Thomas Kane, of the Harvard School of Education and writing for the Brookings Institution, has recently penned an important article describing an aggressive plan for helping American students catch up with their international peers over the next 10 years. Kane produces calculations that reveal that incremental reforms are unlikely to Read more
The Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has been working with representatives of teachers unions and other contributing parties to finalize new accreditation standards for teacher preparation, and these include a focus on student-achievement growth. While CAEP’s new standards still have to be approved by the accreditor’s board later Read more
Maureen Kelleher at the Center For American Progress has written an interesting piece describing how several urban school districts have experimented with different school networks. The preliminary findings suggest that other urban school districts should be willing to let their schools create networks of common interests to help those schools Read more
The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (at AIR) has a few new briefs out which are certainly worth the precious time of state education agencies. First is Preparing Teachers for the Common Core: Aligning Preparation Program Curricula Hear directly from state chiefs about how they support teacher preparation programs Read more
On the Top Performers blog of Education Week, Marc Tucker has written a compelling post which challenges American complacency on the new “separate but equal.” Despite Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, various statistics show that American schools are as segregated as they ever were before that monumental court Read more
A new comprehensive research study, first available from the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, argues that No Child Left Behind has not damaged teachers’ opinion of their profession, as many might have expected. In fact, according to Vanderbilt professor Jason A. Grissom, “Over the time spanning the implementation of Read more
Two new guides – one for researchers and one for education leaders – show how “opportunistic experiments” can build evidence by incorporating rigorous research studies into the normal course of action. This approach to conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) takes advantage of planned interventions or policy actions, all with minimal Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2014. The 42 indicators presented in The Condition of Education 2014 provide a progress report on education in America and include findings on the demographics of American schools, U.S. resources for schooling, and outcomes associated with education. Report Read more
To build a world-class educational system, America needs outstanding teachers. But how do we recruit exceptional candidates into the teaching pipeline? How do we ensure that these candidates represent the diversity of our student population? In this month’s issue brief, we have assembled information about America’s teacher pipeline problem, as Read more
Education Evolving launched the Teacher-Powered Schools Initiative at the Education Writers Association’s 67th National Seminar’s “Teachers Take Charge” panel discussion. The launch is especially timely given the release of Education Evolving’s new national survey data that that reveal overwhelming public support and teacher interest in a professional partnership model of Read more
In the ongoing dispute concerning teacher evaluation, most of the furor has concerned value-added teacher evaluations—those based on student test scores. The many problems with these, such as teachers being evaluated based on entire schools’ test scores or on test scores of students they have never taught, have been identified. Read more
Recently, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post wrote a lengthy story concerning the role of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in fostering the Common Core State Standards. If you haven’t already seen the full article, you should read it (see below for the link). For now, we will summarize Read more
A California judge ruled Tuesday that teacher tenure laws deprive students of their right to an education under the California state Constitution. The decision hands teachers’ unions a major defeat in a landmark case, one that could radically alter how California teachers are hired and fired and prompt challenges to Read more
As demands on teachers increase, schools across the country are expanding their calendars to give teachers more time to collaborate and develop new skills. Recently, NCTL unveiled its newest report at an event in Washington, D.C. co-hosted with Teach Plus. Time for Teachers: Leveraging Time to Strengthen Instruction and Empower Read more
Ten years ago, education leaders, policy makers, and philanthropists caught on to what parents already knew: In a school, teachers are the most important factor determining whether a student succeeds in the classroom. A decade ago, the Joyce Foundation decided to fund research and advocacy on the importance Read more
Andrew Smarick at EdNext keeps up with the buzz over Common Core as much as anyone, and his conclusion is that the Common Core is here to stay. Despite negative press in recent weeks and months with some states opting out of certain testing services, changing the name of the Read more