The U.S. Education Department has recently rolled out another phase in its quest to ensure that lower income students have similarly excellent teachers as their higher income peers. What is the research behind the push for equitable distribution of teacher effectiveness? What are the issues and complexities of this work? In this month’s issue brief, Read more about October Issue Brief: Access to Effective Teachers[…]
After months of pressure from civil rights groups, the Education Department has taken another bold step to deal with the challenge of teacher inequity in the United States. Following up on the 50 State Strategy for Equity that the Education Department rolled out back in the spring (https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/50-state-strategy-for-equitable-distribution-of-teachers/), the Education Department last month rolled out Read more about ED: Excellent Educators for All[…]
On the Top Performers blog of Education Week, Marc Tucker has written a compelling post which challenges American complacency on the new “separate but equal.” Despite Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, various statistics show that American schools are as segregated as they ever were before that monumental court decision. And of course, this Read more about Marc Tucker on “Separate But Equal” in American schools today[…]
The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2014. The 42 indicators presented in The Condition of Education 2014 provide a progress report on education in America and include findings on the demographics of American schools, U.S. resources for schooling, and outcomes associated with education. Report findings include: • As Read more about NCES Releases “The Condition of Education 2014”[…]
Jenny DeMonte and Robert Hanna at the Center for American Progress have written a timely paper on recent efforts to distribute the best teachers more evenly to those students who need it the most. This research has become possible due to new teacher evaluation processes that make it easier to compare the effectiveness of teachers Read more about Looking at the Best Teachers and Who They Teach[…]
If you spend time in almost any major school district in America today, you will notice that the students often do not look much like the teachers. In fact, in some areas, the students don’t look anything like their teachers. There is a significant demographic gap in the largely white teaching profession and an increasingly Read more about America’s Leaky Pipeline for Teachers of Color[…]
A coalition of education organizations has set a goal of 90% graduation by 2020, and the government recently released a report suggesting that the U.S. may in fact get there. The Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm, just released data showing that the four year graduation rate for the 2011-2012 Read more about New IES data show graduation rate improvement[…]
One area in which the federal Education Department has taken a recent interest is the plight of those students who, fresh from a for-profit higher education program, struggle to find well-paying jobs while drowning in high levels of student debt. Research shows that these students tend to be poorer, more female and often are single Read more about Fact Checker: For-Profit Higher Education[…]
The U.S. Department of Education is developing a 50-state strategy that may finally put some teeth into a key part of the No Child Left Behind Act that has been largely ignored for the past 12 years: the inequitable distribution of the nation’s best teachers. Managing to bring more equity to the distribution of teachers Read more about 50-State Strategy for Equitable Distribution of Teachers[…]
“I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing especially tough odds to stay on track and reach their full potential.” President Barack Obama, January 28, 2014 President Obama is taking action to launch My Brother’s Keeper – a new initiative Read more about President Obama Launches My Brother’s Keeper Initiative[…]
Newly emerging research is beginning to shed light on the extent to which disadvantaged students have access to effective teaching, based on value added measures. “Value added” is a teacher’s contribution to students’ learning gains. Because individual researchers have varied in their presentation of this evidence, it is challenging for practitioners to draw lessons from Read more about A Summary of Recent IES Research on Access to Effective Teaching[…]
How well educators manage to adjust the Common Core to the needs of each student could prove pivotal academically, but also politically, as the standards themselves face skepticism in the states. This special report looks at the challenges educators face in adapting the standards for students with disabilities, English-learners, and gifted students. The special report Read more about Special Report on Diverse Learners and the Common Core[…]
Education Nation, which we blogged about last year, is, according to John Merrow, the “Super Bowl” of education events. Most all of the big names in Education Policy either presented there or were at least present. Moreover, many of these figures, such as Education Secretary Arne Duncan or former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, were interviewed Read more about Education Nation IV[…]
Linda Darling-Hammond, John Jackson, and Marc Tucker are calling for renewed attention to assessment in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act, of which the most recent iteration is No Child Left Behind. They write: The next version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) should require the use of tests that Read more about Testing and ESEA Reauthorization: The Moment of Truth[…]
Public schools are supposed to be funded by public tax dollars, right? It turns out that many wealthy school districts or town-run schools within larger districts, especially in California, regularly garner significant funds from private donations. For example, in Hillsborough, CA, public funds spread to a total of $13,500 in spending per student, but private Read more about Private Funds and Public Schools in California[…]
About four million U.S. children started kindergarten this fall. We know that learning begins long before children start school. What else do we know about these youngsters? Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center on issues pertaining to children and youth, examined a range of available statistics to provide a portrait of the kindergarten class Read more about Ready or Not, Here Comes the Kindergarten Class of 2013[…]