FairTest, an organization that “advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools”, has prepared a report on confirmed incidences of schools cheating on standardized tests in recent years. The report includes discussion of multiple means through which schools Read more
The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), created in 2006 as a $600 million plan to “support efforts to develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools” and bolstered in 2009 under the Obama Administration, has now been functioning long enough to evaluate some of its results. Five Read more
The Think Twice Think Tank charges that “state grades” reports are mainly helpful to understand the policy agenda of those creating the grades, not as a means to understand the policies of state education departments. The Think Twice think tank review project, part of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) Read more
We know that principal leadership is crucial to success of schools and students, particularly urban ones, but the Wallace Foundation’s new report, Districts Matter, adds that school districts can cultivate that strong leadership and “ensure they have principals capable of boosting teaching and learning.” The new report “draws on a Read more
Recently, Joshua Starr, the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MD), one of the wealthiest, largest, and high-achieving school districts in the United States, went public with his idea that there be a three-year moratorium on federally mandated standardized testing. He is not fundamentally opposed to all standardized testing, but Read more
Last year, we posted about the emerging issue of whether or not teachers should be allowed to sell their lessons plans for a profit (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/should-teachers-be-allowed-to-sell-their-lesson-plans/). More recently, this issue has cropped up in the greater Washington DC area. Prince George’s County Public Schools has recently tabled a proposal designed to Read more
Big changes may be coming in the way the Department of Education selects grant recipients. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo to federal agencies requiring them to demonstrate the use of evidence in their fiscal 2014 budget requests. This new requirement signals a shift of Read more
Jason Delisle and Clare McCann at Ed Money Watch have put together a very helpful breakdown of what all of the Congressional complications surrounding the budget mean for education. We have shortened their summary into a few definitions of key terms to understand: Continuing Resolution: As of now, the US Read more
Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly urge a more “measured approach to education reform” from the federal level in their report, What Uncle Sam Can (and cannot) do to Improve K-12 Schooling: Lessons for the next Four Years. The introduction to the report offers a mixed review of the Read more
ASCD, one of the largest international organizations of teaching professionals, has set their 2013 legislative agenda, and that agenda, quite simply, is legislation. The “key priority” for ASCD and its members in 2013 in terms of federal public policy priorities is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Read more
In a recent AEI Teacher Quality 2.0 report, Timothy Knowles argues persuasively for radical changes with a practical mindset. His article is called “New pathways for teachers, new promises for students: A vision for developing excellent teachers.” Knowles, John Dewey Director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute, writing Read more
With the release of new guidelines broken down into five categories, the US Education Department has offered increased clarity to state and local school systems wondering about specifics of government education stipulations. As this blog posted about recently, the increased clarity is particularly important in light of the combined facts Read more
The Center for Education Reform has just issued its annual Charter School Law Report Card, and most states do not make the grade. The majority of states, according to the report, are only making “satisfactory” progress, and only 13 states have “strong” charter school laws. Among the nation’s 43 states Read more
The California Department of Education, currently the lightning rod for national education policy, was recently denied a No Child Left Behind waiver by the U.S. Department of Education. A total of 33 states and the District of Columbia have thus far been granted NCLB waivers, with 10 more states’ waiver Read more
The budgetary compromise reached by the House and Senate on January 1 that puts off major funding decisions until March has been hailed by some, especially those who see it as preventing some of the largest ever across-the-board cuts to government programs and those hoping that it will act as Read more
10 states, with another 4 more having recently wrapped up litigation, currently face lawsuits regarding increased funding for education. This phenomenon is not new. Lawsuits supported by pro-school funding organizations have been taking place for decades, although the economic recession of the last five years has reignited a long-standing debate Read more