The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems released last week “75 Examples of How Bureaucracy Stands in the Way of America’s Students and Teachers,” giving parents, teachers and voters a critical resource for understanding the systemic crisis in America’s public schools. This week’s release of the PDK/Gallup poll Read more
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently released a new study that takes an in-depth look at “teacher quality,” and how our understanding of the concept has changed over the past decade. The report, From Teacher Education to Student Progress: Teacher Quality Since NCLB, notes that prior to NCLB, it was Read more
On August 1, the Alliance for Excellent Education began an unprecedented digital process asking the American public to participate in developing major new state legislation designed to make digital learning and educational technology available to all students around the country. The proposed draft legislation, titled the Each Child Learns Act, Read more
The United Way Worldwide (UWW) recently released a study on how communities can work together to advance effective teaching and empower effective teachers. Beginning in July 2009, the study took place in 14 communities located in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. United Way Worldwide worked with the communities to identify Read more
Last week the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) launched a new site containing cutting-edge postsecondary education research for a policy-focused audience. PolicyDirect is a one-stop, online resource that delivers more than 300 easy-to-use summaries of academic research that highlights critical findings on important higher education issues such as college Read more
Last Wednesday, during his remarks at the National Urban League conference in New Orleans, President Obama announced he would sign an Executive Order to improve outcomes and advance educational opportunities for African Americans. The President has made providing a complete and competitive education for all Americans – from cradle to Read more
New state-level data on charter schools and teacher certification are now available on the State Education Reforms website. The State Education Reforms website, which draws primarily on data collected by organizations other than NCES, compiles and disseminates data on state-level education reform efforts in five areas: (1) Accountability (2) Assessment Read more
The Obama Administration recently announced the President’s plan for the creation of a new, national Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps comprised of some of the nation’s finest educators in STEM subjects. The STEM Master Teacher Corps will begin with 50 exceptional STEM teachers established in 50 Read more
Over the past decade, teachers have seen changes in both their conditions of employment-from pay to retirement benefits-and their practice. Far too often, these policies have been made by people who talk about teachers, rather than talking to them. Last fall, Education Sector surveyed a nationally representative random sample of Read more
The National Center for Education Statistics released The Condition of Education 2012 last week, an annual publication mandated by Congress. The report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 49 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators are grouped Read more
A new report from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) argues that principal evaluation systems should not be based only on student achievement gains, but on the quality of principal leadership and performance. Additionally, principals and other school-based leaders are being left out of education reform discussions. The report, called Read more
As states begin to implement the Common Core, there has been an increased focus on English Language Learners, or ELLs, in the classroom. An estimated 25% of children in America live in households where a language other than English is spoken. How can “regular” classroom teachers support the needs of Read more
In a recent post for the Shanker Blog, Matthew Di Carlo discusses the current policy focus on teacher quality as a way to improve schools. He observes that “some (but not nearly all) components of this all-hands-on-deck effort are perplexing to the many teachers, and have generated quite a bit Read more
Finland, with its high-achieving public schools, has been held up as a standard for the US as we slog down the path of education reform. However, are there things we can’t learn from Finland’s model? Pasi Sahlberg, author of Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Read more
Across the country, state education agencies have begun to institute new offices to specialize in innovation—searching for new ideas and helping them to make it into education policy. The “new ideas” cover a variety of areas, from teacher quality to online learning, which means they “transcend the assigned duties of Read more
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), the nonprofit research and advocacy group that is the major partner in effecting change in Tennessee’s K-12 public education system, released its annual report on Tennessee’s education reforms earlier this month. SCORE also outlined what it believes are four priority areas the state Read more