To understand how to turn around a failing school quickly, using as few resources as possible, Alex Hill, Liz Mellon, Jules Goddard and Ben Laker studied changes made by 160 UK academies after they were put into remedial measures by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills Read more
Sarah Sparks, writing for Education Week, explores the differences in teacher preparation for American elementary school teachers compared with teachers in four high-performing countries. Excerpts from her article appear below: U.S. elementary-grade teachers get far less training than teachers in high-achieving countries for deep understanding of the foundational math, reading, Read more
Dick Startz, in the Brookings blog, provides comparative information on teacher pay around the world. It turns out, the U.S. doesn’t look so generous. Following are excerpts from the blog: American teachers are underpaid. More specifically, American teachers are underpaid when compared to teachers in the nations we compete with. Read more
In a two part blog on the best ways to organize an educational system, Mark Tucker outlines his vision and details the specific methods that can be used to achieve this vision. Mr. Tucker writes: NCEE, the organization I head, runs the biggest and most successful program for training school Read more
A recent Education Week blog by Marc Tucker examines what it truly takes to get a first-rate teacher in front of every student, and compares the United States systems to the rest of the world. Some experts estimate that half of those who start a career in teaching are gone in Read more
The Shanker Institute recently published commentary on the Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems report from the Learning First Alliance and the International Center for Benchmarking in Education at the National Center for Education and the Economy. This blog covered that report here (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/more-teaching-less-learning/) and here (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/professional-development-transformed/). Read more
Teachers often know best when it comes to helping their students achieve academic success, but districts and schools are not set up to capitalize on the wisdom of teachers. In this month’s issue brief from Core Education, we explore ideas related to increasing teacher professionalism, including changed teacher roles, teacher-powered Read more
Education Week author Marc Tucker describes what NCEE has learned about the design of the instructional systems used by top-performing countries and suggest ways in which U.S. states can adapt those lessons for use in their own state system under the Every Student Succeeds Act. He defines “instructional system” as Read more
A study, published in the journal Education Next, finds that since 2011, 45 states have raised the levels at which students are considered “proficient” on state tests. Thirty-six of the 45 did so within just the last two years. The report is the seventh in a series that examines states’ Read more
A new OECD report, Supporting Teacher Professionalism, based on the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), examines the nature and extent of support for teacher professionalism across 34 countries. Teacher professionalism is defined as the knowledge, skills, and practices that teachers must have in order to be effective educators. The Read more
A recent article by Education Next examines the correlation between poverty and mediocre test scores in the United States. At a time when the national conversation is focused on lagging upward mobility and yawning income inequality, it is no surprise that many educators point to poverty as the explanation for Read more
America’s traditional teacher preparation programs are under siege; enrollment is dwindling, as prospective teachers turn to increasingly popular alternative programs. There are calls for regulators to step in to shut down the worst institutions and help many others improve. But where should experts look for best practices? A panel of Read more
A recent report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that the U.S. is sending a smaller percentage of students to college than at least 46 different nations. Additionally, enrollment in preschool has fallen in the U.S. and has exploded internationally. In fact: The more than 500-page Read more
A recent study conducted by Gallup titled, “Connecting Education to the Real World” with input from the members of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar finds that “Globally, education is failing to keep pace with rapidly changing economies, and is not preparing students for the workforce.” Read more
How are America’s students really doing? We thought we knew, back when each state gave its own state assessments, but it turns out that proficiency rates were often highly inflated. Now we have some states collaborating in assessment consortia (e.g., PARCC and Smarter Balanced). Those common assessments will help provide Read more
The UN gave only a third of the world’s countries a passing grade recently for efforts to provide universal basic education, but said most governments had failed on a pledge made 15 years ago, the Agence France-Presse reports. In 2000, 164 countries agreed at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Read more