Recently, The Hechinger Report published an article that reviewed research showing that data analysis has not significantly improved student outcomes since the No Child Left Behind Act ramped up national data collection. Data — even high quality data— is of no value if it isn’t used effectively. In a response Read more
Writing for the Hechinger Report, Jill Barshay surveyed the difficulties in providing data to teachers and expecting instructional improvement. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Teachers are spending a lot of time talking about student data. In a 2016 survey by Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research, 94 percent of Read more
Decades of reforms have proven insufficient to address persistent racial disparities in educational opportunities. In school systems across the United States, meaningful efforts to ensure access to strong educational opportunities require a bold and significant shift. A new tool from the Learning Policy Institute and the Racial Equity Leadership Network, Read more
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the use of evidence-based practices to improve outcomes at low-performing schools-but how can education leaders and policymakers make sure they are choosing the right ones? A new AIR guide provides concrete action steps and resources that state and district leaders can use to Read more
State leaders have outlined bold equity goals to improve the outcomes of all students. But these goals can’t be met if the data used to measure and support them reflect bias. The Data Quality Campaign’s latest blog series dives into the concept of asset framing and examines how data can Read more
Forty-eight states and Washington, DC have committed to measuring and reporting on individual student growth under ESSA. This means everyone in those states – from parents to policymakers – will have more information than before on student performance and school quality. But the questions they’ll be able to answer depend Read more
Writing for Ed Excellence, Michael Petrilli has summarized some of the biggest problems with educational research and has proposed three promising pathways forward. Excerpts from his piece appear below: Whereas the world outside of our schools has been transformed by information technology, the data we collect on classroom practices is Read more
For the past two years, Education First has facilitated a community of practice of five teacher preparation technical assistance centers–Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, National Center for Teacher Residencies, TeacherSquared, TeachingWorks and University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Prep–working to reimagine the way teachers are prepared for Read more
The Data Quality Campaign has released Education Data 101, a primer on the most important concepts and research related to education data. The purpose of this publication is to bring policymakers up to speed, but it also provides a nice summary of talking points for anyone involved in education. The Read more
Writing for EdSurge, Winnie O’Leary offers an overview of how to utilize data to build student agency while also holding students accountable. Excerpts from the piece appear below: A few years ago, Harvard’s Achievement Gap Institute conducted a study on teaching and student agency. The study recognized agency as potentially Read more
The Education Trust-West has launched a new tool for advocates to use when discussing educational equity with parents, educators, students, and other community members. This new tool provides presentation materials, a video, logistical recommendations, and a facilitation guide so that advocates across the country can lead Data Equity Walks. Data Read more
Chester E. Finn, Jr., distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, recently reflected on the illusion of college readiness for National Affairs. Excerpts from his piece appear below: Our K-12 education system has a transparency problem, and our higher-education system is complicit. While some American Read more
States create annual aggregate report cards for the public about education statewide. But can people easily find and understand these reports? In many cases, the answer is no. In summer 2016, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) set out to discover what information it could easily find on state report cards Read more
Survey data can be an effective way to gather data that informs instruction or programmatic decisions. But some educators do not have the training or experience needed to design surveys or analyze the data that surveys can provide. Three research alliances in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast and Islands Read more
Each month in Core Education’s issue brief, we post a call for commentary. We always enjoy hearing great ideas from our readers! Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Margie Johnson of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) about an innovative approach to collaborative inquiry that the district is implementing. Read more
Sean Reardon and colleagues at the Graduate School of Education reviewed more than 200 million test scores to spotlight communities with the nation’s worst achievement gaps. The results show almost every school district enrolling large numbers of low-income students has an average academic performance significantly below the national grade-level average. Read more