The US Department of Education requested its FY2013 budget earlier this month; the key themes for funding are increasing college affordability/quality, “raising up” the teaching profession, aligning job training with workforce demands, and continuing reform. The request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies for the next ten Read more
In a recent article for The Hechinger Report, classroom teacher Eric Shieh reflects on his experiences working with his union to fight budget cuts in his district. As a music teacher in St. Louis, he was appalled by the district’s decision in 2007 to cut student time in the arts Read more
The State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness (SCEE) has unveiled a new teacher evaluation database called State Policies on Teacher Evaluation 2010-2011. The database includes state-by-state information on teacher evaluation policies for all states plus DC. The purpose of the database is to provide information on how states have addressed teacher Read more
A new report from Education First and Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) details how state advocacy groups are working with state policymakers to advance education reforms. To compile the report, PIE and Education First worked closely with Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas Read more
In a recent opinion piece for Education Week, Arthur Wise of the Center for Teaching Quality writes that current mainstream ideas on how to improve American public schools will result in “at best, a marginal improvement for small numbers of students.” Teacher effectiveness is worthy of increased research, but the Read more
A new working paper by C. Kirabo Jackson, Assistant Professor at Northwestern, takes a closer look at value-added measures and their application to high school teachers. Jackson notes that there is ample research at the elementary level detailing the importance of individual teachers on student outcomes in reading and math, Read more
The Education Commission of the States (ECS), a national, nonpartisan education organization, has released a report detailing the issues the Commission believes will be center stage in education policy debates this year. The report is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all pertinent education issues, but rather aims Read more
On February 9, the Department of Education announced that ten states received waivers from some of the stringent requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee will now have the opportunity to use alternative methods to improving student Read more
Jack Jennings, founder, president, and CEO of the Center on Education Policy (CEP), stepped down from his roles at the organization on January 31. As part of his retirement, he is releasing two publications. One is the history of the CEP, the other contains some final words of advice on Read more
In a new chapter of the issues plaguing Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system, the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) has announced its plans for a statewide feedback process on the system (background information). The process is designed to gather input from all stakeholders, but particularly educators, and is a response Read more
Last week the GE Foundation, the charity associated with General Electric, announced they intend to donate $18 million to support the implementation of the Common Core. Though some critics are expected to be up in arms over a private corporation getting involved in education reform, Time’s Andrew Rotherham believes the Read more
In a commentary piece for Education Week, Alan Blankstein of the HOPE Foundation and Pedro Noguera of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education detail their concern at “the approach prescribed by the US Department of Education” for school turnarounds. While they agree that the approach is “well intentioned,” it is Read more
In the latest installment of the back-and-forth of Hawaii’s struggle to uphold its Race to the Top promises, members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association have rejected a contract that included a provision for a performance-based compensation system—one of the measures Hawaii promised to take under the grant. Had the Read more
To serve the dual purpose of encouraging students to achieve more, and save money in education budgets, states are beginning to push students to graduate early from high school through “ramped up” curricula and college scholarship programs. It is anticipated that such policies, which emphasize proficiency rather than seat time, Read more
A new Wallace Perspective was released by the Wallace Foundation last month, titled “The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning.” The Perspective highlights the most important role of the school principal: creating the conditions in which the other variables known to improve student outcomes can Read more
The Center for American Progress (CAP) has released a report that analyzes how states can use the results of their teacher evaluation systems in a meaningful way. In other words, “what kinds of strategies should they adopt to increase the amount of measured effectiveness in the teacher workforce over time?” Read more