Competency-based education (CBE), in which credit is provided on the basis of student learning rather than credit or clock hours, is starting to gain traction with educators and policymakers. CBE programs are often touted as a far more affordable route to college credit and a degree, but these claims often Read more
Forbes Education recently released their list of 15 key higher education issues for 2015. Many of these will be prominent this year as the Obama Administration nears the end of its eight year run. You can expect this blog to discuss these issues over the coming year: The arrival of Read more
The folks over at Shanker Blog have been writing recently about how education reform cannot happen in a vacuum. Schools and the people in them are inherently social, so approaching education reform through a social lens makes sense. Here is a piece from one of their recent blogs: For the Read more
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank that covers education issues, has a new series of videos out addressing the course of education reform in the United States. Following is an excerpt from their description of the series: Our schools are failing the most vulnerable kids. Everyone’s heard the scary Read more
Recently, Education Week released the 19th edition of its annual Quality Counts report. This year’s installment explores the complex landscape that defines early-childhood services and programs across the country. To complement the report’s journalism, the Education Week Research Center also conducted an original analysis of participation in early-education programs, poverty-based Read more
Anyone following education policy over the past several years has most likely read a headline along the lines of this: “Disgruntled New Teachers Leave the Profession in Droves.” Despite such recent education policy stories, the picture since 2007 has been decidedly rosier: Fully 70 percent of beginning teachers stay in Read more
Low income students are now a majority of the schoolchildren attending the nation’s public schools, according to a research bulletin issued today by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF). The latest data collected from the states by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show that 51 percent of the students Read more
As employers and postsecondary institutions increasingly demand students and workers equipped with high-level skills, many states are exploring performance assessments as part of their K-12 education strategies. Unlike multiple-choice tests, these assessments require students to construct answers, produce products, or perform activities; they allow educators to assess student Read more
In a new report, Skills for Success: Supporting and Assessing Key Habits, Mindsets, and Skills in PreK-12, Melissa Tooley and Laura Bornfreund highlight trends and raise important considerations for schools supporting and assessing a more comprehensive set of student “skills for success” and explore how assessments of these skills could Read more
Education reformers are working diligently to design new teacher performance-based compensation systems and career pathways that reward high-quality teaching and offer opportunities for advancement without leaving the classroom. In this month’s issue brief, we explore various resources, research reports, and ideas related to teacher compensation to provide food for thought Read more
ASCD has a new bulletin out about teacher leadership that is an excellent jumping off point for anyone looking to both advance the role of teachers and improve student achievement. It first explores the teacher leadership landscape by featuring recent data on the primary characteristics of teacher leaders, identifying states Read more
Four new reports from the Regional Education Laboratories (RELs) West, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic examine new multiple-measure teacher and leader evaluations across the nation. These reports are helping to build the literature base on the connections between educator effectiveness and evaluation. Principal and teacher perceptions of implementation of multiple measure teacher Read more
The Education Department has ordered every state to develop strategies for ensuring that poor and minority students get their fair share of top teachers; the plans must be submitted by June 1. In the meantime, the department is highlighting the inequities states are working to solve. Newly published “Educator Equity Read more
Stuart Butler of the Brookings Institutions has some bold predictions for changes to higher education in coming years. He bases his predictions on signs that have become more evident in recent years, but as of yet have not significantly disturbed the four-year college education establishment. His 4 key predictions are: Read more
While there are still more questions than answers, the U.S. Department of Education the Department has released a draft framework for the ratings of colleges and is seeking public feedback. The new College Ratings framework is important. Secretary Duncan says, “As a nation, we have to make college more accessible Read more
A report out recently from The Education Trust follows the true story of a student named Cornelius, from the day he started kindergarten to the day he dropped out of school. He went from learning to love reading as a child to feeling alienated in high school, struggling to complete Read more