California Safe and Supportive Schools

Evidence in Action: Learning Together and Growing Change

Webinar Recording

Evidence in Action: Learning Together and Growing Change

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Participants will consider how to establish routines that provide opportunities for young people, families, community partners, and system leaders to learn together about what is working and what is not as change ideas are carried out. Rooted in principles of continuous improvement, this involves cocreating meaningful and practical measures of change and working together to iterate and scale change approaches over time.

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Presenters:

Erica Boas, PhD (she/her) serves as a Core Contributor for the California Center for School Climate. Erica is a Senior Improvement Specialist with the Improvement Science team at WestEd. Using improvement science methods, she supports K-12 schools and districts as well as university-based teacher preparation programs in their equity-centered improvement efforts. She holds expertise in qualitative methods, educational equity, K-20 pedagogies, and improvement science methodologies. Erica has served as a K-5 teacher, faculty member in teacher preparation programs, and most recently worked in a county office of education to support districts and schools in their continuous improvement efforts. In this role, she served as lead author for the California Ways 2 Equity Playbook, a resource to help guide schools, districts, and county offices in their equity efforts.

Shazia Hashmi (she/her) serves as a Technical Assistance Provider for the California Center for School Climate. As a Program Associate at WestEd, Shazia translates and applies research on equitable, developmentally appropriate strategies to support state education agencies, district leaders, and educators in serving communities. She supports research and technical assistance projects that focus on improving practices in social–emotional learning, school climate, and community engagement. She currently develops professional learning to build statewide capacity for authentic, meaningful community partnerships as a part of CCEE’s Community Engagement Initiative.

The Art of Connecting: Strategies for Authentic Partnerships

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In this recording, viewers will learn about building community and relational trust, which are essential for meaningful, lasting change to happen within school communities. This involves creating opportunities for interpersonal connections and shared spaces that center on belonging.  

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Session One Presenters: 

Krystal Wu: Krystal Wu (she/her) serves as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Center for School Climate. Krystal is also a Program Associate with the Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities team where she delivers technical assistance, designs professional learning, and develops evidence-based resources to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments. With expertise in culturally responsive and sustaining education, co-design, and school climate, Krystal centers the voices and experiences of community members in all of her work, especially those who have been kept furthest from opportunity. She currently leads the Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Deep Dive professional learning courses focused on racial equity and belonging through the California Center for School Climate and the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety.

Amy Rovai Gregory: As an educator in San Juan Unified School District for the past 22 years, Amy Rovai Gregory has worked in a wide-range of roles—from classroom teacher, instructional coach, English Learner specialist, district TOSA for professional learning, vice principal, principal, to now serving as the director for the district’s family engagement and partnership development team. Amy has a passion for building relationships with students, families, colleagues and community by creating effective and innovative practices around culturally responsive, equity-driven outreach that is centered on ways to help reduce barriers and increase access, opportunities, and outcomes for those whom she serves. Amy has had the honor of being recognized as an Administrator of the Year, ACSA Silver Star, Paul Harris Fellow, and has received recognition for her educational leadership, community service, and family and community engagement initiatives in several publications and national conferences.

 

Measuring Student Mental Wellness with the California Healthy Kids Survey

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The California Center for School Climate, the California Department of Education, the University of California, San Francisco, and the California School Climate, Health, and Learning Survey (CalSCHLS) System hosted a webinar on using data to understand and address student mental wellness.

Through Project Cal-Well, a federally-funded initiative to promote mental health awareness and wellness among California’s K-12 students, the CalSCHLS System added a Mental Health Supports survey module that is now available to all California schools and districts. This survey module measures students’ perceived stigma related to mental health; mental health help-seeking attitudes and behaviors and perceived barriers; and access to and utilization of mental health services and supports.

This recording provides an overview of the Mental Health Supports survey module. Project Cal-Well partners shared about emergent data that speak to the state of mental health and wellness among California students, and how data are used to address student mental health. Viewers will be guided through the CalSCHLS data dashboards to learn how to access data from their school, district, and/or county about student mental health and mental health supports.

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Speakers:

Tom Hanson serves as a Senior Advisor for the California Center for School Climate. Tom is a Senior Managing Director at WestEd. He has extensive experience in developing and validating survey instruments designed to measure school climate and other outcomes. He is the Director of the California School Climate, Health, & Learning Survey (CalSCHLS), a comprehensive youth risk-behavior and resilience data-collection service available to all California local education agencies. He has served as a principal investigator of multiple large-scale randomized controlled trials and has been lead methodologist for several studies examining the impacts of education interventions.

Hilva Chan, MSW, is an Education Programs Consultant with the California Department of Education. She has extensive experience managing projects promoting student wellness and resiliency both at the state and local levels, and has managed several federal grants addressing school safety, school climate, and student mental health. She is the project director of Project Cal-Well, a federally-funded mental health project. She is committed to support LEAs in data-driven school climate improvement.

Sara Geierstanger MPH, serves as Evaluation Director with the School Health Evaluation and Research Team at UCSF’s Institute for Health Policy Studies. Sara’s evaluation work focuses on the potential of school health services to improve student physical and mental health and well-being to help them succeed in school and life. Her expertise is in multi-site evaluations, using a mixed methods approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Her current projects include a comprehensive evaluation of school health centers in Alameda County, as well as multiple evaluations of school-based behavioral health interventions throughout California.

Samira Soleimanpour, MPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. She serves as the Principal Investigator of several local and statewide school health research and evaluation projects, including evaluations of the California Department of Education’s Project Cal-Well and Cal-STOP school mental health initiatives and American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth programming. She is committed to the translation of research and evaluation findings into policies and programs that improve children’s health and educational outcomes, with a particular focus on school-based health centers (SBHCs), school-based mental health services, and community-based participatory research.

The Power of Collaboration in Data-Informed School Climate Improvement

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The California Center for School Climate and the California Department of Education hosted a webinar that highlights data use in action to drive school climate improvement and collaboration.

Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) in Chula Vista and San Diego County Office of Education have been on a data-informed school climate improvement journey. Leaders in the district have operationalized data use as part of ongoing inquiry and improvement efforts, and have forged strong relationships with partners, including their County Office of Education, school site leaders, and service providers, to collectively improve the experiences of students and school staff.

In this recording, leaders from SUHSD and San Diego County Office of Education discussed the role of data in shaping their collaborative work, and also the importance of adaptive elements like trust, open communication, and mutual regard. Viewers will leave with tips and strategies for engaging in collaborative, data-driven improvement in their own schools or districts.

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Speakers:

Luis Lopez is a Teacher on Special Assignment for supporting classroom and systemic change in the adoption of equity initiatives, climate & culture improvements, and social emotional learning within the Sweetwater Union High School District. With 24 years of classroom and central office experience, he is passionate about innovating programs, practices, and platforms that braid academic rigor, positive behavior strategies, and social-emotional learning to create classrooms and schools where the adults and the whole child thrive.

Melissa Rains is a Teacher on Special Assignment for Sweetwater Unified High School District, supporting the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. Rains was named a 2022-23 San Diego County Teacher of the Year while she was working at Castle Park Middle School as a science and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resource Teacher.

Melissa Spadin is the Director, System of Supports at the San Diego County Office of Education where she supports LEAs in LCAP development, Differentiated Assistance, MTSS, SEL implementation, assessment literacy, and measurement design. She has worked on NAEP, state assessments, classroom task development, and formative assessment. She currently contributes to the ISTE Assessment Culture Advisory group, was selected as an inaugural CASEL Fellow, and served on the National Task Force for Assessment Education and The CCSSO FAST SCASS. She began her career in education as a high school English and Theatre teacher, forensics coach, and Theatre Director at Gaithersburg High School in Maryland.

Educator Panel: Creating Healing, Restorative Learning Ecosystems

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In light of all the challenges currently facing students, educators, and families, how can educators create healing, restorative ecosystems? In this two-part panel recording, learn about the approaches that system leaders can take to create healing environments for teachers. Panelists will also share instructional practices they draw upon to cultivate healing learning spaces for their students. Topics and questions for this panel were informed by CCSC Youth Advisory Team members.

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Panelists:

Dr. Martin Canizales Cobos is a Spanish teacher for Mount Eden High School in Hayward, California. Canizales is from Monterrey, Mexico, where he graduated from the School of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon. He has three specialties and more than 10 years of experience in critical care and pulmonology. He is now a licensed teacher with four years of teaching experience, contributing to his community to promote changes that can provide opportunities for young people while they are learning in a safe and healthy environment. Dr. Canizales is also a writer, and likes running and traveling.

Kyley Hironaka is a sixth-year public school educator who currently works and lives in San Francisco. She has experience working in various communities with diverse racial, ethnic, ability, and socioeconomic needs. She spent four years in the classroom teaching kindergarten and 4th grade and has recently transitioned to teaching elementary physical education. Kyley has always been passionate about education and sociology and believes in lifelong learning. In her spare time, she enjoys good food with good company and traveling to new places.

Lavita Jones is a 4th grade teacher at Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF) View Park. She has been with ICEF for over eight years and has had many roles including instructional aide, math coach, intervention specialist, behavior interventionist, and now teacher. She has her BA in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento and an MA in education from Alder Graduate School of Education. Lavita feels blessed to say that teaching is her passion and she loves what she does. Her goal is to give back to her community by serving as a loving and caring teacher who only wants the best for all students and their families. She is from Los Angeles herself and comes from a large family with seven siblings.

Bobby Pelz is an ethnic studies teacher at Watsonville High School. He earned a BA in English from the University of Washington, an MA in Education from the University of San Francisco, and an MA in Education Leadership from San Jose State University. He began his career teaching at Cupertino High School before taking a break from teaching to focus on investing and philanthropy. During this time, Bobby founded 25Books, a program that provides free books to kids. He has since returned to teaching and now enjoys both gifting books to kids in his district through the program and educating them when they get to Watsonville High.

Panel Moderators:

Krystal Wu (she/her) serves as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Center for School Climate. Krystal is also a Program Associate with the Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities team where she delivers technical assistance, designs professional learning, and develops evidence-based resources to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments. With expertise in culturally responsive and sustaining education, co-design, and school climate, Krystal centers the voices and experiences of community members in all of her work, especially those who have been kept furthest from opportunity. She currently leads the Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Deep Dive professional learning courses focused on racial equity and belonging through the California Center for School Climate and the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety.

Shazia Hashmi (she/her) serves as a Technical Assistance Provider for the California Center for School Climate. As a Program Associate at WestEd, Shazia translates and applies research on equitable, developmentally appropriate strategies to support state education agencies, district leaders, and educators in serving communities. She supports research and technical assistance projects that focus on improving practices in social–emotional learning, school climate, and community engagement. She currently develops professional learning to build statewide capacity for authentic, meaningful community partnerships as a part of CCEE’s Community Engagement Initiative.

Transformative School Culture: Looking Beyond the Numbers to Support

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The pressure to raise student achievement has contributed to a dysfunctional system based on assessment scores and attendance rates, losing sight that behind those numbers is a child with challenges who may be losing hope, vision, and self-worth. Transformation means change, and change can be uncomfortable, but it is necessary because our children’s lives are at risk. It must be our responsibility to collaborate and build an education community that understands our students’ and families’ needs; supports and advocates for them; and promotes equity so that our students feel connected to adults that care for, love, and believe in them, giving them hope to succeed. Transformative school cultures empower our students to become confident, responsible, and caring citizens. Students will then take ownership to attain academic achievement and social and emotional success.  

In this recording, the presenter will share the importance of creating student portraits as a way to utilize different data to learn how to support the whole child. She will also highlight the value of networking to build supports for students and to connect them with resources. 

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Session Speaker: 

Judith Sanchez is a principal at Leavenworth Elementary School in Fresno Unified School District, the third-largest district in California. With 22 years as an educator in both elementary and secondary levels, Judith has a wide range of experience both inside and outside the classroom, in areas such as leading curriculum development, heading WASC accreditation, supervising and evaluating teachers, and organizing student activities. Her professional experience adds value in supporting teachers, staff, and community in achieving and maintaining a safe school culture and a commitment to student success. She believes that, as educators, it is our responsibility to provide the tools necessary to ensure our students are successful citizens, and to instill in them the desire to grow and be better people for themselves, their families, and their communities. Ms. Sanchez holds a master’s degree in administration leadership preparation from CSU Fresno and has been part of a Latino Leadership Cohort through Central Valley Latino Leadership Academy (CVLLA).

Session Moderator: 

Timothy Ojetunde (he/him) serves as a Technical Assistance Provider for the California Center for School Climate.

Timothy is also a Program Associate at WestEd with Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities (RHSC) who supports districts and schools in centering equity and improving educational outcomes for all. Timothy’s expertise is grounded in school culture and climate, restorative practices, SEL, and trauma-informed practices, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. Timothy comes to WestEd with over a decade of knowledge and experience across multiple spaces and communities having been a teacher, advisory and school culture specialist, school administrator, and DEI consultant. In his work, he has coached school administrators, presented to leaders, and facilitated sessions for hundreds of educators and learners across multiple conferences. He is extremely passionate about creating equitable outcomes and is dedicated to supporting students and adults as they grow, develop, and find success.