Pearson’s Center for Educator Effectiveness has released a new guide to assist states and districts as they begin to develop and implement new teacher and principal evaluation systems. The guide, Evaluating Teachers and Principals: Developing Fair, Valid and Reliable Systems, highlights the critical steps and considerations necessary to build a Read more
The State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness (SCEE) has unveiled a new teacher evaluation database called State Policies on Teacher Evaluation 2010-2011. The database includes state-by-state information on teacher evaluation policies for all states plus DC. The purpose of the database is to provide information on how states have addressed teacher Read more
The National Association for Alternative Certification (NAAC) has issued two calls: one for pilot sites, and one for reviewers. The NAAC is looking to test a new set of standards, called “Quality Indicators,” or QI, developed by NAAC, Project KNOTtT, and The Ohio State University. The QIs are designed to Read more
The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center), established in 2005 as a joint venture between the American Institutes for Research and its partners, ETS, Vanderbilt University, and the US Department of Education provide a central “collection point” for teacher quality content and resources. Of particular interest among their Read more
See below for two upcoming opportunities: “Mapping Curriculum, Planning Success: Integrating the Common Core Standards in Each K-12 Classroom” Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Time: 10:30am – 12:00pm EST This webinar, featuring author and expert Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, will focus on: –Upgrading and transforming education through the lens of Read more
In the new era of teacher evaluation reform, policymakers at all levels have instituted unprecedented changes in teacher evaluation with the goal of improving student outcomes. Though research has shown that many teachers do embrace adopting meaningful evaluation systems, their voices have remained largely unheard at the evaluation reform discussion Read more
The New Teacher Project has changed its official name to its acronym, TNTP, and has announced several other important changes to the organization. Launched in 1997, TNTP has expanded its partnerships and training to 20 cities across the country, and has trained more than 46,000 new teachers. However, given the Read more
Education Week is offering a free, live webinar on improving teacher education programs across the country. The live webinar, moderated by Stephen Sawchuk of Education Week, will feature Deans Mari Koerner (Arizona State University) and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, (University of Michigan). From Education Week: University-based teacher education remains the engine Read more
The National STEM Video Game Challenge is a competition aiming to stimulate STEM learning by “embracing the popular students’ pastime of playing and making video games.” The competition is sponsored by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media. There are several categories, broken down by school Read more
Education Week is offering another free “Spotlight” collection for download, this one focused on professional learning communities (PLCs). Spotlights are a collection of past articles from the publication focused on a particular topic. The 10 articles in this Spotlight offer insights on: –Building effective teacher teams –Starting a new PLC Read more
Last week, the Departments of Education and Defense announced the pending launch of “Learning Registry,” an open source community and technology designed to improve the quality and availability of learning resources in education. Learning Registry is not intended to be an alternative to existing websites, but rather a communication system Read more
ASCD Express is seeking short essays on the theme “Supporting Preservice Teachers.” From ASCD:“The learning trajectory from college education student to classroom teacher—and “master of her own universe”—is pretty compressed. Inevitably, much about education must be learned on the job. But can universities better prepare future teachers? If so, how? Read more
Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of Michigan’s School of Education, recently unveiled TeachingWorks, a wing of the School of Education that will focus on “raising the standards for practice as a classroom teacher by transforming how teachers are prepared and supported.” The details of the eventual character of TeachingWorks is still Read more
Pearson Education is launching a 16-part series of webinars to help educators as they transition to the CCSS. The webinars will be led by experts in literacy, mathematics, professional development, assessment, and English Language Learners. The sessions are free and are intended to provide teachers will tools, strategies, and resources Read more
The Center for Education Reform (CER) recently launched their new, interactive website, which they hope will become the central hub for all things related to education reform. The CER, founded in 1993 to help bridge the gap between education policy and practice, says that it re-designed their site in order Read more
Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation have launched Teacher Wall, a social network for teachers. The site functions as a virtual town hall that gives teachers an opportunity to talk about the things that are most important to them-from challenges to “A-ha! moments,” from lessons learned to job Read more