The 2012 McGraw Prize in Education winners have been named. Each winner will be presented with a $50,000 prize during the gala awards ceremony on Tuesday, September 18. This year, the 25th anniversary of the Prize, honors the following “Game Changers”: John Merrow has spent many years as an education reporter for National Public Radio Read more about Education “Game Changers”[…]
The New York Times’ Room for Debate blog is known for asking provocative questions and soliciting opinions from a wide range of voices. This week, they ask, In its second decade, is Teach for America (TFA) still a good idea? Responses vary widely: Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas at Austin calls TFA Read more about Is TFA still a good idea?[…]
Learning Forward and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) have released Building a Learning Community, a study that provides a detailed look at the formation and maintenance of effective professional learning communities. From the abstract: Education research has found that collegial work is connected to teachers’ professional growth and positive student outcomes, Read more about Building a Learning Community[…]
In Cincinnati, newly released research finds that teacher participation in a teacher evaluation system that includes highly structured classroom observations increases student performance. Released in the Fall 2012 edition of Education Next, the study looks at practice-based teacher assessment that relies on multiple, highly structured classroom observations conducted by experienced peer teachers and administrators. Researchers Read more about Does evaluation make teachers more effective?[…]
Sara Mead of Bellwether Education recently wrote in an Education Week blog about her investigation into teacher evaluation legislation in 21 states that have passed laws in the last three years requiring teacher evaluations based in part on student achievement. Bellwether’s study finds that 12 states’ laws link tenure to teacher effectiveness, 16 explicitly give Read more about The Missing Piece in Teacher Evaluation Laws: Empowering Principals[…]
The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center) is offering a free webinar to discuss teacher preparation improvement and accountability: Teacher Preparation Program Evaluation for Accountability and Improvement Thursday, September 27, 2012 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time During the past decade, teachers have been increasingly held accountable for the outcomes of their Read more about Holding Teacher Preparation Programs Accountable[…]
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) recently released sample assessment items. They come complete with a new way of categorizing questions, both for mathematics — where the questions are of Type I, Type II or Type III — and in ELA, where they are EBSRs, TECRs and PCRs. For a Read more about PARCC Task and Question Types[…]
With the new school year just starting, the majority of educators across the country are hard at work implementing the new K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The new standards have sparked a range of resources and tools to support CCSS-aligned instruction, as well as drawn a lot of media attention, particularly in the last Read more about Implementing the Common Core[…]
Education Week is again offering new “Spotlights on Education” for free. Spotlights are collections of recent articles grouped by theme to give readers an in-depth look at education issues. Featured Spotlights include: The Education Week Spotlight on Personalized Learning – a collection of articles hand-picked by Ed Week editors for their insights on: Digital badges Read more about Featured Education Week ‘Spotlights’[…]
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 893 potential applicants have submitted their intent to apply for the 2012 Race to the Top-District program, which will provide close to $400 million to support local reforms that will personalize learning, close achievement gaps and prepare each student for college and their careers. The Race Read more about Nearly 900 Districts Intend to Apply for Race to the Top Funding[…]
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a 23-state consortium working together to create next generation assessments, released its first set of item and task prototypes for both English language arts/literacy and mathematics. The prototypes are illustrative of how the critical content and skills found in the Common Core State Standards Read more about PARCC Releases Initial Set of Test Items and Task Prototypes[…]
Three large school districts, Chicago, Milwaukee, and New York, have bailed out of Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants. The Teacher Incentive Fund’s competitive grant program aims at promoting performance-based compensation and PD for educators. Overall, the three districts forfeited $88 million. The problem? A lack of teacher buy-in for the grants’ promises. Under the first Read more about Big City Districts Bail on TIF Grants[…]
In a newly released study, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) director of education policy studies Frederick (Rick) Hess, professor Paul Manna and researcher Keenan Kelly assess Indiana’s 2011 “Putting Students First” education reform law, a first of its kind large-scale reform package which includes school choice, teacher evaluation and collective bargaining reforms which serves as a Read more about Implementing Indiana’s “Students First” Agenda[…]
The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems released last week “75 Examples of How Bureaucracy Stands in the Way of America’s Students and Teachers,” giving parents, teachers and voters a critical resource for understanding the systemic crisis in America’s public schools. This week’s release of the PDK/Gallup poll of the “Public’s Attitudes Toward Read more about 75 Examples of How Bureaucracy Stands in the Way of Students and Teachers[…]
The public school system in Washington, D.C. has hired a reality TV company to produce videos intended to improve the skills of its teachers. So far, 80 videos of 5 to 15 minutes each, have been produced. The videos are “peppered with quick jump cuts, slick screen labels and a jaunty soundtrack.” The videos, financed Read more about Reality TV: Coming to Your Classroom[…]
Juan Williams of the Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article about technology-based personalized learning strategies being employed across the country that have shown success. Excerpts from the article are below. …Prize-winning documentaries such as “Waiting for ‘Superman’” have revealed the terrible cost of losing young minds to failing schools. Dropout rates are particularly high Read more about A High-Tech Fix for Broken Schools[…]