What are the factors that affect learning at your school?

Reducing chronic absence and developing conditions for learning are instrumental to improving outcomes for students and can be improved through policy reform and leadership. Schools and educators have the power to improve both student attendance and conditions for learning. A new Hamilton Project data interactive, “Chronic Absence: School and Community Factors,” examines the factors that Read more about What are the factors that affect learning at your school?[…]

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The New Testing Landscape: How State Assessments Are Changing Under ESSA

State testing systems are in transition. Buffeted by anti-testing sentiment on the left and right, budget battles, and renewed debates over the role that testing plays, the recent, unprecedented push for states to collaborate on high-quality, standards-aligned assessments has given way to an increasingly fragmented marketplace. A new report from FutureEd Senior Fellow Lynn Olson Read more about The New Testing Landscape: How State Assessments Are Changing Under ESSA[…]

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Education Research: Does the United States Have the Right Model?

Recently in NCEE’s blog, Marc Tucker asked a compelling question: Is the United States employing the right approach to education research? The evidence points to an answer of no. Excerpts from the piece appear below:  Many years ago, in 1971, I (Tucker) was asked to join the White House unit set up to plan for Read more about Education Research: Does the United States Have the Right Model?[…]

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The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth

Researchers from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C. have released a new report, “The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth.” Adolescents—young people ages 10 to 25—make up nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population. Drawing upon recent scientific advances, the report finds ample evidence that adolescence offers great promise: Read more about The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth[…]

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Trio of Studies Confirms Benefits from Teachers’ Visits to Students’ Homes

When teachers visit families at home and ask, “What are your hopes and dreams for your child,” chronic absenteeism goes down, test scores go up, and teachers change their own mindsets. Studies from Johns Hopkins University and RTI International evaluated Parent Teacher Home Visits model in use in 700 communities in 27 states & D.C. Read more about Trio of Studies Confirms Benefits from Teachers’ Visits to Students’ Homes[…]

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New Evidence Bolsters the Argument for Arts Education

“Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education Experiences,”  reports on a first-of-its-kind arts education experiment from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The authors, Daniel H. Bowen of Texas A&M, and the University of Missouri’s Brian Kisida, find measurable academic, social, and emotional outcomes associated with arts education for elementary and middle school students. Bowen Read more about New Evidence Bolsters the Argument for Arts Education[…]

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Reframing Education Data for Equity

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 be better constructed, presented, and Read more about Reframing Education Data for Equity[…]

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Inequity in Education Funding

Predominantly white school districts in the US get $23 billion a year more than districts that educate mostly non-white children, an education advocacy group says. A report from EdBuild, which promotes equity in public schools, found that the average white school district got $13,908 for every student in 2016, compared to $11,682 per student in Read more about Inequity in Education Funding[…]

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Measuring the Social and Emotional Sides of Student Success

The intensifying interest among education policymakers in the social and emotional dimensions of student success is encouraging news. By complementing the important work in recent years to raise standards and strengthen instruction, the increasing focus on school climate and students’ relationships to their peers and their schools is a potentially powerful catalyst for school improvement Read more about Measuring the Social and Emotional Sides of Student Success[…]

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Thinking About Classroom Practice: Five Ideas for Education Reformers

Recently in Fordham’s Flypaper, Robert Pondiscio reflected a new direction for education reform: a focus on instructional practice. He writes: Shifting ed reform’s focus to improving practice is an acknowledgment that underperformance is not a failure of will, but a lack of capacity. It’s a talent-development and human capital-strategy, not an accountability play. Forcing changes Read more about Thinking About Classroom Practice: Five Ideas for Education Reformers[…]

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How to get Schools to Use Practices that Work

Writing for the Fordham Institute’s Flypaper blog, Michael Petrilli recently explored ways to encourage educators to implement evidence-based practices. He asks:  How might we dramatically increase the chances that our schools scale up the most effective practices, resulting in significantly better outcomes for students? Petrilli offers the following ideas: There are six plausible approaches that Read more about How to get Schools to Use Practices that Work[…]

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The Impact of Early Colleges: What does the research say?

Liz Bell, writing for EdNC recently explored the evidence basis for early college high schools. Excerpts of the piece appear below: The SERVE Center and researchers from RTI International and RAND Corporation have found early college students are more likely to attend class, complete courses that prepare them to enter into a university, and graduate Read more about The Impact of Early Colleges: What does the research say?[…]

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Researchers Peek into the Black Box of the Classroom

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 somewhere between nonexistent and laughably Read more about Researchers Peek into the Black Box of the Classroom[…]

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Restorative Justice: An Alternative to Traditional Punishment

Restorative justice is the focus of a series of reports authored by the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The reports include: What Further Research is Needed on Restorative Justice in Schools? Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: Summary Findings from Interviews with Experts Restorative Justice in U.S. Read more about Restorative Justice: An Alternative to Traditional Punishment[…]

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Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force

Has the elementary and secondary teaching force changed in recent years? And, if so, how? Have the types and kinds of individuals going into teaching changed? Have the demographic characteristics of those working in classrooms altered? To answer these questions, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania embarked on an exploratory research project to try to Read more about Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force[…]

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How People Learn II

Learning is a conversation with the world, from a newborn’s brain lighting up as his mother sings to him, to a teenager choking on a test for fear of fulfilling a stereotype, to elderly people heading off cognitive decline by learning a new language. In an update to its landmark reports on education research, the Read more about How People Learn II[…]

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