Great teachers matter-we all know that. But great principals matter nearly as much. When they lead a team of teacher-leaders in instructional excellence, student learning can soar. But then what? Can principals like these take their leadership to the next level and stay connected to teachers and students? In An Read more
New Teacher Center has released a new report on all 50 states that takes a look at the support available for new principals and new teachers. The results show only a slight improvement over the past few years. Support From the Start: A 50-State Review of Policies on New Educator Read more
Policymakers and practitioners who face a deluge of important decisions affecting thousands of schools can find advice from some of the top education thinkers in the country in JFF’s new brief, Advancing Deeper Learning Under ESSA: Seven Priorities. The piece recommends ways that supporters of deeper learning can make the Read more
For more than a decade, Achieve has issued an annual 50-state report on each state’s adoption of college- and career-ready (CCR) policies as reflected in state standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability systems. Having the right policies is necessary to ensure that students graduate academically prepared for college and careers, Read more
In the early days of the accountability movement, Jeb Bush’s Florida developed an innovative approach to evaluating school quality. First, the state looked at individual student progress over time—making it one of the first to do so. Then it put special emphasis on the gains (or lack thereof) of the Read more
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Angela Duckworth, founder and scientific director of the Character Lab and the author of the forthcoming book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, recommends against using the results of character surveys for school accountability. A short excerpt from Mrs. Duckworth follows: Read more
New Teacher Center (NTC) has released a national report showing that most states provide insufficient mentoring and support for teachers and principals as they start their careers. The report—Support From The Start: A 50-State Review of Policies on New Educator Induction and Mentoring—shows only limited progress in most states since Read more
Deans for Impact recently looked at nearly two dozen educator preparation programs and found that only six have access to student achievement data connected to the teachers they prepared. Less than a third have access to other kinds of data about their graduates’ performance, like classroom observations. The organization, in Read more
A recent survey by the Association of American Educators asked its members about how they felt about education reform. The survey asked its members about current issues in education including School Choice, Virtual Education and Technology, Testing and Assessments, Teacher Preparation and Leadership, and the 2016 Presidential Election. The results Read more
Is there really a teacher shortage? This question is a complex one and it is not easily answered. A recent analysis of the data of the teaching landscape by the Education Policy Center at the American Institutes for Research, shows that the shortages may not be as large as previously Read more
A recent report, written by the Center for American Progress, guides the reader through a teacher’s career trajectory, beginning at recruitment and selection and continuing throughout his or her career in order to provide policymakers and the public with a forward-thinking document that proposes how to elevate and modernize the Read more
The nation’s state superintendents are trying to send the message that, even though there are no longer any federal requirements for teacher evaluation, states aren’t abandoning their commitment to review their teachers on a regular basis. This comes as a result of the federal passage of ESSA which relaxes the Read more
Education Week author Marc Tucker describes what NCEE has learned about the design of the instructional systems used by top-performing countries and suggest ways in which U.S. states can adapt those lessons for use in their own state system under the Every Student Succeeds Act. He defines “instructional system” as Read more
A recent blog by Third Way examines several issues in education policy and reveals the outdated logic and arguments that are being used to debate modern issues. This stagnation in conversation not only threatens our ability to move forward with the best policies for our nation’s students, but it also Read more
A recent article by Education Next examines the correlation between poverty and mediocre test scores in the United States. At a time when the national conversation is focused on lagging upward mobility and yawning income inequality, it is no surprise that many educators point to poverty as the explanation for Read more
A recent article in Education Week, written by Evie Blad, examines how select California school districts, collectively known as CORE districts, are measuring school effectiveness with criteria that extends beyond academic success. As discussions about school accountability begin to focus more intently on factors beyond standardized-test scores, educators and policymakers Read more