Coursera to Offer Free Teacher Development Classes

Posted on May 22, 2013 by coreeducation

Coursera, one of the larger MOOC’s (massive open online courses), will begin offering free online teacher development courses this summer. And for a set of courses that are just beginning, a rather impressive list of traditional universities including the College of Education at University of Washington and John Hopkins University School of Education as well as non-traditional educational institutes such as the American Museum of History, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Exploratorium have all agreed to take part.

Here is a description of the new set of courses from edSurge:

[I]n addition to covering the 101 basics of teaching, classes will allow teachers to explore more niche topics like “Tinkering Fundamentals: Integrating Making Activities into Your STEM Classroom.”

The cost to run these PD MOOCs are expected to be lower than what Coursera’s “mainstream” college partners pay, which typically range from $10K-$50K for each 10-week course. One reason may be that the duration of these PD courses will likely be shorter, lasting only three to four weeks. The company also plans to issue statements of accomplishment for teachers who finish the classes.

“We are particularly excited about the opportunity to offer professional development for teachers that are more targeted and differentiated, based on their skills and experience,” says Julia Stiglitz, who oversees business development and partnerships at Coursera, and who was previously a teacher and Program Director at Teach for America.

This “first foray into early childhood and K-12-level education” raises an obvious question: will Coursera move deeper and, say, partner with prestigious high schools to offer MOOCs for K-12 students?

The company says there are currently no plans, but adds that it has already seen many high school students take MOOCs as part of their college prep work. Still, we wouldn’t be surprised if Coursera changes its mind somewhere down the line.

Following is a link to the list of professional development courses being offered:

https://www.coursera.org/courses?cats=teacherpd

WestEd Releases Influential Papers on Formative Assessment

Posted on May 16, 2013 by coreeducation

WestEd believes that the Common Core State Standards offer educators a unique opportunity to use formative assessment to help raise student achievement. They hope to help make this happen with the release of three new papers about formative assessment.

WestEd, an agency that works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults, recently released three defining papers on formative assessment:

Formative assessment in the classroom aims to reveal not just what students are learning, but how they are learning, with results used to guide instruction. Students can use formative assessment results to better understand and advance their learning. The Common Core State Standards, and the common assessment systems being developed to support them, offer educators the opportunity to use formative assessment as part of a balanced approach to raising student achievement.

“Integrating formative assessment in the classroom appears to have great potential for improving instruction and learning,” says Glen Harvey, CEO of WestEd. “These papers are intended to build foundational understanding among teachers, administrators, and policymakers, of this important assessment process.”

Each paper stresses the idea that unless assessments are understood and implemented in the right fashion, they will lose their capacity to help teachers improve instruction.

These papers were released as part of an education policy forum convened by WestEd and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). The event examined the role of formative assessment in the classroom, its potential for improving student learning, and the challenges that policymakers must address as the field works to build coordinated assessment systems that can provide information useful for instruction and policy.

For more information and to access the papers, please visit: http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs_press/166

RESPECT: The Obama Administration’s new Blueprint for Teaching

Posted on May 6, 2013 by coreeducation

Two years ago, active classroom teachers working temporarily at the U.S. Department of Education launched a national dialogue with their classroom colleagues to talk openly and honestly about the challenges and aspirations of America’s teachers. The Education Department engaged more than 5,700 educators nationwide to develop and refine a vision of teaching and leading that will help both teachers and students to meet new, 21st century demands.

The Blueprint for RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching) began as a national conversation on the teaching profession; the President has committed to support the development of a new, comprehensive teacher policy.

Recently, the Department of Education released the result of this unprecedented national dialogue in a bold and visionary blueprint for reforming the teaching profession.

“Our nation’s educators are entrusted with a responsibility that’s impossible to overstate – which is nothing less than to prepare their students, and our children, for the future,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We heard from thousands of teachers from across the country who contributed their time and creative ideas to help the RESPECT blueprint reflect their own vision for the teaching profession. With this blueprint, together we can work to elevate the profession through competitive salaries, transforming professional development and career opportunities, and relying on the expertise of teachers to advance educational practice and improve outcomes for students.”

The RESPECT Blueprint embraces seven critical components of a transformed teaching profession jointly identified last spring by ED and seven other national organizations, including American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Association of School Administrators (AASA), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS), National Education Association (NEA), and National School Board Association (NSBA). It further identifies ways that this work will continue to be integrated into the Department’s existing policies and calls the field to take action to work toward the RESPECT vision.

President Obama is continuing to ask for a $5 billion investment from Congress to support a RESPECT grant program outlined in the RESPECT blueprint, including salaries for the teaching profession competitive with professions like architecture, medicine and law, more support for novice teachers, and more career opportunities for accomplished teachers.

In tandem with the release of the blueprint, the Department has re-launched ED’s educator homepage to include new information about the RESPECT initiative, including the blueprint document (both PDF and e-book formats), a description of how educators provided input, and video of teachers describing their connection with the RESPECT vision. The site also includes resources to help stakeholders take action, including a self-inventory to assess one’s own school or district on the seven critical components of RESPECT.

For more information, please visit the following websites. Watch educators discuss what excites them about the RESPECT vision, how teacher voice played a key role in shaping it, and why we must begin implementing it today:

http://www.ed.gov/teaching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lIQaRXua9OY

April Issue Brief: Common Core Implementation

Posted on April 21, 2013 by coreeducation

Forty-five states, four territories, the District of Columbia and DoDEA are currently transitioning to full implementation of the Common Core State Standards. While some groups are further along than others, educators across the country are seeking high quality resources to facilitate this process.

In this month’s issue brief, we explore resources and information designed to support Common Core implementation. We’re interested in hearing about the resources, websites and tools that you have found to be most useful during this transition. Please respond to our call for commentary. We’d love to hear from you!

To check out this month’s newsletter and access resources on school leadership, please follow this link: http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a4ae2b1b129b9f8a29d50b80f&id=82f07ccbb1&e=19cfa03b4e

To ensure you do not miss future issues, we encourage you to subscribe to the monthly newsletter by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/byje6b9

Reform to support Common Core

Posted on February 22, 2013 by coreeducation

If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs the buy-in of principals and other school leaders. In the introduction to the report, Youngs provides the following background:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, in its aim to align diverse state curricula and improve educational outcomes, calls for K-12 teachers in the United States to engage all students in mathematical problem solving along with reading and writing complex text through the use of rigorous academic content. Until recently, most teacher evaluation systems in this country did not measure or promote the ability of teachers to practice in these ways.

This report discusses efforts to develop and implement Common Core standards and assessments in the 45 states and the District of Columbia that are initiative members, and outlines how past attempts to enact standards-based reform have been impeded by limitations in teacher evaluation. It also draws on the notion of “standard of care,” from the field of medicine, to note that advances in our understanding of subject matter, pedagogy, how students learn, and technology call for teachers to continually acquire new knowledge and to refine their instructional practices by participating in comprehensive professional development on a regular basis.

Youngs then proceeds to recommend the following as concrete changes that could be made to help implement the reform needed to help bring about a successful Common Core model:

• Utilize school-based instructional coaches in English language and mathematics to provide ongoing professional learning opportunities to teachers related to the Common Core standards and assessments. In addition, districts can support principals’ efforts to connect teachers to relevant external professional development based on classroom observation and student survey ratings.

• Ensure the validity and reliability of classroom observation protocols by implementing a standardized approach to training principals and other evaluators, and monitoring their ratings. In addition, districts can train principals to provide timely, meaningful feedback to teachers based on observational data.

• Provide training to principals to ensure that student surveys are administered in a uniform way across schools and classrooms, and work out specific procedures for administering them to young children and students with disabilities. To address teachers’ resistance to the use of student surveys, districts can educate them about the value of student survey data. Further, districts can train principals to provide timely, meaningful feedback to teachers based on student survey data.

• Use multiple years of value-added model data in evaluating individual teachers. High-stakes decisions such as dismissal, career ladder promotion, or merit pay should focus only on those teachers who consistently receive bottom-quartile or top-quartile value-added model scores over multiple years.

• Combine aspects—or scaled-down versions—of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and edTPA assessments with one or more of the other approaches discussed in this report.

For access to the full report, please see:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2013/02/05/51410/using-teacher-evaluation-reform-and-professional-development-to-support-common-core-assessments/

Webinar: How can Common Core help ELL’s?

Posted on February 17, 2013 by coreeducation

Free Webinar from All4Ed: Building on the Common Core State Standards to Improve Learning for English Language Learners

Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education on Tuesday, February 26, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (ET), for a webinar on how the transition to Common Core State Standards and Next-Generation Science Standards presents both opportunities and challenges for the growing number of English language learners. A number of initiatives are underway to help English learners access grade-level content while building their language proficiency. Stanford University launched a two-year initiative—Understanding Language—to look at the language demands contained in the new standards. The Council of Chief State School Officers recently developed the Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards to help states understand the sophisticated language competencies English language learners will need to perform in an academic area.

Kenji Hakuta and Maria Santos, cochairs of the Understanding Language initiative, and Susan Pimentel and Carrie Heath Phillips, developers of the Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards, will discuss these efforts and their respective accomplishments to date along with state and district actions needed to support English learners’ language and content learning. Mariana Haynes, senior fellow at the Alliance, will moderate the discussion. Panelists will also address questions submitted by webinar viewers from across the country.

Date and Time: Tuesday, February 26, 2013; 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (ET)

Panelists
Kenji Hakuta, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Stanford University
Mariana Haynes, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education
Carrie Heath Phillips, Program Director, Common Core State Standards Implementation, Council of Chief State School Officers
Susan Pimentel, Education Analyst and Standards and Curriculum Specialist
Maria Santos, Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, Leadership and Equity-in-Action, Oakland Unified School District (California)

Update: Access the recorded webinar here: http://media.all4ed.org/webinar-feb-26-2013

Preparing School Leaders for Next Generation Learning

Posted on February 13, 2013 by coreeducation

A new partnership between the non-profit group New Leaders and Pearson Education seeks to improve the performance of school leadership through the use of technology-backed professional learning opportunities.

New Leaders, the non-profit organization whose mission is to develop school leaders and promote system-wide conditions for student success, is partnering with the education services and technology company Pearson to accelerate access to best-in-class, research-based training opportunities for the nation’s principals and school leaders.

New Leaders CEO Jean Desravines said, “Research shows that effective school leaders have a tremendous impact on student achievement by attracting, retaining, and developing our greatest teachers and ensuring strong instruction and learning for all of their students. Unfortunately, world-class products and services are not readily available to help school systems identify and develop excellent school leaders.”

Desravines added, “In today’s technology-driven world, we all need on-going professional development to stay competitive – and that’s especially true for our school leaders who are charged with ensuring our students are competitive with their global peers. By combining the capabilities of New Leaders with Pearson, we can rapidly scale the critical work of transforming school performance by helping states and districts identify and develop highly effective leaders.”

New Leaders and Pearson are coming together to meet this need by creating tools and professional learning opportunities designed to support school and district leadership development efforts and build leaders’ strengths in instructional leadership, managing teacher effectiveness, and continuous improvement practices. The tools and learning opportunities will include a framework for principal excellence, evaluation rubrics to assess principals’ performance, training for principal evaluators, and web-based professional development modules.

Will Ethridge, Pearson’s CEO of North American Education, said, “This partnership is a unique opportunity for us to combine programs and technologies from Pearson’s School Achievement Services, which is dedicated to providing high quality professional learning to educators, with the ground-breaking work that New Leaders has been doing for the past 12 years. One of the key components to our partnership with New Leaders is their substantial research in high-poverty schools and work with successful principals that has led to new models to transform those schools that are serving our poorest and most underserved children. Our Pearson teams will scale and share these solutions across the U.S.”

Alison Wagner, Pearson’s School Achievement Services President, noted, “To succeed in meeting the expectations of the Common Core, we will need leaders who are prepared to provide their faculties with the regular planning, coaching, and evidence-based feedback teachers need as they make these instructional changes. The solutions we will create with New Leaders will help states and districts develop school leaders who are ready to play this crucial role.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.newleaders.org/pearson-partnership-announcement/

Teacher Professional Development in “Fragile Contexts”

Posted on February 7, 2013 by coreeducation

Join the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) for Teacher Professional Development in Crisis: How Can We Give Teachers in Fragile Contexts the Learning They Want and Need? a three-month online special forum at http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series.

The forum will bring together international experts, practitioners and teachers to share PD-related research, ideas and strategies to gather in one space our collective understanding of effective professional development to begin to shift the narrative around professional development from “quantity” and “scale” to quality and impact.
The forum will include weekly contributions by professional development specialists who work in a variety of global settings who will discuss:

Problems and solutions in teacher professional development (TPD) and continuous professional development (CPD)
Best practices, case studies and models of effective professional development supported by research
Ways forward to bring high-quality professional development to teachers across the globe, with an emphasis on developing countries, fragile contexts, and low-income environments

The forum is being organized and facilitated by Mary Burns, Education Development Center (USA) and James Lawrie, War Child (Netherlands) with the support of Peter Transburg (INEE). The forum will also support French, Spanish and Portuguese-language discussions for those who are more comfortable in these languages.

The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is a global network of over 8,500 practitioners and policy makers based in Paris. It promotes the right to quality education and safe learning environments in emergencies and post-crisis recovery.

How to Participate
1.       Go to the following website and create an account (it is free): www.ineesite.org/join (Unless you belong to one of the organizations listed, under “Organization/Affiliation,” check Other).
2.       The URL for the discussion is: http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series (or go to www.ineesite.org, select Blog, and then Teacher Professional Development in Crisis)
3.       Each Monday (from February 4-April 29, 2013) a guest author will post on a particular issue related to teacher professional development. You will have to log in in order to comment.
4.       Feel free to upload and share any evidence-based professional development related-resources that demonstrate effective professional development.

The link one more time is: http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series

Digital Learning Day 2013 is February 6

Posted on January 27, 2013 by coreeducation

The Alliance for Excellent Education is sponsoring its second annual “Digital Learning Day 2013” on February 6 to “promote digital learning and spotlight successful instructional technology practice in the classroom.” 46 states and DC, including a total of over 16,000 teachers have signed up to participate.

Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and current President of the Alliance for Excellent Education said, “The number of teachers who have signed up to participate is already ahead of last year’s final tally—showing evidence of the increasing enthusiasm and momentum around digital learning.”

The event will take place at the Newseum in Washington, DC and will be streamed live over the internet.

Key events at the conference include:

2013 Digital Town Hall: Attended by prominent national education and policy leaders, the national Digital Town Hall will profile teachers, students, schools, and districts that are implementing digital learning in innovative and successful ways, including
- Dysart Unified School District (Surprise, AZ and El Mirage, AZ);
- Quakertown Community School District (Quakertown, PA); and
- Cajon Valley Union School District (El Cajon, CA).

Digital Learning in Action: Educators will experience lesson plans and examples of successfully implementing interactive digital learning content and instructional strategies that utilize digital learning in the classroom. Geared toward educators and others wanting to know more about specific approaches to digital learning, these hands-on teaching and learning sessions will be led by teachers from the Washington, DC metro area and will be posted online for use by teachers around the country. Areas of focus for these instructional lessons include
- digital content areas for math, science, civics/social studies, and English language arts;
- problem-based learning;
- flipping the classroom—using time more efficiently by having students watch videos of lectures as homework and freeing up classroom time for more individualized, robust and engaging instruction;
- mobile learning and online tools to support blended and face-to-face instruction; and
- new trends in assessment, including digital portfolios and instant feedback using ongoing, informal “quizzes” to improve each student’s cognition.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.digitallearningday.org/

http://www.all4ed.org/

http://www.all4ed.org/press_room/press_releases/01072013

The "Core" of Education

Category Archives: Professional Learning