Educational
Opportunities in Hard Times
State funding cutbacks in educational programs, services and
support have weakened California public schools' ability to meet the needs of
their students, according to UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and
Access' (IDEA) fourth annual
California Educational Opportunity Report.
Currently, BTW is working with IDEA to determine the extent to which
policy-makers and organizations working on education advocacy issues are making
use of the report's evidence-based key findings. IDEA examined
the quality and distribution of educational opportunities through
student and system level data analysis. New this year are the voices and
experiences of 87 school principals from across the state, which illuminate the
significant challenges of already hard-hit schools and communities in
California.
Coaching to
Strengthen Leaders
The nonprofit sector is increasingly using executive
coaches to strengthen and enhance nonprofit leadership. The Coaching and
Philanthropy Project recently released three Action Guides about how
grantmakers, nonprofit organizations and
coaches can advance
coaching as a core leadership development activity and a tool for improving
organizational results. BTW partnered with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and
Leadership that Works on this research.
The State
of California Clinic Leadership
Community clinics in California face many challenges trying to recruit and
retain strong leaders, including a lack of resources, competition from private
health care plans and the pending retirement of many CEOs. The Community
Clinics Initiative and Blue Shield of California Foundation commissioned BT
W
and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services to examine the current state of leadership
in the clinics field. A new trio of studies looks at the state of leadership
among:
clinic CEOs,
medical directors and
emerging leaders. A
fourth piece highlights findings across these studies and explores what needs to happen to ensure strong clinic leadership, both now and in the
future.
Measuring the Immeasurable
Most funders and nonprofits encounter challenges when trying
to measure and quantify public policy and systems change outcomes. BTW's new
funders' brief explores how grantmakers can best support their grantees in
building capacity to measure progress towards outcomes on initiatives that are
difficult to measure. The brief is based on BTW's experience working with the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Education Program and their K-12
education policy and advocacy grantees.