The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), in partnership with Creative Commons U.S., recently released a policy brief for state and district education leaders focused on strategies for equipping educators to effectively and legally navigate the use of digital content. The brief, Clarifying Ownership of Teacher-Created Digital Content Empowers Educators 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
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
Today, well more than a decade since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and because of its demands for states to keep statistics on students’ access to highly qualified teachers, we know much more about the impact of high-quality teaching on student achievement. We also Read more
As summarized here, the federal government has recently reported on the success of the Race to the Top program. But can we know the impact of Race to the Top after only four years? A new report by Tiffany D. Miller and Robert Hanna at the Center for American Progress Read more
In recent years, policymakers and reform advocates have viewed State Education Agencies (SEAs) as the lead organizations for implementing sweeping reforms and initiatives in K-12 education—everything from Race to the Top grants and federal waivers to teacher-evaluation systems and online schools. But SEAs were not built, nor do they have Read more
In a time when the Obama Administration’s tenure is winding down and when Congress has yet to make any significant progress toward a remake of ESEA, some measured thoughts about the role of the federal government in American education are quite timely. Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly, of Read more
Michele McNeil of Education Week recently sat down with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at his Washington D.C. office to ask him a wide range of questions about the goals of federal education policy in the time remaining before the next presidential election. Duncan stressed a few key issues: the Read more
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 Read more
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 Read more
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. Read more
Just as Common Core has divided liberals—so it is also dividing conservatives. On the liberal side, one camp is for it because of its promise of increasing equity and competency for students across the United States and another camp is against it because they feel it has not been implemented Read more
The American Federation of Teachers, to date the recipient of more than $11 million in Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation largesse, will no longer accept Gates funding, Politico has reported, citing increasing criticism from members. This is a real case of “put your money where your mouth is”, or in Read more
More than 3 million students in grades three through eight won’t have to take older standardized tests this spring while trying out new exams aligned to the Common Core. Thanks to a long-awaited waiver granted by the Education Department, California doesn’t have to collect and report statewide assessment data in Read more
Joshua Starr, the superintendent of the Montgomery County, MD, school system in suburban Washington, is no stranger to controversy over mandated testing. This blog covered his past attempt to delay testing aligned with Common Core in order to give his district teachers more time to prepare students for the changes Read more
Wisconsin, a state of stark political contrasts, is the most recent state to face a contentious debate about whether to move forward with Common Core. A state with a strong base of liberals as well as one of the most notable conservative governors in Scott Walker, Wisconsin adopted Common Core Read more