The University of California, Davis, School of Education has been awarded $5.8 million to lead a statewide initiative that will provide K-12 teachers throughout California resources and training that will help them teach their students more effectively.

The grant from the state Department of Education was given to the School of Education’s Center for Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools. With the grant, the center will work with education leaders throughout the state to develop and pilot a model to support the professional growth of teachers.

While teachers are asked to implement state and national guidelines in the classroom, they often are not given the necessary tools, resources, training and mentoring to do so, said Susan P. O’Hara, executive director of the center. This grant will help get teachers that support.

“The central goal of the work is to move research-based practices that support Common Core standards and next generation standards into every classroom in California,” O’Hara said.

The Common Core State Standards refer, generally, to what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade. Most states, including California, have adopted the Common Core standards for English and math. The standards strive to achieve college and workplace readiness for students.

The work will be led by Joanne Bookmyer, the CRESS center’s director of inquiry and improvement science, and O’Hara, together with a state design team of faculty and staff from UC Davis, the California Department of Education, San Diego and El Dorado county offices of education and Yuba City Unified School District. A cohort of school districts across the state will serve as pilot sites. The work begins this summer.

Results of the pilot will be used by the California Department of Education to support all districts in California.