Michael J. Petrilli of the Fordham Institute has put together a very handy table showing us where things currently stand on ESEA re-authorization. Remember, the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (first passed during the Johnson Administration) is No Child Left Behind, which was passed in Read more
School districts across the country are incorporating measures of student achievement growth in teacher evaluations—a task that is especially challenging for teachers of grades and subjects that lack standardized state assessments. Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic (REL) studied eight districts that were early adopters of alternative student growth measures and had been Read more
In today’s highly competitive and increasingly global economy, students need more than just academic skills and knowledge. They also need employability skills in order to successfully cultivate a career. Employability skills include relationship skills such as interpersonal skills and personal qualities; workplace skills such as resource management, information use, communication Read more
A new report by Sara Mead, Chad Aldeman, Carolyn Chuong, and Julie Obbard suggests that districts and charter schools should play a greater role in developing their own supply of high-quality teachers, and teacher preparation programs should reframe their work to better meet the needs of schools and prospective teachers. Read more
It is hard to tell if states are doing anything about poor teacher education programs, since many are not evaluating them like they are required to do. Even the federal government’s watchdog arm seems a bit stumped by the absence of performance information on teaching programs. At least seven states Read more
Chester Finn of Education Excellence has written a post on the Common Core Watch blog where he broaches the issue that many education professionals have been contemplating but not talking openly about much: are we actually going to get anything useful out of the first batch of Common Core aligned Read more
More and more states, communities, school districts, colleges and universities are focused on helping students get to and through college. Increasingly we understand that to have the strongest impact, K-12 and higher education must work together. Greater alignment and shared ownership of college readiness and success can lead to more Read more
In what seems to be an increasing (and welcome!) trend, Harvard economist Dr. Roland G. Fryer Jr. has been attempting to translate his empirical research into results for schools. Dr. Fryer won the prestigious John Bates Clark medal this year in part for his research on 39 New York City Read more
Christopher Cross has written an insightful piece for Teachers College Record, focusing on the need to establish a national policy on education so that there is a clear understanding of our national priority and appropriate roles for states and the federal government. An excerpt: We have no stated national commitment Read more
Professors Matthew Kraft and John Papay discuss research showing that the school contexts in which teachers work have a profound influence on their effectiveness. Below are excerpts from their article: An emerging body of research now shows that the contexts in which teachers work profoundly shape teachers’ job decisions and Read more
In a piece for the Albert Shanker Institute, researcher John Lane contends that in teachers’ typical learning opportunities, reforms are reduced to a set of strategies that “work” across settings, and in which the contexts of teaching become an unwanted entanglement. He argues that teachers would benefit from opportunities to Read more
Cross-tabbing refers to looking at education data for disadvantaged students across different categories, such as race and gender combined. Charles Barone offers us a useful example: Black males are many times more likely to be subject to corporal punishment – in school – than black females. Averages for black students Read more
On Education Week‘s Top Performers blog, Marc Tucker explores what it takes to achieve dramatic improvement in education systems. Tucker writes: The nations with the best-performing education systems have two things in common that have nothing to do with the specific education policies and practices they have embraced. The first Read more
Family engagement positively affects a range of student outcomes, including grades, behavior, enrollment in higher level programs, graduation, and college attendance. REL Mid-Atlantic is offering a free webinar titled Engaging Families in Partnership Programs to Promote Student Success. During this webinar led by Dr. Joyce Epstein, Director of the Center Read more
We’ve become a perpetual multitasking culture. Our brains aren’t good at this, especially when we’re trying to learn new information. But of all the things that make it hard for us to learn, multitasking is one of the very few that is entirely within our control. Living rooms, dens, kitchens, Read more
NewSchools Venture Fund has announced the launch NewSchools Catapult, the first endeavor of its new national strategy. Its goal over the next several years is to propel successive waves of education entrepreneurs to launch new schools – the kinds of audacious, life-altering schools that can truly prepare students to pursue Read more