joy Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69t1t8wv This framework lays the foundation for integrating performative modalities in social justice leadership preparation as a strategy for teaching future leaders how to understand and address the conditions necessary for truly transformative teaching and learning in schools. It is situated at the intersection of several theoretical and contextual spaces within social justice leadership, leadership preparation, and the defunding of the arts in California. Through systematic engagement across these three spaces, a distinct and novel approach at the UC Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has emerged and is receiving increased recognition. This document is an attempt to describe and frame PLI’s integration of performative modalities through conceptual frameworks and living examples. We lay this foundation to memorialize all of the efforts to date with full expectation that our work will continue to be refined, shaped, and influenced in the future. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69t1t8wv Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Tchetgen, Pierre https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69h6344r There is broad consensus that school leadership is both complex and central to educational improvement (e.g., Grissom et al., 2021). School leaders face continually evolving responsibilities and challenges, requiring ongoing and meaningful opportunities to learn (Grissom et al., 2026). Leading for equity—transforming education systems to improve access, opportunity, and inclusion for students and adults, especially those who are systemically marginalized and historically underserved—is particularly critical in California. The state’s student population is highly diverse across race, ethnicity, home language, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity, gender expression, and other characteristics (Ed-Data, n.d.). In the current political climate, California’s school leaders need explicit, localized, and sustained support to lead equity-centered improvement efforts in their communities. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69h6344r Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Rigby, Jessica G. Wilhelm, Anne G. Virrueta-Peters, Melissa https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5rc243wp Social justice school leaders can amplify the voices and activism of marginalized students by shifting from hierarchical relationships to working as allies. An ally is commonly defined as a person who is associated with another or others for some common cause or purpose. By transferring Kendall’s (2013) concept of “allyship” from racial privilege to leadership, this paper applies this theory through three dimensions: developing a radar, breaking ranks and creating space for student voice, and making intentional strategic moves. Ultimately, the school leaders highlighted in this study are tipping the balance to disrupt hierarchical relationships between leaders and students, in service of marginalized students. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5rc243wp Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Flores, Chuck Sablo Sutton, Soraya https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5q50j5gd School leaders play a central role in improving school culture and carrying out instructional and organizational leadership. One meaningful support for school leaders’ work and development has been coaching. Following the expansion of coaching in the business sector almost a century ago, coaching has expanded in the education field over the past decades for both teachers and school leaders. There is no standard definition of coaching, but in general, it entails one- on-one individualized support in learning to clarify, address, and reach professional goals. District and school leadership coaching frequently blends components of both teacher- facing instructional coaching and executive-facing facilitative coaching, with the latter’s attention to the development of leadership skills to support organizational aims. While there has been expanding attention to issues of equity and social justice amongst coaches, attention to equity-driven school leadership coaching remains nascent... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5q50j5gd Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Esboldt, Joy Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Luo, Hua Bae, Annie Munzer, Alison Murata, Aki https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5p85h394 Despite increasingly diverse student populations, educational leadership remains predominantly White. In 2020–2021, only 23% of U.S. and 35% of California public school principals identified as people of color (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], n.d.; Taie &amp; Lewis, 2023), revealing a significant representation gap between students and school leaders. Leaders of color often face racialized stressors (e.g., bias, exclusion, and microaggressions) that threaten their well- being and leadership sustainability (Bristol &amp; Shirrell, 2019; McGinnis et al., 2023). Racial affinity groups have emerged as critical spaces of support, offering community, healing, and empowerment for leaders of color. Yet little is known about the facilitation practices that make these spaces effective. This project brief shares findings from a qualitative study of four facilitators leading affinity groups for educational leaders of color. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5p85h394 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dong, Quennie https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55w9n7gh Throughout the pandemic, school communities have faced the tremendous tasks of navigating the unprecedented challenges of remote learning, returning to in-person learning, and attending to the spillover effects of the pandemic, all while supporting the needs of the school community. The demands accompanying these tasks especially impacted school principals, as their roles and responsibilities continuously expanded to attend to crisis-related needs (Clifford &amp; Coggshall, 2021). School principals were positioned with bearing additional duties such as navigating public health mandates and implementing pandemic-related policies, which exacerbated their already high levels of job-related stress. As the impact of the pandemic continues, it is likely that long-term demands will exceed the personal strengths and professional resources of school principals, increasing their vulnerability to burnout and turnover (Kniffin et al., 2021). It is critical to understand how principals experience... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55w9n7gh Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Esboldt, Joy Bae, Annie Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Munzer, Alison https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5202q29j Continuous improvement is central to engaging in equitable school leadership and improving student outcomes. 21CSLA (21st Century California School Leadership Academy) includes continuous improvement as one of its three underlying principles, along with equity leadership and professional learning. As outlined by the California Department of Education, “Continuous improvement in education is a broad term used to describe the ongoing efforts of local educational agencies, county offices of education, and individual schools as they work to analyze, understand, and address local needs over a period of time.” Generally, continuous improvement is an approach to iterative cycles of research, assessment, and data-driven decision-making to promote change. In education, schools and districts can leverage continuous improvement to improve student outcomes and teaching practices by prioritizing practitioners’ local needs. continuous improvement is essential to transforming education systems... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5202q29j Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Virrueta-Peters, Melissa Munzer, Alison Bae, Annie Parachini, Nancy Esboldt, Joy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5098t2nv Research confirms that the influence of the school principal on student achievement is second only to that of teachers. However, the growing demands and difficult working conditions have reduced the pool of principals prepared to face these challenges, particularly in underperforming schools. California must face the urgent necessity to attract and prepare school leaders to meet the challenges of working in urban schools. Since its founding in 2000, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at UC Berkeley has been answering this call. Over its twelve-year history, PLI has successfully recruited and prepared 432 diverse and highly skilled school leaders; 98% of whom currently work in education, 90% of whom work in California, and 88% of whom work in the greater Bay Area. In this report, we describe the breadth of UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute’s regional impact in the area of staffing with a special focus on our four district partners Berkeley Unified School District,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5098t2nv Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 UC Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v18s75p Recent news highlights the implications of a nationwide teacher shortage in public schools. Yet the teacher shortage and high turnover in K–12 have been long-standing challenges. Additionally, public education was highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing widespread staff, teacher, and administrator attrition. This particular pandemic-related challenge is layered on top of low pay and high stress, which are two primary reasons for teacher and staff shortages overall. In response, some states have implemented strategies to help with teacher and staff shortages while attempting to retain quality standards for teachers. Some of these strategies have centered on increasing pay and offering more training for individuals who wish to become teachers. For example, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing is spearheading a new program to expand credential opportunities and staffing for Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK). Set to launch in fall 2023, the PK–3 Early... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v18s75p Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Luo, Hua Esboldt, Joy Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nw9519m Throughout the pandemic, school communities have faced the tremendous tasks of navigating the unprecedented challenges of remote learning, returning to in-person learning, and attending to the spillover effects of the pandemic, all while supporting the needs of the school community. The demands accompanying these tasks especially impacted school principals, as their roles and responsibilities continuously expanded to attend to crisis-related needs (Clifford &amp; Coggshall, 2021). School principals were positioned with bearing additional duties such as navigating public health mandates and implementing pandemic-related policies, which exacerbated their already high levels of job-related stress. As the impact of the pandemic continues, it is likely that long-term demands will exceed the personal strengths and professional resources of school principals, increasing their vulnerability to burnout and turnover. It is critical to understand how principals experience school-related... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nw9519m Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stomski, Meg Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4818z84c California’s expansion of Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) represents a major investment in early childhood education, with full implementation expected by 2025–2026 (California School Boards Association, 2023). As classrooms increasingly serve children with diverse developmental and social-emotional needs, trauma-informed practices (TIP) have become essential for supporting student learning and well- being (Chudzik et al., 2025; Whitaker et al., 2019; Williams et al., 2021). Findings from interviews with 21 transitional kindergarten (TK) teachers indicate that TIP are already embedded in daily classroom interactions. Teachers described actively fostering emotional safety, building strong relationships with families, and supporting children’s needs beyond academic instruction. However, these practices are largely sustained through individual teacher effort rather than coordinated system-level support. Teachers reported limited access to sustained professional development,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4818z84c Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Rho, Ella Kodaiarasu, Krandhasi Yang, Chunyan Lin, Xueqin Dong, Quennie Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3x22x387 Research confirms that diversifying the educator workforce has a strong positive influence on student achievement, particularly for vulnerable and historically underserved student populations. However nationally, 80% of all school principals are White, 10% of all school principals are African American, 7% are Latino, and 3% are Other Races. More concerning, the percent of people of color in school principal positions over the past 15 years has remained the same while the rate of another underrepresented group (female principals) has doubled. The contributing barriers to diversifying the principal workforce are many including the low number of teachers of color, attrition of teachers of color in the profession, and barriers to promotion within the system. In addition, traditional leadership programs do not embrace the need to racially diversify their curriculum or students as a central part of their mission. Since 2000, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at UC Berkeley... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3x22x387 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3q96k3g7 In the United States, over 9.5 million students, or more than one in five students, attend rural schools. Despite their large presence, rural education and schools are often neglected when it comes to policy-making and academic scholarship. In a leadership context, the shortage of qualified principals and superintendents due to difficulties attracting candidates and frequent turnover remains a key issue. This is partly because rural leaders are often forced to wear many hats simultaneously without sufficient professional development and resources to aid them. Additionally, due to inaccurate narratives of rurality as homogenous and the widespread use of deficit perspectives such as parochialism or the lack of human capital, rural schools continue to face inequitable conditions. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3q96k3g7 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bae, Annie Esboldt, Joy Munzer, Alison https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k96w2j8 While California is not the only state with an ambitious universal preschool policy, its UTK policy is the most recent effort and has the opportunity to benefit from the early work in other states such as Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. How have other state level leaders prepared principals to implement universal preschool? What can California learn from these experiences as UTK is implemented by 2026? What kinds of partnerships have contributed to success? https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k96w2j8 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca King, Laura Powell, Anna Thomas, Chris https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3g9073zv There is increasing agreement in the field of leadership preparation that robust performance assessments are needed to capture and evaluate the complexity of school administrators’ work. For this paper we studied one such assessment, developed by the Principal Leadership Institute at UC Berkeley, called Assessment Center. We see it as a valuable case because it illuminates how an assessment constructed from an epistemology of practice, rather than an epistemology of possession (Cook and Brown, 1999), can work in the service of candidate and program learning, as well as for the development of the profession. We make this distinction based on the organizational theory of Cook and Brown, who argued that the learning of individuals within organizations and the learning of organizations themselves should be conceptualized as a “generative dance” between tacit, explicit, group and individual knowledge. We identify that PLI has an assessment developed from an epistemology of practice... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3g9073zv Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Charles, Jessica Cheung, Rebecca Rosekrans, Kristin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fk526v7 As Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) learning technologies become more ubiquitous in society, the need to understand how teachers design and implement curriculum and pedagogy to facilitate their students’ development of computational thinking needed in STEM subjects is crucial. More research is needed in collaboration with teachers to see which strategies are effective in making STEM subjects accessible to early learners. We focus on teachers’ use of LEGO robotics as one aspect of STEM technology that has the potential to expand the development of computational thinking and engineering mindsets. We observed, documented, interviewed, and analyzed two teachers’ design and implementation of both pedagogy and curriculum in the context of a LEGO robotics after-school program. Research indicates that STEM disciplinary practices support social-emotional learning (SEL); skills like social awareness and responsible decision-making bolster fundamental engineering processes.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fk526v7 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Munzer, Alison Mahiri, Jabari Bayazitli, Ilke https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37j4k8g3 In this paper, we analyze the value of collective or team leadership as a result of multiple leaders attending the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California, Berkeley, a program that prepares leaders for urban schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. In its fourteenth year, the PLI now has over 450 graduates, 88% of whom work in the Bay Area, with 50% in just four partner districts. This has led to the phenomenon of teams composed entirely of PLI alumni, ranging in number from 2 to 9. (Other programs that prepare individuals for a small number of districts, or even one large district, should find themselves in the same situation.) We wondered what difference it makes to have several PLI graduates, with the same preparation, on a leadership team. What specific kinds of commonalities are important to leaders functioning in teams? And what might that mean for the preparation of leaders, for the formation of leadership teams, and for district hiring and leadership... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37j4k8g3 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Grubb, W. Norton https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3388h4wf In the fall of 2021, most California public schools returned to in-person learning after months of remote learning. This brought about additional challenges for our leaders, as their roles and responsibilities continued to evolve and expand over the course of the pandemic (Clifford &amp; Coggshall, 2021). For example, principals found themselves in the position of bearing additional duties such as navigating public health mandates and implementing pandemic-related policies, exacerbating the job-related stress that they experience. In addition, recent research from The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP; December, 2021)(link is external) reported that the pandemic conditions have contributed to alarming rates of principals who are expecting to leave the profession. Specifically, NASSP found that 4 out of 10 surveyed principals reported that they plan to leave the profession in the next three years. To minimize the already high levels of turnover, burnout,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3388h4wf Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stomski, Meg Lin, Xueqin Luo, Hua Ballard, Aukeem A. Cheung, Rebecca Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32r5b2rr In the last two years, UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has published two impact reports: one focused on the breadth of regional impact and strength of program model, the second focused on alumni and district partner feedback. This third report* focuses on the impact of a preparation program on leadership practice by examining concentrations of PLI alumni in administrative teams. In its fourteenth year, the PLI now has 491 graduates, 88% of whom work in the Bay Area; 50% work in PLI’s four partner districts. This staffing impact (described in the first impact report) has led to the phenomenon of administrative teams composed entirely of PLI alumni. Using data from interviews of 26 alumni on 10 all-PLI administrative teams, this report indicates that PLI teams enact strong equity-centered distributed leadership models that originate from their PLI preparation. Specifically, the alumni on these teams highlight the ways in which trust, common language and practices,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32r5b2rr Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Grubb, W. Norton https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32m0d1c8 In the last two years, UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has published three impact reports: one focused on the breadth of regional impact and strength of program model, another focused on alumni and district partner feedback, and the third on collective leadership of all PLI alumni teams. This final report focuses on our experiments with evaluating impact using student outcomes. In its fifteenth year, the PLI now has 491 graduates, 88% of whom work in the Bay Area; 50% work in PLI’s four partner districts. In response to growing calls from districts, government agencies, and foundations to increase accountability for preparation programs to “prove” their impact, PLI conducted an experimental evaluation related to school level outcomes focused on alumni who served as principals for a minimum of three years. We learned that our alumni as a group are more diverse than California’s school leadership. PLI alumni principals were also more likely to work in schools... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32m0d1c8 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Grubb, W. Norton Liao, Patrick Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3124w032 California's Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) policy is a key part of the state's initiative to broaden access to early childhood education through the Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program. As California aims to ensure all four-year-old children can access early education by 2026, educators' roles are especially critical during UTK's early implementation stages. This project brief examines the current attitudes, knowledge, and confidence of Transitional Kindergarten (TK) educators in California regarding trauma- informed practices (TIP) and identifies the specific supports needed to enhance their ability to address trauma-related needs in students. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3124w032 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kodaiarasu, Krandhasi Rho, Ella Dong, Quennie Yang, Chunyan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sc1q2b4 In summer 2021, California’s legislature approved a significant expansion of Transitional Kindergarten (TK). TK is a school-based early-education program serving four-year-old students who turn five after September 1 to access a robust learning experience before kindergarten. California’s effort, namely Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK), attempts to make TK available to every four-year-old over the next three years (by 2025–26). According to the California Department of Education (CDE), Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) is a mixed-delivery system that includes CDE-operated California State Preschool Programs, federal Head Start Programs, and community-based family childcare or private preschool, whereas UTK refers to school-based early-learning programs as part of the K–12 public school system. This brief centers UTK. It is projected that an additional 250,000 students will enter UTK programs statewide by the 2025–26 school year, leading to an increased need for an additional... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sc1q2b4 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Luo, Hua Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Esboldt, Joy Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2s0505gt While the demographics of students in public education in California shift toward a majority of Students of Color, the diversification of the education workforce lags. In fact, diversifying the teacher workforce has failed to be a priority throughout U.S. history. This was especially the case in light of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling and school integration efforts in which Black/African American teachers were deemed unqualified to teach White children. As a result, close to 40,000 Black teachers became unemployed in southern and border states. In the years between 1963 and 1970, nearly 50% of Black principals in Georgia, 90% of Black administrators in Kentucky, and 95% Black administrators in North Carolina lost their jobs. Research broadly suggests that Students of Color in public education benefit greatly from having Teachers of Color. More specifically, a growing body of research on Latina/o/x and Black students suggests that these students who are taught by... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2s0505gt Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Luo, Hua Esboldt, Joy Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1ts8f3kr School leaders play a critical role in setting the conditions, providing ongoing support, and modeling a learner stance in order to optimize teacher professional development and peer coaching and mentoring initiative in Santiago, Chile offers a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding about the role leaders playin supporting, sustaining, and scalingprofessional learning for teachers. In 2017, the Principal Leadership Institute, one of the Leadership Programs of the Graduate School of Education, entered a two-year partnership with Centro de Desarrollo de Liderazgo Educativo (CEDLE) at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile to design one of the first peer mentoring and coaching initiatives in the country. During the pilot year, the Pedagogical Mentoring program was implemented in five schools with 15 mentorteachers and leaders. Because Pedagogical Mentoring was a new method of professional development for the Chilean schools that participated in the project, we can learn a great... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1ts8f3kr Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sablo Sutton, Soraya Rojas Concha, María https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gc0t5c2 The Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California has focused on preparing and supporting a diverse group of equity focused educational leaders in the Bay Area since 1999. In 2004, PLI took on the work of leader induction and launched the Leadership Support Program (LSP), a voluntary three year program that was geared toward supporting early career leaders through an innovative model of professional learning activities, guided mastery and coaching. In 2015, LSP was expanded into Southern California through a partnership between UC Berkeley and UCLA. This move coincided with a shift in California State policy to mandate induction for educational leaders to obtain licensure. Now a state mandated two year program, this next iteration of LSP as a dual pathway program has continued to be on the forefront of leader induction practice, both in terms of results and innovations in the field. The impacts of the Leadership Support Program are illustrated by the hundreds... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gc0t5c2 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Gong, Nathan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1c41h0xn The equity imperative surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in education is both urgent and complex. While AI offers significant benefits, such as developing universally designed learning with accessible, adaptive, and inclusive technologies for diverse students; providing personalized learning with detailed feedback; and supporting educators with administrative tasks like drafting and translating communications, it also poses substantial risks, which requires attention to ethics and responsible use. AI systems can amplify and perpetuate inequities including bias and discrimination against marginalized groups, cognitive offloading and deterioration of critical thinking, data and labor exploitation, environmental racism, and acceleration of climate change. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1c41h0xn Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Elemen, Jennifer Virrueta-Peters, Melissa Bae, Annie Munzer, Alison Esboldt, Joy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/180798fq This research report describes a study examining the role of principal leadership in making a successful school-wide transformation from a traditional to an arts centered integrated approach to classroom teaching and learning. Although research has long touted the benefits of fusing arts with core academics, the integral role of the school principal has been overlooked. This research project, carried out by the Principal Leadership Institute at the University of California at Berkeley and funded by the Heller Foundation, examines the role of the principal in leading a successful transformation from traditional teaching practice to arts-centered practice. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/180798fq Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Green, Thomas R. Teja, Zuhra https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p74c32w Research supports the urgent need to describe, document, and research innovative praxis in the field in order to assess and improve educational leadership preparation at the state and national levels, particularly given existing shortages of highly qualified principals and superintendents and the complex demands of leading school reform efforts. Moreover, leadership preparation that specifically supports the development of social justice- and equity-minded leaders are in need. Without frameworks, investigation and documentation are difficult to accomplish, as the conditions, resources, and pedagogical strategies necessary cannot be articulated in a holistic way that can help more leadership preparation programs explore new ways to look in the mirror in order to improve their programs. For over 20 years, the Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has been innovating new strategies and methodologies in its approach to leadership preparation by engaging with practicing artists,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p74c32w Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tchetgen, Pierre Cheung, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h7f8zp As California’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) efforts expand following new 2021 legislation, district and site leaders are tasked with making TK implementation and expansion a reality within their schools for all four-year-old children by 2025–2026. As many as 250,000 students are estimated to enroll in these expanded kindergarten programs statewide in the next three years as part of the Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) effort. In this process, leaders are coordinating with multiple stakeholders to ensure their school sites, districts, and counties are prepared with structures, spaces, funding, and staffing to support new students. Much has been written in scholarship about the developmental approach to UTK curriculum, effective educational practices for young learners, and high-quality, integrated UTK programs (see "Preparing California School Leaders for Young Learners in the UTK Initiative" for a summary of research). However, UTK leaders are still navigating an emerging... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h7f8zp Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Esboldt, Joy Luo, Hua Sánchez Castillo, Marisol Kim, Moonhawk https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fr1275g To best support students' mathematical learning, it is critical to identify instructional strategies that predict achievement over time and consider how these strategies interact with individual child factors. Prior research suggests that strategies informed by the principles of the science of learning benefit children's mathematical development in early childhood. The present study extends previous findings to middle childhood, examining the relations between children's exposure to mathematics instruction informed by the science of learning principles, children's mathematics interest, and their mathematics achievement at the end of fourth grade. Participants were 4520 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten 2010-2011 (M&nbsp;=&nbsp;10.1&nbsp;years; 50&nbsp;% female). Children who received more frequent mathematics instruction aligned with principles of the science of learning had higher mathematics achievement at the end of fourth grade, controlling... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fr1275g Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Scalise, Nicole R Gladstone, Jessica R Miller-Cotto, Dana https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0577-4868 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1wz7r7kh Math is a challenging subject, with many students demonstrating math learning difficulties (MD) as early as kindergarten. However, our knowledge of how these students progress in their math achievement and ways in which individual skill differences and supports facilitate math achievement for this group is limited. We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten data set (N ∼ 18,000) to examine the patterns of math achievement growth displayed by students with MD between kindergarten and fourth grade. Using latent class growth analysis, we revealed three distinct growth classes, characterized by levels of math performance that fell very low, moderately low, and slightly low below the MD cutoff range across time. Those who displayed the lowest math performance in kindergarten also had substantially slower growth than the other classes and their non-MD peers. Students with higher initial reading achievement, cognitive flexibility, working memory, higher math skill... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1wz7r7kh Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gesuelli, Kelly-Ann Miller-Cotto, Dana https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0577-4868 Barbieri, Christina Areizaga https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sp5m5qv Executive functions (EFs) are related to academic performance, but interventions designed to leverage EFs to improve academic outcomes have shown inconsistent results. Academic achievement is also subject to layers of personal, social, task-relevant, and cultural contexts, all of which impact students’ EF engagement in any given task. The EF+Math Program explored the potential for EFs to positively impact math achievement by supporting inclusive research and development of EF learning approaches that are contextually embedded and attend to the needs of diverse students. Researchers, developers, and educators worked collaboratively across a portfolio of projects to co-design and evaluate learning approaches for middle school mathematics classrooms. Here we share examples of our contextualized research, and our updated conceptualizations of EFs arising from shared insights. We propose an updated, integrated framework for EF assessment and intervention in the context of middle school... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sp5m5qv Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Merkley, Rebecca Miller-Cotto, Dana https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0577-4868 Singley, Alison T Miller Brunner, Megan E Bryck, Richard L Buschkuehl, Martin Jaeggi, Susanne M Mills, Caitlin Francisco, Aubrey T Uncapher, Melina R https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08q156pt Identifying malleable predictors of academic achievement is critical for supporting individual differences in learning outcomes and informing targeted interventions. However, practical constraints often require reducing the number of predictors while still accounting for meaningful variance. In this study, we combined two machine learning approaches (ridge regression and lasso regression) with a person-centered technique, latent profile transition analysis (LPTA), to isolate key cognitive and motivational factors that differentiate learners and predict academic growth. Using a large, nationally representative longitudinal dataset, machine learning analyses identified three robust predictors from 14 propensity variables: prior reading skills, motivation, and working memory. Subsequent LPTA revealed five distinct profiles of learners based on different combinations of these variables, with most children remaining in stable profiles across kindergarten and first grade, though some... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08q156pt Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Miller-Cotto, Dana https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0577-4868 Byrnes, James P https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6871m64d In this qualitative study, we examined how participation in the California Black Studies Curriculum (CABSC) Project shaped the skills, practices, and mindsets of its participants. We used LaGarrett King’s Black Historical Consciousness as a conceptual framework to analyze data. We found that participants defined Black Studies both as a community-oriented field of study and as a subject area that reflects and represents the full spectrum of Black experiences. These definitions emphasized the importance of teacher-student relationship-building across all subjects. Educators reported adopting more student-centered learning pedagogies as a result of their participation in the CABSC Project. Our findings also highlighted a need for new professional development offerings by community organizations. Such opportunities can help prepare teachers to teach Black Studies effectively. Participants also discussed both enabling and constraining policies that may shape the implementation of a... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6871m64d Wed, 3 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Martin, Jeremy T Walrond, Honey Britton, Tolani A https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0856-3783 Bristol, Travis J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-3481 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9p75s6c8 We examine learning as movement as a utopian methodological approach that reorients how we shape and understand literacy learning ecologies with youth who are racialized as non-white. Understanding linguistic practice as integral to learning, and to common beliefs of what it means to be human, we consider how static notions of language are deployed as border-marking tools within settler coloniality, supporting a logic that justifies pernicious racial subordination. Within education, these ideologies frame certain learners as illegitimate and deviant, with particular implications for literacy learning. The learning sciences are uniquely positioned to re-signify what it means to be a literate body and to design learning ecologies in which youth move across these borders. Aligning ourselves with decolonial scholars, we argue that utopian methodology with a learning as movement frame allows us to forefront expansive learning design as we work alongside youth from otherized backgrounds... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9p75s6c8 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Becker, Bryce LC Gutiérrez, Kris D https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rs532ks Considering the special issue on learning-on-the move in light of earlier work on learning as movement, this commentary reflects on how the articles in the special issue expand the field’s theoretical matrix of the sociohistorical, cognitive, sociopolitical, sociocultural, relational, and spatial. Taken together, they tease out new subject-object, subject-subject, and culture-nature relations, and explore the significance of the movement of people and tools across and within tasks, place, everyday events, and interactions in terms of learning and development, human agency, and dignity. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rs532ks Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gutiérrez, Kris D https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5889m9cb In this paper, we expand the concept of historical actors to elaborate on how transformative agency has been addressed in our work with youth from nondominant communities, particularly as they leverage digital tools. First, we revisit our work with migrant students, from which the concept arose. Next, we expand this theory by proposing four indicia of the transformative nature of becoming historical actors, and offer three empirical examples to elucidate them. In our first vignette, we document how, when youth glitch during video game play, they collectively experiment with the rules, regulations, and boundaries of game design, finding ways to circumvent normative video game play and co-author their experiences. In the second vignette, we focus on siblings who take over research video cameras as their family is being filmed. We illustrate how they reshape their relation to the cameras, reorganizing participation structures through their agentive and transgressive actions. Finally,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5889m9cb Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gutiérrez, Kris D Becker, Bryce LC Espinoza, Manuel L Cortes, Krista L Cortez, Arturo Lizárraga, José Ramón Rivero, Edward Villegas, Karen Yin, Peng https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5841b9p2 Throughout the U.S., Latinx communities represent a growing and critical segment of local, regional, and national electorates, but they are underrepresented at the polls. Their political disengagement stems from their historical sociopolitical marginalization and a lack of investment in their political integration. To foster more civic engagement among Latinx students, we propose recognizing their communities’ past and present “lived civics,” which are the actions that address community concerns but are often forgotten or not considered as political. The conception of lived civics that we propose provides a road map for fostering Latinx agency and political efficacy, and our “civics on the move” framework aims to strengthen democratic institutions, ensuring that they represent the needs of this critical segment of the U.S. population. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5841b9p2 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Paiz, Christian O Bedolla, Lisa García Gutiérrez, Kris D https://escholarship.org/uc/item/574736bc This chapter focuses on the utopian methodological approach taken up by social design-based experiments, their conceptual underpinnings, and commitments. The methods are drawn from Gutiérrez’s empirical work and detail ways of seeing and capturing human learning activity crucial to envisioning and enacting new social futures with radical possibilities for those from historically nondominant communities. It elaborates methodological commitments to seeking complexity in human learning activity as it centers equity understood as worldmaking. A review of a range of methodological tools employed across Gutierrez’s studies is presented—from an analytical focus on ensembles and the multiplicity of social spaces in learning ecologies to attending to how people’s repertoires of practices are constituted through participation in everyday activity, as they move in and across the ecologies of everyday life. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/574736bc Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gutiérrez, Kris D https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rm0x503 This paper brings three bodies of work that share an intellectual and social history into conversation to engage several key ideas in cultural historical theories of learning and development. Anchoring the discussion around the contributions of Luis Moll, the paper highlights the intersections and shared theoretical and methodological commitments across the work of Kris Gutiérrez, Barbara Rogoff and Luis Moll. We discuss how each of us has contributed to understanding the importance of context and everyday practices in youth and children and youths’ learning, attending especially to building on the strengths of Latine children and families in learning activities. We show the relationship between Luis’ concept of households’ Funds of Knowledge and Gutiérrez and Rogoff’s concept of repertoires of practice, Rogoff’s perspective on mutually constituting processes, and Gutiérrez’s contribution focusing on how people develop repertoires of practice and Funds of Knowledge in their movement... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rm0x503 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gutiérrez, Kris D Rogoff, Barbara https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb632kh Down There https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb632kh Fri, 1 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cutino, Sophia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6sr0b3j5 Purpose: This paper illuminates and amplifies enduring wisdom from the everyday experiences of thriving women of color social justice school leaders who receive and give microaffirmations as an essential part of their asset-based leadership praxis. This study contributes to the knowledge base that informs leadership scholarship and practice in service of creating the conditions that truly support and sustain a diverse educator workforce. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a purposive case study of four women of color social justice school leaders. Information was gathered over multiple years based on four volunteers from a professional development support network. Sources include ten observations of affinity-based network meetings; eight in depth, semi-structured interviews, feedback surveys and written accounts of participants; descriptive and reflective field notes... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6sr0b3j5 Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4107-2970 Ballard, Aukeem https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4602-0334 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hm1v53r Background Educational researchers have been using multimodal data (e.g., eye-tracking) to study teachers’ instructional practices. Yet, by and large, these technologies have not been handed over to teachers as resources for self-reflection. Aims This exploratory study aimed to develop and evaluate novel methodologies for supporting teachers in using multimodal data, specifically eye-tracking-overlaid multiple-point-of-view videos, as resources for deepening their understanding of learning and teaching. Sample and methods Five pre-service mathematics teachers (PSMT) participated in this study. First, they collaboratively constructed a body-scale polyhedron while wearing eye-tracking devices. In a subsequent structured reflection session, the participants collectively analyzed eye-tracking-overlaid multiple-point-of-view recordings of their construction activity. Drawing on Goodwin's Co-Operative Action theory, the researchers then qualitatively micro-analyzed the PSMTs' individual... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hm1v53r Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Palatnik, Alik Lomos, Catalina Abrahamson, Dor https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2883-4229 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dg6b8ht The learning sciences community has made significant progress in understanding how people think and learn about complex systems. But less is known about how people make sense of the quantitative patterns and mathematical formalisms often used to study these systems. In this article, we make a case for attending to and supporting connections between the behavior of complex systems, and the quantitative and mathematical descriptions. We introduce a framework to examine how students connect the behavioral and quantitative aspects of complex systems and use it to analyze interviews with 11 high school students as they interacted with an agent-based simulation that produces simple exponential-like population growth. Although the students were comfortable describing many connections between the simulation’s behavior and the quantitative patterns it generated, we found that they did not readily describe connections between individual behaviors and patterns of change. Case studies suggest... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dg6b8ht Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson-Jerde, Michelle Hoda Wilensky, Uri J https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8xp1q3gn In computational modeling activities, learners are expected to discover the inner workings of scientific and mathematical systems: First elaborating their understandings of a given system through constructing a computer model, then “debugging” that knowledge by testing and refining the model. While such activities have been shown to support science learning, difficulties building and using computational models are common and reduce learning benefits. Drawing from Collins and Ferguson (Educ Psychol 28(1):25–42, 1993), we conjecture that a major cause for such difficulties is a misalignment between the epistemic games (modeling strategies) learners play, and the epistemic forms (model types) a given modeling environment is designed to support. To investigate, we analyzed data from a study in which ten groups of U. S. fifth graders (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;28) worked to create&nbsp;stop motion animations and agent-based computational models&nbsp;(ABMs) to discover the particulate nature of... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8xp1q3gn Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda Shareff, Rebecca Laina, Vasiliki Gravel, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w0717pc A growing number of teaching materials invite students to discuss the complex mathematical, contextual and social aspects of data visualizations. Orchestrating such discussions can be difficult, as this requires teachers to balance a variety of learning goals and student perspectives. This paper examines how teachers interact with data visualization discussion tasks—specifically, those that engage visualizations’ social complexities—as they consider using them in their own classrooms. Drawing from semi-structured clinical interviews with six U.S.-based teachers as they reviewed discussion tasks called Data Story Bytes, we explore: How did these teachers envision using these data visualization discussions in their classrooms? And, What mathematical, contextual, and/or social aspects of visualizations did teachers emphasize when engaging with the discussion task materials? We found that all teachers envisioned using data visualization discussions as lesson openers or routine activities,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w0717pc Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle H Kim, John Lee, Hollylynne S Stokes, David J Ferrell, Matthew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pj3f3g5 Computational modeling tools present unique opportunities and challenges for student learning. Each tool has a representational system that impacts the kinds of explorations students engage in. Inquiry aligned with a tool’s representational system can support more productive engagement toward target learning goals. However, little research has examined how teachers can make visible the ways students’ ideas about a phenomenon can be expressed and explored within a tool’s representational system. In this paper, we elaborate on the construct of ontological alignment—that is, identifying and leveraging points of resonance between students’ existing ideas and the representational system of a tool. Using interaction analysis, we identify alignment practices adopted by a science teacher and her students in a computational agent-based modeling unit. Specifically, we describe three practices: (1) Elevating student ideas relevant to the tool’s representational system; (2) Exploring and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pj3f3g5 Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wagh, Aditi Rosenbaum, Leah F Fuhrmann, Tamar Eloy, Adelmo Blikstein, Paulo Wilkerson, Michelle https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6x36q42g There is growing interest in how to better prepare K–12 students to work with data. In this article, we assert that these discussions of teaching and learning must attend to the human dimensions of data work. Specifically, we draw from several established lines of research to argue that practices involving the creation and manipulation of data are shaped by a combination of personal experiences, cultural tools and practices, and political concerns. We demonstrate through two examples how our proposed humanistic stance highlights ways that efforts to make data personally relevant for youth also necessarily implicate cultural and sociopolitical dimensions that affect the design and learning opportunities in data-rich learning environments. We offer an interdisciplinary framework based on literature from multiple bodies of educational research to inform design, teaching and research for more effective, responsible, and inclusive student learning experiences with and about data. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6x36q42g Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Lee, Victor R Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda Lanouette, Kathryn https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nj410ss Abstract When learning about scientific phenomena, students are expected to mechanistically explain how underlying interactions produce the observable phenomenon and conceptually connect the observed phenomenon to canonical scientific knowledge. This paper investigates how the integration of the complementary processes of designing and refining computational models using real‐world data can support students in developing mechanistic and canonically accurate explanations of diffusion. Specifically, we examine two types of shifts in how students explain diffusion as they create and refine computational models using real‐world data: a shift towards mechanistic reasoning and a shift from noncanonical to canonical explanations. We present descriptive statistics for the whole class as well as three student work examples to illustrate these two shifts as 6th grade students engage in an 8‐day unit on the diffusion of ink in hot and cold water. Our findings show that (1) students develop... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nj410ss Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Fuhrmann, Tamar Rosenbaum, Leah Wagh, Aditi Eloy, Adelmo Wolf, Jacob Blikstein, Paulo Wilkerson, Michelle https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tp3p53d To successfully integrate simulation and computational methods into K–12 STEM education, learning environments should be designed to help educators maintain balance between (a) addressing curricular content and practices and (b) attending to student knowledge and interests. We describe DeltaTick, a graphical simulation construction interface for the NetLogo modeling environment designed to make computational model construction a more accessible and responsive part of science and mathematics curricular activities through domain‐specific, customizable construction libraries. With DeltaTick, learners assemble and reassemble predefined sets of “behavior blocks” to build simulations that represent a particular domain of study. When needed, blocks can be added, adjusted, or replaced to better reflect student knowledge, interests, or questions. We present coding analyses and vignettes from DeltaTick enactments in middle and high school classrooms to illustrate ways these features allowed... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tp3p53d Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 WILKERSON‐JERDE, MICHELLE WAGH, ADITI WILENSKY, URI https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5m6785km Mapping the Conceptual Foundation(s) of ‘Data Science Education’ https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5m6785km Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55d1k6dr Climate change is a pressing societal challenge. It is also a pedagogical challenge and a worldwide phenomenon, whose local impacts vary across different locations. Climate change reflects global inequity; communities that contribute most to emissions have greater economic resources to shelter from its consequences, while the lowest emitters are most vulnerable. It is scientifically complex, and simultaneously evokes deep emotions. These overlapping issues call for new ways of science teaching that center personal, social, emotional, and historical dimensions of the crisis. In this article, we describe a middle school science curriculum approach that invites students to explore large-scale data sets and author their own data stories about climate change impacts and inequities by blending data and narrative texts. Students learn about climate change in ways that engage their personal and cultural connections to place; engage with complex causal relationships across multiple variables,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55d1k6dr Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Lanouette, Kathryn Cortes, Krista L Lopez, Lisette Bakal, Michael Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50h509cb Science educators demonstrated that students’ framings – their expectations of what is going on – influence how they participate, and what science knowledge they reveal, in clinical interviews. This paper complements research that explores how interviewers are likely to affect student framings, by exploring how subtler interactions can lead students to change their framings, and thus their behaviour, in unexpected ways. We present data from interviews with two students, Sarah and Omar, as they reasoned about evaporation and condensation. Sarah demonstrated spontaneous changes in how she participated over the course of the interview, whereas Omar demonstrated subtler changes that existing methods may not capture. These changes affected the nature of scientific knowledge and reasoning demonstrated by each participant, but could not be fully explained by response to interviewer behaviour. We use the constructs of footing and positioning theory to examine how students participated... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50h509cb Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Shaban, Yara Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pq131j2 Data preparation (also called “wrangling” or “cleaning”) – the evaluation and manipulation of data prior to formal analysis – is often dismissed as a precursor to meaningful engagement with a dataset. Here, we re-envision data preparation in light of calls to prepare students for a data-rich world. Traditionally, curricular statistics explorations involve data that are derived from observations that students record themselves or that reflect familiar, relatively closed systems. In contrast, pre-constructed public datasets are much larger in scope and involve temporal, geographic, and other dimensions that complicate inference and blur boundaries between “signal” and “noise.” As a result, students have fewer opportunities to consider sources of variability in such datasets. Due to these constraints, we argue that data preparation becomes an important site for students to reason about variability with public data. Through analyses of repeated task-based interviews with five pairs... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pq131j2 Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda Lanouette, Kathryn Shareff, Rebecca L https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2v43z4x2 Despite growing attention to the social and ethical dimensions of Computer Science (CS), few practical resources exist to teach and learn CS through the lens of social responsibility. In Critically Conscious Computing, Ko and colleagues provide a comprehensive overview of foundational computing concepts with a sharp and needed critical perspective. In this review, we attend not only to the content of the book, but also to its format as a free, online, “living” text. The book is commendable for its tight integration of technical and socio-critical aspects of computing, approachable conversational style, and collection of flexible and practical resources for teachers. It would benefit from refinement of the integration chapters and a more explicit model for how educators themselves can approach new or different CS concepts through a critical frame. Overall, we strongly recommend this book for CS Educators at all levels for its balance of depth and practicality. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2v43z4x2 Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Henrique, Brendan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3194-6822 Roberto, Collette Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/12c2c4k2 This paper explores the role that technology can play in engaging pre-service teachers with the iterative, “messy” nature of model-based inquiry. Over the course of 5 weeks, 11 pre-service teachers worked in groups to construct models of diffusion using a computational animation and simulation toolkit, and designed lesson plans for the toolkit. Content analyses of group discussions and lesson plans document attention to content, representation, revision, and evaluation as interwoven aspects of modeling over the course of the workshop. When animating, only content and representation were heavily represented in group discussions. When simulating, all four aspects were represented to different extents across groups. Those differences corresponded with different planned uses for the technology during lessons: to teach modeling, to engage learners with one another’s ideas, or to reveal student ideas. We identify specific ways in which technology served an important role in eliciting... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/12c2c4k2 Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda Andrews, Chelsea Shaban, Yara Laina, Vasiliki Gravel, Brian E https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vj3w4m9 The emerging field of Data Science has had a large impact on science and society. This has led to over a decade of calls to establish a corresponding field of Data Science Education. There is still a need, however, to more deeply conceptualize what a field of Data Science Education might entail in terms of scope, responsibility, and execution. This special issue explores how one distinguishing feature of Data Science—its focus on data collected from social and environmental contexts within which learners often find themselves deeply embedded—suggests serious implications for learning and education. The learning sciences is uniquely positioned to investigate how such contextual embeddings impact learners’ engagement with data including conceptual, experiential, communal, racialized, spatial, and political dimensions. This special issue demonstrates the richly layered relationships learners build with data and reveals them to be not merely utilitarian mechanisms for learning about... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vj3w4m9 Mon, 8 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda Polman, Joseph L https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4tc7b71k Abstract Educators are being encouraged to teach with “big” datasets that have more cases and attributes than are typically used in the classroom. When introduced carefully, these types of datasets can allow students to engage in complex and self‐directed reasoning, develop data management and inquiry skills, and experience data analysis in a way that is more authentic to professional practice. However, “big data” is also often unwieldy. It can overwhelm students, overload their software tools, and interfere with planful analysis. How can we make such datasets manageable? This paper presents pedagogical strategies and technical methods for educators, educational designers, and young investigators to reduce the number of cases or attributes in a large dataset in ways that do not unduly compromise their analyses. We illustrate these strategies with interactive demonstrations in two freely‐available open source tools: the Choosy plugin in CODAP, and a Python Jupyter notebook. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4tc7b71k Thu, 4 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Wilkerson, Michelle H Erickson, Tim Lee, Hollylynne S Finzer, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h49p8jk Various studies and methodological approaches have been used to examine indicators of distress and wellness aligned with a dual-factor model (DFM) of mental health. Through a review of the DFM literature and this study’s analyses, this paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of DFM and enhance its value as a resource for research and practical implementation in schools. Latent profile analysis (LPA) techniques were applied and replicated using two large population size samples (Sample A: N = 17,358; Sample B: N = 17,927), randomly drawn from a larger sample of 538,527 California adolescents in grades 6–12. The LPA used the California Student Wellness Index (CSWI), which was developed, co-normed, and intended for use within the DFM framework. Three ordered latent profiles were identified (i.e., flourishing, moderate, and troubled) with expected associations with distal outcomes of depressed and hopeless mood, suicidal thoughts, school connectedness, academic grades, and school... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h49p8jk Thu, 4 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Furlong, Michael J Chan, Mei-ki Dowdy, Erin Park, Hee-Kyung Nylund-Gibson, Karen Geng, Alicia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fw3v0w0 Despite the positive impact of culturally responsive social emotional learning (CR-SEL) in enhancing students' academic achievement and emotional resilience, less is known about how it is employed in rural school settings. We employed a case study design to explore how rural transitional kindergarten (TK) teachers in California practice CR-SEL in their classrooms. Ten TK teachers from seven California rural schools were individually interviewed online. Results of the thematic analysis showed three major themes of CR-SEL practices: multicultural and critical perspective development, inclusive environment, and family engagement. Participants identified different strategies to teach CR-SEL practices in their classrooms. Findings extend our understanding of CR-SEL in practice, and provide practical and research implications for school psychologists, educators, and policymakers. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fw3v0w0 Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Xueqin Ingram, Josephine Yang, Chunyan Cheung, Rebecca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4107-2970 Lim, Jin Hyung https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2250-0052 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7f2279hv Research suggests that diversifying the educator workforce has a strong positive influence on students, particularly vulnerable and historically underserved groups. This article presents an intrinsic case study of a Leaders of Color Network that provided promising design elements to reduce professional and racial isolation, promote collective sense making, and develop coalitions. It also highlights how employers must do more than hire leaders of color. They must create systematic strategies to uplift, empower, and amplify the needs of diverse leaders. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7f2279hv Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Gong, Nate https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7ds9g7s6 At the height of pandemic-era procedures amidst great changes and uncertainty, school principals across the world were challenged to navigate and restructure ways to lead their schools. While leveraging crisis management leadership, principals needed to be attentive and adaptive to the emotional wellbeing and health of their employees. Today scholars are beginning to understand how school principals navigated the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the tensions principals experienced as they attempted to balance equity, excellence, and accountability while being mindful of both the wellbeing of students, families, and teachers, and their schools’ outcomes. However, there is still limited research examining principal wellbeing alongside resilience factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to understand ways in which principals build resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines the perceptions of work-related stressors of public-school... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7ds9g7s6 Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Cheung, Rebecca Stomski, Meg Ballard, Aukeem Yang, Chunyan Hacıfazlıoglu, Ozge https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hq6t9g1 While a growing body of scholarship has examined professional learning communities for teachers of color, only a paucity of research has explored a community of practice (CoP) for district and school building leaders of color. This study investigated a 1.5-year CoP for traditional public school district and charter management leaders (n = 27) across five geographic regions in the United States. We drew on the Equity Action Conceptual Framework and used a pre-, mid-, and post-professional learning community survey and two rounds of semi-structured interviews to understand how these leaders reported and described learning dispositions and skills to support their school systems’ most historically resilient and marginalized students. We analyzed survey responses both across the professional learning community (PLC) and within the five geographic regions. Across the CoP, participants reported learning how to assess the organization’s will, skill, knowledge, and capacity to disrupt... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hq6t9g1 Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Bristol, TJ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-3481 Cheung, R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4107-2970 Wilkerson, M Jones, M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gq7p1xb This paper explores Latinx Queer digital praxis and how drag performance can function as pedagogical and world-making acts of resistance. Building on previous work on Cyborg Jotería Pedagogies and platform studies, we use digital ethnography and multimodal discourse analysis to examine how Latinx drag artists and audiences coconstruct learning ecologies that transform platform economies intro spaces of relationality, care, and critique. We identify two practices: 1) “Estás en tu casa” (you are in your home) where belonging is enacted through linguistic play and hospitality; and 2) “Como mugre y uña” (like dirt under a fingernail) where performer-audience boundaries are blurred through co-creation. These practices illuminate how Latinx Queer communities leverage digital drag to resist linguistic imperialism, capitalist impetus of platforms, and mainstream sanitization of drag culture. We argue that Rogue Jotería Platformization operates as a speculative and utopian methodology... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gq7p1xb Wed, 5 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Lizárraga, José Ramón Cortez, Arturo Reyes-Galvez, Mariel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98h803z2 MCA editorial - vol 31 issue 3-4 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98h803z2 Wed, 5 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Adams-Wiggins, Karlyn R Bal, Aydin Choudry, Sophina Cortez, Arturo Ferholt, Beth Guarrasi, Ivana Jornet, Alfredo Lemos, Monica Lizárraga, José Ramón Nardi, Bonnie Rajala, Antti Stetsenko, Anna Mahmood, Mara Welsh https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8c20v2md This article serves as the introduction to the special issue, “Beyond Now: Feminist Politics, Policy, and Research Futures in Education.” As co-editors, we came together as colleagues to examine how the field engages feminist thought and what this means for advancing critical inquiry, theorizing, and research praxis. We begin by situating our work within a period representing widespread cultural and political change, and in doing so, offer a chronicling of feminist situatedness to such historical moments—a looking back to reenvision research considerations for those who engage this work. After discussing the urgency of feminisms in education, we present an overview of nine articles by authors who advance a range of critical theoretical and methodological frameworks. We curated this special issue across diverse disciplinary, epistemic, generational, geographic, and professional backgrounds to contemplate necessary political, policy, and research futures beyond now—a horizon of... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8c20v2md Wed, 5 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Lemke, Melinda Young, Michelle D https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8380-9176 Mackey, Hollie Nash, Angel Miles https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t87k578 Purpose: This research quantitatively examines what predicts anti-“CRT” and anti-LGBTQ political issues and educational disruptions in US school districts. Our study builds upon prior work that finds educational disruptions to be prevalent in suburbs and adds to an existing body of literature that is largely qualitative and theoretical. Research Methods/Approach: Using a nationally representative sample of district leaders from the 2022 American School District Panel, we conducted a series of logistic regressions and a battery of robustness checks to investigate district characteristics that increase or decrease the odds of districts experiencing political issues or educational disruptions. Findings: We find (1) district affluence rather than racial composition to be a stronger predictor of actual educational disruption; (2) reduced likelihood of issues and disruptions in small school districts potentially due to the social cohesion and homogeneity in these places; and (3) educational... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t87k578 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Jacob, Jonathan Trinidad, Jose Eos https://escholarship.org/uc/item/48x646f9 Psychological suzhi is a culturally rooted construct that emerged from China’s quality-oriented educational reform, aiming to promote positive adolescent development. It integrates cognitive, individuality, and adaptability qualities, forming a dynamic internal system that supports resilience and mental health in Chinese contexts. Despite its theoretical prominence in Chinese educational discourse, research on its developmental trajectory and long-term implications for adolescent adjustment remains limited. This three-year longitudinal study (six waves) followed 1812 middle school students (Mage = 12.56 years, SD = 0.73, 51.4% boys) and 2482 high school students (Mage = 15.43 years, SD = 0.60, 49.6% boys). Latent growth models revealed a general decline in psychological suzhi among middle school students and a gradual increase among high school students. Latent class growth models identified four distinct trajectory profiles for each developmental stage—middle school: top/stable... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/48x646f9 Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Nie, Qian Yang, Chunyan Chen, Chun Furlong, Michael Chan, Mei-ki Zhang, Dajun Guo, Cheng Teng, Zhaojun https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9n99x44j We investigated the use and validity of standardized achievement tests for summative evaluation of 78 educational intervention projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) math and science education program. Investigators from 46 projects evaluated curricular interventions with standardized achievement tests as outcome measures. Twenty-five of the projects had potential validity problems related to a misalignment between the achievement test and the intervention. A closer analysis of 11 of those projects flagged as high risk for validity problems showed that only 6 projects attended to the validity of the test, and only 1 project provided adequate validity evidence. We conclude that there is widespread inappropriate use of achievement tests that threatens the validity of educational evaluations. To better support innovation, evaluators must dedicate more attention to the validity of the outcome measures they use. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9n99x44j Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Sussman, Joshua Wilson, Mark R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0425-5305 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4th889n2 Examining the Effects of a Peer-Learning Research Community on the Development of Students’ Researcher Identity, Confidence, and STEM Interest and Engagement https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4th889n2 Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Koo, Bon W Bathia, Shruti Morell, Linda Gochyyev, Perman Phillips, Michelle Wilson, Mark https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0425-5305 Smith, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18d4z5hv Correction to: Cultural sensitivity of early childhood assessments based on learning progressions: a Rasch person fit analysis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18d4z5hv Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Sussman, Joshua Draney, Karen Wilson, Mark https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rv340xg Growth Mixture Models (GMMs) are widely used in education and psychology to model individual differences in developmental trajectories through discrete latent classes and continuous random effects. Despite their capability to represent complex longitudinal structures, effectively identifying, estimating, and evaluating GMMs poses significant methodological challenges. This dissertation addresses these challenges through theoretical analysis, empirical demonstrations, and simulation studies.The first chapter investigates problematic behaviors in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation caused by degenerate nonidentifiability in finite mixture models. It identifies underlying causes, introduces diagnostics to detect such issues, and demonstrates through simulations that using more informative priors significantly reduces these problems. An application of GMMs to data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), analyzing reading skill development from ages 6 to 14, illustrates... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rv340xg Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Xiao, Xingyao