Big Data on Campus

Recently, EducationNext released research on the predictive analytics that colleges and universities are using to identify at-risk students who may benefit from additional support. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Colleges and universities are facing mounting pressure to raise completion rates and have embraced predictive analytics to identify which students Read more

Investing in the Teacher Workforce: Experimental Evidence on Teachers’ Preferences

While investing in the teacher workforce is central to improving schools, school resources are notoriously limited, forcing school leaders to make difficult decisions on how to prioritize funds. A new paper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University examines a critical input to resource allocation decisions: teacher preferences. Using an Read more

Collaborating to transform and improve education systems: A playbook for family-school engagement

Writing for Brookings, Rebecca Winthrop, Adam Barton, Mahsa Ershadi, and Lauren Ziegler introduce a new playbook on family-school collaboration that makes the case for why family engagement is essential for education systems transformation and why families and schools must have a shared understanding of what a good quality education looks Read more

Fourth American School District Panel Survey Reveals Concerns about Mental Health, Political Polarization

Policymakers had hoped that the 2021–2022 school year would be a chance to recover from COVID-19 pandemic–related disruptions to schooling. Instead, media reports of staff shortages, heated or even violent school board meetings, increased student misbehavior, low student and teacher attendance, and enrollment declines suggest increased — rather than decreased Read more

Black, Latino Students Disproportionately Taught by Inexperienced, Uncertified Teachers

Writing for The 74, Marianna McMurdock recently reviewed new research that shows that Black and Latino students are disproportionately taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Across the country, schools serving predominantly Black students have 5 percent more novice teachers than schools with fewer Black students, Read more

Classroom Observations Biased Against Male, Black Teachers, Research Suggests

Recently in The 74, Kevin Mahnken reviewed a study out of Tennessee that shows that classroom observations, utilized for teacher effectiveness determinations, show evidence of racial and gender bias against male and Black teachers. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Significant bias has contributed to lower classroom observation scores for Read more

Using Classroom Simulators to Transform Teacher Preparation

A new piece from the Brown Center Chalkboard reviews innovations in teacher preparation taking place at the University of Virginia that make the most of classroom simulators. Excerpts appear below: In teacher preparation, simulated practice is designed to complement—not to replace—student-placement experiences. However, it also has the potential to powerfully Read more

Transforming Education into a Learning System: Reflections on the Pandemic

In a new brief, Carnegie Corporation of New York and EducationCounsel explore how the American education system responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying gaps (missed opportunities and systemic shortcomings that deepened the challenges our schools faced) and bright spots (existing and new efforts where learning system approaches supported more effective Read more

“Creativity Requires Freedom”: What Will It Take to Create Space Within Our Education System to Think and Design Creatively?

The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), in partnership with the Reinvention Lab powered by Teach For America, gathered a “change-maker” group of students, educators, and education leaders. It was an intimate gathering of people committed to a learner-centered, radically different future of education. The question posed to the group Read more

Innovative Staffing Models to Sustain Teacher Residencies

Education First recently organized a Residency Sustainability Webinar Series to spotlight successful approaches teacher preparation programs and districts have used to develop and implement high-quality, sustainable and affordable teacher residencies. They identified promising innovative staffing strategies from both the series and the broader field in their latest paper, Innovative Staffing Read more