In a landmark agreement, leaders of eight Maryland education organizations are joining together to support the implementation of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), a key component of the new teacher and principal evaluation system. This level of collaboration is unprecedented at the statewide level. All of the organizations have agreed to Read more
Anne Hyslop of the New America Foundation has written a compelling piece about the supposed test-and-punish legacy of No Child Left Behind. Nearly 15 years on from that piece of legislation, which many prominent public school advocates such as Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and AFT President Randi Weingarten have Read more
In many ways, the success of educational policies in the United States depends greatly on the success of state education agencies. States—traditionally through state education agencies, or SEAs—monitor districts and schools to ensure that students are safe in school and that their education meets minimum quality standards. But the space Read more
An increasing number of states are mandating that teacher performance be considered in employment decisions, including tenure and layoffs, according to a 50-state policy review of teacher-tenure laws by the Education Commission of the States. Three states — Florida, Kansas, and North Carolina — have attempted to eliminate tenure or Read more
Most personal student information stays local. Districts, states, and the federal government all collect data about students for important purposes like informing instruction and providing information to the public. But the type of data collected, and who can access them, is different at each point. Explore how student data—from schools Read more
On the Top Performers blog of Education Week, Marc Tucker has written a compelling post which challenges American complacency on the new “separate but equal.” Despite Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, various statistics show that American schools are as segregated as they ever were before that monumental court Read more
Andrew Smarick at EdNext keeps up with the buzz over Common Core as much as anyone, and his conclusion is that the Common Core is here to stay. Despite negative press in recent weeks and months with some states opting out of certain testing services, changing the name of the Read more
In 2011, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan provided states with flexibility from certain requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act. The flexibility process requires states to develop and implement new educator-evaluation systems to help Read more
With America’s public schools unlikely to return to past funding levels in the near future, the District Management Council (http://www.dmjournal.org/spending-money-wisely/) released a policy guide this week to help districts thrive, rather than just survive, within the constraints of their new fiscal realities. In the main report, “Spending Money Wisely: Getting Read more
For the past few months, Marc Tucker, of the National Center on Education and the Economy, has written a series of blog posts in which he lays out his plans for comprehensive reforms to bring more accountability to American education. Tucker began back in February with a post entitled, “NCLB, Read more
In recent years, policymakers and reform advocates have viewed State Education Agencies (SEAs) as the lead organizations for implementing sweeping reforms and initiatives in K-12 education—everything from Race to the Top grants and federal waivers to teacher-evaluation systems and online schools. But SEAs were not built, nor do they have Read more
More support for educators and increases in student achievement are among signs of progress at the anniversary of President Obama’s signature education reform, at least according to the U.S. Education Department. In the four years since the Obama Administration announced its first Race to the Top grants, the President’s signature Read more
Lawmakers in the state of Wyoming recently became the first lawmakers in the country to block the education department of its state from implementing the new Next Generation Science Standards. This blog has written multiple pieces about the gradual adoption of NGSS, which 9 states and DC have already adopted. Read more
How are states defining and applying Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) in their teacher evaluation systems? That is the question that a new report from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast and Islands answers. The report provides an overview of how states are using SLOs, based on a review of state education Read more
Just as Common Core has divided liberals—so it is also dividing conservatives. On the liberal side, one camp is for it because of its promise of increasing equity and competency for students across the United States and another camp is against it because they feel it has not been implemented Read more
More than 3 million students in grades three through eight won’t have to take older standardized tests this spring while trying out new exams aligned to the Common Core. Thanks to a long-awaited waiver granted by the Education Department, California doesn’t have to collect and report statewide assessment data in Read more