The CCTE SPAN 2020 Research Monograph

In his January 10, 2020, budget presentation, Governor Gavin Newsom outlined bold initiatives for early childhood education, teacher preparation and professional development, K-12 public schooling, and California’s public universities. His vision was to be funded by over $900 million in proposed expenditures. Against this hopeful and exciting backdrop, we geared up for the California Council on Teacher Education’s Spring 2020 SPAN Conference. We coordinated efforts with our policy allies, getting ready to work together on key legislation. We secured excellent speakers who would bring new perspectives (the media, the law) to our policy discussions. And, under Sarah Johnson’s leadership, we looked forward to a slew of visits to legislative offices, including first-ever meetings with actual legislators rather than just staff.

Then as March approached and the increasingly dire news about the global pandemic became a reality for all of us in California, the CCTE leadership and SPAN conference co-chairs made the hasty and difficult, but obviously necessary, decision to cancel the place-based conference and restructure SPAN into a three hour virtual meeting. This leadership group did what educators do—marshaled all possible resources, thought outside the box, and reframed this challenge into a different kind of teachable moment. And the CCTE community did what educators do—adjusted to the changes gracefully and stoically and engaged the new opportunity with enthusiasm, patience, and understanding. 

During that virtual SPAN meeting on the afternoon of March 19, we had a chance to “see” each other, interact around important policy questions, and learn from our remarkable speakers: Louis Freedberg, Executive Director, EdSource; Rigel Massaro, Senior Legislative Counsel, Public Advocates; the Commission on Teacher Credentialing team (Teri Clark, Cheryl Hickey, and Erin Sullivan); and several policy allies—Laura Preston (Association of California School Administrators), Shelly Gupton (California Teachers Association), and Chelsea Kelley (Assembly Education Committee).

Finally, each of the accepted conference researh presenters has also done what educators do—pivoted, viewed a challenge as an opportunity, and accepted the invitation to contribute to our collective knowledge through this CCTE SPAN 2020 Research Monograph. This volume provides us yet one more chance to extend our SPAN 2020 learning even more broadly.

Thank you to the CCTE community and the many people who contributed to making all parts of SPAN 2020 possible. We’d like to pay special attention to the technical support provided by Nicol Howard, Ernest Black, and Betina Hsieh that assured us a smooth and professional virtual SPAN event as well as the yeoman’s work that Alan Jones has done trying to pick up the logistical and financial pieces during this difficult time.

Please receive and retain this PDF publication. Enjoy all of the contributions from our SPAN 2020 research presenters…and promote their work widely!

Co-Chairs of the CCTE Policy Committee and SPAN

• Cindy Grutzik, San Francisco State University
• Nicol Howard, University of Redlands
• Pia Wong, California State University, Sacramento