The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the education field in multiple ways. Policymakers, superintendents, school leaders, and teachers have had to adopt new models, processes, policies, protocols, and strategies in order to conduct the business of teaching and learning over the last year. As the nation (eventually) emerges from this pandemic, which changes are likely to Read more about Issue Brief: Pandemic Trends that may Stick Around[…]
Writing for The 74, Kevin Mahnken recently reviewed a new roadmap for American history and civics education titled “Education for American Democracy.” Excerpts of the piece appear below: Through a collaboration funded by grants from the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a group of civics and educational institutions spent the Read more about Scholars Release New Framework for History and Civics in Schools[…]
Every day, educators, advocates, and families strive to ensure that our schools prepare all students to excel academically and thrive in life. To realize that ambitious goal, we must ensure that our education sector functions at all levels as a learning system. Too often, though, a culture of compliance and a desire to preserve the Read more about Transforming Education into a Learning System[…]
The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is the leading U.S. organization studying high-performing education systems and their implications for dramatically improving American education. In The Design of High-Performing Education Systems, NCEE has distilled the accumulated insights of 35 years of research from the world’s leading systems. The document organizes what they have Read more about A Framework for Policy and Practice[…]
The Learning Agency recently published a report, Education and Income: How Learning Boosts Salary, by Ulrich Boser. Key takeaways appear below: The U.S. is in the midst of an economic downturn resulting from COVID-19, with potential long lasting effects on workers and the American labor market. Unemployment is at its highest point since the Great Read more about Education and Income: How Learning Boosts Salary[…]
As school districts deliberate over reopening schools with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, the Aurora Institute has developed a report with strategic guidance on how to harness our current opportunity to transform K-12 education. Education Policy Issues for the COVID-19 Era: Policy Actions and Responses to Leverage the Moment for Future Readiness offers insights and Read more about Policy Actions and Responses to Leverage the Moment for Future Readiness[…]
With all of the uncertainty around the pandemic, getting students settled into the classroom—whether in-person or virtual—and ready to learn this fall was already going to be challenging. But we are also heading into what promises to be a contentious and polarizing election season, and students will need help navigating this difficult political environment. In Read more about Engaging Students in Civic Discourse[…]
Business leaders play a critical role in ensuring that our education systems enable young people to gain the skills, knowledge, and experiences they need to be successful in the current and future economy. Business voices can be powerful tools to help shape policy, champion programs, and advocate for greater coordination and alignment among the early Read more about Making Education Everyone’s Business: Three Studies of Successful Education Advocacy[…]
AdvocacyLabs, a partnership between FutureEd and 50CAN, draws on insights from academia to help education advocates work effectively on behalf of disadvantaged students. In Experiments in Advocacy: What Works and Why, author Marc Porter Magee focuses on the growing number of rigorous experimental studies of effective advocacy campaigns. By leveraging the power of randomized studies Read more about Experiments in Advocacy: What Works and Why[…]
A new 50-State Comparison from Education Commission of the States on Teacher License Reciprocity has been updated for 2020. Most states have policies that allow licensed teachers from other states to obtain a license in their state, under certain conditions – and a growing number of states offer special reciprocity for military spouses. However, few Read more about 50-State Comparison: Teacher License Reciprocity[…]
Writing for the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Patricia Saenz-Armstrong explores how student teaching and initial licensure practices are shifting during this time of school closures. Excerpts from the piece appear below: School closures have obvious impacts on current students and teachers and are also creating challenges for teacher candidates hoping to graduate this Read more about Student Teaching and Initial Licensure in the Times of Coronavirus[…]
Understandably, the sudden closure of schools has been both immeasurably difficult and confusing for students and adults alike. The first priority for most school districts has been ensuring the safety and nutrition of their students, but now the focus is increasingly on how to keep students learning–and that requires forging teacher policies to address issues Read more about How are school districts adapting teacher work policies for emergency closures?[…]
A new two-page policy outline from Education Commission of the States serves as an introduction to trauma-informed practices, as defined in state education policy. Trauma-informed practices intersect with school discipline, student health, educator training, school safety, and more. There are four categories of recent state policy action, including Educator and School Staff Training, Task Forces/Committees, Read more about Education Policy Approaches to Trauma-Informed Practices[…]
PIE Network members in Colorado, North Carolina, and Washington State recently shared details about automatic enrollment policies (also known as academic acceleration), which ensure that students with qualifying test scores in a particular subject are automatically enrolled in advanced coursework in the same subject area. As a result, more students who have proven they’re ready Read more about Low-Hanging Fruit: How Automatic Enrollment in Advanced Coursework is Leveling the Playing Field[…]
The Aurora Institute (previously iNACOL) released the updated CompetencyWorks map, a snapshot of K-12 competency education state policy across the United States. Since 2012, iNACOL’s CompetencyWorks initiative has published an annual snapshot map of the United States, categorizing states into levels at which their policy environments and state activities support competency-based education. In 2012, nearly Read more about 49 of 50 States Now Enable Competency-Based Education[…]
Over the last year, Education Evolving published a series of blog posts focused on the growing problem of teacher turnover, and uplifting the stories of schools, strategies, programs, and leaders that buck the trend. This series has now wrapped up. Check out some of the top posts: Why Teachers Leave: What the Data Say How Read more about Retaining Teachers: Fostering Conditions Where Talent Thrives[…]