In the most recent issue of the Harvard Educational Review, Anthony Bryk, Heather Harding, and Sharon Greenberg report on a roundtable jointly sponsored by Teach For America and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The authors brought together a group of scholars and practitioners with a broad range of perspectives and asked them Read more about Inquiries Into Effective Teaching[…]
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has released a series of case studies from 28 states highlighting examples of innovative educational initiatives that are playing a crucial role in improving K-12 education across the country. The programs identified in these case studies were funded through the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program (ESEA Title Read more about SETDA Highlights Innovative Initiatives Across the US[…]
Mathematica and the Institute of Education Sciences released a joint report earlier this month on the implementation experience and intermediate impacts of the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), a pilot transfer-incentive strategy launched in seven school districts. TTI offered $20,000 to each teacher who transferred from a high-performing to a low-performing school, and the program helped Read more about The Talent Teacher Initiative: Early Impacts[…]
Learning Matters, a non-profit production company focused on education reporting, has launched a new blog by and for teachers called Why I Teach. Learning Matters “invites classroom teachers to share what brought them to the teaching profession—and what keeps them there.” The first blog entry was an essay written by Esther Wojcicki, Learning Matters’ Board Read more about Learning Matters Launches “Why I Teach”[…]
Late last month, TNTP released a new report called Greenhouse Schools. The report seeks to identify “greenhouse schools,” or schools that “are better than others at accelerating student learning by developing and keeping great teachers.” TNTP wants to know what these schools are doing to establish such cultures. After surveying more than 4,800 teachers in Read more about “Greenhouse” Schools[…]
Scholastic Inc. (NASDAQ: SCHL) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession, the second landmark report presenting the results of a national survey of more than 10,000 public school teachers in grades pre-K to 12. The survey is a follow-up to the original Primary Sources report released Read more about 10,000 Teachers Share Views on Teaching Profession[…]
Mathematica Policy Research has released its final report on the Chicago Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), and found that the program did not do exactly as intended. TAP aimed to improve schools by increasing teacher quality, and provided multiple opportunities for professional development, school leadership positions, structured feedback, and mentoring. Overall, the program appears to have Read more about Chicago’s Teacher Incentive Program: Final Report[…]
The New Teacher Center (NTC) has released a new study, Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction, which summarizes the Center’s analysis of induction and mentoring policies across the country. The paper uses a battery of criteria to highlight leading state policies, and makes policy recommendations that the Center believes will help states design and Read more about State Policies on Teacher Induction[…]
Pearson’s Center for Educator Effectiveness has released a new guide to assist states and districts as they begin to develop and implement new teacher and principal evaluation systems. The guide, Evaluating Teachers and Principals: Developing Fair, Valid and Reliable Systems, highlights the critical steps and considerations necessary to build a strong framework for fair and Read more about A Guide to Developing Educator Effectiveness Systems[…]
The 2012 “Survey of the American Teacher” was released last week; its results reflect the current turmoil in the American economy, state budgets, and education reform. The survey found that teachers’ job satisfaction has decreased 15 points since 2009 (the first year of the survey). Only 44 percent of teachers reported feeling “very satisfied” with Read more about MetLife Survey of the American Teacher[…]
The Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Schott Foundation for Public Education recently released a new report, Straight Talk on Teaching Quality: Six Game-Changing Ideas and What to Do About Them. The report, which is more of a guide for improving teaching effectiveness, is based on the plethora of evidence that links teaching quality Read more about Straight Talk on Teaching Quality: Six Game-Changing Ideas[…]
In a recent article, Time blogger Andrew Rotherham argues that not only should parents take care when picking their child’s school, but they should be able to go so far as to pick their child’s teacher as well. He argues that even in good schools, teacher effectiveness is so variable that there is still no Read more about Parents Should Be Allowed to Pick Teachers[…]
A new paper from the Center for American Progress takes a look at the increasingly talked about “wraparound services” for children in low-income communities, and the connections to teacher efficiency. Wraparound services generally refer to non-classroom services such as health care, family involvement programs, and food assistance. There is research on the potential benefits Read more about Lightening the Load: How Community Schools Can Support Effective Teaching[…]
Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation released its most recent report on the MET Project (Measures of Effective Teaching). The report focuses on the second set of preliminary findings, particularly on classroom observations. Five instruments for classroom observations are studied: the Framework for Teaching (FFT), developed by the Danielson Group; Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), Read more about Gathering Feedback for Teaching[…]
There is ample research on the differences in teacher distribution across schools vis-à-vis teacher demographics and experience, but what about teacher distribution within schools? A paper published by the Urban Institute looks at this issue. By comparing teachers within the same grade level and school in an urban district during a given year, the authors Read more about Teacher Characteristics and Class Assignments[…]
Public Impact has launched the implementation phase of its effort to bring excellent teachers to every classroom. In this phase, the organization seeks to identify five “model” sites that can be used to extend the reach of these teachers beyond their own classrooms. Seeking to create what it calls an “Opportunity Culture,” Public Impact wants Read more about Public Impact Seeks Five Sites to Extend the Reach of Excellent Teachers[…]