April 18, Friday -- Researchers from six University of California campuses, the University of Washington, the University of Nebraska and Policy Analysis for California Education, a Berkeley-based research center, will gather at UC Davis Friday to present 10 policy briefs on critical school reform topics.

The policy briefs and accompanying papers were commissioned by California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell's P-16 Council and will be presented to council members at a daylong symposium titled "Connecting the Dots and Closing the Gap." The symposium will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. It is free and open to the public.

The research was coordinated by the UC Davis School of Education's Center for Applied Policy in Education through a collaboration of the California Department of Education and the University of California.

The P-16 Council was convened by O'Connell in 2004 to help improve coordination and integration of education in California, from preschool through college.

The 10 policy briefs and papers are available online at http://cap-ed.ucdavis.edu/node/25. Titles and lead authors are:

"Narrowing the Multiple Achievement Gaps in California: Ten Goals for the Long Haul," by Norton W. Grubb, professor of education at UC Berkeley.

"State Policies for Closing the Achievement Gap," by David N. Plank, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education.

"A False Dilemma: Should Decisions About Education Resource Use Be Made at the State or Local Level?" by Thomas Timar, professor of education at UC Davis and director of the UC Davis School of Education's Center for Applied Policy in Education; and Marguerite Roza, a research assistant professor at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs.

"The Achievement Gap in California: Context, Status and Approaches for Improvement," by Eva Baker, professor of psychology studies in education at UCLA.

"Teaching All of California's Children Well: Teachers and Teaching to Close the Achievement Gap," by Julie Maxwell Jolly, managing director of the Center for Applied Policy in Education at UC Davis.

"Accessing High-Quality Instructional Strategies," by Edmund Hamann and Janelle Reeves, both assistant professors of education at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

"Organizational Strategies for Addressing California's Education Achievement Gap" by Douglas Mitchell, professor of education at UC Riverside.

"School Climate and Student Achievement," by Susan Yonezawa, a researcher at the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence at UC San Diego.

"Improving High Schools as a Strategy for Closing California's Achievement Gap," by Russell Rumberger, a professor of education at UC Santa Barbara.

"Partnering With Communities to Promote Student Success," by Nancy Erbstein, a policy research specialist with the UC Davis School of Education.