Chester E. Finn, Jr., distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, recently reflected on the illusion of college readiness for National Affairs. Excerpts from his piece appear below: Our K-12 education system has a transparency problem, and our higher-education system is complicit. While some American parents have a decent sense Read more about The Fog of “College Readiness”[…]
What does it mean to be really ready for college, work, and life? The staff at Getting Smart worked with Apex Learning to publish Really Ready: Preparing ALL Middle and High School Students for College, Work and Life. The report finds that there is a direct connection between increasing graduation rates and student readiness. Students Read more about Really Ready: Preparing ALL Middle and High School Students for College, Work and Life[…]
Every three years, half a million 15-year-olds in 69 countries take a two-hour test designed to gauge their ability to think. Unlike other exams, the PISA, as it is known, does not assess what teenagers have memorized. Instead, it asks them to solve problems they haven’t seen before, to identify patterns that are not obvious Read more about What America Can Learn About Smart Schools in Other Countries[…]
The 21st Century Learning Exemplar Program highlights best practices in schools and districts across the country that are preparing students for college, career and life by embedding critical 21st century competencies into the learning environment. Currently there are 75 exemplars across the country. P21 will accept applications to be part of the 2017-2018 21st Century Read more about 21st Century Learning Exemplar Programs[…]
Becoming Brilliant, a new book by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff explores the definition of brilliance in the modern information age. Below, excerpts from a post in the Brookings Blog provide an overview of this new way of thinking: The amount of knowledge available in books and online is doubling every two and a Read more about Becoming Brilliant: Reimagining Education for our Time[…]
In a recent article for the Shanker Institute, David Blazar and Matthew Kraft reflect on the findings of their recent study of teacher effects on students’ social and emotional skills: A growing body of research is starting to provide convincing evidence that teachers can have large effects on students’ social and emotional development in addition Read more about Teacher Effects on Social and Emotional Skills in School[…]
A new report from the Learning First Alliance, A New Philosophy on Education Decision-Making, calls for unique collaboration between governors and practitioners in K-12 policymaking. Governors and state education officials can provide direction to empower local leaders by supporting a collaborative decision-making system that brings a new relationship between policy and practice. The report Read more about Learning First Alliance Challenges Governors to Expand Collaboration with Educators[…]
The College and Career Readiness Center at AIR has released a College and Career Readiness and Success (CCRS) Organizer Scorecard. This tool is a self-assessment that can provide a snapshot of where your district or state is in integrating the multiple elements that impact college and career readiness and success for students in the K-12 Read more about How ESSA Can Help States Improve College and Career Readiness[…]
Bellwether Education and the Digital Promise Innovation Clusters have released the U.S. Education Innovation Index (USEII). USEII is the field’s first foray into measuring education innovation at the city level. The index measures innovation activities and conditions of urban schools along 42 indicators in nine categories: Innovation Culture Need for Academic Improvement Collaboration and Coordination Read more about The U.S. Education Innovation Index: Prototype and Report[…]
Nicholas Papageorge, Seth Gershenson, and Kyungmin Kang have released a discussion paper, titled Teacher Expectations Matter, that uncovers teacher expectations that differ by racial groups in a way that puts black students at a disadvantage, exacerbating racial achievement gaps. The authors recently wrote about their findings in Brookings blog: We demonstrate that teacher expectations do Read more about Do teacher expectations matter?[…]
In the first of a series of reports from Digital Promise Global, Making Learning Personal For All – The Growing Diversity in Today’s Classroom explores learner diversity and learning variability across a variety of factors impacting student performance. A growing body of evidence stresses the need for the research community, educators, and education technology developers Read more about Making Learning Personal for All: The Growing Diversity in Today’s Classroom[…]
AEI has released a new series on Competency-Based Higher Education (CBE), titled Innovate and Evaluate: Expanding the Research Base for Competency-based Education. The authors, Andrew P. Kelly and Rooney Columbus say, “Clearly, the benefits of expanding access to CBE could be substantial. But, what does existing research suggest about the likely effect of reforms to promote CBE? Read more about Expanding the Research Base for Competency-based Education[…]
Students at the Center’s Hub team developed the Reflection Tool For 21st Century Learning to support deeper learning and computational thinking for secondary students. The tool defines and scaffolds essential skills for both students and educators, in easy-to-understand language with opportunity for reflection and growth. This reflection tool is a great way to get students Read more about Reflection Tool For 21st Century Learning[…]
Brooke Stafford-Brizard, an adviser for Turnaround for Children, recently created a student-development framework for nonacademic skills. Building Blocks for Learning is grounded in the concept that, like academic skills, nonacademic skills are developmental and can be taught. This resource serves to guide practitioners at all levels, informing teacher-student relationships, classroom instruction, and school design. Policymakers at Read more about Nonacademic Skills – The Building Blocks for Learning[…]
Eight states are now on track to develop new statewide social and emotional learning (SEL) standards and policies – thanks to a new partnership with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). That two-year partnership is being funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. On April 11, 2016 CASEL released a Request for Read more about Social and Emotional Learning Standards Under Development[…]
The 74 recently released a piece titled, “9 Things Science Tells Us about How Kids Learn to Read and Think Critically.” The article makes a compelling argument for more exposure to science and social science content matter even in the face of easy access to information. The argument is that one cannot think critically without Read more about Now that we have Google, is it important to learn facts?[…]