The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), first created under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, was the first major federal effort to provide funding and policy guidance to states to address the education needs of low-income and minority children and support the intent of Brown v. Board of Education. Today, The Read more
School System 20/20 from Education Resource Strategies presents the first version of School System 20/20 Assessments and Metrics, a detailed set of key questions and metrics used to create the Lawrence case study, and designed to help school systems understand whether their policies, structures, and practices create the conditions for Read more
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is offering and funding tuition-free programs for school and college educators. These programs are for one to five weeks and focus on important topics, texts, and questions in the humanities. In addition, they can be used to: enhance intellectual vitality and professional development Read more
The Johns Hopkins University School of Education, ranked first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and Urban Teachers, one of the most rigorous alternative teacher certification programs in the United States, have formed a partnership to train new teachers for public schools using a clinical residency model Read more
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) have recently released new standards for educational leaders. This project started last year with the intent to update the 2008 standards. The standards, now known as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (formerly Read more
This report, conducted by the Education Commission on the States, looks at the shifting assessment landscape and identifies the types of assessment being given, at what grade levels, and for what subjects. This information was compiled in an effort to keep states and policy makers up to date on the Read more
A recent survey and report conducted on the State of the State in Gifted Education by both the National Association for Gifted Children and the Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted released some surprising information on the (sometimes inadequate) plans, laws, and services in place for gifted Read more
A new group called Student Voice has set out to collect data and advocate for students to help improve the situation students are facing in schools. Student Voice is a nationwide group that is obtaining feedback and tackling issues important to students. Student Voice National Field Director Andrew Read more
In “Mind the Gap: The Case for Re-Imagining the Way States Judge High School Quality”, Chad Aldeman argues that new, more multidimensional ways of judging high school quality are essential. Current state and federal policies on high schools tend to reward schools that perform well on measures like test scores Read more
Don’t Quit on Me: What Young People Who Left School Say about the Power of Relationships examines, from the perspective of young people themselves, the roles that relationships with adults and peers play in decisions about staying in, leaving, and returning to high school. Building on previous studies, including last Read more
Last week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave away over $34 million in grants to teacher-preparation programs across the nation. These grants were given to 5 consortia from about 40 applications representing some 500 programs in all. The three year grants were given to create “transformation centers” based on Read more
A recent report released by The Foundation for Educational Excellence titled Building a Bright Future: Understanding College Readiness in Baltimore City Public Schools includes useful indicators and building blocks for College and Career readiness. The study of indicators was conducted in conjunction with a City Speaks listening campaign that explored Read more
A recent study conducted by Gallup titled, “Connecting Education to the Real World” with input from the members of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar finds that “Globally, education is failing to keep pace with rapidly changing economies, and is not preparing students for the workforce.” Read more
The Center for Courage and Renewal is launching a new website, Teaching with Heart, Fire and Poetry. It is an online community and resource hub for teachers to explore their work with other teachers. The community was inspired by the books, Teaching with Heart and Teaching with Fire. In these Read more
Teaching residency programs are a model of teacher preparation in which prospective teachers complete graduate-level coursework alongside a year-long fieldwork experience in the district in which the prospective teacher will be hired. The fieldwork experience allows the prospective teacher to practice the craft of teaching and take on increased teaching Read more
A recent study conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools, based in Washington and representing the nation’s largest urban school districts, gauges the scope of tests being administered to students. The findings are that the tests are, according to Denisa Superville from Education Week: redundant, misaligned with college- Read more