A recent Congressional hearing has weighed how Congress should improve teacher preparation, and while the improvements may be necessary, they certainly won’t come easily. One of the big questions facing lawmakers: Should the federal government call for colleges of education to track their graduates into the classroom? And, if so, what exactly should that look Read more about The Role of Congress in Teacher Preparation[…]
Currently, there are more first year teachers in the United States than teachers of any other experience level. At many schools, most of the teachers have only been teaching for a few years. Meanwhile, the skills and responsibilities expected of educators are expanding, as higher standards and new technologies are implemented to improve student learning. Read more about Federal Policy Recommendations for Promoting Better Prepared Educators[…]
With pilot tests being conducted and debates raging over Common Core-aligned assessments, new changes proposed for the SAT, and emerging plans for new science assessments, the landscape of educational assessments is changing rapidly. In this month’s issue brief, we have assembled summary information and links that will keep you on the cutting edge. What are Read more about April Issue Brief: The Changing Assessment Landscape[…]
Secretary Duncan announced that, over the next year, he and NBPTS President Ron Thorpe will co-convene a new initiative, Teach to Lead, to foster ambitious commitments on authentic opportunities for teachers to take up leadership roles without leaving the classroom. The goal is to ensure that when important decisions are being made about the work Read more about Teach to Lead[…]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released the PISA 2012 Results, entitled Creative Problem Solving: Students’ Skills in Tackling Real-Life Problems. It is the OECD’s first assessment of problem-solving skills and its first attempt to measure the creative skills that today’s economy demands from its workers. Some are surprised to see an Read more about PISA results: American Students as Creative Problem Solvers[…]
Misinformation about the Common Core State Standards Initiative abounds. Those who seek to correct this misinformation might glean some insights from recent public health research about the power of disinformation campaigns. Navigator Communications suggests a new approach to communicating with parents and the public about the standards, based on communications work in the health sector. Read more about When “You’re Wrong” Isn’t Right: What Common Core Proponents Can Learn from the Anti-Vaxxers[…]
A new report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching highlights the causes for and consequences of a relatively inexperienced teacher workforce, as well as promising practices in response to this reality. The high number of inexperienced teachers in public school classrooms is a largely unrecognized problem that undermines school stability, slows educational Read more about Carnegie Report Examines Lack of Experience in the Teacher Workforce[…]
The U.S. Department of Education is developing a 50-state strategy that may finally put some teeth into a key part of the No Child Left Behind Act that has been largely ignored for the past 12 years: the inequitable distribution of the nation’s best teachers. Managing to bring more equity to the distribution of teachers Read more about 50-State Strategy for Equitable Distribution of Teachers[…]
A new report from TNTP provides an inside look at their effort to rebuild their own pre-service teacher training from the ground up, with one goal in mind: Give new teachers the skills they need to be successful from the moment they set foot in their classrooms. TNTP had to tackle the same problems that Read more about Fast Start: Training Better Teachers Faster with Focus, Practice and Feedback[…]
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is now recruiting! Help shape the future of National Board Certification and experience a sample of the process that thousands of teachers have called transformative. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is seeking PreK-12 grade teachers to volunteer to participate in field tests of the revised Read more about Help NBPTS revise its new certification process[…]
New studies of textbooks calling themselves “Common Core Aligned” suggest that schools and teachers should remember that a “buyer beware” policy is essential when it comes to purchasing quality textbooks. William Schmidt, a professor of statistics and education at Michigan State University in East Lansing and head of a research team that recently analyzed about Read more about Researchers Question Common Core Claims from Publishers[…]
Lawmakers in the state of Wyoming recently became the first lawmakers in the country to block the education department of its state from implementing the new Next Generation Science Standards. This blog has written multiple pieces about the gradual adoption of NGSS, which 9 states and DC have already adopted. Before diving into the issue Read more about Wyoming Blocks new Science Standards[…]
America Achieves’ latest multimedia report in its Spotlight on Promising Practices series is entitled “Great Principals: Developing Every Teacher.” As the title indicates, these stories showcase effective school leadership and its impact on teaching and learning. Watch how at Merrill Middle School in Denver, school leaders have implemented an incredibly thoughtful practice in which educators Read more about Great Principals: Developing Every Teacher[…]
This free professional development package features everything you need to facilitate a three-hour presentation on using student achievement data to support instructional decision making. Produced by the Doing What Works (DWW) project at WestEd, this “one-stop-shop” professional development package contains: A sample workshop agenda; presentation slides; facilitator’s checklist; an optional set of slides about the Read more about Doing What Works: Using Student Achievement Data[…]
Students, particularly low-income students, aren’t really thinking about college rankings when choosing higher education options, according to a new brief released by the American Council on Education. The study comes as the Obama administration works on its highly anticipated college rating system, which ACE says will become a de facto ranking system. Fewer than 25 Read more about Do College Rankings Matter to Students?[…]
New Speak Up 2013 findings show growth in flipped classroom implementation and interest. A quarter of administrators identified flipped learning as having a significant impact on transforming teaching and learning in their school district, surpassing other digital learning trends such as educational games and mobile apps (21 percent) and even online professional learning communities for Read more about Flipped Learning Use and Potential[…]