Learning to educate the California Way
The days of California’s reliance on
a single standardized test for
accountability purposes
are over. While we had
good intentions, we
now recognize that we
were using the wrong
drivers for positive
educational change. The
implementation of the Local
Control Funding Formula and
the new California Standards drive
an accountability system that differs from the
previous one in almost every respect.
Schools and local educational agencies
throughout California now have a unique
opportunity to reconfigure themselves as
learning organizations committed to continuous
improvement. The result of all of this work is
emerging as the California Way, which builds on a
collaborative team approach to positive education
change and is now attracting national attention as
an alternative to test-driven reform.
The California Way rests on the belief that
educators want to excel, trusts them to improve
when given the proper supports, and provides
Advocacy
ACSA Political Affairs & Strategy:
www.acsa.org/Advocacy/
political-affairs-and-strategy
Education is a Right: Resources
for undocumented students:
www.acsa.org/Advocacy/
education-is-a-right
Action Center: Find your
legislator; take action on
legislation:
www.acsa.org/Advocacy
Legislative Action Day,
April 15-16, 2018, Sacramento:
www.acsa.org/Advocacy/
legislative-action-day
Advocacy in Action (download
toolkit): www.acsa.org/
Advocacy/education-is-a-right
local schools and districts with
the leeway and flexibility
to deploy resources so
they can improve. The
California Way engages
students, parents, and
communities as part of
a collaborative decision-
making process around
how to fund and implement
these improvement efforts, and
provides supplemental resources to
ensure that California’s English learners, foster
youths, and students in poverty have the learning
supports they need.
...Financial stability is essential for our state’s
districts and schools to continue the exciting
implementation of the far-reaching changes now
under way. These include the implementation
of new California Standards, the LCFF, and
the transformation of California’s education
accountability systems from the “test and judge”
methods of the past to the “support and improve”
approaches of the future that now have irreversible
momentum.
A Blueprint for Great Schools: Version 2.0
Equity
ACSA Equity Institutes, a deeper
focus on race/ethnicity through a
culturally proficient lens:
www.acsa.org/Educational-
Services/Trainings#equityinst
Videos from the ACSA Equity
Project:
https://goo.gl/3RR2BD
The Education Trust–West:
https://west.edtrust.org
California Association of African
American Superintendents and
Administrators:
www.caaasa.org
California Association of
Latino Superintendents and
Administrators:
www.calsa.org
Accountability
California Accountability Model &
School Dashboard:
www.cde.ca.gov/dashboard
Getting to Know the California
School Dashboard (PDF):
https://goo.gl/tKivqP.
California Collaborative for
Educational Excellence:
http://ccee-ca.org
Teaming up for success: The
California Way (PDF):
www.aypf.org/wp-content/
uploads/2017/05/
aypfpres053117.pdf
ACSA resources and
professional learning on the new
accountability system:
www.acsa.org/Advocacy/
State-Issues/accountability
March | April 2018
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