From Rachel Herzfeldt-Kamprath and Maryam Adamu at Center for American Progress comes a new report about the importance of reforms to early childhood education. The past decade has been significant for the growth of early childhood programs. From the increased understanding of brain development in infants and toddlers to the Read more
On his Education Week blog, Marc Tucker argues that teachers should serve as the agents of education research, not just subjects of it. There is no argument about the need for research in the United States, but Tucker worries that most of it is done by academics not involved in Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics has added the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data to PowerStats. This update includes the following datasets from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey: Public Schools, Private Schools, Public and Private Schools combined, Public Principals, Private Principals, Public and Private Principals combined, Public Read more
Chad Aldeman and a Bellwether Education team have collected and synthesized data from 17 states and the District of Columbia that tracked and reported information on their teacher evaluation efforts as of July 2014. Data analysis revealed five major conclusions: Districts are starting to differentiate between poor, fair, and great Read more
A new poll by Education Next finds that the Common Core State Standards may have an image problem. The poll finds that the public likes the idea of shared standards – so long as the question doesn’t mention the phrase “Common Core.” Even Republicans, who express the most antipathy to Read more
The Center on Education Policy (CEP) at The George Washington University has released “A Compendium of Research on the Common Core Standards,” a compilation of over 60 research studies focused on a range of issues and topics related to the Common Core Standards. CEP has been a leading voice on Read more
Discussions about improving public education often focus on outcomes without considering how schools and districts can accomplish those outcomes. Research shows that using a continuous improvement process has proven successful in healthcare, manufacturing, and technology, and may hold potential for use in education as well. This brief defines and describes Read more
What do we know about using alternative student growth measures to evaluate teacher performance? The following three updates from The Institute of Education Sciences provide research-based answers to that question. States increasingly are interested in incorporating measures of student achievement growth in teacher evaluations. But the typical measure of student Read more
A new research brief from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) documents practices and outcomes of four urban high schools that, through student-centered approaches, are providing building blocks of knowledge and skills students need as adults. These schools are non-selective and predominantly serve low-income students of color. Read more
The ACT doesn’t only make tests; they also write policy reports. Their newest one, “Communicating College and Career Readiness through Proficiency Standards,” has several policy recommendations for states adopting new educational standards. The brief describes how Kentucky, New York, Florida, and the District of Columbia transitioned their state assessments to Read more
Melanie Plenda at The Atlantic Education recently described a new trend in American education that shows promise to attract strong student attention and help engage long term memory: Gamification. The idea of turning learning into games that students play is not new, but some of the research surrounding it is, Read more
Two new guides – one for researchers and one for education leaders – show how “opportunistic experiments” can build evidence by incorporating rigorous research studies into the normal course of action. This approach to conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) takes advantage of planned interventions or policy actions, all with minimal Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2014. The 42 indicators presented in The Condition of Education 2014 provide a progress report on education in America and include findings on the demographics of American schools, U.S. resources for schooling, and outcomes associated with education. Report Read more
A new scientific report looks at the way people learn, experience and think across disciplines and finds that often, cognitive style can prove too narrow or limiting. Those findings, published in the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, could prove enlightening for those working in the fields Read more
The New Digital Learning Playbook: “Understanding the Spectrum of Students’ Activities and Aspirations” is the first in a two part series to document the key national findings from Speak Up 2013. For the past eleven years, Project Tomorrow’s® annual Speak Up National Research Project has provided schools and districts nationwide Read more
High school students everywhere may rejoice to hear the latest research on school start times for students in their age group. A new report from the Education Commission of the States (www.ecs.org) says school begins too early for these students, a point about which there should be no dispute. Following Read more