Since our humble blogging beginnings in 2011 when we were happy to get 20 hits a day, the Core Education blog has grown in its reach and impact. Now, with more than 1,000 hits a day, we are a trusted source of information for educators and those who support them. Read more
Education Week is hosting several webinars in the coming weeks that address the Common Core and the preparations of people who work with children in after-school or recreational programs. See full descriptions and registration information below. From Paper to Practice: Implementing the Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts May Read more
The persistent failure of public schooling in low-income communities is a pressing civil rights and social justice issue, but too few policy- and decision-makers know what to do about it, write Keith Catone and Mark Warren on the Annenberg Institute for School Reform website. However, a recent call for a Read more
In a recent blog post for Education Week¸ Sarah Sparks reported on the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference in Vancouver, BC. Under discussion was the massive Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, funded by the Gates Foundation. MET is finding that their teacher effectiveness assessments “aren’t good at showing Read more
In a recent meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to share ideas on how best to implement the Common Core, executive director of CCSSO Gene Wilhoit delivered a frank message: states need to take stronger positions on regulating teacher preparation and licensing standards within their jurisdiction Read more
While the economy may be showing signs of life, local school districts nationwide continue to struggle mightily. The “new normal” of tougher budget times is here to stay for American K-12 education. So how can local officials cope? This Fordham Institute released a policy brief earlier this month, authored by Read more
Public Impact has launched a new website, OpportunityCulture.org. The site focuses on “extending the reach of excellent teachers using job redesign and technology.” The site is divided into four main sections: Why This Matters: What research says about the impact excellent teachers have on student learning. Redesigning Schools: More than Read more
In the most recent issue of the Harvard Educational Review, Anthony Bryk, Heather Harding, and Sharon Greenberg report on a roundtable jointly sponsored by Teach For America and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The authors brought together a group of scholars and practitioners with a broad range Read more
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has released a series of case studies from 28 states highlighting examples of innovative educational initiatives that are playing a crucial role in improving K-12 education across the country. The programs identified in these case studies were funded through the Enhancing Education Through Read more
Paul Farhi, senior contributing writer for The Washington Post, recently wrote a commentary piece for The American Journalism Review (a publication from the University of Maryland Foundation, which examines how the media cover specific stories and broader coverage trends). Farhi’s article reflected on the way the American education system has Read more
The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday that $133 million from the 2012 Race to the Top fund will be available for continued investments in state-level, comprehensive early education reform. The Departments intend to fund down the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 slate Read more
The Center for Public Education has released a new report called The Principal Perspective, which examines what impact principals actually have on a school and how they may or may not affect school turnarounds. Existing research, of which there is little, seems to agree on several things: The job of Read more
At a packed public hearing two weeks ago, the Seattle School Board voted to continue the district’s partnership with Teach for America (TFA). TFA, though a decades-old organization, is only in its first year working with Seattle schools. Fifty community members signed up for a chance to speak to the Read more
Mathematica and the Institute of Education Sciences released a joint report earlier this month on the implementation experience and intermediate impacts of the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), a pilot transfer-incentive strategy launched in seven school districts. TTI offered $20,000 to each teacher who transferred from a high-performing to a low-performing Read more
Districts and states planning to apply for Teacher Incentive Fund Round 4 (TIF4) funding need to take steps to engage teachers and administrators, their Boards of Education, and the public in planning for applications. The TIF 4 draft regulations place emphasis on the core elements of both performance- based compensation Read more
Learning Matters, a non-profit production company focused on education reporting, has launched a new blog by and for teachers called Why I Teach. Learning Matters “invites classroom teachers to share what brought them to the teaching profession—and what keeps them there.” The first blog entry was an essay written by Read more