Since the end of the recession three years ago, 300,000 educators have lost their jobs—7,000 in the last month alone, according to a new White House report. These startling numbers have led the Obama administration to sound the alarm on education spending cuts across the country. In Investing in Our Future: Returning Teachers to the Read more about Investing in Our Future: Returning Teachers to the Classroom[…]
The Hope Street Group, a national, nonpartisan non-profit organization that focuses on bringing together political leadership with non-governmental innovators in business, nonprofit organizations, etc. to develop creative solutions for America’s current economic problems, has launched a new website—The Teacher Evaluation Playbook. The site serves as a guide for implementing strategies around teacher evaluation systems with Read more about Hope Street Group Launches the Teacher Evaluation Playbook[…]
We all know those teachers — the high-fliers, the irreplacables, the inspiring ones. One of our central concerns in education reform should not just be teacher retention, but retention of the “right” teachers. In this Issue Brief, we explore the many ways schools are offering exceptional teachers with opportunities to remain enthusiastic and growing, without Read more about August Issue Brief: Teacher Leadership[…]
Roughly 180 teachers, principals, and education advocates met at the US Department of Education’s (ED) headquarters last week to make connections and engage in conversations about how educators will lead the transformation of their profession. Educators drilled down on a number of topics and made recommendations for the next steps in the RESPECT Project. One Read more about Teachers and Principals Get Engaged[…]
As teachers head back to their classrooms, a prevailing question is how to implement the Common Core and prepare students for the associated exams—which aren’t ready yet. Two consortia tasked with developing common assessments to support the Common Core (PARCC and Smarter Balanced) have begun to work with private vendors to develop the questions and Read more about Consortia Provide Preview of Common Assessments[…]
The U.S. Department of Education has not been swayed by Georgia’s passionate defense of its teacher-evaluation plans, which are somewhat in conflict with what the state promised to do when it won a coveted Race to the Top grant. In a new letter to the state, the federal department’s Race to the Top implementer-in-chief Ann Read more about Georgia Still in Hot Water Over Race to the Top[…]
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently released a new study that takes an in-depth look at “teacher quality,” and how our understanding of the concept has changed over the past decade. The report, From Teacher Education to Student Progress: Teacher Quality Since NCLB, notes that prior to NCLB, it was assumed that teacher effectiveness was Read more about Teacher Quality Since NCLB[…]
The Department of Education has released the application materials for the latest round of the Race to the Top (RTT) competition. Geared towards individual school districts, this round will award grants from $5 – $40 million, depending on the size of the school district. From the application: The Race to the Top – District competition Read more about Race to the Top – District Proposal Application[…]
On August 1, the Alliance for Excellent Education began an unprecedented digital process asking the American public to participate in developing major new state legislation designed to make digital learning and educational technology available to all students around the country. The proposed draft legislation, titled the Each Child Learns Act, will help states think strategically Read more about Each Child Learns Act: Open for Comment[…]
In a recent article for Slate, Ryan Fisman reflects on the current emphasis on teacher effectiveness. Is firing bad instructors the only way to improve schools? According to new research, maybe not. Few districts have the “luxury” of being able to fire low-performing teachers and replacing them with more effective ones. This being the case, Read more about How to Build a Better Teacher[…]
The United Way Worldwide (UWW) recently released a study on how communities can work together to advance effective teaching and empower effective teachers. Beginning in July 2009, the study took place in 14 communities located in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. United Way Worldwide worked with the communities to identify strategies to support and enhance Read more about Building Support for Effective Teaching: The Impact of Public Will[…]
Last week the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) launched a new site containing cutting-edge postsecondary education research for a policy-focused audience. PolicyDirect is a one-stop, online resource that delivers more than 300 easy-to-use summaries of academic research that highlights critical findings on important higher education issues such as college preparation, financial aid, productivity, and Read more about Institute for Higher Education Policy Launches PolicyDirect[…]
Achieve has released new resources directed toward the business community, to inform and rally more advocates for education reform. The Business Resources for a College- and Career-Ready America include modular resources for business leaders to use as they engage their internal and external networks of colleagues, peers, employees, and employers around the college- and career-ready Read more about Business Resources for a College- and Career-Ready America[…]
The first wave of petitions calling for technology professional development for all educators were delivered last week to Senator Patty Murray (Washington), and Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard (California), Duncan Hunter (California) and George Miller (California) by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). More than one thousand educators are urging Congress to support technology training Read more about Petitions Call for Technology PD for All Educators[…]
A study released yesterday finds that urban schools are systematically neglecting their best teachers, losing tens of thousands every year even as they keep many of their lowest-performing teachers indefinitely-with disastrous consequences for students, schools, and the teaching profession. The study by TNTP documents the real teacher retention crisis in America’s schools: not only a Read more about The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis[…]
Tennessee’s new way of evaluating classrooms “systematically failed” to identify bad teachers and provide them more training, according to a state report published Monday. The Tennessee Department of Education found that instructors who got failing grades when measured by their students’ test scores tended to get much higher marks from principals who watched them in Read more about More Questions About TN Teacher Evaluations[…]