Overview of Cohort 1 Awardees/Projects
Anaheim Union High School District: Integrated College and Career Readiness Roadmap
This project will address the challenge of misalignment between classroom skills and labor market demands through data-driven, personalized six-year academic and career plans for every student, an AI-powered Opportunity Board connecting student strengths to local workforce needs, and on-campus Simulation Centers that provide immersive vocational training for students with moderate to severe disabilities. An AI-integrated Emergency Management Team dashboard will enable real-time, predictive interventions, leading to increased completion of CTE pathways, dual enrollment, internships, and stronger workforce alignment.
Fountain Valley Elementary School District: Math Learning Lab Model
The innovative Math Learning Lab Model provides job-embedded professional development designed to strengthen Tier 1 math instruction, improve grade-level coherence, and advance equity for all learners. Evolving from one-time trainings into a sustainable, districtwide system, the research-based model fosters a culture of collaboration and inquiry through structured classroom lab cycles aligned to the 2024 California Mathematics Framework. Teachers engage in real-time, student-centered learning that includes observing authentic student thinking, analyzing student work, revising lessons, re-teaching, and coaching follow-up. Effectiveness is measured through SBAC Math and curriculum-based assessments, with a focus on closing achievement gaps for English Learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and students with special needs.
Fullerton School District: Construction Academy Tiny Home Project
The project is a middle school CTE and service-learning initiative that addresses student disengagement, inequitable access to career pathways, and homelessness by integrating hands-on construction with academic literacy, mathematics, and wraparound supports for socioeconomically disadvantaged students (SED), English Learners (Els), Long-term English Learners (LTELs), and students experiencing homelessness. Building on data showing improved attendance, achievement, and reduced suspensions among participating EL, LTEL and SED students, the program will expand into a two-period model combining construction, construction management, academic language development, mathematical reasoning, and leadership skills through authentic project-based learning in which students design and build code-compliant tiny homes. The homes will house local families within the district experiencing homelessness—an innovative model linking middle school CTE with housing-connected service learning.
Huntington Beach Union High School District: College & Career-Ready Global Citizens: IB Schoolwide Implementation and Career Pathway Integration
This project transforms the school by integrating the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, Career-related Programme (CP), and a Universal CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) framework to expand equitable access to rigorous academic and career pathways for a high-need student population. Addressing significant performance gaps—including 0% EL math proficiency and high chronic absenteeism—the initiative creates an academic-vocational bridge through Constructing Meaning literacy scaffolds and IB-CP integration. Key goals include achieving IB-CP authorization, increasing CTE and dual enrollment participation by 20%, reducing absenteeism by 5%, and closing the EL achievement gap by 5%.
Orange Unified School District: Teaching Teacher Specialist (TTS) Model
The Teaching Teacher Specialist (TTS) Model is a classroom-based approach to instructional improvement that leverages expert teachers who split their time between teaching and structured leadership roles as coaches and facilitators of job-embedded professional learning. By opening their classrooms as live demonstration sites, TTS educators enable colleagues to observe research-based instruction, engage in focused professional dialogue, and apply high-impact strategies in real time, promoting coherence and consistency across schools. A key focus is advancing equitable outcomes for English learners through strengthened integrated and designated ELD aligned to the California English Learner Roadmap, ensuring asset-oriented, grade-level, language-rich instruction that values multilingual learners and increases access, engagement, and achievement.
Saddleback Valley USD: SVUSD Advances OCDE 5-3-1 Through PBIS and ISLA Integration
The three-year, districtwide project aims to improve secondary student engagement, attendance, and school safety by embedding the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA) into existing MTSS Social-Emotional-Behavioral (SEB) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) frameworks. Addressing ongoing challenges with engagement, inconsistent discipline, and exclusionary practices for low-level behavior, the project emphasizes culturally proficient, inclusive Tier 1 and targeted Tier 2 instructional practices that build relationships, respond instructionally to behavior, and maintain student dignity and instructional time, and restore access to learning through resolution and reconnection. Through a phased rollout across nine secondary schools, the project aims to reduce chronic absenteeism, exclusionary discipline, and disproportionality, and to strengthen school climate and increase consistency in adult responses.
