Now that the most acute phase of the Covid crisis is over, public conversation has turned to the millions of students who are still struggling academically and emotionally—and how our nation’s schools ought to respond. Decisions that education leaders make right now will determine whether this generation of students recovers or continues to lose ground. Read more about The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools[…]
Writing for EdNote, Erin Whinnery recently shared four new education policy tools. Excerpts from the piece appear below: How can education leaders better support students, families and teachers in these unprecedented times? What needs can be met with policy changes? Education Commission of the States supports education leaders with four unmatched state policy resources. The State Read more about 4 Education Policy Tools to Use[…]
Recently, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) released a toolkit focused on reimagining the teaching job. An overview of the resources included appears below: Students deserve teachers who thrive in a job that is dynamic, rewarding, collaborative, and sustainable—especially as we all work to recover from the learning, family, and community losses of the past two years. Read more about Reimagining the Teaching Job[…]
For too many students, the misalignment of high school and postsecondary mathematics requirements is an unnecessary barrier to reaching their academic and career goals. Although the nature of careers has evolved over time, mathematics curriculum and instruction have largely remained unchanged; but in recent years, some states’ postsecondary and K-12 systems have begun to adjust Read more about Re-Envisioning Mathematics Pathways to Expand Opportunities[…]
Writing for the Fordham Institute, Scott J. Peters and Jonathan Plucker recently reviewed the research on student ability grouping in middle and high schools. Excerpts from the piece appear below: One of the most contentious debates in American education focuses on whether to group students into classrooms using some measure of prior achievement. Whole class Read more about Should schools group students by ability?[…]
Designing for and implementing deeper learning across classrooms and schools that serve communities disadvantaged by the U.S. educational system is challenging. A new paper from the Carnegie Foundation illuminates this challenge by asking the question: What would designers of interventions at the classroom, school, and district levels have to take into consideration when they want Read more about Designing for Deeper Learning: Challenges in Schools and School Districts Serving Communities Disadvantaged by the Educational System[…]
The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings and the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone have teamed up to pose a shared vision of education system transformation. Collectively they offer insights on transformation from the perspective of a global think tank and a national government, highlighting on-the-ground lessons from designing and implementing system-wide educational Read more about Transforming education systems: Why, what, and how[…]
A new RAND report reviews two Opportunity by Design (ObD) high schools in which practices for supporting students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) were implemented schoolwide and integrated into teachers’ academic instruction. The ObD initiative was launched by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support the design and creation of a network of small, Read more about Exploring Integrated, Schoolwide SEL in Two Innovative High Schools[…]
A report from the Alliance for Resource Quality and The Education Trust identifies and explores 10 dimensions for providing better, more equitable education. The report argues that utilizing the right combination of resources will significantly impact the learning experiences of students of color, students with disabilities, and other students with high needs. The report notes Read more about The Education Combination[…]
As schools reopened last fall, many education leaders and stakeholders predicted that most online learning would fall away, and teachers and students would begin to recover from an unprecedented event. But new data from the Christensen Institute’s ongoing, nationally-representative surveys of hundreds of teachers and administrators have uncovered fascinating insights into what’s actually happening in Read more about A revealing reality: Spring 2022 survey of teachers and administrators[…]
For decades, researchers and educators alike have been caught in waves of reforms that sought to change the quality of teaching and learning at scale. The press to make instruction more engaging has been amplified by calls to make our educational systems more effective and equitable. While progress has been made in identifying practices and Read more about Partnering to Scale Instructional Improvement: A Framework for Organizing Research-Practice Partnerships[…]
Writing for Governing Magazine, Carl Smith chronicles the nation’s growing school attendance crisis. Excerpts of the piece appear below: For K-12 students, chronic absence, generally defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days, has escalated into a “full-scale crisis” since 2019, says a new report from the nonprofit Attendance Works, with two- and Read more about The Nation Faces School Attendance and Graduation Crises[…]
Recently Matt Barnum reviewed the research on class size for Chalkbeat. Excerpts of the piece appear below: The key takeaways: Students often do better in smaller classes. But there’s no agreement on exactly how much better, and it remains an open question whether or not class size reduction is a particularly good use of funds Read more about Does class size really matter? A Chalkbeat look at the research[…]
Future Ed recently published a piece in which Michael Cohen and Laura Slover review the history of standards-based school reform and propose next steps for the future. The long campaign to raise standards in the nation’s public schools, for decades the cornerstone of efforts to improve the educational opportunities and outcomes of traditionally underserved students, Read more about Unfinished Agenda: The Future of Standards-Based School Reform[…]
A joint report by researchers from the Albert Shanker Institute and Rutgers University Graduate School of Education finds that high-poverty districts and students of color suffer from K-12 funding that is, on average, well below estimated adequate levels, while low-poverty districts and white students enjoy funding that far exceeds adequate levels. The authors also find Read more about The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems, 4th edition[…]
Writing for The 74, Linda Jacobson reviews a new study that explores segregation in U.S. public schools. Excerpts of the piece appear below: In the 2018-19 school year, one in six students attended a school where over 90% of their peers were of the same race, with school districts in New York City and Milwaukee Read more about 68 Years After Brown, Schools Still ‘Highly’ Segregated: 4 Takeaways from Study[…]