The California Education Learning Lab — a statewide grantmaking program that supports innovation, creative development of learning technologies, and educational research on behalf of students at California's public colleges and universities — is at risk of being eliminated through impending state budget actions.

Learning Lab has built a powerful, collaborative infrastructure for incentivizing faculty to rethink how they teach, leverage evidence-based practices and technologies, and create open educational resources (OERs) that reduce costs for students.

Since 2018, Learning Lab has invested over $55 million in 120 collaborative projects across UC, CSU, and community colleges. These projects have:

• Impacted hundreds of thousands of students, particularly in STEM disciplines; 
• Engaged over 600 faculty leaders, reaching several thousand additional instructors through project activities; 
• Produced more than a thousand curricular assets that are open educational resources (OER); and
• Supported 66 of California's 116 community colleges, all 23 CSU campuses, and all 9 UC undergraduate campuses.

Eliminating this program now would destroy years of progress and directly undermine efforts to support student success; foster collaboration between UC, CSU, and CCC faculty; promote the adoption of free and accessible educational materials; and prepare students for a rapidly changing, tech-driven workforce.

We urge state leaders to protect this vital program and its contributions to the development of California’s workforce and economic prosperity.

Add your name to stand with educators, students, and the Learning Lab in support of public higher education and California’s future.

Examples of Impact on Teaching and Learning:

Bay Area Math Collaborative measured implementation of Big Ideas Framework in Precalculus across 2 semesters and 6 institutions. Student outcomes (1,098 students total): higher average GPA and more positive distribution of grades were observed in courses with Big Ideas Framework implementation than without implementation. (Project Partners: Cal State East Bay; Ohlone College; Merritt College; San Francisco State; Berkeley City College; Laney College; College of Alameda) 

The BioCalc PEA project saw the following successes:

• Fresno State (Math 70): pass rates (grades C and above) increased from just under 50% in spring 22 to over 75% in spring 24.
• CSU Fullerton (Math 130): pass rates went from just under 50% in fall 2021 to over 80% in spring 24. 
• UCI (Math 5B): pass rates overall went from 74% in fall 2021 (pre-implementation) to 94% in fall 2023 (full implementation). First gen: pass rates went from 70% to 83%. Low income: 70% to 89%. URM: 63% to 90%. 

Coursekata (previously know as the Better Book Project) survey data on student mindset (2,500+ participants) showed decline in anxiety and fixed mindset; likewise, concerns about understanding concepts, lack of prior knowledge, performance, time management all declined. Materials were adopted by 23 colleges and universities and 20+ high schools, with steadily growing numbers. *This project is ongoing with a significant investment from the Gates Foundation and is a major driver of statistics/data science curriculum in schools. (Project Partners: UCLA; Cal State LA; Pierce College; University of Virginia) 

Developing Students’ Identity project showed reduced GPA differences between underserved minority (USM) and non-underserved minority (NUSM) students. DFW rates of USM students decreased by 13% at Sonoma State University, and retention rates and success rates (grade of A, B, C, or passing) increased at Diablo Valley College. Developing Students’ Identity also reflected increased sense of student belonging, as well as confidence and ability to understand difficult concepts. (Project Partners: College of Marin; Sonoma State; Diablo Valley College; UC Berkeley) 

Grading for Growth’s data showed that grades were significantly higher for students in Calculus I sections using Standards Based Grading compared to past grades during in-person semesters. This remained true when disaggregating based on gender, URM, first generation status, and math preparedness. (Project Partners: CSU Monterey Bay; Hartnell College) 

Humanizing Academy’s student surveys (1,424 respondents) reported high levels of satisfaction with sense of belonging, instructor-student relationships, teaching presence, social presence, and attitudes towards online learning. Faculty showed a significant increase in confidence in teaching online, perceptions of the role that an instructor plays in closing equity gaps, awareness of the differences students bring to a class, willingness to intentionally accommodate student differences and be more flexible with course policies and grading. (Project Partners: Foothill-De Anza CCD; UC Irvine) 

Increasing Student Flow aimed to expand Program Pathways Mapper (PPM) system in order to facilitate transfer between community colleges and UC campuses. The project showed a large and sustained increase in community college transfer students to UC Merced; and continued growth of numbers in access of PPM sites, with over 16 million total page views across all PPM sites in the year after the launch of UC Merced’s PPM site. (Project Partners: Bakersfield College; UC Merced) 

Reorienting Formative and Summative Assessment showed significant gains in student learning outcomes for underrepresented students in computer science, with every URM student group achieving a 3.0/B-average for the first time in the history of the class. The project also showed an observed increase in enrolled Latinx students upon offering PQGs, averaging around 24% of the overall student body of the courses (compared to an average of around 9% before), and an observed increase in the percentage of women enrolled in the course, going from 52% to 72%, its highest number in history. (Project Partners: UC Berkeley; CSU Long Beach; El Camino College)