Making complex research concepts easily accessible to policymakers and practitioners can be challenging for researchers who have been trained to write for an academic audience. This is especially an important issue for school and district leaders who want to keep their staff abreast of key new developments in the field Read more
Across the country, millions of children attend public school every year. Their parents likely went to public school too, as do the vast majority of Americans. But attending public school, or even working in education, isn’t the same as knowing how public schools—and our nation’s education system—actually work. How Schools Read more
As demands on teachers increase, schools across the country are expanding their calendars to give teachers more time to collaborate and develop new skills. Recently, NCTL unveiled its newest report at an event in Washington, D.C. co-hosted with Teach Plus. Time for Teachers: Leveraging Time to Strengthen Instruction and Empower Read more
Education can scratch the surface, or it can go deep – providing students with not just subject knowledge, but the skills required to master that subject. Skills such as inquiry, critical thinking, and collaborative problem solving equip students with the tools they need to succeed in college and the workforce—tools Read more
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is now recruiting! Help shape the future of National Board Certification and experience a sample of the process that thousands of teachers have called transformative. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is seeking PreK-12 grade teachers to volunteer to participate in Read more
States should promote data use skills, ease of access to data, and the use of a common language about data literacy to support strengthening data literacy among the nation’s educators as an important lever for improving student achievement, according to a new policy brief, Data Literacy: It’s About Time. The Read more
ASCD, the global education community, announced new features available on its free common core implementation tool ASCD EduCore. For the new year, the updated EduCore website features simpler navigation and expanded resources. Launched in August of 2012, the free EduCore digital tool is available for educators implementing the Common Core Read more
A free DVD from the School Turnaround Learning Community provides resources for conducting professional development on using educator evaluation results to create and support a system of professional growth for teachers. The module contains three sessions, each including agendas, PowerPoint slides, facilitator’s notes, multimedia, sample materials, and handouts: Session 1: Read more
Just in time for the New Year, the Department of Education has launched two new education reform resources. Bookshelf is a series of ready-made presentations that highlight numerous focus areas in education. The presentation slide decks present facts, charts, data, and other information reflecting progress and challenges in improving education, Read more
How well educators manage to adjust the Common Core to the needs of each student could prove pivotal academically, but also politically, as the standards themselves face skepticism in the states. This special report looks at the challenges educators face in adapting the standards for students with disabilities, English-learners, and Read more
Professional learning communities (PLCs)—teams of educators who meet regularly to exchange ideas, monitor student progress, and identify professional learning needs—reflect a growing interest in promoting professional development that engages teachers and administrators. Increasingly, teachers are able to participate in online and hybrid PLCs in addition to PLCs that meet face-to-face. Read more
Ever feel like education reform efforts are pulling educators in too many, often opposing directions? In a new special issues brief, authors Sheri Leo and Jane Coggshall lay out a suggested approach for creating meaningful coherence across three interdependent education reforms: Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluation, and professional learning. Read more
In today’s information age, educators are being inundated with research, resources, and tools – all aimed at improving education, instruction, and student performance. How can educators sift through all this information to find resources that are worth one’s time and attention? In this month’s issue brief, we focus on online Read more
A new guide from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific provides a framework, suggested activities, and activity forms to build capacity among teachers, administrators, staff, and other stakeholders for using data more comprehensively and effectively in education decision making. The Regional Educational Laboratories partner with states and districts to build capacity. Read more
The National School Boards Association‘s Center for Public Education is out with a recent report that says teaching the Common Core will require a professional development overhaul. Most teachers only receive workshop-based training for professional development, even though research shows it can be ineffective, the report says. And while teachers Read more
Improving teacher effectiveness relies on effective professional learning experiences for in-service, induction and veteran educators. With so much in flux — standards, curriculum, assessment, and evaluation — professional learning is more important than ever. In this month’s issue brief, we focus on professional learning, pulling together various resources and offering Read more