Research and Evaluation Conducted in SFUSD

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One strategy to promote student achievement is an Early Warning System (EWS) that identifies students at risk of not graduating from high school.

View findings from the John Gardner Center at Stanford here.

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This study evaluates the effects of READY4K!, an eight-month-long text-messaging intervention for parents of preschoolers and find it increased parental involvement at home and school by 0.15 to 0.29 standard deviations, leading to child gains in early literacy of about 0.11 standard deviations.

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• Y9 (21-22):
  • Y9 (21-22) Student outcome highlights (1-pg)
  • Y9 (21-22) STEM outcomes Narrative (4-pg)
  • Y9 (21-22) Evaluation Brief (4-pg)
• Y8 (20-21):
  • Y8 (20-21) Student outcome highlights (1-pg) 
  • Y8 (20-21) STEM outcomes narrative (3-pg) 
• Y7 (19-20):
  • Y7 (19-20) Student outcomes highlights (1-pg)
  • Y7 (19-20) STEM outcomes narrative (4-pg)
  • Y7 (19-20) Evaluation Brief (5-pg)
• Y6 (18-19): 
  • Y6 (18-19) Student outcome highlights (1-pg)
  • Y6 (18-19) Evaluation Brief (4-pg)  
• Y5 (17-18):
  • Y5 (17-18) Student outcome highlights (2-pg) 
  • Y5 (17-18) Analysis Summary Slides
• Y4 (16-17): 
  • Y4 (15-16) Evaluation Brief (6-pg)  

“Rising to the Equity Challenge in SFUSD”, 2017 Nov 14 (see pp. 13-35, for analyses and research underpinning the initiative)

• As part of the initiative, school leaders and teams created theories of improvement aligned to the five PITCH essentials, received targeted funding to implement those theories, and engaged in monthly professional learning communities for coaching and support of their continuous improvement efforts. Communities of practice were organized around shared problems of practice, such as shifting the cognitive load from teachers to students, developing individualized learning plans, building staff professional capacity, or strengthening school connectedness and belonging. These communities of practice provided opportunities for shared discourse between central office and school leaders, building a common language and understanding around equity. They also reinforced leaders’ autonomy and agency through a regular structure in which they presented results from the implementation and impact of their improvement efforts and shared reflections and feedback through small-group consultancies.
• In Year 1 of implementation (2017-18), reading lexile growth for African-American students at PITCH schools was 16 points higher compared to African-American students at non-PITCH schools. However, these gains were not sustained in subsequent years, when lexile growth became similar between the two groups. Across five years, the equity gap has narrowed at the 10 High Equity Gap schools, with pre-pandemic RI growth (W1-W2) for African-American students exceeding growth of non-African-American students at these schools. In ’20-’21, reading lexile growth for African-American students at High Equity Gap PITCH schools was lower than non-African-American students at the same school, which may be explained by differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related disruptions to learning. For more details on outcomes of the PITCH initiative, see summary slides.
• A qualitative analysis of schools' PITCH theories of improvement (TOIs) from 2017-2018 through 2021-2022 reveals common practices and strategies of supporting students to become independent learners, building teacher capacity, and integrating whole-school instructional strategies. Potential implications include developing greater clarity and coherence in articulating who is responsible for enacting change and whom that change serves.

In February 2020, the California Department of Education (CDE) notified San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) that it was significantly disproportionate in the number of Black/African American students (a) found eligible for special education in two disability categories, Emotional Disturbance and Other Health Impairment, and (b) in the incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions. Subsequently, SFUSD developed a Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CCEIS) plan that included identifying students to receive intervening services to interrupt these disproportionalities. These reports evaluate SFUSD's implementation of its CCEIS plans starting in 2020; the focus of each report varies depending on the priorities identified in that cycle's CCEIS plan.

• Cycle 1 (2020) evaluation report
• Cycle 2 (2021) evaluation report