Education professional Steve Peha has a new newsletter out discussing the ongoing fears and debates surrounding the Common Core. While Peha is in no way one of the more vocal and enthusiastic backers of the Common Core, he does still support it because “we may end up at least one step closer to understanding the Read more about The Common Fear About the Common Core[…]
In honor of the fact that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed 50 years ago this month, Alyson Klein at Education Week has a lengthy article out describing its legacy and the current challenges related to passing a re-authorization of the bill (whose most recent version was passed in 2001-2002 as No Read more about ESEA’s 50-Year Legacy: Blending Idealism, Policy Tensions[…]
Author of the commentary for Education Week and math expert Marilyn Burns, says, “From more than 50 years of teaching experience, I’ve learned that elementary school teachers are typically more comfortable teaching reading.” Burns is mostly concerned in her article with discussing elementary level education, although her principle could be applied beyond that as well. Read more about To Teach Math, Study Reading Instruction[…]
Education Week has released a new review of the updated Doug Lemov education bestseller, Teach Like a Champion. The updated version builds on the strategies from the first version, which came out in 2010. The book has been especially popular with teachers and schools, who appreciate its particular focus on practical strategies that teachers can Read more about Teach Like a Champion Update Heightens Focus on Instructional Practice[…]
The Center for Education Reform, an organization which supports the role that charter schools have to play in education reform in the U.S., has a new report out addressing individual states’ policies about charter schools. Following is an excerpt from their press release about the report: Of the 42 states and the District of Columbia Read more about Charter School Laws Across States – 2015 Rankings & Scorecard[…]
We have heard much in recent years about college readiness and the role that standards, particularly the Common Core, have to play preparing students for life after high school. But we have heard much less about how institutions of higher education are thinking about the changes of the Common Core, and how much they will Read more about Colleges Not Ready for College-Ready Standards?[…]
Over the past 15 years, Teach for America has grown to a scale, and at a pace, that is virtually unprecedented in education and the domestic nonprofit sector more generally. From 2000 to 2014, the number of Teach for America corps members rose nearly tenfold, the number of alumni increased even more rapidly, and the Read more about Exponential Growth, Unexpected Challenges: How Teach for America Grew in Scale and Impact[…]
On Thursday, April 2, 2015 from 3 to 4 pm Eastern Time, Education Week will be offering a free webinar titled Auditing Teacher-Preparation Program Quality: Challenges and Opportunities. Are states doing enough to ensure that all teacher-candidates graduate from their teacher-preparation programs ready to enter the classroom? In this webinar, an Education Week reporter will Read more about Free Webinar: Auditing Teacher Prep Program Quality[…]
A new policy paper by Rick Hess and Bethany Little for the American Enterprise Institute and Results for America wants to bring the thinking of baseball’s “Moneyball” to federal education policy. Key points: The ‘moneyball’ strategy, which used data to help improve success and cost-efficiency in baseball, should be applied to the US education system Read more about Moneyball for Education: Using Data, Evidence and Evaluation to Improve Federal Education Policy[…]
Marc Tucker of the Top Performers blog for Education Week has a new piece discussing the important research of Australian Geoff Masters. Masters argues that an important way to study the success of education reforms is to take into account which countries have had sustained educational success, with the thought that culture plays a key Read more about Why Is Achievement Rising in Some Countries, Going Down in Others?[…]
There is no systemic evidence that all the best teachers are leaving. In fact the opposite appears to be true. More research and more years of data, are needed, but early results seem promising that evaluation is playing a positive role in keeping the best educators. Numbers have already been crunched on teacher retention and Read more about There Isn’t Really a Mass Exodus of Good Teachers[…]
Much has been made in recent years about the importance of “grit” for student success and achievement. Grit has been a term that broadly includes such concepts as persistence, perseverance, and ability to overcome challenges. A new Policy Snapshot from GTL sheds light on how students can come by this crucial trait. Employers and colleges Read more about The Importance of Social and Emotional Skills for Student Learning[…]
Every learner is different. Nowhere is this as true as it is for teachers. Every teacher comes to the classroom with a different background, different set of skills and differences in how they learn best. Add to this complexity the fact that every teacher has a different set of students each year, all with their Read more about From Pre-Fab to Personalized: How Districts Are Retooling Professional Development[…]
Data Privacy? Get Schooled is an online course for policymakers and education professionals developed by the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) and the Foundation for Excellence in Education. It will discuss the value of education data, offer recommendations for addressing privacy concerns while promoting effective data use, and explore lessons learned from existing and emerging policies Read more about Data Privacy? Get Schooled[…]
For decades now, education researchers have discussed the fact that girls tend to do worse in math (and to a lesser but still significant degree, science) than do boys. As follows, girls also tend to go into math and science related fields less often than do boys. This has been known by researchers for decades, Read more about Gender Gap in Education Cuts both Ways[…]
More than 87 percent of TFA teachers say they don’t plan on remaining teachers throughout their careers, compared with 26.3 percent of non-TFA teachers working in the same subjects, grades, and schools, according to an analysis released last week by Mathematica Policy Research (PDF). The study suggests the risk of turnover is relatively high for Read more about Teacher Retention and TFA[…]