Robin Lake of the Center on Reinventing Public Education has offered six education policy ideas that just may get us through the presidential transition. Excerpts of her piece appear below: Polarization was the theme of 2016, and we’d be kidding ourselves to think that will be much different in 2017. Read more
States create annual aggregate report cards for the public about education statewide. But can people easily find and understand these reports? In many cases, the answer is no. In summer 2016, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) set out to discover what information it could easily find on state report cards Read more
As a new political and policy era dawns in Washington, the status of the nation’s schools remains stable, though still earning a grade of C from Quality Counts 2017, the 21st annual report card issued by the Education Week Research Center. The C corresponds to a score of 74.2, which Read more
Michael Petrilli, President of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, recently suggested that 2017 can be the year we come back together again. Excerpts of his post in Fordham’s Flypaper appear below: Let me suggest three principles we should all try to adhere to—and what they could mean for education reform Read more
The Obama administration’s final accountability rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act give states greater flexibility on school ratings, schools with high testing opt-out rates, and in other areas than an earlier draft version, released in May. But, with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January, the regulations Read more
States are now deeply engaged in developing plans for their federal education spending for the next several years. Now is the time to rethink systems and strategies and to focus funds and efforts on what matters most for learning: great teachers and leaders for every student and school. Written collaboratively Read more
David Griffith and Michael Petrilli have put their minds together to produce an ideal ESSA accountability system as a model for state education agencies. Below are excerpts from their recent blog post: States are now putting pen to paper on their accountability plans and many of them want advice about Read more
The Center on Great Teachers & Leaders has released a new discussion guide, Teacher Effectiveness in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Systemic challenges in the educator workforce require thoughtful and bold actions, and ESSA presents a unique opportunity for states to reaffirm, modify, or improve their vision of educator effectiveness. Read more
The U.S. Department of Education has released its final regulations governing how states hold their teacher preparation programs accountable. New America’s Melissa Tooley takes a closer look at the potential challenges with implementation, which falls squarely on the shoulders of State Education Agencies: As with the recently-enacted Every Student Succeeds Read more
In “Grading Schools: How States Should Define ‘School Quality’ Under the Every Student Succeeds Act,” Bellwether author Chad Aldeman argues that accountability systems are a state’s best tool to signal what it values and how schools should be working to improve. But if states fail to take advantage of that Read more
The College and Career Readiness Center at AIR has released a College and Career Readiness and Success (CCRS) Organizer Scorecard. This tool is a self-assessment that can provide a snapshot of where your district or state is in integrating the multiple elements that impact college and career readiness and success Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences’ Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest has released a new survey tool that will help education leaders assess to what degree schools are engaging in practices associated with high performance. The survey and associated guide were developed in partnership with REL Midwest’s School Turnaround Research Alliance. Read more
A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State, wastes no time in getting to the point. “The bad news,” it says in the very first sentence, “is most state education systems are falling dangerously Read more
No Child Left Behind meant well, but it had a pernicious flaw: It created strong incentives for schools to focus all their energy on helping low-performing students get over a modest “proficiency” bar. Meanwhile, it ignored the educational needs of high achievers, who were likely to pass state reading and Read more
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers new opportunities for states and school districts. In general, ESSA’s new rules do not take effect until July 1, 2017,which gives state education agencies (SEAs) an opportunity to assess whether their current policies and practices related to federal formula grant funds are aligned Read more
With the enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states will now have greater control and increased opportunities when developing plans that are customized and targeted to address the needs of their students. As ESSA includes expanded guidelines and objectives that are new from what many states are familiar Read more