In the Carnegie Commons blog, authors Jennifer Russell and Maggie Hannan explore how Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) can build educators’ capacity to use improvement science to learn from practice. Improvement science offers methods to guide disciplined inquiries that generate knowledge to improve practice. Improvement research—the inquiry processes that lie at Read more
If you ever attend an amateur comedy contest, you’ll notice that beginning comics face some of the same classroom-management-style issues that pop up in an inexperienced teacher’s classroom. As with teaching, experienced comics can make “owning the room” look easy. That’s because they’ve had years to develop their material and Read more
Research from three studies has found that intensive, content-focused professional development (PD) improved teachers’ knowledge and some aspects of their practice, but did not improve student achievement. The studies are summarized by AIR in its brief, Does Content-Focused Teacher Professional Development Work? The PD examined in the three studies emphasized Read more
The Behavioral Science and Policy Association recently published Reimagining Accountability in K–12 Education. This paper reviews the extensive behavioral science literature that shows outcome-based accountability, commonly used in education, is only one of multiple forms of accountability that should be considered for new accountability structures. Author Brian Gill recently commented Read more
Networked improvement communities are a relatively new type of collaborative research partnership between researchers and educators. With facilitation from researchers, educators identify problems of practice, the factors that drive the problems, and promising solutions. They then engage in iterative cycles of designing, implementing, testing, and redesigning solutions, while learning from Read more
A new report from the Center on School Turnaround presents promising practices for how to sustain the advances made in schools that have demonstrated rapid improvement. The practices presented are derived from a comprehensive review of relevant literature, and from the experience of five school principals who not only facilitated Read more
Paul Lingenfelter, president emeritus of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, recently reflected on the impasse between policymakers and educational practitioners in the Carnegie Commons blog. Excerpts from his piece appear below: Educators and policymakers together have failed to develop the capabilities needed to achieve the higher levels of Read more
The stakeholder engagement provisions in ESSA (the Every Student Succeeds Act) will fundamentally alter how education policy is made. If implemented as intended, it will ensure that the expertise of the parents, educators and other leaders working with, and on behalf of, students every day informs the development of state Read more
Teacher candidates are more likely to be effective and to stay in the profession when their preparation experiences are connected to classroom practice (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2009; Ronfeldt, 2012). Therefore, there has been considerable pressure and effort to strengthen candidate clinical experiences so that they happen early and Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has released a synthesis of research it has funded on mathematics teaching and learning, Synthesis of IES- Funded Research on Mathematics: 2002-2013. This synthesis reviews published papers on IES-supported research from projects awarded between 2002 and 2013. The authors identified 28 specific contributions that Read more
A recent report written by the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders and Learning Forward examines what teachers and educational leaders can learn about professional development from other industries. The education field has long recognized the importance of ongoing professional learning and growth opportunities, and recent policy priorities have underscored Read more
The George W. Bush Institute’s Middle School Matters initiative and The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin (MCPER) recently published the second edition of the “Middle School Matters Field Guide,” a collection of research-based principles, practices, and strategies deemed essential for middle school Read more
A recent blog by the Albert Shaker Institute examines the inner workings of what is effective and what is not effective when it comes to teacher collaboration. The blog starts off with an attention-grabbing introduction: You’ve probably attended meetings that were a waste of your time. Perhaps there was no Read more
Discovery Education, a leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, invites superintendents and curriculum leaders to attend a unique new series of professional learning events exploring critical topics in education leadership. This series, which launches on January 28 in Hershey, PA, will explore critical topics in Read more
In the latest edition of the Wallace Foundation’s Perspective, the focus is again on school leadership. In “The Making of the Principal: Five Lessons in Leadership Training,” the authors seek to discover what it will take to ensure that all public schools have leaders equal to the challenges facing the Read more
An analysis of reforms in the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) finds that the district has come a long way in a short time in terms of improving student achievement, granting schools more autonomy, and creating an environment friendly to innovators and new school providers. Baltimore and the Portfolio School Read more