Teach for America is no stranger to controversy. For some, they are the poster child for the new wave of urban education and should be commended for the way that they are able to recruit highly talented, motivated college graduates to devote at least 2 years to teaching in nigh-needs schools. For others, TFA is Read more about TFA Teachers Shown to Boost Secondary Math Learning[…]
The New York Times recently published an education article that asks, “Do teachers need to have experience?” They asked this question of five different educators who each inhabit different realms of the education field, and as might be expected, they received five unique answers to their question. We have picked out some relevant snippets from Read more about Do Teachers Need to Have Experience?[…]
New York City, especially under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has often tried to be a model of a progressive city, willing to take on business lobbies or entrenched bureaucracies in an effort to improve. For example, recently, New York started using data to rate restaurants, track the repair of potholes and close lackluster schools in New Read more about New York City Issuing Scorecards on Teacher Colleges[…]
As teachers and students are heading back to school, Jenny DeMonte at the Center for American Progress has penned a timely piece about teacher professional development. DeMonte argues that there is a general consensus that most current systems of educator professional development (PD) are not effective, and calls for reforms that align PD with teacher Read more about High-Quality Professional Development for Teachers[…]
Is there a policy disconnect surrounding teacher evaluation? In a commentary published in Education Week, Stephen Fink, executive director of the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership, argues that how we use the new evaluation tools will determine whether we simply create the aura of accountability or actually help our teachers grow and improve Read more about Keeping Continuous Growth at Teacher Evaluation’s Core[…]
Improving systems for supporting and evaluating teachers is an urgent priority in states and districts all across the country. To learn from this work and strengthen efforts moving forward, the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program has published several profiles of leading efforts in the field. Recently, the Aspen Institute released the next installment: a Read more about Beyond Buy-In: Options for Combining Teacher Support with Teacher Effectiveness[…]
This tipsheet is a complement to TNTP’s latest report, Leap Year: Assessing and Supporting Effective First-Year Teachers, which shares what TNTP learned after radically evolving the way they train and evaluate new teachers. It is based on a simple idea: The first year is the most important year of a teacher’s career—a critical window of Read more about 5 Tips for Principals to Put New Teachers on the Right Path[…]
StoryCorps’ National Teachers Initiative celebrates the work of public school teachers across the country. By recording and sharing these stories, StoryCorps calls public attention to the invaluable contribution teachers have made to this nation. This 18-month initiative honors those who have embraced the profession as their calling, encouraged teaching as a career choice, and helped Read more about Great Stories from Great Teachers[…]
WestEd believes that the Common Core State Standards offer educators a unique opportunity to use formative assessment to help raise student achievement. They hope to help make this happen with the release of three new papers about formative assessment. WestEd, an agency that works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and Read more about WestEd Releases Influential Papers on Formative Assessment[…]
Even though it has been known for some time that teachers and principals play the largest role in student success, it is only recently that districts and schools have started making requisite changes to their strategic management of talent. This is the central contention of Allan Odden’s new report, Getting the Best People into the Read more about Getting the Best Teachers into the Toughest Jobs[…]
TNTP, a national nonprofit committed to ending the injustice of educational inequality, has released a new report that seeks to help first year teachers become better teachers. TNTP was created by teachers in 1997, so the TNTP team has a vested interested in creating cohorts of new teachers who have the critical dispositions that they Read more about TNTP says Teachers’ First Year is Crucial[…]
Data from states that have recently begun using teacher evaluations aligned with student performance suggest that the numbers can be deceiving. Very high percentages of teachers are receiving “effective” or higher scores on their teacher evaluations—above 97% in Florida, Michigan, and Tennessee. Depending on whom you talk to, this can mean a number of different Read more about Evaluating the new Teacher Evaluation Systems[…]
Two new reports from the New Teacher Center and the Aspen Institute both highlight the importance of rigorous training for new teachers. By looking at the work currently being done by certain model school districts, both reports highlight models through which novice teachers become master teachers. Interestingly, both reports also assert the importance of incorporating Read more about Teacher leadership crucial to teacher development[…]
In response to the release of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project final results , which this blog posted about here, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) has released a review of the long-awaited study on teacher evaluation that strongly questions the spin that has been put on the findings. The MET project, funded Read more about “Un-MET’ Goals”: Questions about Gates Foundation’s MET Study[…]
The Measures of Effective Teaching Project, the collective work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Harvard University’s Center For Education Policy Research, has recently released a detailed report on three years of research on 3,000 teachers in seven school districts that conclusively finds that “the quality of teachers directly affects test score results Read more about Three-year Study offers Conclusive Findings on the Crucial Role of Teachers[…]
Memphis City Schools has partnered with Teachscape to install a city-wide system of video capture systems that will allow for improved teacher professional growth. The city expects to use the system for teacher development, support, as well as evaluation. Each school will have at least one device as part of the district’s long term goal Read more about Video Teacher Evaluations: Memphis Schools say Yes[…]