When told with the perspective of hindsight, many improvement stories can seem relatively clear and straightforward– a team isolates a problem, does some tests, learns some things, and a few iterations later, they’ve made progress. In practice, however, applying improvement science principles, tools, and methods to solve a problem in Read more
Writing for Brookings, Reeves and Deng explore the importance of social capital for promoting educational opportunities and outcomes. The main messages of the paper are as follows: Social capital = relationships that uplift. Social capital is described, defined and measured in a wide variety of different ways. But there is Read more
Writing for The 74, Marianna McMurdock recently reviewed new research that shows that Black and Latino students are disproportionately taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Across the country, schools serving predominantly Black students have 5 percent more novice teachers than schools with fewer Black students, Read more
Building trust is a major theme of Stand for Children’s free, new guidebook, Preventing a Lost School Year, which was created to help district leaders plan for academic and social-emotional learning in the coming school year. The 2019-2020 school year was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, without the Read more
Writing for The 74, Bruno Manno explores programs that help nurture students’ occupational identities and vocational selves. Excerpts from the piece appear below: New partnerships are emerging across the U.S. that create innovative educational approaches to preparing America’s young people for jobs, careers and further education, helping them develop an Read more
Writing for FutureEd, Andreas Schleicher reviews the findings of the second volume of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Excerpts of the piece appear below. TALIS, which surveyed 260,000 secondary school teachers and administrators worldwide, found that only 7 percent Read more
The GTL Center’s Mentoring and Induction Toolkit is a ready-to-use resource for states working closely with districts to build strong mentoring and induction programs. The purpose of the GTL Center’s Mentoring and Induction Toolkit is to give regional comprehensive centers (RCCs) and state education agencies (SEAs) tools, resources, and support Read more
Writing for the Annenberg Institute at Brown University’s working paper series, researchers Matthew Ronfeldt, Emanuele Bardelli, Stacey Brockman and Hannah Mullman explore the effects of hosting a student teacher on cooperating teachers’ evaluation scores. Growing evidence suggests that preservice candidates receive better coaching and are more instructionally effective when they Read more
Helen Ladd and Lucy Sorensen, writing for the Brookings blog, recently explored the concerns associated with within-school turnover, focusing on the churn in middle school core subject areas. Excerpts from their piece appear below: We draw on a recent paper in which we examined how middle schools in North Carolina Read more
Matt Barnum, writing for Chalkbeat, recently wrote an article exploring the fact that new teachers often end up in the most challenging classroom assignments. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Being a new teacher is notoriously difficult — and schools often make it even tougher. New research out of Los Read more
Recently in the Fordham Flypaper, Michael Petrilli wrote about the practice and promise of instructional coaches. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Whether initiated from the bottom-up or the top-down, any effort to help educators align their practice with the best evidence is going to succeed or fail on the Read more
High-quality, evidence-based mentoring and induction (M&I) programs can transform classroom instruction, improve teacher retention rates, narrow gaps in equitable access to effective educators, and raise student performance. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders’ updated toolkit helps states and districts design M&I programs that support beginning teachers in strengthening classroom Read more
Teacher mentoring has proven to be an effective form of professional learning that has positive results on student performance. But too often, mentoring programs are loosely designed and fall short of desired outcomes. In Core Education’s September issue brief, we explore teacher mentoring and coaching, including the research base for Read more
Most states have been struggling to address teacher shortages for several years now, often filling the vacuum with underprepared teachers who aren’t able to give children the high-quality learning they need and who leave at two to three times the rate of well-prepared teachers. Most often, these teachers are hired Read more
Teachers need helpful feedback and support to improve their instruction and own their professional growth. But what kinds of feedback translate into improved teaching practice? In Core Education’s August issue brief, we explore the research on teacher feedback, including teacher perceptions of feedback systems, characteristics of feedback that may influence Read more
Writing for Chalkbeat, Matt Barnum explores the research on the value of being mentored by an expert teacher. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Studies released this year offer real evidence that good teaching can be passed down, in a sense, from mentor teacher to student teacher. In several cases, Read more