REEd is a university-based intermediary with deep ties to the
TK–12 education community across the state. We are committed
to moving research findings into practice and building the
capacity of education systems to improve teaching and learning
with the goal of reducing education inequities. We do this by
testing professional growth systems for building capacity
and using research practice partnerships to spread and deepen
this work in many districts across the state and beyond.
Our Mission
To develop organizations’ capacity to continuously improve
teacher professional growth systems so that teachers grow
professionally, students achieve, and educational inequities are
diminished.
- Engage California organizations through research
practice partnerships to create and sustain the conditions needed
to implement high-quality systems
- Bring specific expertise and a proven capacity-building
process for fostering teacher professional growth
- Enable knowledge transfer to accelerate systemic improvement
and move the field
- Anchored in an instructional framework
REEd distinguishes itself from other education organizations and
university centers with an approach that combines three mutually
reinforcing activities.
First, we engage in research practice partnerships
with local and county agencies within California, as well as
the California Department of Education. We work collaboratively
with them to build capacity to implement and continuously improve
teacher professional growth systems grounded in concrete
instructional practices. During our engagements, we capture and
generate new knowledge, tools, and an evidence base for
resourcing and sustaining systemic improvement.
Second, we serve as a “capacity hub” to accelerate effective
implementation. To do this, we cultivate partnerships with
organizations that enable the implementation of practices
grounded in REEd’s evidence base. We recommend partners to others
based on the specific needs they have.
Lastly, we generate new knowledge and develop and disseminate
tools, frameworks, and approaches from practice-based experience
that local and county agencies can use for self-directed
implementation. This work helps us to broadly spread the proven
elements of the capacity building process.
REEd’s innovative method for achieving its mission consists of
five guiding principles:
- Co-design and collaboration: We engage individuals with
diverse expertise from the REEd and Local Education Agency
(LEA)/County of Education (COE) team in designing, developing,
and testing innovations, just as we engaged California educators
in building our teaching frames.
- Place-based and enduring relationships: We focus on
long-term, in-depth work with a single local, county, or state
agency. Engagements’ durations range from one to five years
depending on the specific needs of each client agency.
- Educator capacity-building: We focus on ensuring that systems
and the process of continuous improvement are led and owned by
the internal team over time.
- Continuous improvement: We emphasize the cycle of learning,
not only to improve teacher professional growth systems, but also
to transfer the process more broadly to other systems within the
education agency.
- Informing practice and research: We aim to develop materials,
tools, and instructional approaches that can be practically
implemented in classrooms, schools, and districts – while seeking
to advance research and theory.