The Dec. 18 California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) board meeting largely focused on data.
During his update, Executive Director Matt Navo shared that a report on findings from a Statewide System of Support (SSOS) Core Working Group convened in early 2025 had been published earlier in the month. The group concluded that there is strong agreement about the core ideas around the SSOS but that it is not working as intended. They developed recommendations, based on the principles of coherence and alignment and reciprocal accountability, which are detailed in the report. CCEE anticipates laying out next steps to address areas for improvement in June.
His presentation also briefly covered objectives for 2025–26 and detailed the results of CCEE’s 2025–26 survey of educational partners — which boasted a renewed appreciation and need related to supports for local educational agencies in achieving their Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) goals — and a desire for ongoing support regarding data.
An area of focus for the agency’s Innovation, Instruction, and Impact (I3) Center in 2025–26 will be strengthening its Data Academy by “expanding upon the pilot work that we launched last year to support capacity building at all levels of instructional leadership with the districts that come in through our Data Academy pathways,” according to Deputy Executive Director Sujie Shin’s update. Courses offered via the academy cover data literacy, inquiry and leadership. The academy intends to aid in capacity-building for new and updated LCAP data analysis and visualization requirements as well as statewide initiative reporting.
Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Sheila McCabe, who has participated in the Data Academy, spoke about its impact, the LEA’s journey with differentiated assistance and how its relationship with CCEE has created a chance to think systematically about improving learning opportunities for students.
Shin said staff would also prioritize deeper integration of impact data throughout CCEE initiatives as well as strengthening practices to measure the impact of initiatives like the African American Student Success Network and other learning networks on student achievement.
Also at the meeting, Marina Santos, an English teacher at Fresno Unified School District’s Fresno High School, was sworn in as a board member. Santos fills the vacancy left by Tim Sbranti.
To conclude proceedings for the year, Chair Cynthia Glover Woods thanked her peers for their efforts.
“The amount of work that has been done this year and the impact that it has had on our educators in the state as well as our students is without words. I thank you for your dedication to the students in California [and] to this work … to make sure that our students have a learning environment that sets them up for success. So, I thank you all for a great 2025,” Glover Woods said.
A recording of the meeting will be available here. The board is scheduled to convene next on Feb. 26.