The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is the leading U.S. organization studying high-performing education systems and their implications for dramatically improving American education. In The Design of High-Performing Education Systems, NCEE has distilled the accumulated insights of 35 years of research from the world’s leading systems. The document organizes what they have Read more about A Framework for Policy and Practice[…]
Writing for the Fordham Institute, Chester E. Finn, Jr. presents an explanation of what is needed to fundamentally change schooling in America. Excerpts from the piece appear below: What distinguishes problems we tackle in a serious way from those we mostly just wring our hands and protest over? What distinguishes those we merely tackle from Read more about How Fundamental Change Happens in America[…]
Writing for The 74, Charlotte West reports on the growing popularity of college classes for high school students. With K-12 schools shuttered, COVID is fueling a dual-enrollment boom. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Amber Bennett was 11 when she took her first class at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. As a seventh-grader, she Read more about College Classes for HS Students Growing in Popularity[…]
Education Strategy Group (ESG) and the Level Up Coalition have released a new report, From Tails To Heads: Building Momentum for Postsecondary Success, estimating that there are roughly 7,000 high schools across the United States in which students of color or from low-income families have less than a 50 percent chance of transitioning directly to Read more about New Report Identifies Critical Predictive Metrics for Preventing a “Lost COVID Cohort”[…]
Writing for AEI, Michael Poliakoff makes a case for a three-year Bachelor’s degree. Excerpts from the piece appear below: College students, regardless of their majors or professional programs, need a rigorous liberal arts core curriculum. That curriculum must efficiently develop college-level skills and knowledge in the arts and sciences disciplines that are necessary for success Read more about A Three-year Bachelor’s Degree[…]
Almost all top-performing education systems transitioned to distance learning this past spring so students could continue learning during coronavirus-related school closures. In a new paper, NCEE summarizes initial takeaways from their experiences. They found that top-performing jurisdictions: -Were initially better positioned than the U.S. to quickly implement distance learning; -Increased capacity in this area since Read more about How Did The World’s Highest Performing Education Systems Approach Distance Learning?[…]
Writing for Future Ed, David Rosenberg, a partner at Education Resource Strategies, offers a commentary on how school districts can change the way they administer online learning to improve schools. Through ERS’ work with district leaders to develop COVID Comeback School Models, the organization has identified three key decisions district leaders must make about remote Read more about Key Decisions for More Effective Distance Learning in the Fall[…]
A new youth engagement guide, published by America’s Promise, contains actionable strategies that educators, program providers, coaches, mentors, and other youth-supporting adults can use to authentically listen to and engage with young people about how they experience social, emotional, and cognitive development. The guide features 10 steps for meaningful and mutually beneficial engagement, as follows: Read more about Youth Engagement Guide[…]
A new guidebook from KnowledgeWorks serves as an introduction to the theories, language, mindsets and tools of systems thinking to promote educational change. Systems thinking can be a powerful element of systems transformation, no matter whether we decided to pursue change or it was thrust upon us. Systems thinking is a set of theories, tools, Read more about Looking beneath the surface: The Education Changemaker’s Guidebook to Systems Thinking[…]
Over the past several years, a growing consensus has emerged that learning is a social, emotional, and cognitive process-but how do young people perceive and experience this type of integrated learning in action? All of Who I Am, a new report from The Center for Promise at America’s Promise Alliance, features insights from a qualitative Read more about All of Who I Am[…]
New research by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) finds 11 key skills gaps among college graduates. These skills include the following: Understand Role in the Workplace and Have Realistic Career Expectations Recognize and Deal Constructively with Conflict Accept and Apply Critique and Direction in the Workplace Listen Effectively Communicate Accurately and Concisely Read more about New Study Suggests that College Graduates Have 11 Key Skills Gaps[…]
When evaluating education programs to measure their impact on students, particularly underserved students, it’s important to use a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens. A new brief from Bellwether Education, titled “Approaches for Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Evaluation,” summarizes concrete strategies and examples to engage stakeholders, ensure quality data, and communicate across differences. Schools and Read more about Approaches for Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Evaluation[…]
Building trust is a major theme of Stand for Children’s free, new guidebook, Preventing a Lost School Year, which was created to help district leaders plan for academic and social-emotional learning in the coming school year. The 2019-2020 school year was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, without the right preparation and intervention, the Read more about Preventing a Lost School Year[…]
Writing for EdSurge, Chelsea Waite recently explored an approach to remote learning that has resulted in extremely high levels of student engagement at a time when some schools and districts are seeing half or less of their students participating in online instruction. Excerpts of the piece appear below: What’s behind this rare level of engagement Read more about How Student Agency Can Ease the Pain of Remote Learning and Teaching[…]
Writing for The 74, Adam Pisoni explores ways that scheduling for the return after COVID can make schooling more equitable. Excerpts from the piece appear below: As educators across the country struggle to wrap up the current COVID-ravaged school year, administrators and schedulers are hard at work determining what the 2020-21 school day will look Read more about Changing How Schools Draw Up Their Schedules Can Make Classes More Equitable Next Fall[…]
Writing for redefinED, Ashley Berner recently released a four-part series on the power of high-quality curriculum. Excerpts from the first article are below, and links to all four posts appear at the bottom of the page: It is a truth universally acknowledged that high-performing school systems around the world require students to master serious academic Read more about Why Curriculum Matters[…]