Press Releases

SJSU Launches New Center

San José State University is launching a new Center to address gap in higher education commitment to California’s K-12 schools and systems of support

Purpose and Context for new Center launch

“The IAEP Center at SJSU” said Brent Duckor PhD and Executive Director “is uniquely positioned to impact our focal populations in TK-12 systems while deepening and extending the technical assistance work begun through a sub-grant from a CSU sponsored initiative from the Chancellor's office begun in 2020.”

Duckor added “The IAEP Center will meet the current demand for CSU campus leadership in California TK-12 school reform in critical areas of professional training, content and curricular development, research on effective practices that aid California systems of support. We are ready to act upon the findings and recommendations from the California Department of Education in 2022 calling for more integrated services.”

The San Jose State University sponsored IAEP Center will continue to address the opportunity gap by continuing to mobilize CSU-wide resources as well as other local, state, and national resources to address the educational needs of high need and highly mobile students in California.

Mission of IAEP Center at SJSU

“We envision the IAEP Center as a central CSU-based location that will provide stakeholders and providers such as TK-12educators, school districts, local educational agencies, education reform partners, and  higher education faculty with a space to coordinate policy action” said Dr. Duckor who is a Professor at the Lurie College of Education. “With the development and design of innovative tools, accessible strategies, and practitioner-centered, research-based practices we can all better serve vulnerable “at-promise” students in California and across the nation.”

The IAEP center will roll out its first online modules in Fall 2023 as what Duckor calls “conversation starters” to bring various people at school sites who serve children and teens to a deep, more holistic understanding of “the work” ahead.

“As part of our mission” Lorri Midori Capizzi EdD, Co-Director noted “we hold forth the goal of serving students at the margins—Students in Foster Care, Youth Experiencing Homelessness, and High Need/Highly Mobile Youth—who historically have not yet reached their academic potential.” Dr. Capizzi is leading efforts to develop quality technical assistance materials for putting professionals in closer contact with one another by changing how they see one another in and out of the school building and community.

The IAEP center at San Jose State has amassed a powerful and impressive Advisory Board with leading educational research and policy experts, civic and social work reformers, legal and judicial advocates, among others.

Dr. Michael Kirst, former president of the California state board of education and emeritus professor at Stanford University has been an early supporter of the work led by Duckor and Capizzi. He joined their Board along with Ret. Judge Katherine Lucero, Glen Price former Deputy Director at the California Department of Education, Shimica Gaskins Esq., and others who’ve served for decades as leaders in California.

“I admire Brent and Lorri’s tenacity, focus and vision for linking the CSU professional programs and expertise in counselor, social work, and teacher training to the needs of K-12 systems. Their deep commitment to inter-professional certificates, transformative practices and capacity building, particularly with the current community schools policy roll out, is commendable. We need these sorts of innovative efforts with deeply knowledgeable people from the CSU to succeed as a system.”

Through a multi-pronged approach based on well-established core competencies, the IAEP Center brings three critical foci to the work of innovation in applied educational policy from the CSU. These core competencies include: 1) Outreach, Mobilization, and Use of Knowledge Networks to Address the Deeper Learning Gap; 2) Applied Research and Programmatic Change for TK-12 Systems of Support; and 3) Curation and Construction of Quality Content for Those Who Serve the Providers in California Systems of Support.

CSU Unique Role in Workforce and Professional Capacity Building and Development

CSU programs, faculty, and graduates play a direct role in building workforce capacity for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade reform (Learning Policy Institute, 2021; McLaughlin, Fehrer, & Leos-Urbel, 2020; Melnick et. al, 2018). Our IAEP Center will elevate and leverage the University’s role in research to practice reforms in terms of preparation for degree and certificate pathways for teachers, school counselors, educational leadership, social work and public health.

A collaborative effort between the Center to Close Opportunity Gaps and SJSU’s IAEP Center has led to the production of a learning series titled “Weaving Connections” which will be available for LEAs to engage multiple audiences in the work of supporting youth in foster care. Of the pilot, Duckor noted “Taking the perspective of a school psychologist, a school counselor, a social worker, a teacher and a school administrator, this online module based learning series invites the audience in California’s systems of support to begin the journey of school transformation.” Capizzi further emphasizes “Everyone is inundated with webinars and podcasts and zoom meetings these days, we thought why not mix up the approach using self-paced modules with an eye on serving particular at promise youth from a truly community based perspective.”

It is this commitment to deep equity for at-promise youth across California’s system of schools that guides a large part of the mission of SJSU’s IAEP Center. Our mission is to place research, policy and a practice-based preparation focus on the children who are the most vulnerable in the State’s systems of support.

Closing the Opportunity for Deeper Learning Gap

SJSU’s Center for Innovation in Applied Educational Policy intends to demonstrate its commitment to equity and excellence with a vision connected to closing the “deeper learning gap.” In addition to supporting professionals in our systems, the IAEP Center will also provide technical and transformational assistance in assessment alternatives to “high stakes testing” and plans to launch a series of certificate programs in Summer 2024 to build capacity for school districts committed to instructional and classroom level assessment reform.

Linda Darling Hammond, current President of the California State Board of Education, has provided a vote of confidence in the IAEP leaders approach to capacity building. She recently endorsed “Feedback for Continuous Improvement in the Classroom” (Corwin, 2023) written by Duckor and his colleague Dr. Carrie Holmberg stating that it combines important scholarly insights from past and current reforms with deep knowledge from their work as expert educators to produce a blueprint for building equitable schools that enable all students to learn and grow continuously. Dr. Darling Hammond also noted that “by bringing forth a vision of the future that builds firmly on past reform, Brent and Carrie’s work offers policymakers and practitioners a solid foundation for progress in supporting success for all.”

As part of its mission to offer systemic reform in California public schools, the IAEP Center will connect the community schools movement to the work of deeper learning (Noguera, Darling-Hammond, & Friedlaender, 2015; Furger, Hernández, & Darling-Hammond, 2019). This continuous improvement reform framework encourages TK-College systems to integrate improvement perspectives across stakeholders that have traditionally been siloed and fragmented (Fullan & Quinn, 2015; Fullan, Quinn & McEachen, 2018; Fullan & Rincón-Gallardo; 2017).

Bottom line

The IAEP Center through its considerable expertise in preparation, training, and professional development of teachers, school counselors, social workers, school psychologists and administrators will bring more coherence and linkages between systems of support for at-promise students across the public education system. As Duckor, a lifelong teacher educator and advocate for the teaching profession notes, “we must ensure that highly qualified and high-quality teaching and learning animates all of our work on reform. Keeping our eyes in the educational equity and academic excellence prize is key.”

For more info Contact: brent.duckor@sjsu.edu