System Alignment

The three years of research underlying this report called for a significant investment of time on the part of Round One California Career Pathways Trust consortia leaders, K-12 district and community college partners, and employers as we sought to understand the promise and challenges of career pathway work and regional collaboration. We gratefully acknowledge their openness and willingness to share their CCPT vision and experiences and offer a sincere thank-you to the Stuart Foundation and Noyce Foundation for their generous support of this research and continued interest in the CCPT initiative. Sustaining CCPT at the Local Level Sustaining CCPT in the Region IV. Challenges to Sustaining Local and Regional CCPT Work V. Supports for CCPT Sustainability VI. Conclusion and Implications Appendix Endnotes 1 CCPT: Sustaining Cross-Sector Partnerships The California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT), established in July 2014 by Assembly Bill 86 and administered by the California Department of Education (CDE), funded new regional consortia to establish career pathways that would lead high school students to a postsecondary credential or certification aligned with regional workforce needs. CCPT pathways departed in significant ways from traditional K-12 career and technical education (CTE, or vocational education) programs through their partnerships with postsecondary institutions (primarily community colleges) and employers, integration of career pathway course work into high schools' academic programs, and adoption of a regional perspective on needs and opportunities. The California State Legislature allocated $500 million to finance two CCPT rounds for three years each, making it one of the largest CTE investments across all states. The Legislature also intended that new CCPT partnerships and programs ultimately would be sustained by grantees. The CCPT grant required recipients to identify and set aside funds within their own budgets, or secure funding from education and business partners, in order to underwrite program costs for at least two years beyond state funding. This report considers the experiences of the 39 Round One grantees. 1 CCPT Round One funded

Research has the greatest potential to impact change in practice and policy when (1) it is conducted in collaboration with practitioners rather than conducted by an academic researcher alone, and (2) its findings are meaningfully communicated to the people who influence policy and practice . Practitioners in the criminal justice (CJ) system have the potential to play a fundamental role in the development and conduct of research. As administrators, supervisors, and direct service staff, practitioners have knowledge and experience that is critical to conducting the most rigorous research possible and producing useful results and products. This brief provides recommendations to practitioners for collaborating, based on a study conducted with practitioners in the CJ system (staff employed within the CJ system or staff who provide services to CJ-involved clients but are not employed within the system) and researchers in the United States and Canada who, from their perspectives, collaborated successfully to complete a research project. The aims of this brief are to help practitioners (a) plan for future research collaborations that will function as seamlessly as possible and (b) produce findings that have significant impact on practices, policies, services, and ultimately contribute to improving advocacy and support for Goal: To improve understanding of successful researcher-prac oner collabora ons 1 between those working within and outside of the CJ system so that the knowledge learned can be used to promote the crea on of new partnerships and enhance exis ng ones. Design: There were two components to this study. 1. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with prac oners and researchers who self-iden fied as having at least one past or current "successful" research partnership (though many also had past unsuccessful partnerships). The purpose was to learn from them what they thought made their partnerships successful. Prac oners, as defined by the Na onal Ins tute of Jus ce for the purpose of this study, were CJ system employees (including administrators of CJ state administra ve agencies, SAAs) and those who provide services to CJ system clients. Researchers were those who conducted research but were not CJ system employees. Par cipants were 55 women and 17 men of various racial/ethnic groups. They were employed in a range of se ngs located in urban, suburban, and rural se ngs in the United States and Canada, including family violence and sexual assault programs, private prac ce, and SAAs such as departments of correc ons, local county courts, independent research ins tutes, and colleges/universi es. They had 4 to 40 years of experience (average of 12 years).  49 people (38 women and 11 men) par cipated in individual interviews (8 of which were with SAA staff) face to face or via telephone.  23 people (17 women and 6 men) par cipated in 5 focus groups convened at professional or academic conferences. Data analysis. The audio/video recorded interviews and focus groups were transcribed verba m. With the aid of a qualita ve analysis so ware package the transcribed files were coded with iden fica on tags corresponding to the RPPS research ques ons related to the following categories determined a priori: highlights of the collabora on, lowlights of the collabora ons, reasons the collabora on was needed, benefits of the collabora on, characteris cs desired in a collaborator, characteris cs desired in an organiza on, characteris cs of a successful collabora on, facilitators of a successful collabora on, barriers/challenges to a successful collabora on, balancing the needs of researchers and prac oners, products and results of the collabora on, usefulness of resul ng products, sustainability of partnerships, advice for researchers, and advice for prac oners. The research team reviewed the coded responses to iden fy salient pa erns or themes. A Web-based survey of CJ-system SAAs aimed to (a) determine each state's infrastructure and general experiences regarding research in the CJ system and (b) document lessons learned from past or current successful collabora ons with a researcher not employed within the CJ system. Par cipants were those whose responsibility it was either to oversee the conduct of research in the SAA or to conduct research on behalf of the state. Seventy-five par cipants from 49 states completed the survey, with several states having mul ple respondents from different SAA research departments (i.e., department of correc ons, office of the courts, etc.). Of respondents, 41% were administrators or directors of the agency, 35% were supervisors or managers, 21% were front-line or support staff, and 3% were university-employed Sta s cal Analysis Center (SAC) directors 2 . Data analysis. Data were analyzed to present simple descrip ve sta s cs such as an average or the percentage of par cipants who endorsed a response.

This study examined a linkage program between a secondary school and a community college in Ontario, Canada. The study sought to identify (a) appropriate success criteria to evaluate a high school–community college program and (b) the attributes that promote or ensure a program’s sustainability. Though initially successful, the investigated program was not sustained; reasons for its demise provide important information for the structure of high school– community college initiatives. This study has several implications for practice. First, the power of grassroots initiatives to respond to identified local issues is critical. Second, the mere existence of an articulation agreement is insufficient to ensure success. Third, the onus is on the sending institution in any transfer program to ensure that students are prepared, confident, and motivated to take the next step in their educational journeys. Finally, it is important to have a larger focus beyond the transfer program, with alignm...

As college and career pathways scale up, persistent historic inequities in education systems give rise to critical equity issues. Priority research, we concluded, must support practitioners to negotiate the complex equity-based problems involved in scaling up pathways. Investigation of these priorities is critical for informing policies that can significantly impact equity in students’ pathway outcomes. Inclusive research approaches promote mutual learning, and common goals. Researchers allied with school communities can contribute to transforming schools into wellsprings of educational justice, in which college and career pathways serve as an avenue toward a more just society. This synthesis of four symposia reports draws out strong arguments for CCP research priorities and approaches, for which the individual reports provide valuable compilations of the related literature. With inclusive partnerships and a collective commitment to address these priorities, the College and Career pathway practitioners and researchers are engaging these approaches and priorities collaboratively.

Essential contributions we made by Dr. Marisa Castellano, wo played a key role in coordinating all four symposia, co-authoring the reports, and reviewing drafts of this synthesis; as well as by Dr. Tameka McGlawn and Dr. Tolani Britton, whose feedback and guidance were invaluable in the development of this synthesis.

This two year participatory action research study was set in the context of a regional health pathway community of practice (CoP) focused on: a. identifying systems changes needed to align K-12 and community college pathways b. expanding pathway curricular alignment and early college coursework c. improving transitions and success particularly for students who are under-represented in the health workforce. Relationship building between faculty across K-12 and community college systems built understanding of the contextual differences between high school and community college systems, which was found to be a critical factor in aligning pathway programs of study and facilitating student transitions. The action research cycle within a cross-system community of practice resulted in key findings in two categories: the use of CoPs to effectively develop cross system pathway alignment in an industry sector, and challenges and possible approaches to strengthening health pathways across secondary and postsecondary systems.

The use of mobile technology for teaching and learning in higher education contexts across the globe has gained significant popularity, especially since the advent of the iPad. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), federal government universities expect faculty to adopt mobile technologies as a medium of content delivery and a vehicle for implementing innovative teaching practices in the classroom. This session describes a professional development (PD) program designed to facilitate faculty use of mobile technologies for teaching and learning. The program adopted a Community of Practice (CoP) approach, which is an effective model of PD (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, & Thomas, 2006). According to Lave and Wenger (1991) a CoP is an activity system that engages faculty in social communities in their professional context, and provides opportunities for sharing experiences and best practices in order to seek potential solutions to problems that they encounter in their classrooms. The CoP ...

Smart city services are supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) referred to as digital technologies which increasingly promise huge opportunities for growth but are faced with system alignment and data integration issues when providing digital services. Therefore, this study aims to employ Enterprise Architecture (EA) in digital transformation of cities by developing an architecture to address system alignment and data integration in digital transformation of cities.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative method is applied to evaluate the presented architecture based on electric-mobility (e-Mobility) scenario and data was collected using case study via interviews from a municipality in Norway to validate the applicability of EA for digital transformation of city services.
Findings
Findings from the interviews were represented in ArchiMate language to model the digital transformation of e-mobility in smart cities. Findings suggest that the architecture serves as a guide to recommend urban administrators of the potential of EA and digital transformation in addressing system alignment and data integration issues in smart cities.
Research limitations/implications
Data employed in this study is from a single case, hence there is a need to evaluate the application of EA for digital transformation of city services with data collected from multi-cases.
Practical implications
This current study adopts enterprise architecture approach to support city transformation as it has been widely applied by institutions to align business and ICT components.
Social implications
This study provide implication on how municipalities can utilize EA and digital transformations towards a sustainable smart city.
Originality/value
An architecture is presented that can be utilized as a guide to help urban developers and designers in deploying sustainable transport policies for smart cities. Additionally, EA is employed to foster digitalization towards achieving system alignment and data integration in cities to support urban environment as they digitally transform services provided to citizens.

Leadership in complementary schools is an under-researched area. This article aims to address this gap in the literature by reporting on a study which focused on Brazilian complementary schools in the UK. Distributed leadership was initially adopted as a theoretical framework to analyse the relationship between leadership style and professional development provision. The data were collected via an online questionnaire and individual semi-structured interviews with leaders as well as focus group interviews with teachers and teaching assistants. We report here on one of the schools and argue that the contextual constraints in which it operates led to high levels of collaboration between leaders, teachers and teaching assistants. Consequently, a Community of Practice (CoP) has developed. We discuss the benefits this CoP brings to the school and suggest that conscious efforts be made to cultivate this social unit of learning to ensure the professional development of teachers in complementary schools.

This two year participatory action research study was set in the context of a regional health pathway community of practice (CoP) focused on: a) identifying systems changes needed to align K-12 and community college pathways; b) expanding pathway curricular alignment and early college coursework; and c) improving transitions and success particularly for students who are underrepresented in the health workforce. Relationship building between faculty across K-12 and community college systems built
understanding of the contextual differences between high school and community college systems, which was found to be a critical factor in aligning pathway programs of study and facilitating student transitions. The action research cycle within a cross-system community of practice resulted in key findings in two categories: the use of CoPs to effectively develop cross system pathway alignment in an industry sector, and challenges and possible approaches to
strengthening health pathways across secondary and postsecondary systems.

This two year participatory action research study was set in the context of a regional health pathway community of practice (CoP) focused on:
a. identifying systems changes needed to align K-12 and community college pathways
b. expanding pathway curricular alignment and early college coursework
c. improving transitions and success particularly for students who are under-represented in the health workforce. Relationship building between faculty across K-12 and community college systems built understanding of the contextual differences between high school and community college systems, which was found to be a critical factor in aligning pathway programs of study and facilitating student transitions. The action research cycle within a cross-system community of practice resulted in key findings in two categories: the use of CoPs to effectively develop cross system pathway alignment in an industry sector, and challenges and possible approaches to strengthening health pathways across secondary and postsecondary systems.