21CSLA research investigates how educational leaders learn to lead for equity in TK–12 education through systematic examinations of professional context, leadership capacities, and equity in schools.
21CSLA is an evidence-informed professional learning project for educational leaders that engages in continuous improvement and research activities as an integral part of informing its practice.
While providing high-level professional learning for educational leaders, it is essential to understand how leaders learn to lead so that we can continue to center equity, improve our work, and contribute to a larger knowledge base. We are inclusive of all research traditions and methods.
By engaging in research 21CSLA:
- Gains a synthesized overview of how different parts of 21CSLA work together, outline the purposeful processes of professional learning, and make visible the impact of our collaborative efforts
- Elevates and celebrates the hard work of education leaders in our schools by increasing our understanding of their learning and practice
- Engages in continuous improvement that enables 21CSLA to better support practitioners
The 21CSLA State Center uses research to:
- Inform its work, the work of the eight grantees, state policymakers, and the public
- Provide access to relevant and timely information
- Facilitate continuous improvement activities
21CSLA research leverages research-practice partnerships to advance equity in TK-12 systems
Informed by prior work on research-practice partnerships, 21CSLA developed its Research-Practice Approach grounded to advance equity in TK-12 research practice partnerships through co-created goals, reciprocal benefits, and practitioner input.
21CSLA’s Research-Practice Approach:
- Leverages built in infrastructure to advance research on the professional learning of leaders
- Assists the 21CSLA Regional Academies through conducting research
- Supports locally generated Regional Academy research projects about the impact of their professional learning offerings
Research collaboration approach
21CSLA research investigates how educational leaders learn to lead for equity in TK-12 education through three primary areas of research, or foci:
Focus 1: Professional Context
What are current (and changing) professional contexts in which educational leaders lead for equity?
In order to investigate educational leaders’ learning, we must first understand their professional contexts, including their unique resources and limitations. Activities of 21CSLA are embedded in local contexts, constantly interacting with other contextual factors brought by educational leaders and the communities they serve. Therefore, understanding the broader contexts is a necessary part of our work. For example, professional contexts can change with the rise of remote schooling, newly identified student needs (e.g., SEL), and/or changes to district/state-regulated education budgets. We consider other research, theory, and policy work in this focus, too, as these provide frameworks to understand how and why professional contexts sustain certain characteristics and/or change.
Focus 2: Leadership Capacities
How does equity-centered professional learning provided by 21CSLA support educational leaders’ learning to lead for equity?
This is the central focus of our research. We examine aspects of 21CSLA activities and investigate how they are supporting our educational leaders to learn to lead for equity. This includes internal evaluation that informs how we are doing as a project, continuous improvement, and future directions for research.
We also investigate the interaction between other capacities (beyond equity leadership) developing simultaneously and other factors that can influence leadership learning. This is where we develop new research questions and theories about leadership learning, sharing them with the broader education field to continuously improve the integrated work of leadership education.
Focus 3: Equity in Schools
How does the learning in 21CSLA contribute to issues of equity in TK–12 education?
As we better understand how educational leaders learn to lead for equity, we also examine how their learning is contributing to issues of equity in TK–12 schools. We investigate how educational leaders’ decisions, newly-developed classroom-, school-, or district-level practices, and policies further help them lead for equity, creating a feedback loop. We also examine how students may learn differently with increased access and opportunities in schools.
Interactions and Connections among Three Research Foci
The three research foci support and interact with one another synergistically to help us better understand how school leaders learn to lead for equity. We use the findings from the research on professional context (Focus 1), relate them with newly-developed education practices and policies (Focus 3), to identify how the educational contexts are changing, and how educational leaders’ learning (Focus 2) could help drive change. In this way, the new knowledge we develop about leading for equity in schools cycles back to the current professional contexts and further supports our work with education leaders to learn in the changing contexts. Our research work advances through a positive feedback loop, adding new knowledge with each cycle.
Considering the scale of the 21CSLA project, it is reasonable to assume our research will develop over time, from Focus 1 to 2 to 3, while we gain a better shared understanding of educational leaders' learning to lead for equity.
21CSLA Research and Evaluation
Three approaches that inform the work and continuous improvement of 21CSLA State Center include Internal Evaluation, External Evaluation, and Research activities. 21CSLA Internal Evaluation informs the Center’s decision-making by engaging in ongoing inquiry within the Center team.
Two focal questions of all 21CSLA Internal Evaluations are:
- How is 21CSLA implementing equity-centered professional learning to build leader capacity to transform systems, whether through Center or RA activities?
- In what ways is the Center supporting this professional learning and capacity-building? And, what can be improved?
21CSLA External Evaluation ensures the execution of 21CSLA activities as prescribed by state policy makers and examines their impact on TK12 Education. Evaluators are outside of the 21CSLA Center and RAs. RTI International serves as the External Evaluator.
Four questions guide all 21CSLA External Evaluation:
- What is the impact of 21CSLA on leadership practices that affect student learning?
- To what extent is 21CSLA centralizing equity for the purposes of increasing equitable student outcomes?
- To what extent does 21CSLA scale and replicate effective leadership professional learning?
- How does 21CSLA connect to the California System?
The table below summarizes each approach.
| Type | Purposes | Intended Audience | Length of Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research: Conducted by Internal and External Researchers | Knowledge development, informing policy and practice | Education field including State Agencies, Center, Regional Academies | Flexible |
| Internal Evaluation: Conducted by Internal staff (UCLA SRM, Center Team) | Continuous improvement, process and formative outcomes, informing and supporting Center which benefits RAs | Center, Regional Academies | Short |
| External Evaluation: Conducted by External Evaluator (RTI International) | Accountability and summative impact | State Agencies, Center, Regional Academies | Long |