Proven Strategies for Designing Principal Evaluations

What makes for an effective principal, and how can effectiveness be measured?  Thirty states have recently passed legislation to improve principal evaluation systems and are now grappling with these questions. New legislation recognizes that leadership is the second most influential factor in student achievement, after classroom teaching, but there is Read more

Public Impact Launches New Website

Public Impact has launched a new website, OpportunityCulture.org.  The site focuses on “extending the reach of excellent teachers using job redesign and technology.”  The site is divided into four main sections: Why This Matters:  What research says about the impact excellent teachers have on student learning. Redesigning Schools:  More than Read more

TNTP Releases “Teacher Talent Toolbox”

TNTP has released its newest resource—the Teacher Talent Toolbox.  The Toolbox “is a repository of successful strategies and practical resources that schools, districts, and networks can draw on to create effective human capital policies, with the aim of creating sustained, scalable models for effective instruction.”  It is essentially an open-source Read more

What Role Can Online COPs Play in Achieving Teacher Excellence?

The US Department of Education is continuing its work to determine how online communities of practice (COPs) may help teachers improve their practice.  For the past year, the Department’s Offices of Innovation and Improvement (OII) and Educational Technology (OET) have been researching several critical issues that may influence the effectiveness Read more

Mass Insight Education Launches the Turnaround Forum

Mass Insight Education (MIE) has launched a multi-month Turnaround Forum, consisting of weekly blog posts, biweekly email blasts, and monthly issue briefs on topics of importance in the turnaround field.   MIE invites all stakeholders interested in school turnarounds to subscribe to the new and improved blog, “In the Zone,” for Read more

Upcoming Webinars & Panels: The Common Core and Improving Literacy

See below for two upcoming opportunities: “Mapping Curriculum, Planning Success: Integrating the Common Core Standards in Each K-12 Classroom” Date:  Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Time:  10:30am – 12:00pm EST This webinar, featuring author and expert Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, will focus on: –Upgrading and transforming education through the lens of Read more

Free Webinar: Deepening and Strengthening Teacher Education

Education Week is offering a free, live webinar on improving teacher education programs across the country.  The live webinar, moderated by Stephen Sawchuk of Education Week, will feature Deans Mari Koerner (Arizona State University) and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, (University of Michigan). From Education Week: University-based teacher education remains the engine Read more

Departments of Education and Defense Announce Launch of “Learning Registry”

Last week, the Departments of Education and Defense announced the pending launch of “Learning Registry,” an open source community and technology designed to improve the quality and availability of learning resources in education.  Learning Registry is not intended to be an alternative to existing websites, but rather a communication system Read more

University of Michigan Launches “TeachingWorks”

Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of Michigan’s School of Education, recently unveiled TeachingWorks, a wing of the School of Education that will focus on “raising the standards for practice as a classroom teacher by transforming how teachers are prepared and supported.” The details of the eventual character of TeachingWorks is still Read more