Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced 124 highly-rated Development pre-applicants for the Investing in Innovation (i3) fund, all of which are invited to apply for a share of the nearly $150 million 2012 competition. “Every year, i3 brings in hundreds of applications with groundbreaking ideas on how to Read more
What does it mean to be “college ready?” This is the question that became the center of debate at the June meeting of leaders from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), one of the consortia tasked with creating assessment systems for the new Common Core. Read more
As the discussion of the Common Core and associated assessment systems heats up, I wanted to share these valuable resources. They were compiled by Achieve, the US Education Delivery Institute, and Education First, and are hyperlinked in the press release below: As states move forward with their implementation of the Read more
On June 29, the Department of Education announced that waiver applications from five more states have been approved. Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia bring the total of waiver-approved states to 24, with 13 states still waiting for a decision. The big surprise for many observers was the approval Read more
Date: Thursday, July 12, 2012 Time: 2:00-3:00pm EST The new emphasis on teacher effectiveness is changing the K-12 education landscape. What does the latest research suggest about the impact of teacher effectiveness on student achievement? What are the best strategies for enhancing teacher effectiveness? And how do district leaders assess Read more
In the latest edition of the Wallace Foundation’s Perspective, the focus is again on school leadership. In “The Making of the Principal: Five Lessons in Leadership Training,” the authors seek to discover what it will take to ensure that all public schools have leaders equal to the challenges facing the Read more
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a 24-state consortium working together to create next generation assessments in English language arts/literacy and mathematics, has selected the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) to lead the facilitation and management of the Educator Leader Cadres (ELCs). Through this Read more
An analysis of reforms in the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) finds that the district has come a long way in a short time in terms of improving student achievement, granting schools more autonomy, and creating an environment friendly to innovators and new school providers. Baltimore and the Portfolio School Read more
Resource Watch: ‘Pinteresting’ Idea for Teachers – Teaching Now – Education Week Teacher. Grockit, the online test prep company, has recently launched a new social learning site similar to Pinterest, but designed specifically for educators and students, according to The Journal, an education-technology news magazine. On Learnist, users can “pin” Read more
Preparing all students to succeed in today’s increasingly complex world requires a shift from a teacher-centric culture to learner-centered instruction that recognizes students’ individual learning needs, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, Culture Shift: Teaching in a Learner-Centered Environment Powered by Digital Learning, Read more
In 2010 and 2011, the US Department of Education awarded five grants to consortia of states to support the development of new assessment systems. The two comprehensive assessment consortia are well-known—Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)—but the other three (two alternate assessment Read more
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education, or SCORE, has released a new report, “Supporting Effective Instruction in Tennessee,” focused on the state’s teacher evaluation system. The report follows a five-month listening and feedback process SCORE led on the evaluation system to identify what is working well, gather input on challenges Read more
Green Dot Public Schools (GDPS), a charter school network operating in inner urban Los Angeles, announced earlier this month the approval of a contract with its teachers that includes a pay-for-performance evaluation tool. Though the agreement does not “make the critical link between teacher compensation and student performance,” it does Read more
A new report on teacher evaluation systems, authored by Linda Darling-Hammond, was released by the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (or SCOPE) last week. The report, Creating a Comprehensive System for Evaluating and Supporting Effective Teaching, outlines an integrated approach that connects the goals of teacher preparation and Read more
Rural administrators who want to better prepare and support a culturally diverse teaching force need to vary recruitment strategies, seek partnerships, and promote a culture of collaboration, according to a new study. Those are among a list of suggestions in “Teacher Identity in a Multicultural Rural School: Lessons Learned at Read more
In a recent article for The Education Gadfly, Michael J. Petrilli offers his take on how we should proceed with education reform, particularly as it concerns teachers. Excerpts from his article are below: For all of its victories over the last couple of years, including Scott Walker’s on Tuesday night, Read more