Projects We’ve Funded

As of Spring 2025, we have supported the professional learning of over 550 Bay Area teachers as part of 115 funded projects.

Year Awarded

Level

Subject

County

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Restorative Justice from Diverse Perspectives

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.

PLC Global Ambassadors – College Park Elementary

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.

Mindful Mentoring for Teacher Leaders at Garfield

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.

Marshall Elementary Multilingual Learner Support Project

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.

GLAD Training for ELD Teachers

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.

Foundational Literacy and Syntax for Newcomer Multilingual Learners

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.

Engaging Minds: Multisensory Learning Interventions for Elementary Classrooms

Our project was born out of a desire to acquire the necessary skills and tools to help our struggling readers. Orton-Gillingham’s multisensory training will provide our team of cross grade level elementary educators with the tools and protocols to deliver an effective Tier One and Tier Two intervention that will support students with dyslexia, multilingual students, and students struggling with foundational reading skills. We will work with an on-site consultant, share our learnings with site staff and district educators, and form a PLC to assist teachers who are learning how to implement these new strategies.

Developing Strong Mathematical Thinking in the Classroom

Participating teachers will engage in course work focused on Cognitively Guided Instruction in Mathematics, trainings led by a math facilitator, and conferences designed to provide teachers with the necessary skill-set to tailor instruction to align with how students think. During release days teachers will design mathematical units of study, the cornerstone of each unit will be student work with a goal to progress conceptual understanding. Once participating teachers have mastered these skills they will lead Professional Development at both the site and district levels to share their learning.

Creating Culture through Collaboration

This project will provide CVUSD Middle and High School Activities Directors (ADs) with dedicated collaboration and professional development time in order to build our own capacity as well as our students’ capacity for leadership and school connectedness. Because there are only 1 or 2 Activities Directors at each site, opportunities to collaborate and take part in meaningful professional development are limited. This dedicated collaboration and professional development will support our growth as a team and our ability to inspire and connect students to their schools. California Association of Directors of Activities (CADA) resources will add a new layer to our professional knowledge.

Collaborative Problem Solving: Help Ignite a Future of Hope

Teacher and administrator burnout is growing at our school. Our nucleus of trained teachers will improve the school’s response to challenging student behaviors and address key factors, such as chronic absenteeism and family engagement. We will work with a consultant to implement Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS, via https://livesinthebalance.org), partnering adults and students to find agreed-upon solutions, while also building student agency and problem-solving. We will take a case-study approach with target students, apply it broadly in our classrooms and collaborate weekly to debrief. This project will invest us with purpose and enthusiasm to revitalize the school community in service of students.

Building Equitable Access to Learning for Multilingual Learners in the Secondary Classroom

Across subject areas, our project will build teacher knowledge and use of Tier 1 supports for English Learners (ELs), particularly newcomers and long-term ELs. In year 1, the team will engage in a book study and professional development, exploring research-based strategies and best practices for supporting ELs. In tandem, teachers will engage in a lesson study cycle that incorporates the new strategies, focusing on embedded formative assessments that gauge whether these strategies effectively enhance learning outcomes for ELs. in Year 2, our team will lead their respective departments in a similar cycle that is revised based on Year 1 learnings.

Cultivating our Collective Efficacy to Support Future Social Justice Leaders

Through professional development, retreats, peer observations and feedback cycles, and collaborative curriculum development, we will cultivate our collective efficacy. Our focus will be to develop our capacities to facilitate community circles, create interdisciplinary projects, and align our writing practices across the curricula.

Ecosystems of Ethnic Studies for Social Justice (ESSJ)

Our goal with this professional development project is to create a self-sustaining ethnic studies program with increased education and planning time to make interdisciplinary ES Pedagogy a reality across campus.

Equity for SMHS Science Students

As SMHS science classes grow more diverse, our dedicated team aims to challenge and support all students, including language learners in college prep. Our goal is fostering a love for science and ensuring success for everyone.

Bilingual DEI Learning through Project Based Learning

This project aims to develop and implement DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) curricula through project-based learning that incorporate diverse perspectives, cultures, and voices in a K-8 Mandarin immersion school.

Inquiry to Empower Collective Efficacy

Our goal is to empower staff to conduct classroom inquiry to galvanize our collective efficacy – a shared belief that through our collective action, we can positively influence student outcomes.

Cultivating Conversation: Increasing Student Talk in the Classroom

Our project aims to transform our classrooms into spaces filled with the voices of our English language learners and newcomers (rather than teachers).

Transforming Our Kinder-First Grade Literacy Program

Our team is committed to doing all we can to ensure that all our students are successful readers. We are setting out to transform our kinder-1st grade literacy program by doing a series of personalized professional development with The Reading League.

Unlocking the Science of Biliteracy

This project serves to enhance our professional capacities as teachers by providing us with the requisite knowledge and skills to instruct emergent biliteracy students effectively.

Returning to our Roots: Crafting Empowering Learning

We will reinvigorate SEED’s mission by designing Project-Based Learning units infused with best practices in Dual Language and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Using Science and Social Justice to Raise Teaching Practice

Our project will serve teachers of students in a historically Black, disadvantaged, and low-income community facing severe environmental and social issues.

The Power of Play

Play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith concluded, ‘The opposite of play is not work–the opposite of play is depression.’ While research supports this, traditional schools continue to treat play as frivolous and double down on the pressure to raise students’ standardized test scores.

Raising a Community of Writers

We aim to cultivate passionate, independent student writers, as well as to grow as teachers and leaders. We all teach Writing Workshop (WW). Our goal is to give students meaningful writing experiences that reflect their identities, as well as encourage collaboration, perseverance, and a love for writing.

Project Based Geometry and The Trades

The project will help train teachers in how to implement a more rigorous math curriculum that will better prepare students for an advanced level of math. In addition, our team will find innovative ways to develop projects that make Geometry more relatable to the real world focusing on vocational careers.

PBL for Newcomers: Language Development, Engagement and Empowerment

We are a team of interdisciplinary teachers committed to the equitable and engaging education of newcomer English learners. We seek to leverage our expertise as we create and implement Project Based Learning (PBL) units specifically designed for our students.

Our Changing Planet – Community of Practice

We want to deepen our understanding of environmental justice, indigenous wisdom and creative practice, to better understand our world, and as educators advocate for just climate solutions. Working with local experts/organizations in our community, we will deepen our knowledge and our facilitation practices to make more meaningful connections with each other, build knowledge across disciplines, and apply new learning in our classrooms.

Engaging Diverse Youth through Strong Dual Immersion

Our project focuses on increasing our school community’s knowledge & abilities around best practices for teaching in a Spanish Dual Immersion (DI) program. Through study (common texts, conference presentations, school tours) & discussion, our grant team will become experts & will share their knowledge through a series of presentations.

Deeper Learning & Stronger Support for Teachers

A team of seasoned teachers plans to foster greater passion and engagement in their classrooms by building a professional learning toolkit around Deeper Learning.

Differentiation through Student Self-Efficacy

This team of elementary school teachers wants to learn best practices in developing differentiated instruction to meet students at their current academic levels. With the pandemic widening gaps in competencies for students, these teachers plan to develop a toolkit that meets students’ specific needs, whether they are intervention, self-paced learning, or challenging enrichment.

Equity Learning Walk

This team of middle school teachers will cultivate a transformative learning community committed to anti-racist and inclusive education for all students, staff, and families. In the first year of the grant, they will apply the skills from Jenjii Hysten and Blaze Consultancy’s Emotional Intelligence, Equity, & Inclusion training to design and pilot a preliminary equity learning walk.

Improving Outcomes for Multilingual Scholars through Collective Capacity Building

This team of dedicated high school teachers will deepen their focus and support of multilingual scholars. By attending seminars, participating in book study, and engaging consultants, the team aims to educate itself on anti-racist, socially-just education, and then build its collective capacity to provide students with high-interest content using engaging, relevant language activities.

Operation Lesson Study

This team of middle and high school math teachers will work collaboratively to develop a seamless mathematics education for students as they grow through their community’s two secondary schools.

Studying Climate Justice Through Science, Art, and Action!

This team of elementary educators will develop 4th and 5th grade Climate Change/Environmental Justice units that teach climate science grounded in the environmental justice concerns of their community. These units will integrate climate science into Spanish and English language arts, as well as visual arts, theater arts, and engineering projects.

Cultivating Anti-Racist Bilingual Learners Through Service and Action

Six elementary school teachers will work with experts to enhance their knowledge of anti-racist, abolitionist pedagogy. The team will work with a racial equity coach, participate in school site visits, and attend professional learning workshops to develop their skills.

Igniting Educator Passion Through Service-Learning

Six teachers across disciplines will cultivate a service-learning focus that can help them meet their academic goals and ignite their passions as educators towards addressing real community needs. Team members will work in a professional learning community in partnership with the National Youth Leadership Council to develop skill sets in collaboration, unit design, and creating meaningful partnerships.

School of Environmental Leadership: Community Engagement – Climate Equity

This team of high school teachers seek to learn how to teach through a racial justice lens using cutting edge instructional practices that promote inclusivity, social emotional learning for universal student thriving, and equity building with and centering local Indigenous, Latinx and Black climate-vulnerable communities.

PBL Pilot: Empowering Oakland

This team of middle school teachers plans to implement Project Based Learning (PBL) at our school. The team will attend trainings with the Buck Institutes and PBL Works to better understand how to design and implement a PBL curriculum.

Operation RISE Above

At this team’s school, every staff member serves as an advisor to a cohort of 12-16 students (a ‘RISE’) from freshman year to graduation. The team of teachers plans to create a professional learning series that codifies the expectations and supports for teaching lessons during daily RISE time, mentoring advisees, maintaining relationships with RISE-ee’s guardians, and other advisor duties.

Know Better, Do Better – The Science of Reading

This team of primary grade teachers strives to learn more about evidence-based best practices to support early reading acquisition for all students, including English Learners and students with disabilities. By attending training sessions with a variety of professional development providers like The Reading League, as well as working with various consultants like those from the Right to Read Project, the team aims to transfer current research findings in neuroscience and cognitive psychology to classroom practices.

Investigating Illuminated Inequities as an Opportunity to Transform

A team of six elementary school teachers will engage with professional learning provider Feathership to create a structure and space for an Equity Centered Professional Learning Community. Feathership will strategically partner with the team and facilitate monthly workshops on radical self-love and anti-racist leadership.

Improving Instruction and Engagement through Spanish Professional Development

This team of reading teachers has been teaching in East Palo Alto for 7-20 years, and they want to become conversationally fluent in Spanish. Team members will each complete an intensive program of online Spanish tutoring through Verbalicity and attend trainings by the Center for Applied Linguistics to connect their language lessons to their teaching.

Indigenous Voices in the Music Classroom

This team of teachers plans to learn more about the musical origins and current practices of its schools’ indigenous communities and grow its curriculum and practice.

Educators Designing History Curriculum Through a Global Lens

This team of teachers plans to become globally competent educators through reflection, equity-based curriculum design, and culturally responsive teaching practices. The project includes educators from two elementary sites who will examine and supplement its history curriculum using an equity lens.

Social Justice and Empowerment Through Literacy and Dialogue in English Classes

This team to implement and improve curriculum in their English department to make it more relevant to 21st century notions of social justice and empowerment.

Meaningful Integration of Special Needs Students in PE

This team plans to implement the Unified PE curriculum, bringing together special education and general education students in an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance.

Literacy GLADiators

This team plans to empower their emerging multi-lingual students and teachers with powerful literacy instruction through neurology-based and culturally responsive language acquisition strategies.

Integrated Learning for Equity

This team will increase their learning and leadership skills with Arts Integration and Culturally Responsive Teaching in order to support growth and learning with colleagues throughout their district.

High School Teachers in Lodi Making Sense of Earth Science

This team will learn and adopt new Earth and Space Science content knowledge to support student success in next generation science classrooms.

Facing History’s Professional Learning Community for Ethnic Studies

This team from across the Bay Area will launch a professional learning community focused on learning and growing in the area of Ethnic Studies.

Equitable Grading Strategies through Portfolio Projects

This team plans to build student-centered classrooms through relevant curriculum and equitable structures for student feedback.

Developing Teacher Leaders for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The team plans to study best practices for facilitating Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) with the goal having the same intentionality for educator staff meetings as the plans they make for their students.

Complex Instruction at the International School of Monterey

This team plans to deepen their knowledge of effective teaching practices and, in the process, build the capacity of the math team to serve as peer coaches.

Building a Community of Literacy Leaders

This team of teachers plans to level up their existing Literacy Inquiry Group by attending literacy and EL trainings and partner with experts.

Berkeley High School World Language Makeover

This team’s goal is to modernize their World Language Department by training in teaching strategies that focus on communication and meeting the national standards created by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL).

Amplifying Student Voice: Developing Teachers to Support East Oakland’s Young Writers

This team will regularly meet with the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) coaches to design a project-based, action-oriented, writing curriculum that integrates expository, persuasive, and narrative writing into standards based social studies and science units.

Writing Achievement for All: A Path for 9th – 12th Grade

This team of high school English and social science teachers will integrate engaging, effective, grade-appropriate writing strategies in their curricula to create a pathway for lesson planning and instruction from 9th to 12th grade.

Revving Up for Dual Immersion

This team of teachers at a newly Dual Immersion (DI) school will focus on teacher preparedness as their school transitions to be a DI program.

Reading and Writing For Real – We Love Lucy!

The team of elementary school teachers will study with literacy advocate Lucy Calkins on how to bring rich, collaborative writing and reading workshops into their classrooms.

Promoting Bilingualism and Biliteracy through DI in SCUSD

This team of elementary school teachers plans to expand their knowledge of best practices and structures for Dual Language (DI) Immersion programs as their site transitional bilingual program transitions to DI.

Practical Skills to Develop Creative Interdisciplinary Literacy

This team of four teachers at a continuation high school plans to use interdisciplinary literacy skills to bring 21st century learning to their students.

Math Teaching for Inquiry and Problem-Solving

The team of elementary school teachers will use inquiry to research, plan, teach, observe, and reflect on math lessons that they give in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade classrooms. Teachers will design curricula through this process, with continuous analysis and discussion to improve practices and outcomes.

Making Sense of SCIENCE with Earth Science Phenomena

This team of science teachers from across Manteca Unified School District aims to increase their knowledge of earth science content and training as their district adopts the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Increasing Access to AP Curriculum for Language Learners

This team of teachers aims to support the unique literacy needs of English Language Learners taking Advanced Placement classes by engaging English Language Development (ELD) experts. San Lorenzo High School, San Lorenzo

Graham Middle School STEAM Digital Heroes

This team of middle school teachers will collaborate with the Krause Center for Innovation to develop and pilot pathways for Project Based Learning (PBL)-based, technology enhanced electives and create curriculum for all students in media, technology, broadcasting, engineering, leadership, and visual art courses.

GLAD Enhanced Project Based Learning

This team of five elementary school teaches will learn and implement GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies to build academic language and the ability to express learning through writing.

Fluency First

Five high school world language teachers at schools across San Jose seek to train teachers in implementing the proficiency levels of language to better assess students and to use comprehensible input as the main method for teaching fluency.

Deepening Mathematical Practices and Improving Student Access to College Math

This team of six high school math teachers with a 100% English Learner population at their school are seeking to improve college math readiness in their school community.

Content Area Literacy in the Digital Age

This team of six teachers at 5 different school sites across the Bay Area aims to deepen teacher knowledge of digital literacy and adult learning while supporting each other in adapting instruction to support 21st century learning.

Vertical Alignment of School-Wide Advisory Curriculum

The goal of these five high school teachers is to strengthen their school’s Advisory program.

Upper Grade Writing Development

This team of four elementary school teachers hopes to implement skills and strategies learned at the Teachers College Writing Institute at Columbia University.

Si Se Puede: (Re)Building Community Through Teacher Development

This five-member Dual Immersion (DI) Leadership Team will attend a series of conferences/workshops and meet monthly to focus on professional readings, analyze teacher and student work, and develop tools and resources.

Revolutionizing How Students Engage With Climate Change Education

These four high school teachers will develop climate change units through four disciplines (life science, earth science, chemistry, and physics).

Project Based Learning to Improve Equity in Learning

Five middle school teachers endeavor to learn the skills for, gain exposure to, and create a sustainable culture for project-based learning at their school.

Project Based Learning to Develop Language Skills

This team of six elementary school teachers hopes to create a culture of Project Based Learning using open-ended and collaborative projects to increase student engagement and language skills.

Learning to be Glad

This team of six experienced elementary school teachers will attend Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) training and learn innovative ways to build academic language and literacy.

Leadership with Passion

This team of six high school teachers from Eastside Union High School District will finish the creation of a five year-long comprehensive A-G leadership courses, and strengthen their shared passion for being Leadership Teachers.

Improving Personalized Learning: School-Wide, 4-8

The team of elementary and middle school educators aims to 1) create a cohort of faculty leaders to design and implement a personalized learning program to meet the needs of individual students, and 2) expand personalized learning to all classrooms within their school.

Cycle of Inquiry Committee Looking Closely

This team of six middle and high school teachers will systematically consider their students’ learning, with a structure of collegial discussion focused on data. As teachers, classroom time occurs rapidly with little time to think deeply.

Teacher Learning Lab

This team of six elementary school teachers aims to change the way they teach math using the new NCTM effective teaching practices, and ultimately, to teach math in a more student-centered way.

STEAM Team

Six experienced teachers at a transitional kindergarten through eigth grade school seek project-based enrichment for their at-risk students and English learners through the STEAM model, with an additional emphasis on literacy.

Assistive Technology Team

The five-member special education team will attend the 2018 Assistive Technology Industry Association Orlando Conference.

Building Teacher Leadership Capacity

An instructional support coach and five course team leaders from each of the core academic departments (history, English, math, world language) will receive on-site Professional Learning Community leadership training from Solution Tree.

AP Success & Equity Project

The team of six AP teachers seek to improve the AP culture and instruction on campus in service to greater equity of success for all students.

Mathematics and Industry Curriculum Redesign

The team of five teachers in the high school math department seeks to authentically integrate career pathways into math curricula, fulfilling Common Core Standards while amplifying student engagement.

Making ELD Hands-On for New Speakers of English

The team of six elementary school teachers at a newcomer school will be pursuing professional development to reinvigorate their teaching of English Language Development.

Developing Readers & Leaders in our School Community

A team of four elementary school teachers will attend the Teachers College Reading Coaching Institute at Columbia University in order to build teacher leadership and strengthen school-wide implementation of Readers Workshop.

Bringing World Languages Alive in Davis Joint Unified

To prepare their World Language students to become global citizens in the 21st century, the team of five elementary and junior high school teachers strives to teach language in a way that the brain naturally learns.

Spanish Teacher Professional Learning Community

The team of six elementary-level Spanish Dual Language teachers are pursuing professional development in second language acquisition.

Be GLAD

The team of four elementary school professionals identified the need to create and maintain an embedded ELD program that is woven throughout their curriculum in order to support their 52%-ELL student population.

Orchestra Teacher Professional Development

The team of five middle and high school music teachers will organize and take part in a twice-monthly Orchestral Methods class.

Transformational Teacher Mentoring

The team of five high school teachers and one middle school teacher at four schools across the Bay Area are part of the Trellis Mentor Fellowship, through which they have all made a five-year commitment to mentoring new teachers.

Project Based Learning with a Maker Mindset

The team of four elementary school teachers will pilot a Project Based Learning (PBL)/Maker-Centered program.

Algeomulus Prep Academy

The team of five high school math teachers will design and develop a home grown project called “Algeomulus Prep Academy”, in which students work in collaborative groups to create math tutorial videos.

Interdisciplinary Real World Challenges

The team of four middle school teachers will work collaboratively on Project-Based Learning (PBL) techniques to address two pressing student needs: increase student readiness for Algebra 1 and improve English/Language Arts writing skills across subject areas.

Teaching Garden

With professional development and technical assistance provided by Life Lab at University of California, Santa Cruz, the team of six elementary teachers will transform its school’s garden space into an inquiry-based teaching garden.

Improving Mathematical Literacy: School Wide, TK – 12

The team of five teachers, spanning elementary through high school, will engage in a two-year study around best practices to improve mathematical literacy.

Building NGSS Knowledge and STEM Education

As their school district moves towards adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the six member, K-5th grade teacher team will pursue professional development to transform their science and math instruction to help students develop a design thinking mindset.

Reader’s Workshop

Six teachers in grades three and four will deepen the implementation of the Reader’s Workshop (RW) model at their school.

Culture of Mindfulness

The team of five high school teachers, representing a variety of subject areas and grade levels, will participate in a series of mindfulness courses and retreats over the course of two years.

“¡Adelante Juntos!” Developing a Dual Immersion Model in a Blended Program

The team of six, including elementary and middle school teachers and reading intervention specialists, will spearhead the re-envisioning of their school’s K-8 Spanish/English dual immersion program.