The Common Core State Standards have been accepted by 46 states and the District of Columbia and are scheduled for full implementation in the 2014-15 school year. They are already being piloted in multiple locations, which this blog has written about previously. Teachers have also recently spoken up in several surveys and have described their Read more about Resources to Support Common Core Implementation[…]
As Common Core implementation deadlines approach, new surveys suggest that teachers are open to using Common Core but may not be prepared to do so. Three and a half years after the launch of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, schools nationwide continue working to implement the new standards in English/language arts and mathematics, which Read more about Teachers and Common Core: An Ambivalent Relationship[…]
The Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education recently released a report called Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World. The OET was most interested in “the role of new types of data and analytic capabilities in supporting grit, tenacity, and perseverance.” Here is more of their explanation of their Read more about Promoting Grit, Tenacity and Perseverance[…]
More than one million students are slated to participate in first large-scale trial of online tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Members of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) began administering a Pilot Test of the assessment system in schools across the country. The Pilot Test is the first of two large-scale Read more about Pilot Test for Common Core begins in 6,000 schools[…]
School administrators serve as instructional leaders and set the tone for the culture of a school. The principal’s influence is pivotal. In this month’s issue brief, we explore school leadership and recommendations for improving the preparation, selection and work of educational leaders. What are the qualities that make a great school leader? What essential skills Read more about March Issue Brief: School Leadership[…]
From the press release by the Boston-based Community Training and Assistance Center: As states and school districts increasingly use Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) in high stakes teacher evaluation and compensation systems to measure student academic growth, a new five-year study reports that high quality SLOs do improve teaching and bolster student growth. The national SLO Read more about New Study Corroborates State SLO Plans[…]
We know that principal leadership is crucial to success of schools and students, particularly urban ones, but the Wallace Foundation’s new report, Districts Matter, adds that school districts can cultivate that strong leadership and “ensure they have principals capable of boosting teaching and learning.” The new report “draws on a decade of foundation research and Read more about Cultivating Great Principals: The District Role[…]
In AEI’s Cage-busting Leadership and the Culture of Can’t, Frederick Hess argues that many district and school leaders operate under lore rather than legality. They believe their hands are tied, even when they are not, and implement restrictive policy simply because that is how it has always been done. Hess recommends that district and school Read more about “Cage-busting Leadership”: creative leadership for accelerated reform[…]
Recently, Joshua Starr, the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MD), one of the wealthiest, largest, and high-achieving school districts in the United States, went public with his idea that there be a three-year moratorium on federally mandated standardized testing. He is not fundamentally opposed to all standardized testing, but he does have a problem Read more about The Looming Clash between Common Core and Standardized Testing[…]
A Los Angeles High School is trying to prove that more individual instruction can be provided with larger class sizes. How might they accomplish this? Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology High School hopes that blended learning, a model which for this school includes a third of their class time in traditional teacher-led instruction, a third working Read more about Los Angeles school Pioneers Blended Learning Model[…]
A new report released by Education First suggests that states have made “significant progress” toward Common Core readiness. Education First and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center have released Moving Forward: A National Perspective on States’ Progress in Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning. A sequel to last year’s Preparing for Change report, this Read more about Will States be Ready for Common Core?[…]
Yet another report on school reform has urged reform in the area of school leadership. This report, entitled, “Operating in the Dark: What Outdated State Policies and Data Gaps Mean for Effective School Leadership” and produced by the George W. Bush Institute and the Alliance to Reform Education Leadership. What stands out about “Operating in Read more about “Operating in the Dark”: Principal Preparation Reform[…]
If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs Read more about Reform to support Common Core[…]
In the first of what will be an annual report on leadership, Education Week’s Leaders To Learn From provides fifteen profiles on forward-thinking education leaders. The importance of effective educational leadership goes almost without saying: Some research suggests leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all the school-related factors that contribute to student learning. Read more about Leaders to Learn From[…]
A new partnership between the non-profit group New Leaders and Pearson Education seeks to improve the performance of school leadership through the use of technology-backed professional learning opportunities. New Leaders, the non-profit organization whose mission is to develop school leaders and promote system-wide conditions for student success, is partnering with the education services and technology Read more about Preparing School Leaders for Next Generation Learning[…]
Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly urge a more “measured approach to education reform” from the federal level in their report, What Uncle Sam Can (and cannot) do to Improve K-12 Schooling: Lessons for the next Four Years. The introduction to the report offers a mixed review of the last four years of federal Read more about AEI Education offers check-up on Education Department[…]