Coaching Roles That Achieve Their Potential to Improve Teaching and Learning

Despite decades of efforts to support teachers with coaching, most teachers still do not get the support they need in their own classrooms. Yet many teachers, including experienced ones, need support to continue to evolve professionally, hone their practice, and use new tools. Based on experience, the research base on coaching, and a forward-looking analysis, Read more about Coaching Roles That Achieve Their Potential to Improve Teaching and Learning[…]

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Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning

The Carnegie Foundation has collaborated with colleagues in the University of Michigan’s School of Education and Ross School of Business to develop a massive open online course that moves aspiring and practicing educational leaders to improve learning outcomes for all students. In this course, Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning, the aim is to develop leaders’ Read more about Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning[…]

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Rubric for Evaluating Reading/Language Arts Instructional Materials for Grades K-5

Selecting instructional materials based on rigorous research and standards is an important and time-consuming job at the state, district, and school levels. To facilitate this process, Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast has developed a rubric for evaluating reading/language arts instructional and intervention materials for use in elementary grades (K-5). The rubric is organized by content area Read more about Rubric for Evaluating Reading/Language Arts Instructional Materials for Grades K-5[…]

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What does ESSA say about teacher evaluation?

When the U.S. Department of Education granted states waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), those waivers came with conditions. The waivers required states to adopt teacher evaluations that, among other requirements, were based in part on student performance data. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) ends these federal requirements for teacher evaluations. Read more about What does ESSA say about teacher evaluation?[…]

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Developing Resilient, Equity-Conscious Teachers

In Education Week Teacher, Elena Aguilar writes an insightful piece about the promise of transformational coaching. Excerpts appear below: I believe new-teacher support programs must be linked to schools’ moral imperative to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of every child, every day. To that end, the overarching objective of a teacher-support program should Read more about Developing Resilient, Equity-Conscious Teachers[…]

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The Art of Teaching

Karin Klein writes in the Los Angeles Times about a new initiative funded by the Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching that seeks to improve teaching and learning through intensive mentoring by master teachers. She writes: Creating better teachers is more complicated — and more expensive — than claiming we can drastically improve education Read more about The Art of Teaching[…]

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CTQ Releases Consensus Papers

The Coalition for Teaching Quality, a group of more than 100 national, state and local teacher, principal, civil rights, disability, rural, youth, higher education, and related education advocacy organizations has released three consensus policy papers to help inform state and district implementation of ESSA.     Building a Strong and Diverse Teacher and Principal Recruitment Read more about CTQ Releases Consensus Papers[…]

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Practice Based Preparation in Teacher Education

Teacher candidates are more likely to be effective and to stay in the profession when their preparation experiences are connected to classroom practice (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2009; Ronfeldt, 2012). Therefore, there has been considerable pressure and effort to strengthen candidate clinical experiences so that they happen early and often within candidates’ preparation. A Read more about Practice Based Preparation in Teacher Education[…]

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Elementary Teacher Preparation in Top-Performing Countries

Sarah Sparks, writing for Education Week, explores the differences in teacher preparation for American elementary school teachers compared with teachers in four high-performing countries. Excerpts from her article appear below: U.S. elementary-grade teachers get far less training than teachers in high-achieving countries for deep understanding of the foundational math, reading, and science content they teach. Read more about Elementary Teacher Preparation in Top-Performing Countries[…]

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July Issue Brief: Professional Development

Recent research reveals that although districts spend large amounts of money on professional development, PD has a poor reputation for actually improving instructional practice, and teachers claim that current approaches are not meeting their needs. In this month’s issue brief, we focus on the problems with professional development, look to other countries and other industries Read more about July Issue Brief: Professional Development[…]

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Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness?

Tara Kini and Anne Podolsky of the Learning Policy Institute, ask, “Do teachers plateau early in their career or do they continue to grow and improve as they gain experience?” Through a review of research, these authors reexamine this critical question using advanced research methods. Based on a review of 30 studies published within the Read more about Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness?[…]

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No Panacea: Key Obstacles to Effective Teacher Professional Development

Historically, states and districts have invested large sums on teacher professional development or “PD” as the primary strategy to help teachers improve their practice. Despite its potential, in its present state, PD has gained a poor reputation among educators and those who study education, in part because little evidence exists that the significant investment of Read more about No Panacea: Key Obstacles to Effective Teacher Professional Development[…]

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Through a Student’s Eyes

      Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found. Her report  appeared on the blog of Grant Wiggins, the co-author of  Understanding by Design and the author of Educative Assessment. Alexis Wiggins’ article is excerpted Read more about Through a Student’s Eyes[…]

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Collaborative Inquiry in MNPS

Each month in Core Education’s issue brief, we post a call for commentary. We always enjoy hearing great ideas from our readers! Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Margie Johnson of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) about an innovative approach to collaborative inquiry that the district is implementing. Through a partnership with REL Read more about Collaborative Inquiry in MNPS[…]

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What Are Micro-Credentials?

Nowadays, most employers expect their workers to continually seek out learning opportunities. Micro-credentials offer students and working professionals alike a way to bulk up their resumes with field-specific skills. Micro-credentials are like certifications. Students or professionals take courses and develop specific skills in certain fields. This could include topics like: Teaching writing in K-12 classrooms Read more about What Are Micro-Credentials?[…]

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Beyond Teacher Quality

  The Shanker Institute recently published commentary on the Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems report from the Learning First Alliance and the International Center for Benchmarking in Education at the National Center for Education and the Economy. This blog covered that report here (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/more-teaching-less-learning/) and here (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/professional-development-transformed/). As a review, the paper Read more about Beyond Teacher Quality[…]

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