Last week, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted Senator Michael Bennet (Colorado), Frederick M. Hess, and others to discuss research and development in K-12 education. Senator Bennet has released a proposal for a new R&D project, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education (ARPA-ED), which was the main focus of Read more
Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation released its most recent report on the MET Project (Measures of Effective Teaching). The report focuses on the second set of preliminary findings, particularly on classroom observations. Five instruments for classroom observations are studied: the Framework for Teaching (FFT), developed by the Danielson Group; Read more
The National Education Writers Association (EWA) has released a research brief on teacher effectiveness. Organized around several prevailing questions about teacher effectiveness, the brief seeks to synthesize the available research to help leaders make informed decisions as they develop teacher evaluation systems. The brief reviews over 40 specific research studies Read more
The Center for American Progress released two reports last week focused on the lack of diversity in the American school system and what might be done about it. The first paper, Teacher Diversity Matters, by Ulrich Boser, reflects on the increasingly diverse public school population and the decreasingly diverse teacher Read more
Old Dominion University and Johns Hopkins University recently released a study of the National Institute of School Leadership’s (NISL’s) Executive Development Program (EDP), a program established to provide professional development to school leaders to improve school performance. The primary goal of the program is to ensure that school leaders have Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released a “First Look” report on the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS), which collected data from teachers who entered the profession in 2007 or 2008 in three waves (two more waves of collection are expected). This report looks at the first wave Read more
Earlier this month, Richard M. Ingersoll and Henry May published a study through the Consortium for Policy Research in Education that addressed the long-held belief that the country is suffering from a lack of diversity in the teaching profession. They synthesized their findings in a recent article for Phi Delta Read more
A new study published in the current issue of Educational Researcher began with a simple question: Is the well-documented phenomenon of teacher effectiveness increasing substantially over the first two years of teaching due to skill improvement over time, or because weaker teachers choose to leave—making the overall teaching pool look Read more
A recent study published by Karen DeAngelis and Jennifer Presley takes a closer look at new teacher attrition. We have all heard the claim that 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching, but is this really true? DeAngelis and Presley found some surprising Read more
A new book by researchers at the Carenegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching examines the movement towards the changing face of teaching from an “occupation” to one based on scientific scholarship. The movement’s impact on teacher education programs is examined with particular attention. Authors Pat Hutchings, Mary Taylor Huber, Read more
In the most recent edition of Teachers College Record, Spyros Konstantopoulos examines the long-term benefits of teacher effects on student achievement in early elementary grades. Konstantopoulos uses experimental data from Tennessee’s Student Teacher Achievement Ratio Study (Project STAR) for his study, and focused on two specific areas: 1) Determining the Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its annual report on Wednesday which compares each state’s proficiency standards in Reading and Math to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards. The current report looks at 2009 standards, and found the following: –There is wide variation among state proficiency standards. Read more
A recent study authored by Will Dobbie of Harvard University suggests that teacher success can be predicted at the time of hire. For his study, Dobbie looked at Teach For America’s (TFA) admissions measures to see if they can predict teachers’ future impact on student achievement. TFA bases their selection Read more
On July 27th, I blogged about NCTQ’s study which severely criticized the state of clinical experiences (i.e., student teaching) in America’s university-based teacher preparation programs. The President of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has now issued a response to the findings of the NCTQ study. NCATE Read more
In a Higher Ed Watch article last week, Jon Oberg discussed the recent recommendations from the American Educational Research Association on how to fix the problems with the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA). ESRA, originally signed into law in 2002, is three years overdue for reauthorization, and much of this Read more
A report released July 25 by Bellwether Education Partners sought to answer a crucial question: Did the Investing in Innovation (“i3”) program successfully find truly innovative ideas to improve K-12 education? The report is the culmination of interviews with dozens of i3 applicants, winners and philanthropists, plus a review of Read more