According to a recent Gallup/USA Today poll, Americans are 3% less optimistic about the Obama administration’s chances of improving the state of American Education. All things considered, this very modest drop should be seen as proof of a favorable American attitude toward the Obama administration and education. First, as the Read more
Last month’s election results mean four more years of the Obama Administration, with an Education Department headed by Secretary Arne Duncan. But what exactly does that mean for funding, federal policy and local implementation related to education? In this month’s issue brief, we explore the meaning for both K-12 and Read more
Yesterday, Katy Farber offered the following letter to the fallen teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary. We repost it here in honor of their memories and in respect for the selfless acts that teachers perform in our nation’s schools each day. To my fallen colleagues, I heard your stories today on Read more
BetterLesson has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to offer a two-year program for master math teachers to develop Common Core aligned math curriculum that they would share with other teachers. For those skilled teachers selected, BetterLesson is offering a stipend of $30,000 paid out over the course Read more
In the much-debated world of education policy, particularly over the last few years, teachers have taken much of the flak regarding the lack of student achievement and failing schools. Washington DC public schools (DCPS) stands as a lightning rod for these debates. As we wrote about recently (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/is-dcps-a-model-urban-school-district/), some see Read more
Economist Douglas Harris sees one clear priority for the Education Department: “Now that the election is over, the Obama Administration and policymakers nationally can return to governing. Of all the education-related decisions that have to be made, the future of teacher evaluation has to be front and center.” Within this Read more
A crucial question at the nexus of the issues of student achievement and battles between school districts and teachers unions is the issue of teacher pay scale. A helpful study by Jason A. Grissom of Vanderbilt University and Katharine O. Strunk of the University of Southern California has recently delved Read more
The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution has recently released a report on the current cost of standardized testing in United States. The purpose of the study is to shed light on current costs so that there will be an accurate baseline upon which to compare new Read more
On December 11, 2012, the Education Department announced the 16 winners of the Race to the Top school district grants (RTTD). 61 Finalists had been announced recently out of an original 372 districts that turned in applications in November. A total of $400 million was due to go out, and Read more
This Tuesday, the Alliance for Excellent Education will host a webinar entitled “Perspectives on the Future of Teacher Preparation in the Digital Age.” The webinar will be moderated by Mary Ann Wolf of the Alliance for Excellent Education. The panelists, who will provide a diversity of views from different perspectives Read more
A new paper recently released by the Center for American Progress argues that excessive teacher absences, as might be expected, cause decreases in student achievement and waste school district resources. However, the paper asserts that problem of these excessive absences could be fairly easily alleviated because “the vast variation in Read more
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has recently released a new report, Keeping Irreplaceables in D.C. Public Schools: Lessons in Smart Retention, which holds up the reforms begun in DC public schools by former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee as a model for human capital reform. The main thrust of the reforms Read more
In an interesting editorial for the New York Times online, Sara Mosle takes up the debate around one of the key shifts in reading instruction advocated by the Common Core — a shift that calls for much more focus on non-fiction and less emphasis on fictional texts. This shift has Read more
Yesterday we posted information from Higher Ed Watch’s blog about the biggest hits in higher education of the Obama Administration. Today, we look at the five biggest misses of this administration. Since Education Department secretary Arne Duncan has suggested that he plans to stay in his position and keep the Read more
The Higher Ed Watch blog from the New America Foundation recently posted what they consider to be the biggest hits of the Obama administration related to higher education. Since Education Department secretary Arne Duncan has suggested that he plans to stay in his position and to help keep the Education Read more
Various education-focused organizations, as well as government officials, have been questioning the recent policy of Education secretary Arne Duncan and the Obama Administration to provide waivers to those states who have not been able to meet the standards laid out by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Originally, Read more