The fifth annual Education Next-PEPG Survey was released last week, which focuses on American opinions on education and the teaching profession. The survey interviewed a nationally representative sample of 2,600 people, with special attention paid to the affluent (defined as college graduates who are in the top income decile in Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its annual report on Wednesday which compares each state’s proficiency standards in Reading and Math to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards. The current report looks at 2009 standards, and found the following: –There is wide variation among state proficiency standards. Read more
Earlier this week, President Obama gave the Department of Education the go-ahead on beginning to grant waivers to states seeking relief from some provisions of ESEA /NCLB. “We want to deliver a very important message: Relief is on the way,” said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Read more
A recent study authored by Will Dobbie of Harvard University suggests that teacher success can be predicted at the time of hire. For his study, Dobbie looked at Teach For America’s (TFA) admissions measures to see if they can predict teachers’ future impact on student achievement. TFA bases their selection Read more
Under a series of actions taken over the past year and a half by the New York State Board of Regents, the body that oversees P-12 education, higher education, and teacher certification, the doors have been opened for nonuniversity programs to prepare teachers at the graduate-degree level. Additionally, the first Read more
Reporter-turned-charter school teacher Marilyn Rhames blogged last week on an experience that changed her perception of education and the core values that should guide education reform. She began her student teaching in an elementary school on the West Side of Chicago, where conditions were such that “after six months, I Read more
The Save our Schools March and National Call to Action wrapped up in Washington, DC this weekend. The event consisted of a two-day conference and followed by a march and rally in the nation’s capital. The event, hosted by a grassroots teacher advocacy group called Save Our Schools, was staged Read more
Ten years and $5 billion into his philanthropic push for school reform, Bill Gates is doing some soul-searching. “It’s been about a decade of learning,” he says, and acknowledges that education isn’t only a civil rights issue but also “an equity issue and an economic issue…It’s so primary. In inner-city, Read more
On July 27th, I blogged about NCTQ’s study which severely criticized the state of clinical experiences (i.e., student teaching) in America’s university-based teacher preparation programs. The President of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has now issued a response to the findings of the NCTQ study. NCATE Read more
In a Higher Ed Watch article last week, Jon Oberg discussed the recent recommendations from the American Educational Research Association on how to fix the problems with the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA). ESRA, originally signed into law in 2002, is three years overdue for reauthorization, and much of this Read more
The Center for American Progress has released a report examining the role of state education agencies, their leaders, and their potential impact on education reform. In the past, state education agencies (SEAs) have been small offices in the background, mostly tasked with administering state and federal education laws, allocating federal Read more
New Jersey’s state Board of Education recently voted to relax the requirements for hiring superintendents in its most troubled school districts, opening these jobs to non-educators for the first time. The new regulations will take effect immediately in the 57 school districts that have schools labeled as “failing” due to Read more
A report released July 25 by Bellwether Education Partners sought to answer a crucial question: Did the Investing in Innovation (“i3”) program successfully find truly innovative ideas to improve K-12 education? The report is the culmination of interviews with dozens of i3 applicants, winners and philanthropists, plus a review of Read more
In 2007, Indiana adopted a new teaching fellowship program, established by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, to recruit professionals with STEM expertise. Fellows, whether mid-career or fresh out of college, were set to work in secondary schools serving disadvantaged populations. The program seeks to not only address the shortage Read more
A recent report released by Public Impact, in collaboration with the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education, studied the potential impact on school turnarounds of importing leadership talent from non-education industries. The authors explore lessons about when and how organizations in other sectors import leadership, including what it Read more
Last week, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released a new study on teacher education programs, and determined that three-fourths of all student teaching programs, including those at top universities, are inadequate. NCTQ named 19 standards that they believe each program must meet in order to be successful, but Read more