On January 13, 2014, Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave an address to the National Assessment Governing Board Education Summit for Parent Leaders. He highlighted the continual need for American parents to demand more from their children’s schools and teachers so that Americans can be prepared to compete in the demanding global business climate of the Read more about Secretary Duncan: Parent Voices for World-Class Education[…]
TNTP, which has recently published many helpful documents about teacher effectiveness, has a new whitepaper out about the connection between teacher evaluations and Common Core. While these two issues have been on the tongues of most education professionals for the last several years, TNTP’s approach is unique in addressing each of these two issues together, Read more about TNTP Publishes Whitepaper on Classroom Observation[…]
U.S. corporations donate an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion a year to K-12 education. A new report argues that’s not enough. The report, published by Harvard Business School, the Boston Consulting Group and the Gates Foundation, aims to prod CEOs to move beyond “checkbook philanthropy” and push more transformative change on the public education Read more about Shedding light on the nexus of business and education[…]
Teachers in 18 states and the District of Columbia have new resources to help them prepare their students for upcoming field tests. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers has posted sample test items for every grade on the testing platform students will use when taking the field test later this spring. Read more about PARCC Sample Test Questions Ready for Computer Practice[…]
The National Education Association (NEA), Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) are launching a groundbreaking initiative to advance teaching as a 21st-century profession. The Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI) will support accomplished teachers in leading effective pedagogical, policy, and union reforms. In the 2014 pilot year, TLI will engage Read more about Teacher Leadership Initiative Launches[…]
A free DVD from the School Turnaround Learning Community provides resources for conducting professional development on using educator evaluation results to create and support a system of professional growth for teachers. The module contains three sessions, each including agendas, PowerPoint slides, facilitator’s notes, multimedia, sample materials, and handouts: Session 1: Overview of the connection between Read more about Linking Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning[…]
Can big data and predictive analytics help school leaders hire better teachers? That’s the new pitch being made by two companies: TeacherMatch, from Chicago, and Washington-based Hanover Research. Both claim that their new algorithm-driven teacher-selection tools can predict the impact teacher candidates will have on student test scores should they be hired, which they argue Read more about Data Tools to Predict Teacher Candidates’ Impact[…]
The 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest‘s purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of education from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to Read more about NCES Releases “Digest of Education Statistics 2012”[…]
A new report suggests that principal walkthroughs do not improve student performance. For years, one of the key debates about principalship has been their role in “instructional leadership”. In other words, how much should principals be doing to directly impact student instruction and what exactly should they be doing if it is so important? Principal Read more about Principal walkthroughs: Do they help or hurt?[…]
In a recent blog post, Marc Tucker of the National Center on Education and the Economy explains how fundamental changes in the way schools are managed could both attract better teachers and enable them to do their best work. Tucker’s blog post was motivated by the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Read more about PISA On the Teacher as Professional[…]
How can school districts build a large corps of highly qualified principals? Making sure that would-be principals get the right training is one step; providing new principals with plenty of support is another. A new report describes what those two steps look like in six urban school districts working to build larger pools of strong Read more about Principal Training and Support in Six School Districts[…]
Many teachers are taking part in the increasing number of Gates-funded teacher organizations, while others remain skeptical. These organizations, such as Teach Plus and VIVA Project, are providing teachers with a unique chance to discuss education policies, but many teachers outside these organizations question the authenticity of these dialogues because of the influence of conservative-leaning Read more about The Gates Foundation and the Dilemma of Teacher Voice[…]
In just over a year from now, the vast majority of states are planning to transition to Common Core-aligned assessments. This transition is a crucial step in fully implementing the new standards, as these assessments will measure the extent to which students are mastering the content and skills embedded in the standards-something most current state Read more about A Primer on Common Core-Aligned Assessments[…]
With Common Core implementation imminent or underway, questions remain about the extent to which state education officials and teachers support Common Core and are working toward its implementation. Even among those who agree on the importance of Common Core, there is disagreement about how quickly tests aligned with Common Core should be implemented. One side, Read more about The Pace of Common Core Implementation[…]
A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education examines how implementing rigorous and engaging curriculum aligned with college- and career-ready standards fosters positive school climates in which students are motivated to succeed, achievement gaps narrow, and learning and outcomes improve. The report, Climate Change: Providing Equitable Access to a Rigorous and Engaging Curriculum, includes Read more about Climate Change: Rigorous Curriculum for All[…]
A new paper from Bellwether Education Partners argues that the “college for all” debate is beside the point because students are already flocking to colleges. The real question, they say, is how to find low-income students with high potential and how to better inform students so that they’re “smart shoppers” when choosing among colleges. The Read more about The End of the “College for All” Debate[…]