In the world of ed-tech, STEM, and international comparisons, it can be easy to overlook art, music, and drama teachers; career and technical education instructors; and athletic coaches. Yet, as Peter Hofman argues persuasively, these are the very teachers who the most adept at “stimulating student performance and the complex tasks of evaluating substantive demonstrations Read more about Overlooked Educators Key to Deeper Learning[…]
Deeper learning is a term being used more and more across the country, and state education leaders are being asked to create and implement aligned policies. A new report from Education Commission of the States serves as a primer for state policymakers seeking to modify instruction and assessment policies to better engage today’s students. The Read more about Deeper Learning: A Primer for State Legislators[…]
President Obama has announced the launch of a new College Scorecard, meant to help students and parents identify which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck. Designed with input from those who will use it most, the Scorecard offers reliable data on factors important to prospective students, such as how much graduates earn, and Read more about New Federal College Scorecard Focuses on Cost-Benefit[…]
The School Turnaround Learning Community has assembled a collection of reports, policy papers, and tools related to principal evaluation. This collection of resources provides considerations for developing local administrator evaluation systems, examples of implementation and resources in support of these systems, and literature reviews identifying themes and perspectives that might be useful to practitioners and Read more about Featured Collection: Principal Evaluation[…]
You may have been hearing in the news about teacher shortages in various communities around the country. Looking a little bit more closely at these situations reveals that, while enrollment in teacher preparations programs has certainly declined in recent years, there does not appear to be an across-the-board problem with finding and hiring teachers in Read more about Districts Facing Teacher Shortages Look for Lifelines[…]
In 2016-17, the Opportunity Culture initiative included more than 110 schools, 1250 teachers, and 34,000 students in 17 sites across 7 states. According to the Public Impact website, Opportunity Culture schools are defined by the following characteristics: Teachers lead the way. Each Opportunity Culture school creates a team of teachers and administrators who decide what Read more about Opportunity Culture Initiative Update[…]
Project Tomorrow’s Trends in Digital Learning report focuses on how innovative classroom models empower more engaging and purposeful learning environments for students and teachers. The report examines both the desired student achievements and the strategic use of digital tools, content and resources to understand, from the perspective of the students, teachers and administrators on the Read more about The Newest from Project Tomorrow: Trends in Digital Learning[…]
New research published by the Upjohn Institute finds that non-black teachers have significantly lower educational expectations for black students than black teachers do when evaluating the same students. This is concerning, as teachers’ expectations likely shape student outcomes and systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for student success might contribute to persistent socio-demographic gaps in educational Read more about Evidence of Systemic Biases in Teachers’ Expectations of African American Students[…]
Statistics tell us that despite 61 years of integration and attention to equity, not much has changed in many parts of the United States. Students in high-poverty schools lack the supports needed to become college ready, and school districts that serve the highest percentages of low-income students and students of color receive significantly less in Read more about September Issue Brief: Equity Issues in Education[…]
When teachers enter the profession during a recession, they’re more effective at boosting student test scores in math, a new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds. Recession-era teachers didn’t have as much of an effect on student reading scores. The study considers data for 33,000 fourth and fifth grade teachers in Read more about How the Recession Helps Student Math Scores[…]
On September 11, 2015, the Entertainment Industry Foundation launched Think It Up in a star-studded television special that aired on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Think It Up is an initiative of the Entertainment Industry Foundation created to bring broad cultural attention to the urgency of improving the learning experience in America. The national education Read more about Think It Up![…]
With so much recent emphasis on the importance of state governance in education, it is important to understand that states have widely varying ways of implementing governance structures. The Fordham Institute has categorized states based on the commonalities in their governance systems. Below is an excerpt from their taxonomy: We don’t have one education governance Read more about A Taxonomy of American Education Governance[…]
Joe Ashby was a a multi-classroom leader (MCL) at Buena Vista Enhanced Option Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee before finishing his doctorate and moving on to be a principal in California. He recently wrote an article about that experience for Real Clear Education, and he focused on the flexibility and growth that was present in Read more about Giving, Receiving Professional Development Every Day[…]
Anya Kamenetz at NPR News has put together an interesting article on American public opinion on testing. The reason for her article was two recent polls, (poll released Aug. 17 by EdNext) and (poll released Aug. 24 by Gallup/PDK). These polls vary slightly in the way that they ask respondents for their opinions about the Read more about The American Public and Testing In Schools[…]
Teachers need helpful feedback and support to improve their instruction and own their professional growth. Over the past four years, 30 states have changed how they evaluate teachers, and another 14 states are slated to do so in the next two years. As many of those states are learning, however, simply developing new evaluation tools Read more about Giving Teachers the Feedback and Support they Deserve[…]
Rachel B. Baker at AEI Education has a new report out about Competency Based Education (CBE) programs at the college level. Following is a portion from the introduction to the executive summary: The basic idea underlying CBE is simple: programs award credit based on demonstrated student competencies rather than on the amount of time a Read more about The student experience: How competency-based education providers serve students[…]