Eric Hanushek recently wrote an issue brief for AEI detailing the connection between quality education and a state’s economic future. Key points of the brief include the following: A key element of any successful economy, whether a nation or a state, is the quality of its workforce. The economic gains Read more
Kevin Mahnken, writing for The 74, recently reviewed a new working paper by the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Resear (CALDER). The study, conducted by CALDER director and University of Washington professor Dan Goldhaber, synthesizes two separate research topics: the influence of teacher quality on student achievement, Read more
A new study finds that teacher candidates who passed the edTPA teacher performance assessment for certification and licensure on their first try tended to boost their students’ reading test scores more in their first year of teaching than those who didn’t. While that finding is good news for supporters of Read more
Recently in The Atlantic, Paul Tough expounded on what we know about teaching kids resilience. This work argues the importance of the noncognitive for student life outcomes, reviews the little we know about how to improve student academic perseverance and mindset, and raises questions about our nation’s current measures of Read more
A recent report from Thomas Toch at Georgetown University analyzes the national teacher-evaluation reform movement and finds that it has been far more beneficial than its many critics would suggest. In a growing number of states and school districts, new, more meaningful evaluation systems have focused principals’ attention on instruction, Read more
The goal of every teacher evaluation system should be strengthening teacher practice to improve student learning. As states assume more autonomy under the Every Student Succeeds Act, they have a significant opportunity to make progress toward this essential goal by taking stock of their evaluation and support systems and refining Read more
2014-2015 was the first year in which states rolled out Common Core aligned, value-added tests. These tests promised to be better at evaluating the real progress (or lack of progress) that students are making than previous tests because they would be computerized and therefore able to include more interactive types Read more
Eduardo Porter of the New York Times has an ongoing economic column that at times addresses education. An issue that he took up not long ago concerns the increasingly common phenomenon of value added testing. In particular, Porter wants to highlight the potential role of “Goodhart’s Law” related to education Read more
Edgar Sanchez and Yan Zhou, writing for the ACT policy brief, have examined the effects of two different models on estimates of teacher effectiveness. When using value-added models to estimate teacher effectiveness, one key consideration is whether or not to include school effects such as available resources into the model. Read more
A new article by Jason Tanz for Wired Magazine makes the argument that big data already reigns supreme, and for the most part helps us, in our lives, so why shouldn’t it do the same in education? Tanz understands that there are legitimate concerns from parents and education leaders about Read more
A new study shows that, despite the increased use of value-added data and other forms of teacher evaluation such as student or teacher surveys, first-hand principal observation of teachers remains the most trusted and used means by which decisions are made about teacher improvement. In other words, data are available, Read more
What do we know about using alternative student growth measures to evaluate teacher performance? The following three updates from The Institute of Education Sciences provide research-based answers to that question. States increasingly are interested in incorporating measures of student achievement growth in teacher evaluations. But the typical measure of student Read more
Since 2010, at least 36 states have adopted laws requiring principals to undergo regular assessments and increasing the rigor of those reviews, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This change is in large part due to demands set on school systems by No Child Left Behind and the Read more
Thomas Kane, of the Harvard School of Education and writing for the Brookings Institution, has recently penned an important article describing an aggressive plan for helping American students catch up with their international peers over the next 10 years. Kane produces calculations that reveal that incremental reforms are unlikely to Read more
The Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has been working with representatives of teachers unions and other contributing parties to finalize new accreditation standards for teacher preparation, and these include a focus on student-achievement growth. While CAEP’s new standards still have to be approved by the accreditor’s board later Read more
In the ongoing dispute concerning teacher evaluation, most of the furor has concerned value-added teacher evaluations—those based on student test scores. The many problems with these, such as teachers being evaluated based on entire schools’ test scores or on test scores of students they have never taught, have been identified. Read more