Research Brief

September 1, 2020

Summary of Video: Essentials for Online Classes

Since 2006, Stanford Online High School has been educating students successfully online through an innovative virtual classroom model. When the global pandemic closed in-person school operations across the nation, Stanford OHS instructors and staff created a series of resources for educators implementing emergency online learning plans. This Brief summarizes the recommendations from Essentials for Online […]

August 1, 2020

Summary of Video: Principal Supervision and Distance Learning: What’s the Right Approach?

This brief summarizes the video, Principal Supervision and Distance Learning: What’s the Right Approach? Nancy Gutierrez, President and CEO of the NYC Leadership Academy, moderates a discussion with Meredith Honig, professor at the University of Washington and Director of the University’s District Leadership Design Lab. Honig’s research focuses on the integral role a school district’s […]

July 1, 2020

Summary of Recommendations for Re-opening Schools During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This brief summarizes recommendations, included in six key publications, for states and school districts to consider when re-opening public schools within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each publication has a particular orientation to school re-opening. However, 12 key recommendations emerged for states and school districts to consider as they plan for the 2020- 2021 […]

June 1, 2020

Summary of Podcast: School’s In, Beyond tests and quizzes: Getting creative with assessment during COVID-19

This brief summarizes the Stanford University podcast, School’s In, Beyond tests and quizzes: Getting creative with assessment during COVID-19. The podcast guest, Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo, is GSE Associate Professor and Director of Stanford’s Laboratory of Educational Assessment, Research and Innovation (LEARN). The podcast focuses on teachers’ ability to assess students’ learning at a time when […]

May 1, 2020

Literature Review on Family Engagement Goals and Strategies

Family engagement and empowerment are an important priority for SFUSD to enhance students’ educational experiences by involving their families in the schooling process. This memo serves as a brief literature review to inform parental engagement strategies and empowerment components of the district strategic plan. To help frame this review, I will focus on two guiding […]

May 1, 2020

Levinson, A. Tapping In: Understanding how recently immigrated Hispanic- Latino families engage and learn with media

Through ethnographic and quantitative data, Stanford researcher Amber Levinson examines the language and literacy experiences of low-income Latino immigrant families during the 2013-14 academic year. All families were also provided with iPads and selected apps, to examine how families took up these media tools. This brief highlights selected findings and implications from the study. Research […]

February 1, 2020

Mathematics Curriculum: A Tool for Fostering Continuity Across Preschool and Elementary Grades

The presentation, Mathematics Curriculum: A Tool for Fostering Continuity Across Preschool and Elementary Grades by Sihua (Adrienne) Hu, Megan Franke, & Cynthia Coburn1, presents results from the COHERE study. This study analyzes the efforts of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)2 to connect educational experiences from Pre-K through the early elementary grades, specifically in […]

September 1, 2019

Interventions for Students and Teachers to Counter Stereotyping and Improve Student Outcomes: A Summary of Five Journal Articles

This research brief summarizes five journal articles focused on the negative consequences of racial and other demographic stereotypes for students’ academic and life outcomes. These articles also offer interventions to remedy stereotyping including: 1) teacher training focused on understanding and overcoming one’s own possible bias related to students’ gender, ethnicity, or ELL status; 2) institutions, […]

June 1, 2019

Racial Concentration and School Effectiveness in SFUSD

From 2010, this brief explores SFUSD’s efforts to address the achievement gap between historically underserved and other students by investigating the relationship between the racial concentration of students and school effectiveness.

June 1, 2019

History of the K-5 Student Assignment System

This brief summarizes The History of the K-5 Student Assignment System by Kyle Beckham and Leah Gordon. The researchers analyzed over two thousand pages of San Francisco Unified School District documents related to student assignment policies, dated from the late 1990’s through 2014. The findings were presented to the San Francisco Board of Education in […]