Interdisciplinary, San Francisco, 2025, Middle School, Funded Projects
Cultural and academic data shows that Black students and students with disabilities have fewer positive academic outcomes and school experiences at our school compared with white students. Most school systems are directed at student behavior as the problem and are ineffective. We believe this is because behavior is a symptom of unidentified systemic issues. Our project will identify the systemic problems causing student behavior issues, and use trauma-informed practices to improve student outcomes. Our team of six educators across content areas will attend the Innovative Schools Summit Student Discipline Conference, using this learning experience as the starting point for a two year cycle of student data collection and analysis. Our goal is to change at least one school system to create better experiences and outcomes for our struggling students.
Interdisciplinary, San Mateo County, 2025, Elementary School, Funded Projects
Our school aims to grow a generation of students from all backgrounds with a foundation in Mandarin Chinese language, literacy and knowledge of Chinese culture, which affords them to be multilingual global stewards . Establishing a global professional learning community (PLC) with those who share our vision and goals toward a student centered, social and environmental justice 21st Century Transdisciplinary Mandarin Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Curriculum will support our aim. The Light Award will be instrumental in cultivating a continuous, collaborative, cross cultural, cross linguistic learning community while also developing our leadership skills.
Alameda County, Social & Emotional Learning, 2025, Elementary School, Funded Projects
Our team of six elementary educators will work with The Teaching Well to obtain a two year cycle of wellness coaching. The program will include both self and collective care practices, and will also teach us how to model healthy SEL habits for our students. By integrating mindfulness into our teaching practice, we will develop tools to better manage our stress and build emotional resilience. Our students are still developing their prefrontal cortexes and rely on us to offer a regulated presence they mirror through co-regulation. Engaging in Mindful Mentoring and Group Coaching, the teachers on our team will not only grow individually but also as a cohesive group, equipped to mentor others and sustain this professional learning approach within the Garfield community.
Language, Alameda County, 2025, Elementary School, Funded Projects
The purpose of this project is to establish a system of support for students who are multilingual learners, also known as English Learners. At Marshall Elementary, there has been an upsurgence in the number of multilingual learners. In this project, selected teachers from general education, special education, and Response to Intervention will work together to create units of study and implement common instructional practices in English Language Development (ELD) in our classrooms. In this community of practice, we will engage in job-embedded professional development to ensure long term, sustainable implementation of ELD practices.
Language, Alameda County, 2025, Elementary School, Funded Projects
Four elementary ELD educators at three schools in our district will pursue training in Guided Language Acquisition and Development (GLAD) strategies to enhance and revitalize our own teaching. During the second year of our project, we will co-plan content-integrated units with classroom teachers at our schools. This project will make our teaching richer and more interactive, and will enable students to learn science and social studies content as they learn English. It will also create more support for English learners in the general education classroom, meet a need for teacher collaboration, and amp up instruction for all students.
Reading/Writing, Alameda County, 2025, High School, Funded Projects
The Reading Department of Oakland International High School (OIHS) will use its LIGHT Award grant to deepen our instructional approach to reading for newcomer students. While we have established strong practices for teaching phonics and decoding (connecting the sounds and meanings of letter combinations), vocabulary, and word parts, we struggle to effectively teach syntax: the order of words to create meaning. We know that understanding how words work together is vital to the teaching and learning of reading, particularly for older learners and those with education gaps. Our project will allow us to receive training from experts (Strategic Inquiry). In collaboration with this consultant, we will learn new strategies, participate in inquiry cycles, and share widely with other educators at our school.
