As schools reopened last fall, many education leaders and stakeholders predicted that most online learning would fall away, and teachers and students would begin to recover from an unprecedented event. But new data from the Christensen Institute’s ongoing, nationally-representative surveys of hundreds of teachers and administrators have uncovered fascinating insights Read more
Learning Heroes’ sixth annual national survey dives deeply into the beliefs and perceptions of parents, teachers, and principals. Some of its findings: Parents want to be as involved or even more involved in their children’s education. Safety should be a top priority in school, followed by academic progress, mental health, Read more
While investing in the teacher workforce is central to improving schools, school resources are notoriously limited, forcing school leaders to make difficult decisions on how to prioritize funds. A new paper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University examines a critical input to resource allocation decisions: teacher preferences. Using an Read more
Over the last few years, social and emotional skills have been rising on the education policy agenda and in the public debate. Policy makers and education practitioners are seeking ways to complement the focus on academic learning, with attention to social and emotional skill development. Social and emotional skills are Read more
Recently in The 74, Nat Damon, a 25-year educator and author of Time to Teach: Time to Reach reflected on how to put the nuance into virtual teaching. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Remote teaching does not feel like teaching. This is not the same as saying remote teaching Read more
Writing for Digital Promise, Babe Liberman and Viki Young, Ph.D., explore a practice-driven, equity-centered approach for setting R&D agendas in education. The project invited teachers to collaborate with researchers, funders, and education leaders to develop these equity-focused agendas. The report presents illustrative examples of R&D agendas based on the driving Read more
Writing for The 74, Brenda Tanner, a former school administrator and superintendent, explores the promise of gathering valuable information from teachers through customized surveys in order to improve retention. Excerpts from her piece appear below: District leaders have little access to the authentic, unvarnished perspectives that determine whether a teacher Read more
Recently in Getting Smart, Michael Niehoff wrote about 10 transformational practices that educators can lead. Excerpts of the piece appear below: If educators allow politicians, researchers and pundits to take charge of the evolution in education, it will be delayed and implemented with less clarity. It’s time for teachers to Read more
A new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality demonstrates that more states are recognizing the importance of leadership roles for teachers, signaling that state policy is beginning to reflect teachers’ voices. Thirty-five states now have formal teacher leadership policies, with a net of eight additional states adopting formal Read more
Nine out of 10 American teachers in grades 7-9 are satisfied with their jobs but have low opinions of how the profession is perceived. That’s according to results from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). When asked whether the Read more
A new study suggests that faculty members’ attitudes about intelligence can have a major impact on the success of students in science, mathematics and technology courses. Students see more achievement when their instructors believe in a “growth mind-set” about intelligence than they do learning from those who believe intelligence is Read more
Thomas Arnett, senior research fellow at the Christensen Institute, recently summarized his new research paper for The 74. Excerpts appear below: Recently, my colleagues and I released a research paper that unveils common misconceptions about change management in schools. Given that many school initiatives falter for lack of teacher buy-in, Read more
Recently in the Hechinger Report, former Education Secretary John B. King, Jr. and Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute wrote an op-ed recommending several actions that can be taken at the school, district, state and college levels to better support teachers of color. Excerpts from the piece appear Read more
A new Bellwether report by Kaitlin Pennington and Alexander Brand analyzes District of Columbia Public Schools’ teacher exit survey data to better understand why high-performing teachers left, where they went, and what they say would have retained them. As school districts across the country report various kinds of teacher shortages, Read more
In order for a school reform effort to succeed, it must be owned by teachers. Those responsible for change must have a voice in creating and directing that change: teachers cannot be viewed as simply the implementers. In Core Education’s April issue brief, we discuss lessons learned from successful implementation Read more
A new Statistics in Brief from NCES highlights changes in teacher autonomy, satisfaction, job security, and commitment between 1999–2000 and 2011–12. The report focuses on patterns between perceived level of autonomy and perceptions of job security, satisfaction, and commitment. It relies on a sample of U.S. public school teachers using Read more