The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) conducted an independent evaluation of the first three years of the 21st Century California School Leadership Academy (21CSLA) to determine efficacy and areas for growth. The CCEE evaluators produced an external evaluation report on 21CSLA’s Cohort 1, assessing the work of the UC Berkeley-based 21CSLA State Center and seven regional academies from 2020 to 2023. During this time, 21CSLA provided 333 offerings serving 8,300 California leaders at teacher, site, and district levels.
“These findings will help us be even more successful in the next three years to make an indelible impact on equity in California,” said Dr. Rebecca Cheung, director of the 21CSLA State Center.
The CCEE evaluators collected data from 29 professional learning participants, 23 Regional Academy leads, and 13 21CSLA leaders. The team also examined 589 participant surveys from Communities of Practice and Localized Professional Learning and 154 surveys related to coaching.
“What’s important to us is that the state’s investment is enabling us to support leaders to make courageous decisions for students historically left out and consistently marginalized,” said Professor Jabari Mahiri, chair of the 21CSLA Leadership Board. “The evaluation tells us that we’re on the right track.”
Key findings from the evaluation included:
- 21CSLA Regional Academies three approaches to professional learning (Communities of Practice, Localized Professional Learning, and coaching), had eight common features that reflected research related to professional learning, leadership development in education, and systems change, suggesting promise for scale and replication. These features included: sufficient time and formats for participant engagement, useful leadership content, individualized coaching and feedback, continuous improvement approaches, collaboration, opportunities for practice, and offerings tailored to participant needs.
- Equity was a central feature in the structure and content of all offerings. Equity in the structure of offerings included paying attention to who was hired to coach or facilitate the offerings, providing targeted affinity groups, and focusing on specific student populations. Equity content included helping leaders understand and reflect on their own biases and beliefs, continuous improvement approaches in offerings centered on an equity problem of practice, and both leadership and instructional content was equity focused.
- Offerings had an impact on leaders and local education agencies (LEAs) they served by influencing participants’ knowledge and skills about evidence-based practices, continuous improvement, and equity; influencing participant practices of continuous improvement and equity-focused leadership in their districts and schools in areas that included discussing race and identity, creating a shared purpose or vision, listening and reflecting, changing scheduling practices, using evidence-based instructional practices, leading teams, and leading other leaders; and creating positive changes for schools, teachers, and students in areas such as climate improvements, increased teacher collaboration, a reduction in exclusionary discipline, and increases in student engagement and access to evidence-based instruction.
- Regional Academies and the State Center connected with partners internal and external to the State System of Support (collaborations with county offices of education, for example) to help tailor offerings to local needs, co-facilitate offerings, and co-develop topic- specific leadership supports. In Year 1, the Center launched “Inquiry: Why Now?,” a collaboration with the California Subject Matter Project, a County Office of Education and Regional Academy to develop and implement a professional learning series on integrating instructional content with inquiry. In Year 2, the Center launched a UTK Leadership Initiative with a train-the-trainer model, and in Year 3, launched a UTK leadership certificate.
- The Center modeled and supported RA offerings and how to centralize equity in offerings including the creation of a Guidance Document and provided support to RAs on how to structure and implement offerings, with opportunities for RAs to work together, get feedback, and make improvements. The Center led with an equity statement as a guide for all offerings, provided guidance for RAs to centralize equity, and modeled equity work through a CoP and collective meetings for RAs. The Center also provided individual support to RA leaders, especially those with leadership transitions or urgent needs.
21CSLA State Center Associate Director Kim Wallace said the evaluation affirmed that Regional Academies across California are doing the hard work of continuous improvement to offer high-quality and high-impact professional learning. “Our RAs are centering equity in their professional learning opportunities, and it’s paying off.”
Participants cited in the evaluation discussed the ways coaching and professional learning affected their work.
“The one-on-one coaching was the reason I was able to intentionally do this work,” said one participant, cited in the evaluation. “With most professional development I am excited and wanting to implement it and do more but am not allotted time and space, and I’m doing it alone. Having a coach and having two other colleagues being coached, too, was a perfect way to get me to follow through on what I know is important and right.”
The report cited changes in school practices resulting from 21CSLA’s work: “For example, one district investigated how its approach to English learner reclassification was deficit-based and implemented strategies to make it asset-based and equitable among student groups. The district revamped its policy due to the 21CSLA work.”
Some participants noted in the evaluation identified improvements in their school climate after implementing strategies from their 21CSLA professional learning: “‘Our school has become more inclusive. Safe spaces for students have been clearly designated, and select students have expressed their appreciation.’ Another wrote that students shared their lived experience and practiced empathy: ‘Students are openly talking about their lived experiences and identity. They are willing to share openly and practice more empathy towards themselves and others.’”
Read the 21st Century California School Leadership Final Cohort 1 External Evaluation Report. Visit the 21CSLA website and sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.
