Webinars
What's a Webinar?
A webinar is an online event that brings experts to the Web to share lessons learned, new ideas, and related resources. Events combine a web telecast with a phone conference. Each is presented with accompanying resource materials. Participants can watch and listen to the presentation, ask questions, and engage in discussion.
Want to see what a webinar is like? See an example past webinar
Recent Webinars (Archives)
Closing the Achievement Gap: Recommendations from the P-16 Council
Archived Event - March 7, 2008
Presenter: Rick Miller, Deputy Superintendent, Policy Development and External Affairs, CDE
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell's California P–16 (Prekindergarten through Higher Education) Council spent a year developing recommendations that hold the State of California accountable for creating the conditions necessary to close the achievement gap that exists between students who are white and students of color, as well as with English learners, students in poverty, and students with disabilities.
This presentation elaborated on the P-16 Council’s initial recommendations for closing the achievement gap and the State Superintendent’s corresponding recommendation for implementation.
Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools: Resources From Doing What Works
Archived Event - May 19, 2009
As part of a series of WestEd-sponsored webinars related to education goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Nikola Filby, Director of WestEd's Innovation Studies Program; Rebecca Herman, Principal Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research; Fred Tempes, Director of the Comprehensive School Assistance Program at WestEd; and Jan Phlegar, Director of Learning Innovations at WestEd offered research-based recommendations to improve low-performing schools from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guide. The webinar also showcaseed resources from the Doing What Works website illustrating how these recommendations have been carried out successfully.
Cesar E. Chavez High School: High Expectations, Empowerment, and Excellence
Archived Event - April 22, 2009
Principal Saul Gonzalez and Learning Director Terri Nuckols shared how Cesar Chavez High School in rural Delano, California, which serves a high poverty, high minority student population, performs well above its peers and has received a "similar schools ranking" of 8 (on a 10-point scale) on the California Academic Performance Index (API). At Cesar E. Chavez, 86% of the students are Latino, 8% are Filipino, and 1% are African American. In addition, 44% are English learners, and 66% are eligible to receive free or reduced price lunch. All of these groups are meeting or exceeding Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals in both English language arts and mathematics. In contrast to many large and impersonal high schools across the nation, Cesar Chavez is a small, rural high school, which fosters academic excellence, trust, safety, empowerment, and high expectations.
Monitoring Student Academic Progress Throughout the School Year: Why, When, and How?
Archived Event - March 12, 2009
In this archived webinar Robert Anderson, Senior Assessment Specialist at WestEd, guides district, school, and classroom decision-makers to consider the differences in format, content and timing of local student assessments. The discussion explores the uses of assessment results to monitor the academic achievement of individual students and groups of students, to identify and assist students in need of differentiated instruction, to evaluate program effectiveness, and to inform district, school, and classroom decision-making. Participants examine key criteria for choosing assessments that meet specific local needs and the effective use of assessments and their results in efforts to accelerate student learning.