In Education Week’s Top Performer’s blog, Marc Tuker recently reflected on the gap between typical American practice and global best practice when it comes to college and career readiness. Below are excerpts from the post: In top-performing education systems, qualifications systems are designed so that at the end of each Read more
Networked improvement communities are a relatively new type of collaborative research partnership between researchers and educators. With facilitation from researchers, educators identify problems of practice, the factors that drive the problems, and promising solutions. They then engage in iterative cycles of designing, implementing, testing, and redesigning solutions, while learning from Read more
A new report from the Center on School Turnaround presents promising practices for how to sustain the advances made in schools that have demonstrated rapid improvement. The practices presented are derived from a comprehensive review of relevant literature, and from the experience of five school principals who not only facilitated Read more
Time is one of the resources most valuable to educators, but school schedules do not always allocate time to the activities that our schools purport to value most. Schedules can be better designed to foster planning and collaboration, flexible instructional blocks to differentiate content to student need, and opportunities for Read more
The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) has released its anticipated State Board Insight database, a platform for tracking trends in state boards’ agendas and actions each month. With timely analysis, detailed data, and spotlights on state strategies, State Board Insight is a resource for board members, researchers, Read more
Paul Lingenfelter, president emeritus of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, recently reflected on the impasse between policymakers and educational practitioners in the Carnegie Commons blog. Excerpts from his piece appear below: Educators and policymakers together have failed to develop the capabilities needed to achieve the higher levels of Read more
The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings has released the 16th annual Brown Center Report (BCR) on American Education by Tom Loveless. The 2017 BCR investigates three issues that are relevant to the current dialogue on U.S. education. Part I analyzes the changing scores of American students on two Read more
A new report from the Aspen Institute calls attention to how students’ social and emotional development must be integrated with academics in order for students to fully achieve these aspirations. This Time, With Feeling: Integrating Social and Emotional Development and College- and-Career-Ready Standards draws directly from states’ standards in English, Read more
Sarah McKay recently provided an excellent introduction to Implementation Science in the Carnegie Commons Blog. Excerpts of her piece appear below: The aim of implementation science is to understand how interventions are adopted, implemented, and spread. It’s less about the effectiveness of the intervention itself, because that is expected to Read more
In April and September, states will file comprehensive plans for how they will spend federal funding under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Although state education agencies (SEAs) have the primary responsibility for developing and filing the state plan, many state boards of education have statutory authority for carrying out Read more
A new suite of teacher leadership self-assessment and readiness tools have been designed for teachers exploring leadership opportunities and leaders considering teacher leadership initiatives. Developed in collaboration and consultation with the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance, REL Midwest, and the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences has released two new reports from the Regional Educational Laboratories (REL) program on accelerated college credit programs and college and career readiness. Characteristics and postsecondary pathways of students who participate in acceleration programs in Minnesota This REL Midwest study examined the 2011 cohort of Minnesota Read more
Eight school districts just became the nation’s first-ever Great Districts for Great Teachers. This new honor, developed by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), recognizes districts for their exceptional programs and policies on recruiting, encouraging, supporting, and retaining great teachers. The winners are: Boston Public Schools; Broward County Public Read more
A new study finds that using retired educators to mentor and support new teachers can be a cost effective strategy to improve math achievement. Regional Educational Laboratory Central worked with Aurora Public Schools in Colorado to conduct a randomized controlled trial study in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years during Read more
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) has launched a helpful new resource hub, the ESSA Co-Pilot, designed for anyone interested in ESSA state plans. This website includes resources organized by ESSA topic, plan section, and state; the latest news and ESSA events, including links to the new template for consolidated Read more
School administrators serve as instructional leaders and set the tone for the culture of a school. The principal’s influence is pivotal. In the March issue brief, Core Education explores effective school leadership and recommendations for policy to improve the training, support, and evaluation of educational leaders. To view the Read more