A four-day school week (4dsw) is becoming more common, especially in areas across the western United States. States with large rural areas are spearheading this change. For example, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota have more than 500 districts using a 4dsw. Champions of the shorter week contend that it saves Read more about Can Four Equal Five? Assessing the Four-Day School Week[…]
For many years, school administrators have served as instructional leaders and have set the tone for the culture of a school. The COVID-19 pandemic further expanded the role of the school administrator – with major emphasis on student health and wellness, school safety, and equitable practice. Indeed, the school leader’s influence is pivotal, and every Read more about October Issue Brief: School Leader Effectiveness[…]
A new report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) focuses on the fundamental importance of the fine arts and provides policy recommendations for reclaiming the arts and culture in education. Key points of this report include the following: Despite overwhelming support for arts education, an increasing share of children is growing up without any exposure Read more about Reclaiming Arts & Culture in Education: The Fundamental Importance of the Fine Arts[…]
Writing for the Fordham Institute, Adam Tyner reviews a new research report by Jackson and Mackevicius that explores how money matters for student outcomes. Excerpts from the piece appear below: The overall effect of an additional $1,000 of spending per child on test scores, based on 2018 prices and over four years of school, is Read more about How does money matter for schools?[…]
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[…]
COVID-19 has presented new challenges for schools and families to grapple with when it comes to student learning — but the pandemic also has illuminated shortcomings and missed opportunities that have long been present in our education system. A new series of briefs from Bellwether offers guidance on how the education sector can recenter and Read more about From Pandemic to Progress: Eight Education Pathways for COVID-19 Recovery[…]
Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, The Superintendents Association, recently wrote a piece for the National Student Clearinghouse, claiming that the pandemic provides an opportunity to rethink the education system and to move toward exposing K-12 students to “opportunities and pathways that are available other than just a college degree.” “The reality is that after Read more about The Pandemic Offers an Opportunity to Rethink K-16 Education[…]
Writing for the Hechinger Report, Jill Barshay recently reviewed a new index being used in Chicago to identify high schools with the best outcomes. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Parents are often stymied by the process of picking a good school for their kids. Word-of-mouth recommendations can be misleading. High test scores provide only Read more about Researchers Pinpoint Three Elements of Effective Schools[…]
In Where Teachers Thrive, Susan Moore Johnson outlines a powerful argument about the importance of the school as an organization in nurturing high-quality teaching. Based on case studies conducted in fourteen high-poverty, urban schools, the book examines why some schools failed to make progress, while others achieved remarkable results. It explores the challenges that administrators Read more about What Makes Teachers Thrive?[…]
Over the last 20 years, eight U.S. cities have seen more students attending more effective schools at a faster pace than other urban areas. In Oakland, D.C., Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Camden, and Chicago, education leaders have increased the number of high-performing schools and set up systems that continuously improve. Bellwether Education’s Read more about How Do You Build Continuously Improving Systems of Schools?[…]
The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) launched The CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL that provides an interactive planner, step-by-step guidance, field-tested tools, and continuous improvement processes to help educators implement social and emotional learning (SEL) in their schools. The free, online resource helps school teams coordinate and build on their evidence-based practices Read more about CASEL Releases Comprehensive Guide to Help Schools Implement SEL[…]
Writing for the Fordham Institute’s Flypaper blog, Michael Petrilli recently explored ways to encourage educators to implement evidence-based practices. He asks: How might we dramatically increase the chances that our schools scale up the most effective practices, resulting in significantly better outcomes for students? Petrilli offers the following ideas: There are six plausible approaches that Read more about How to get Schools to Use Practices that Work[…]
Writing for The 74, Thomas Arnett and Bryan Hassel summarize ways innovative schools are utilizing novel staffing structures to facilitate personalized learning. Excerpts from their piece appear below: By adding personalized learning to teachers’ workloads without changing how schools are organized, schools face a great risk that their attempts to personalize learning will fall short Read more about Personalized Learning Through Co-Teaching, Team Teaching, and Collaboration[…]
Candice McQueen and Charla Hurt recently shared the progress of a Tennessee initiative to engage effective teachers as teacher leaders for The 74. Excerpts of their piece appear below: The idea seemed like common sense: Engage the most effective teachers, ask them to come up with ideas for improving schools, and share what they know Read more about Teacher Leadership Works[…]
A new survey of research into charter school effectiveness has linked so-called no-excuses practices in urban charter schools to sizable academic gains. Published in the Winter 2018 edition of The Future of Children, a journal jointly published by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, the survey found that spending three years in one of these Read more about ‘No-Excuses’ Charter Schools Could Close the Achievement Gap[…]
In California, recent policy shifts have created a high degree of local control with the expectation that school districts will think differently about school and district improvement. However, many districts lack the individual expertise and organizational capacity to support these changes at scale. In large part, this is due to a lack of a shared Read more about Building Systems Knowledge for Continuous Improvement[…]