The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is offering and funding tuition-free programs for school and college educators. These programs are for one to five weeks and focus on important topics, texts, and questions in the humanities. In addition, they can be used to: enhance intellectual vitality and professional development Read more
How do you solve big problems in education in a way that honors the knowledge and expertise of educators in a methodologically rigorous way? How can what’s working in individual classrooms and schools be used to address problems on a larger scale? Educator Networks, or Networked Improvement Communities, are groups Read more
In 2016-17, the Opportunity Culture initiative included more than 110 schools, 1250 teachers, and 34,000 students in 17 sites across 7 states. According to the Public Impact website, Opportunity Culture schools are defined by the following characteristics: Teachers lead the way. Each Opportunity Culture school creates a team of teachers Read more
On September 11, 2015, the Entertainment Industry Foundation launched Think It Up in a star-studded television special that aired on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Think It Up is an initiative of the Entertainment Industry Foundation created to bring broad cultural attention to the urgency of improving the learning experience Read more
Joe Ashby was a a multi-classroom leader (MCL) at Buena Vista Enhanced Option Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee before finishing his doctorate and moving on to be a principal in California. He recently wrote an article about that experience for Real Clear Education, and he focused on the flexibility and Read more
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has offered a national certification for interested teachers since the late 1980s. There are currently 110,000 National Board certified teachers across the U.S. This blog wrote about changes the NBPTS made to its certification process to incentivize more teachers to become board-certified. Read more
Over the past 15 years, Teach for America has grown to a scale, and at a pace, that is virtually unprecedented in education and the domestic nonprofit sector more generally. From 2000 to 2014, the number of Teach for America corps members rose nearly tenfold, the number of alumni increased Read more
In the final installment of Marc Tucker’s blog series on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, Gene Wilhoit, the former Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, discusses the need to transform how we recruit, train, and develop our teachers and the consequences of failing Read more
For implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to be successful, all educators need access to high quality and aligned instructional materials. Achieve launched the Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) initiative to build the capacity of educators to evaluate and improve the quality of instructional materials Read more
The Education Department announced a new opportunity to advance teacher leadership. But, for it to succeed, The Department needs your voice to be a part of it. Commit to Lead is a public, online community that directly engages teachers and other educators in defining what teacher leadership can and should Read more
Research suggests that teachers’ social capital – their relationships, networks and collaboration – may be just as important as their human capital, or individual ability. Generally, education policy focuses either on in classroom factors or out of school factors. The thinking goes that in order for students to improve, they Read more
Education reformers are working diligently to design new teacher compensation systems and career pathways that reward high-quality teaching, equitably distribute effective teachers, and offer opportunities for advancement without leaving the classroom. In this month’s issue brief, we explore various resources, research reports, and ideas related to teacher compensation to provide Read more
NASDTEC has undertaken an important new initiative, the development of a model code of ethics for educators. The focus of this work is to provide a uniform set of standards that educators can use as they interact with colleagues, parents, and students. The goal is to provide a model code Read more
Secretary Duncan announced that, over the next year, he and NBPTS President Ron Thorpe will co-convene a new initiative, Teach to Lead, to foster ambitious commitments on authentic opportunities for teachers to take up leadership roles without leaving the classroom. The goal is to ensure that when important decisions are Read more
LearnZillion.com offers a free and growing set of Math and English Language resources for grades 2-12 that have been developed by expert teachers (a.k.a, the “Dream Team”). The Premium product is a participatory curriculum used by schools, districts and states to build teacher leaders and accelerate the successful implementation of Read more
The National Education Association (NEA), Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) are launching a groundbreaking initiative to advance teaching as a 21st-century profession. The Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI) will support accomplished teachers in leading effective pedagogical, policy, and union reforms. In the 2014 Read more