Math Course Pathways: Companion Sheet for Teachers and School Counselors
Research shows students who take four years of high school math are better prepared for college coursework. Therefore, it is important that teachers and school counselors work closely with students and their parents to map out a course-taking plan that will best support academic success in postsecondary school.
This brief, developed by REL West, is designed to help teachers and school counselors prepare for math course planning discussions with students and parents using the Math Course Pathway Parent Guide: Four Years of Math, Nothing Less Will Do. [PDF]
The brief provides:
- Tips on how teachers and counselors can be the most helpful to students and parents, including different contexts in which the parent guide can be introduced
- Information about the research underlying the “What the Experts Say” section of the parent guide
Download the brief for teachers and counselors and click the links below to view and download the planning guides for parents and students based on language preference; specific math pathway; and a math sample sequence of math courses: Math Analysis, Precalculus, or Statistics.
Integrated Math Pathways
- Math Analysis – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
- Precalculus & Trigonometry – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
- Statistics – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
Traditional Math Pathways
- Math Analysis – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
- Precalculus & Trigonometry – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
- Statistics – English | Chinese | Spanish | Vietnamese
Supporting Integrated English Learner Student Instruction
The Regional Educational Laboratory West and the Region 15 Comprehensive Center developed this guide to help district and school site leaders assess the professional learning needs of elementary school teachers to implement research-based recommendations for the instruction of English learner students. It comprises two tools—the Teacher Self-Reflection Tool and the Classroom Observation Tool—and outlines a 10-step process to help districts align their professional learning decisions with the data collected from these tools.
The guide is designed to help district and school site leaders collect information about their elementary school–level teachers’ confidence and competence in implementing the four research-based recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School.
Making Sense of SCIENCE: Matter for Teachers of Grades 5-12 (Teacher Book Bundle), Second Edition
Making Sense of SCIENCE (MSS) helps teachers gain a solid grasp of challenging science concepts, analyze effective teaching practices, and explore how literacy supports impact learning.
The activities and approach in this second edition of the Making Sense of SCIENCE: Matter course bundle supports existing standards-based curricula, are based on a decade of research, and have been nationally field-tested with teachers and vetted by scientists.
The course materials are designed to:
- Engage teachers in collaborative, adult-level science learning that models the multidimensional, discourse-rich practices found in productive science classrooms
- Equip teachers with the deep content knowledge and strong pedagogical skills needed to effectively foster inspirational and impactful student-driven learning
- Empower teachers to reflect on and improve their practice with tools that scaffold respectful and collaborative professional learning communities
In this second edition, the authors further emphasize engaging students in discourse-rich practices, systems thinking, developing scientific explanations, and phenomena-based learning.
The authors have also updated the content and streamlined the learning to make the course even more efficient, allowing for added time to reflect on teaching and to explore the everyday applications of this fascinating science.
The Teacher Book bundle includes:
- The Matter Teacher Book, which contains teaching cases of actual classroom practice, science background information, and guided investigations that explore the subject of matter in conjunction with related literacy supports and teaching practices
- Making Sense of Student Work: A Protocol for Teacher Collaboration, designed to support teachers in collaboratively examining and learning from their students’ work
- Downloaded digital resources that contain all course handouts, additional classroom resources, the eBook edition of Making Sense of Student Work: A Protocol for Teacher Collaboration, and the Matter Formative Assessment Task BankÂ
Also Available Separately
- Facilitator Guide Bundle: Contains the Facilitator Guide, Teacher Book, Making Sense of Student Work: A Protocol for Teacher Collaboration, and a digital download that includes all course materials, the eBook edition of Making Sense of Student Work: A Protocol for Teacher Collaboration, and the Matter Formative Assessment Task BankÂ
- Charts: Single-use 24″ x 32″ wall charts for facilitators to anchor discussions and provide a visual archive of teachers’ thinking in the Teacher Course
- Formative Assessment Task Bank: Twenty formative assessment tasks for use with grades 5–12 students
Visit Making Sense of SCIENCE for more information about our professional development services and resources.
Field Guide to Geometric Transformations, Congruence, and Similarity, Updated Edition
This first-of-its-kind illustrated and laminated guide helps both secondary school teachers and students understand geometric transformation, similarity, and congruence.
Developed by the Learning and Teaching Geometry Project, this resource features:
- Definitions of important terms
- Color coordination of key phases
- Diagrams with examples and non-examples
- Examples of precise and imprecise language
- Properties for translation, rotation, reflection, dilation, congruence, and similarity
Program for Infant/Toddler Care Module III: Learning and Development
WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) has produced a series of award-winning videos and supporting materials. The products include video magazines (in DVD format), curriculum guides, trainer’s manuals, and related materials—all providing easy-to-follow techniques to ensure emotionally secure and intellectually engaging group child care. Videos are available in English, Cantonese, and Spanish. The PITC series is organized into four modules, each containing videos and print materials (see separate descriptions of each module).
Module III Print Materials:
- Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Language Development and Communication
- Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Cognitive Development and Learning
- Module III Trainer’s Manual
Module III Videos and Video Magazines:
- The Ages of Infancy: Caring for Young, Mobile, and Older Infants
- Discoveries of Infancy: Cognitive Development and Learning
- Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication
Supplementary Materials for Module III:
- Addendum to Trainer’s Manual Module III
- Spanish-Language Handouts and Transparencies
For a complete list of PITC products for sale, including current prices, download the PITC order form. At the end of the form, you will find instructions on how to order materials through the California Department of Education.
Program for Infant/Toddler Care Module II: Group Care
WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) has produced a series of award-winning videos and supporting materials. The products include video magazines (in DVD format), curriculum guides, trainer’s manuals, and related materials—all providing easy-to-follow techniques to ensure emotionally secure and intellectually engaging group child care. Videos are available in English, Cantonese, and Spanish. The PITC series is organized into four modules, each containing videos and print materials (see separate descriptions of each module).
Module II Print Materials:
- Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Routines
- Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Setting Up Environments
- Module II Trainer’s Manual
Module II Videos and Video Magazines:
- It’s Not Just Routine: Feeding, Diapering, and Napping Infants and Toddlers
- Respectfully Yours: Magda Gerber’s Approach to Professional Infant/Toddler Care
- Space to Grow: Creating a Child Care Environment for Infants and Toddlers
- Together in Care: Meeting the Intimacy Needs of Infants and Toddlers in Groups
Supplementary Materials for Module II:
- Addendum to Trainer’s Manual Module II
- Spanish-Language Handouts and Transparencies
For a complete list of PITC products for sale, including current prices, download the PITC order form. At the end of the form, you will find instructions on how to order materials through the California Department of Education.
Advancing and Sustaining Student and Staff Well-Being Initiatives: A Resource Guide for States
Student and staff well-being is essential to a range of outcomes associated with school success, from academic attainment to positive school engagement and motivation.
While many state education agencies have been implementing well-being initiatives for years, other states now recognize the need to amplify these efforts in an era of growing inequities and intensifying needs, exacerbated by the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CCSSO’s Advancing and Sustaining Student and Staff Well-Being Initiatives: A Resource Guide for States, developed in partnership with WestEd, provides state leaders an overview of five actions necessary to establish lasting, effective student and staff well-being initiatives. For each action, the guide includes relevant context, suggested strategies, additional considerations, and resources to help carry out the action.
Ready Now: Science and Engineering EdTech Guide
This digital EdTech guide contains a variety of K-12+ education technology offerings focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). These applications can be used in-class, for hybrid learning, or for remote learning and include a mix of no-cost and fee-based products.
This guide is intended to raise awareness of digital learning applications that may be useful to teachers, schools and districts navigating the education challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research-backed applications use a variety of technologies, including an assortment of digital courses and learning activities, educational games, and maker platforms. This guide offers an evaluation of the applications’ usability, feasibility for use in remote settings, promise of learning and efficacy.
WestEd served as a research partner for the applications Happy Atoms and Vidcode, and developed the application ChemVLab+ in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University.
Topics Covered:
- Early science learning
- Earth & Environmental science
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Engineering
- Neuroscience
- Coding skills
The Science and Engineering Education Network (SEEN) is a group of edtech creators looking to share science learning options during a challenging era.
These applications were developed through innovation grants from federal government programs including at the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Identifying Indicators of Distress in Your Schools: A Guide for Charter School Authorizers
Charter schools that are struggling to sustain high-quality education can course-correct by identifying indicators of distress—the characteristics and patterns that occur early in a charter school’s decline. By identifying these indicators early, charter authorizers can provide timely intervention to prevent school decline and ensure positive educational experiences for students.
This self-paced, multimedia guide enables authorizers to identify indicators of distress with tools and resources divided into three modules:
- Identifying Indicators of Distress – Understand the indicators of distress and how you can use your data collection practices to identify indicators across groups of schools.
- Auditing Data Collection and Analyzing Indicator Data Trends – Review indicators of distress and analyze which indicator categories appear most frequently in your portfolio.
- Assessing and Embedding Indicators Into Data Collection Activities – Review and reflect on your charter school data and create an action plan for integrating the indicators of distress into your current data collection and review mechanisms.
Get started with the guide today!
Put the Guide into Action with the A-GAME Community
Developed by the National Charter Schools Institute, Momentum Strategy and Research, and WestEd, A-GAME: Measure What Matters is a community of education leaders from schools, boards, districts, authorizers, and state education agencies to predict and prevent schools from declining and to create innovative, customized school improvement goals. To join the community, create a login on the A-GAME Community Dashboard at CharterNetwork.org. Join today to access valuable resources created by authorizers for authorizers.
Centering Equity in Data-Based Decision-Making: Considerations and Recommendations for Leadership Teams
Safe and supportive school environments that promote well-being and healthy social and emotional development are essential to effective teaching, learning, and support of the whole person. Gathering, analyzing, and using data to make decisions in schoolwide whole-person work is critical for the systems change and continuous improvement processes that create equitable, safe, and supportive conditions for learning and well-being.
This guide helps school, district, and state education leadership teams redesign and transform systems for equitable health and learning by centering equity in their data-using culture and data-based decision-making processes.
Part 1 of this guide explores key concepts, including
- creating safe, inclusive, and positive learning environments;
- promoting the mental health and well-being of school communities; and
- ensuring agency, self-determination, and equitable outcomes for students across all identities, including race/ethnicity, gender, and disability status.
Part 2 offers step-by-step companion dialogue guides that help leadership teams implement practices and practical strategies that center equity.
With this guide, teams engaging in an equity-centered, data-based decision-making process can discuss, analyze, and create action plans that proactively and immediately reimagine the system and its conditions so that all students, families, and communities can thrive—especially those who have not historically done so.