Policy and practice at the local, state, and national levels should support the concepts of “deeper learning” to help all students meet higher expectations and be prepared for college and a career, according to a new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The brief, “A Time for Deeper Read more
National Education Association officials announced that they would put a “policy statement” before the union’s governing body for approval that, among other changes, would open the door to the use of “valid, reliable, high-quality standardized tests,” in combination with multiple other measures, for evaluating teachers. The statement, passed by the Read more
The nine finalist states that did not win grants in the first two rounds of Race to the Top will be eligible to compete for $200 million in additional funds this year. Applications will be available this fall. The states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Read more
Yesterday I blogged about a journal article in Educational Researcher that found that the Common Core Standards were not aligned well with international standards. Today, I present a dissenting opinion. ACT has released a research report, titled “Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?” This Read more
A recent article in Education Researcher by UPenn education dean Andy Porter and several of his colleagues explains similarities and differences between the Common Core and current state and international standards, using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) as its metric. The SEC is an analytic framework developed at the Read more
In a blog post written by Jack Jennings, Center for Education Policy’s president, Jennings discusses achievement gains of white, Latino, and African American students on the long-term National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The blog points out that while general trends show a mixed picture of achievement gains over the Read more
In a typical year (without a stimulus bill), the federal Department of Education has about $20 million in discretionary funds. In 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave away over $373 million to education, the Walton Foundation gave approximately $134 million, and the Broad Foundation about $39 million. Education Read more
Released by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: An American Agenda for Education Reform explains why as the performance of students in one nation after another surpasses that of American students, and the states, in response, institute one reform after another, Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has released the Department’s first report on the revamped School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, “Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools.” This baseline report provides an overview of the state policies and practices for SIG implementation as well as a description Read more
The National Association of State Boards of Education has posted a number of Power Point presentations from their 2011 Central Regional Conference and 2011 Northeast Regional Conference related to the Common Core. To download, click the title, or visit http://www.nasbe.org/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=category&category_id=23&Itemid=1125 A Systems Approach to Common Core: Critical Issues of Implementing Read more
Although much of the impetus for new approaches to teacher evaluation comes from policymakers at the state and national levels, the design of any particular teacher evaluation system falls to the roughly 16,000 school districts and 5,000 independent public charter schools in the country. A new report from the Brookings Read more
What is the role of private enterprise in American public education? AEI is launching a new education project to explore this question. Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), announced the launch of a new AEI research project to examine the role of Read more
The Pearson Foundation has announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a complete, foundational system of digital instructional resources built around the Common Core State Standards. Over the next three years, the Pearson Foundation will develop 24 courses covering math for grades K-10 and reading/English Read more
A new interactive map from Education Sector looks closely at the 843 schools that have been selected as school improvement grantees so far, and how they are spending the money. Schools improvement grantees can receive $6 million per school over a three-year period. The combined grants are expected to serve Read more
Public Impact’s School Turnaround website contains many useful resources on developing leaders for School Turnaround efforts. You can download each of the resources described below at http://www.schoolturnarounds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=10 Using Competencies to Improve School Turnaround Principal Success This paper, produced for the University of Virginia’s School Turnaround Specialist Program, describes how using Read more
The Illinois Senate passed SB7 unanimously in April, 57 to 0. Last Thursday, the bill also passed House nearly unanimously (112 for, 1 abstaining and 1 against). The Bill now goes to Governor Quinn’s desk for signature. SB 7 was developed during months of discussions involving a wide variety of Read more