During the current COVID-19 global health crisis and shift to distance learning, students are being asked to do more independent work—reading, writing, and problem solving—outside of their time in class. School and district leaders in the West have expressed a need for teachers to have access to user-friendly, research-based guidance on effective ways to design Read more about REL West Resources on Independent Learning[…]
Launched by a diverse community of education experts and scholars from around the country, the National Student Support Accelerator is building a comprehensive set of tools and resources for tutoring organizations, schools, and districts that will make it possible to implement high-impact tutoring at scale. Research shows that high-impact tutoring — tutoring delivered three or Read more about National Student Support Accelerator Offers Website, Toolkit for High-Impact Tutoring[…]
Postsecondary education is vital to thrive, not just survive. Eighty percent of good-paying jobs require postsecondary education, and 56 percent require a bachelor’s degree or higher. While the nation’s high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 85 percent, students are insufficiently prepared for postsecondary education and the workforce. About 70 percent of Read more about Ready for What? How Multiple Graduation Pathways Do – and Do Not – Signal Readiness for College and Career[…]
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the education field in multiple ways. Policymakers, superintendents, school leaders, and teachers have had to adopt new models, processes, policies, protocols, and strategies in order to conduct the business of teaching and learning over the last year. As the nation (eventually) emerges from this pandemic, which changes are likely to Read more about Issue Brief: Pandemic Trends that may Stick Around[…]
J-PAL North America, a research center focused on reducing poverty, recently released a meta-analysis of close to 100 studies of tutoring in literacy and mathematics and found that tutoring programs consistently produced large improvements in learning outcomes for students — with effects that eclipse those of most other educational programs. More importantly, this study synthesizes Read more about Six Principles for Doing Tutoring Right[…]
Writing for The 74, Kevin Mahnken recently reviewed a new roadmap for American history and civics education titled “Education for American Democracy.” Excerpts of the piece appear below: Through a collaboration funded by grants from the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a group of civics and educational institutions spent the Read more about Scholars Release New Framework for History and Civics in Schools[…]
A new study focusing on Missouri and Tennessee shows that principals of color are more likely to hire and retain teachers of color. After five years, having a Black principal leads to a 5 percentage point increase in a school’s share of Black teachers. Findings not only demonstrate that principal diversity matters for increasing the Read more about Principal Diversity Affects Teacher Diversity[…]
The COVID-19 pandemic has added more stress to an already high-stress profession: American public school teacher. The authors of a new report by RAND share the results of a survey of nearly 1,000 former public school teachers and reveal how important stress has been—even more so than pay—to teachers’ decisions to leave the profession. In Read more about Stress Tops the Reasons Why Public School Teachers Quit[…]
For many state education leaders looking to recoup learning losses caused by interruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a competency-based approach is attractive. It provides the flexibility and autonomy for students to earn credits and satisfy diploma requirements by demonstrating mastery of competencies, rather than fulfilling seat time requirements. However, a competency-based approach requires fundamental changes Read more about Policy Solutions that Foster Competency-Based Learning[…]
Below are three proposals for scaling tutoring nationwide to combat the learning loss experience during COVID-19: 1. A new EdWorking Paper by Matthew Kraft and Grace Falken, “A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools” explores how tutoring could be scaled nationally to address COVID-19 learning loss and become a permanent feature of the U.S. Read more about Scaling Tutoring Nationwide – 3 Proposals[…]
Writing for Edutopia, Sarah Gonser explores how school leaders can help create the conditions for educator health and well-being. Excerpts of the piece appear below: The stress of this disrupted school year is impacting all educators. Instead of “make space to restore your balance” or “find time to exercise more,” schools need to acknowledge their Read more about Schools, Not Teachers, Must Reduce Stress and Burnout—Here’s How[…]
Recently in the New York Times, Erica Green reviewed an education program that has underprivileged students thriving in Ivy League classes, and the students’ success has raised questions about how elite university gatekeepers determine college prospects. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Through an initiative started by a New York-based nonprofit, the National Education Equity Read more about A College Program for Disadvantaged Teens Could Shake Up Elite Admissions[…]
Dan Goldhaber, Malcolm Wolff, and Timothy Daly recently published a CALDER working paper titled, “Assessing the Accuracy of Elementary School Test Scores as Predictors of Students’ High School Outcomes.” They employ datasets from Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Washington to track sixteen cohorts of students from third grade through high school, enabling them to investigate how Read more about Predicting Students’ Academic Trajectory from Third Grade Test Scores[…]
Amid the profound disruption of the pandemic, some schools and districts have responded with highly innovative staffing and scheduling strategies that could be valuable post-pandemic models. A new report from FutureEd and EducationCounsel,Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic, explores these innovations, the conditions that enabled them, how educators have overcome barriers Read more about Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic[…]
COVID-19 has presented new challenges for schools and families to grapple with when it comes to student learning — but the pandemic also has illuminated shortcomings and missed opportunities that have long been present in our education system. A new series of briefs from Bellwether offers guidance on how the education sector can recenter and Read more about From Pandemic to Progress: Eight Education Pathways for COVID-19 Recovery[…]
School districts in the United States have approached reopening public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic in notably different ways. The authors of a new report, titled “Remote Learning Is Here to Stay: Results from the First American School District Panel Survey” by RAND developed a national picture of school districts’ needs and approaches to school Read more about Remote Learning is Here to Stay[…]