Reenergizing learning: Strategies for getting beyond stagnant test scores

Adalberto Hernandez is the principal at George Washington Elementary School in Madera. Washington Elementary is a TK-6th grade bilingual heritage dual language school. Hernandez has 13 years of experience as a school administrator.

Hernandez is passionate about supporting multilingual students and families to thrive and utilize their gifts to accelerate learning despite the challenging circumstances they experience in the community with the highest poverty rates in Madera.

The 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years were the most successful years in recent history for George Washington Elementary, as demonstrated by students’ growth and achievement on local and state assessments in a positive school culture that has not had a single student suspended for three consecutive school years.

Heather J. Hough is the Executive Director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). In this role, she focuses on bridging the gap between research, policy, and practice, working with scholars from California’s leading universities and with state and local decision-makers to increase the impact of academic research on educational policy in California.

Prior to this role, Heather ran the research partnership between PACE and the CORE Districts, a collaborative of California school districts that represents nearly a million students.

Yolie Flores is President & CEO of Families In Schools, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles whose mission is to elevate and support families as essential partners in the education of their children.  Previously, Yolie served as Vice President of the Los Angeles Board of Education and, for almost a decade, served as CEO of the L.A. County Children’s Planning Council, a countywide collaborative focused on improving outcomes for children and families.

John Malloy is the superintendent of San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Malloy previously served as the Director of Education (superintendent) at the Toronto District School Board in Toronto — the largest school board in Canada.

John has an extensive background in education at all levels and is a fierce advocate for an equitable, accessible, quality public education.

Chris Collins is a data and assessment coordinator at Cajon Valley Union School District in San Diego County. After starting his career teaching middle school math, Collins transitioned into the role of World of Work Coach in Cajon Valley, where he trained and coached teachers to transform their classrooms into career development hubs. Currently, as a Data and Assessment Coordinator, Collins pursues his mission of using data to support all students having access to gainful employment.

John Fensterwald joined EdSource in 2012. For three years before that, he was founder and editor of the “The Educated Guess” website, a source of California education policy reporting, sponsored by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. For the preceding 11 years, John wrote editorials for the Mercury News in San Jose, with a focus on education.

He worked as a reporter, news editor and opinion editor for three newspapers in New Hampshire before receiving a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1997. His wife is a retired teacher, and their daughter is a neurology resident at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.

Anne Vasquez took the helm as EdSource’s executive director in May 2021. Previously, she served as director of content and strategic initiatives at EdSource. In that role, she helped shape editorial strategy, grow partnerships and expand the organization’s footprint throughout California.

Prior to joining EdSource, Anne was an executive at Tribune Publishing, where she most recently served as senior vice president of strategic initiatives and chief digital officer. She previously was the managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Vasquez began her career at the Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, where she was an education reporter and later an editor.