Controversy: Does anyone REALLY want a national curriculum?

Posted on May 15, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Last month, I blogged on The Shanker Institute’s manifesto, A Call for Common Content. This manifesto, available at http://www.ashankerinst.org/curriculum.html, urges the creation of curricular materials that support the Common Core Standards and bridge the gap between the standards and the new assessments being developed. These curricular materials would be voluntarily adopted. Last week, a counter-manifesto, Read more about Controversy: Does anyone REALLY want a national curriculum?[…]

Hurdles to Creating Teacher and Leader Evaluations

Posted on May 13, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

The prospect of designing and implementing teacher and leader evaluations and the data systems necessary to link teachers with the achievement of their students is a daunting task. States and districts are only now confronting technical and logistical hurdles to creating new evaluations, writes Stephen Sawchuck in Education Week. In the coming months, states — Read more about Hurdles to Creating Teacher and Leader Evaluations[…]

Developing Leadership for the New Common Core

Posted on May 11, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

At this writing, 44 states and thousands of districts are crafting summer and fall plans to support system-wide transition to the Common Core Standards. A high priority in every plan is to ensure principals are prepared to successfully lead their schools through this transition, and to ensure principals are equipped to support teachers, students and Read more about Developing Leadership for the New Common Core[…]

Beyond Classroom Walls: Developing Innovative Work Roles for Teachers

Posted on May 11, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Nearly four in 10 teachers report that they are interested in combining their classroom work with other roles or responsibilities in their school or district, including 46 percent of teachers with five or fewer years of experience. Across the country, interest is increasing in alternative approaches to school staffing that provide more flexible work roles Read more about Beyond Classroom Walls: Developing Innovative Work Roles for Teachers[…]

Educator Networks: A Key to Improvement

Posted on May 10, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

A new study based on the Annenberg Institute on School Reform’s (AISR) work with the Transatlantic School Innovation Alliance (TISA) adds to the emerging literature supporting the idea that peer networks among educational practitioners, both within and across schools, can improve teaching and learning.In England, there has been a focus over the past decade on Read more about Educator Networks: A Key to Improvement[…]

1,000 Scientists in 1,000 Days

Posted on May 8, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Scientific American is about to make connecting scientists and schools a whole lot easier, thanks to their new 1,000 Scientists in 1,000 Days program. They’re recruiting “scientists who are willing to volunteer to advise on curricula, answer a classroom’s questions, or visit a school—for instance, to do a lab or to talk about what you Read more about 1,000 Scientists in 1,000 Days[…]

A Letter to Teachers from Arne Duncan

Posted on May 7, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has published an open letter to American teachers. In Education Week, he writes that as someone working most of his life in education, he has “a deep and genuine appreciation for the work [teachers] do.” He wants to see the profession treated Read more about A Letter to Teachers from Arne Duncan[…]

New Commission on the Future of Assessment in K-12 Education

Posted on May 4, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Concerns over current and future emerging changes in the U.S. education enterprise have led one of the nation’s premier educational psychologists, Professor Edmund W. Gordon (photographed here) of Teachers College at Columbia University, to lead a two-year study group – the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in K-12 Education. The commission will consider Read more about New Commission on the Future of Assessment in K-12 Education[…]

The Relationship of Third-Grade Reading Skills, Poverty and Graduation

Posted on May 3, 2011March 3, 2020 by coreeducation

A new report, Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation, from the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that students who don’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma. For readers who can’t master even basic skills by third grade, the rate Read more about The Relationship of Third-Grade Reading Skills, Poverty and Graduation[…]

InTASC Standards Released

Posted on May 2, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has released the final draft of the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards: A Resource for State Dialogue.These new model core teaching standards outline what all teachers across all content and grade levels should know and be able to do to be effective in today’s learning contexts. They Read more about InTASC Standards Released[…]

Teacher Turnaround Teams in Boston

Posted on May 1, 2011November 2, 2014 by coreeducation

Successful school turnarounds have long been elusive and have depended on finding talented teachers and leaders to engage in the transformation of school cultures and teaching norms. A newly piloted model out of Boston shows some promise for staffing school turnaround and providing career ladder options for experienced teachers. The Teacher Turnaround Teams (T3) program, Read more about Teacher Turnaround Teams in Boston[…]

Educational Jargon

Posted on April 26, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

After a fantastic conference in Washington, DC with the National Center for Education Information and a nice holiday, I’m back. To ease back into things, I thought I’d have a little fun with educational jargon. Yesterday, John Merrow blogged about “The Joys of Jargon.” He listed the most annoying buzzwords cited by educational reporters. At Read more about Educational Jargon[…]

The Pedagogy of Confidence

Posted on April 21, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

A new book from Yvette Jackson will restore teachers’ belief in their ability to help all students perform at high intellectual levels. Jackson outlines a simple but radical approach to teaching that builds on students’ strengths in order to develop instruction that is both relevant and motivational. The Pedagogy of Confidence draws from neuroscience, cognitive Read more about The Pedagogy of Confidence[…]

The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction

Posted on April 17, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Class-size reduction, or CSR, is enormously popular with parents, teachers, and the public in general. The latest poll results indicate that 77 percent of Americans think that additional educational dollars should be spent on smaller classes rather than higher teacher salaries. Many parents believe that their children will benefit from more individualized attention in a Read more about The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction[…]

State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools

Posted on April 15, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

A new issue brief released by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices offers lessons drawn from its State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools project, which sought to address underlying causes of failing schools: weak leadership; inadequate skill levels among teachers; and insufficient high-quality teaching materials. In 2009, the project gave Colorado, Maryland, Read more about State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools[…]

Merit Pay in NYC

Posted on April 13, 2011April 27, 2012 by coreeducation

For the past four years, New York City has experimented with merit pay. Recently their experiment came to a halt, after $57 million and no increase in test scores in schools that received bonus money. Why did NYC’s merit-pay program fail? According to the Wall Street Journal, one reason is that unlike other incentive programs, Read more about Merit Pay in NYC[…]