Who We Are - Scaling Student Success:

Scaling Student Success

Is designed as a California partnership among local educators, state agencies, support providers, policymakers, researchers, funders, and others – all focused on assuring that CA youth are prepared for success in college, career, and civic engagement. We help establish and maintain the local and state conditions to unify the field around a singular, student-centered goal that promotes equitable opportunities for CA youth and strengthens the CA economy.

Community of Practice

COHORT 1 (2019-20)

Prior to the launch of Scaling Student Success, the eight (8) pioneering school districts in Cohort 1 had already created their respective Graduate Profiles and were taking steps toward operationalization. We are eager to support their efforts, embrace their lessons learned, and build on their success.

See their respective Graduate Profiles by clicking on the district names to the right.

Scaling Student Success a California Partnership - Image Courtesy of Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action

COHORT 1 (2019-20)

See their respective Graduate Profiles by clicking on the district names to the right.

COHORT 2 (2020-21)

We welcome into Cohort 2 any school district or county office of education that would like to join the Scaling Student Success Community of Practice (CoP) in 2020-21. To express interest/intent and discuss opportunities, please complete our form to get started.

Let’s Get Started

Testimonials

“The opportunity to gather with like-minded California district leaders to rally around engaging students to their fullest has the potential to shift teaching and learning in our state. There is true power to a collective effort such as ours.”

Dan Deguara, Assistant Superintendent, Evergreen ESD

“The Scaling Student Success Community of Practice is critical for districts. By building deeper relationships, they will be able to share resources, viable solutions, and build a more coherent approach to meeting the skills set forth in their Graduate Profiles.”

Brandon Wiley, Chief Program Officer, PBL Works

“I enjoyed the atmosphere of trust and sharing. It was inspiring to be part of a team of educators and professionals who are at the core of a movement to change how we measure what students know and are able to do.”

Betsy McKinstry, Director, Career Technical Education, Antelope Valley UHSD

Scaling Student Success is a collaboration among organizations with varied expertise, each well-positioned to play a critical role in advancing the common agenda. The seven (8) founding partners focus on practice. Additional partners, spanning research, policy, data, and more will be added as the partnership evolves.

Practice Partners

Expertise in all stages of operationalizing a Graduate Profile, including those with demonstrated success in building capacity of teachers and coaching leaders

Altitude Learning

ConnectEd: The National Center for College & Career

Envision Learning Partners

National Equity Project

New Tech Network

Partnership for Children & Youth

PBL Works (formerly Buck Institute for Education)

Turnaround for Children

YouthTruth

Communication Partner

Expertise in capturing partnership successes and lessons learned, and scripting compelling narrative for multiple audiences and purposes

Data Partners

Expertise on how to design and implement data systems effectively able to measure, record, and report student competency in 21st century skills and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes

Research Partners

Expertise in designing and conducting studies that provide the basis for our work, inform continuous improvement, and evaluate impact

Policy Partners

Expertise understanding and analyzing the current policy landscape, informing shifts in local school board policy, and influencing shifts in state policy

Advisory Board

Our Advisory Board draws approximately one-third (1/3) of its membership from each of the following three groups:

Executive Directors

or designees from each of the Founding Partners

Superintendents

or cabinet-level designees from each of the Pioneering Districts

At-large members

who offer unique perspectives, needed expertise, and professional relationships

See Roster

Staff

Roman Stearns

FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Roman operates from a deep conviction that our youth deserve an education that fosters the qualities and skills that futurists, scholars, and researchers contend are needed to advance us toward a sustainable future. Yet, he knows that getting there is a humbling, collaborative process that involves valuing local experimentation and taking risks, creating the right conditions for organizational change, building trusting relationships, shifting hearts and minds, making strategic decisions, and ultimately adopting or adapting sustainable systems. After 10 years serving as a public school teacher, augmented by site and district leadership responsibilities, Roman Stearns has spent the past 20+ years successfully directing large-scale multi-faceted projects and partnerships focused on systemic educational transformation in California. All of the projects had policy implications and required development and management of sustained partnerships bridging K-12 education with partners across all stakeholder groups.

Portrait of Roman Stearns Founder of Scaling Student Success a California Partnership

Professional Summary

(2008-2014) California Linked Learning District Initiative

Working at ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, Roman first served as Director for Policy, building a surprising coalition of partners to support Linked Learning (which evolved into the Linked Learning Alliance), and then, beginning 2008, served as Director for Leadership Development, directing the CA Linked Learning District Initiative – a large-scale, 7-year, $30M proof of concept demonstration with 9 medium and large school districts (942,000 students) to pilot and expand Linked Learning across California.

(2000-2005) UC a-g Guide Project

Working at the UC Office of the President, Roman first directed the statewide “a-g Guide Project” aimed at better aligning university eligibility and admissions with high school reform efforts. For the latter part of his tenure, he served as the Special Assistant to the Statewide Director of Undergraduate Admissions, still overseeing the project, but taking on broader responsibilities aimed at shifting university admissions practices and policies to more equitably serve the current and future needs of CA youth, particularly those who had chosen non-traditional paths to the university (i.e., middle/early college HS, online course-taking options, home schooling, independent study, career pathways, Big Picture schools, etc.).

(1996-1999) EASTBAY Learns (School-to-Career Partnership)

Working at the Alameda County Office of Education, Roman served first as associate director and then director of EASTBAY Learns, one of the largest school-to-career partnerships in California. With a $5M federal grant, he directed systemic shifts to better align education with workforce development in an expansive effort that included 20+ school districts in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, along with 10 community colleges, Cal State East Bay, and EASTBAY Works (a network of 10 one-stop career centers).

Transform education to bolster student success

Raise the aspirations of our education system and the expectations and capacity of local communities to prepare all young people, no matter their background, for future success in college, career, and civic engagement.

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Scaling Student Success is a project of Community Partners, a nonprofit charity exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Checks should be made payable to: Community Partners for Scaling Student Success. Your donation is only tax deductible if made to Community Partners, our fiscal sponsor and the tax-exempt entity.