California Collaborative Work Presented at CERA Conference November 2018 Presentations at the California Educational Research Association (CERA) conference on November 13 highlighted recent publications and projects of the California Collaborative. Deputy Director Joel Knudson joined Jennifer Edic Bryant of Azusa Unified School District and Alex Berg-Jacobson of WestEd to describe the activities and products of the LCFF Test Kitchen. The presentation laid out the motivation behind the project, described its approach to using design thinking to promote better LCFF implementation, demonstrated the video created by the Azusa design team, and identified lessons learned through the process. Later in the day, Knudson and Marina Castro of the American Institutes for Research shared ways in which district-union relationships in San José have evolved over time from deeply adversarial interactions to a partnership in service of students. The presentation, which drew on the report From Combat to Collaboration: The Labor-Management Partnership in San José Unified School District, tracked the growth of the relationship over a 25-year span, described the way that leaders interact today, and highlighted lessons that might inform district and union leaders in other contexts.
