Digital Learning Now! (DLN), in partnership with Getting Smart and the Foundation for Excellence in Education recently released “The Shift from Cohorts to Competency.” This report takes a comprehensive look at the overall shift to competency education and the role of technology to help schools meet the college- and career-readiness goals established by the Common Read more about The Shift from Cohorts to Competency[…]
The Alliance for Excellent Education suggests that New Hampshire’s shift from “seat time” measures of student proficiency to “competency-based learning” measures is one that other states would do well to follow. As this blog wrote about previously, the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, has long been the measure by which students were judged before they Read more about How should student content mastery be judged?[…]
The Wallace Foundation finds after ten years of research that the leadership principals provide to schools is the second most important factor directly impacting student performance, after only teacher performance. According to a new report prepared by the Wallace Foundation, “a national philanthropy that seeks to improve education and enrichment for disadvantaged children”, the reason that Read more about The Effect of Effective Principals[…]
In a recent AEI Teacher Quality 2.0 report, Timothy Knowles argues persuasively for radical changes with a practical mindset. His article is called “New pathways for teachers, new promises for students: A vision for developing excellent teachers.” Knowles, John Dewey Director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute, writing as part of the American Read more about New Pathways for Teachers, New Promises for Students[…]
The Center for Education Reform has just issued its annual Charter School Law Report Card, and most states do not make the grade. The majority of states, according to the report, are only making “satisfactory” progress, and only 13 states have “strong” charter school laws. Among the nation’s 43 states with charter school laws, only Read more about Charters still face Upward Climb[…]
The National Center for Education Statistics, in conjunction with the Institute of Education Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education, has recently released the Forum Guide to Taking Action with Education Data. The goal of the new Forum Guide is to give educators practical ideas about how they can process data and implement concrete changes Read more about Education Department releases Forum Guide on education data[…]
Between now and January 29, 2013 the team behind the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is soliciting feedback on their ongoing project of creating new K–12 science standards. The first draft of these new science standards was released in May of 2012. Tens of thousands of responses came in, and the NGSS writing team, working Read more about NSTA seeks Feedback for Next Generation Science Standards[…]
In addition to ranking states’ educational quality in an annual education report card, Education Week made Code of Conduct their theme for Quality Counts 2013. The report focuses on “the impact of a school’s social and disciplinary environment on students’ ability to learn and on the teachers and administrators tasked with guiding them.” After last year’s Read more about Education Week releases annual Quality Counts Report: MD 1st for 5th year in a row[…]
Principals preparing for Common Core implementation have a new set of action briefs at their disposal. Achieve, in partnership with College Summit, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), has released a series of action briefs on the role of school counselors, secondary school leaders, Read more about Preparing for Common Core with new Action Briefs[…]
The organization created by former DC public schools chair Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, has recently released results from their State Policy Report Card. The results, to put it mildly, are poor and are an effort by StudentsFirst to motivate reforms at the state level that StudentsFirst argues that states have been unwilling to make. According the Read more about StudentsFirst gives 48 states C’s or below for Education Policy[…]
In April of 2012, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo convened the New NY Education Reform Commission. Their task was to develop “an actionable course of reforms – based on proven models of success from within New York as well as other states and nations – that will provide the level of educational excellence that Read more about New York State Education Commission Proposes Significant Changes[…]
Since 1906, the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour/student hour, has been the standard unit by which student progress and mastery in American secondary schools and colleges have been measured. The Carnegie Unit was originally created in 1906 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a means by which professors could argue for Read more about Re-thinking the credit hour?[…]
Too often do we in the field of education policy end up discussing only the negatives: red tape, too little funding, changed programs, poor communication, lack of support, etc. In recent years, principals and teachers have often borne the brunt of the criticism, although research into successful schools consistently shows that good principals and teachers Read more about 9 Model Ohio schools: Principals and Teachers are crucial to success[…]
In the much-debated world of education policy, particularly over the last few years, teachers have taken much of the flak regarding the lack of student achievement and failing schools. Washington DC public schools (DCPS) stands as a lightning rod for these debates. As we wrote about recently (https://coreeducationllc.com/blog2/is-dcps-a-model-urban-school-district/), some see DCPS as a model for Read more about Trusting Teachers with School Success[…]
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has recently released a new report, Keeping Irreplaceables in D.C. Public Schools: Lessons in Smart Retention, which holds up the reforms begun in DC public schools by former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee as a model for human capital reform. The main thrust of the reforms highlighted concerns good teacher retention Read more about Is DCPS a model urban school district?[…]
In an interesting editorial for the New York Times online, Sara Mosle takes up the debate around one of the key shifts in reading instruction advocated by the Common Core — a shift that calls for much more focus on non-fiction and less emphasis on fictional texts. This shift has inspired a heated debate, but Read more about Does Common Core Overemphasize Non-Fiction?[…]