Research Brief
The Impact of Stereotypical Social Representation of the Native American Community: A Summary of Three Journal Articles
This research brief summarizes three articles focused on the negative influence that limited and stereotypical social representation has on the Native American community. For Native American students in particular, the lack of social representation in the media and within educational institutions could lead to a negative self-image, difficulty relating to positive academic role models, an […]
A Summary of iLab Design Thinking Innovations Research. Project Team: Shelley Goldman, Keith Bowen, Brian Fox, Jenny Hoang, and Rachelle Cole
This research brief presents the findings from a two-year study, iLab Design Thinking Innovations Research (Year 1 Report1 and Final Report2). The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) iLab began in 2014 to support the district’s Vision 2025. The iLab strategy leverages human centered design as a signature practice to build environments and practices that […]
A Study of Instructional Leadership Teams in Three San Francisco High Schools
This brief describes research investigating: 1) to what extent does the work of administrators and teachers in instructional leadership teams (ILTs) seem consistent with the concept of shared instructional leadership; and 2) what conditions support or constrain shared instructional leadership?
Summary of “Fostering Pre-K to Elementary Alignment and Continuity in Mathematics in Urban School Districts: Challenges and Possibilities”
Fostering Pre-K to Elementary Alignment and Continuity in Mathematics in Urban School Districts: Challenges and Possibilities1 analyzes the efforts of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), to connect educational experiences from Pre-K through the early elementary grades. The study focuses on mathematics, however, the authors state that the findings are useful to other subject […]
A Summary of School Selection, Student Assignment, and Enrollment in a School with a Open Enrollment and Mandatory Choice Policies
This brief summarizes a study by Matt Kasman that examines the open enrollment policies of the San Francisco Unified School District. Open enrollment programs aim to increase racial integration in schools by allowing parents to choose their children’s schools as opposed to automatic assignment to a neighborhood school. This study, a series of three papers, […]
A Summary of School Selection, Student Assignment, and Enrollment in a School District with Open Enrollment and Mandatory Choice Policies
This brief focuses on an examination of open enrollment policies which aim to increase racial integration in schools by allowing parents to choose their children’s schools as opposed to automatic assignment to a neighborhood school.
Young Students’ Participation in a Voluntary Transfer Program: A Summary of The Bus Kids: Children’s Experience with Voluntary Desegregation
This brief highlights findings from a qualitative study of kindergartners participating in a voluntary school transfer program allowing families of minority students from an under-resourced school district, to apply to transfer to a better-resourced elementary school districts in surrounding communities. The students faced many challenges including long bus rides and social isolation in their transfer […]
The Benefits and Risks of Exposure to Digital Media for Children and Adolescents
This brief summarizes research findings on the key benefits and risks of digital media exposure. The brief highlights one tool recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)—the family media plan—as a possible resource for educators to use in partnership with parents to ensure that digital media use is supporting each student’s overall mental and […]
Resource- and Approach-Driven Multidimensional Change: Three-Year Effects on School Improvement Grants
This brief describes the three-year effects of School Improvement Grants on the 10 persistently lowest-performing schools between the academic year 2010-11 and 2013.
The Educational Success of Homeless & Highly Mobile Students In SFUSD
From 2017, this brief describes a research partnership between SFUSD, the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities to better track, understand, and support their homeless and highly mobile (HHM) student population. The research focused on; 1) the size, distribution, and heterogeneity of HHM students; […]