Chad Aldeman of Bellwether Partners recently provided a reflection on teacher evaluation reform during the Obama presidency in Education Next. Excerpts of his insightful piece appear below: When President Obama took office in 2009, his administration quickly seized on teacher evaluations as an important public-policy problem. Today, much of his legacy on K-12 education rests Read more about The Teacher Evaluation Revamp, In Hindsight[…]
The U.S. Department of Education announced the launch of the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant competition for 2017. EIR is a new grant program established in the Every Student Succeeds Act and is the successor of the Obama Administration’s Investing in Innovation grant program (i3), which invested $1.4 billion in 172 i3 projects across Read more about U.S. Department of Education Announces Inaugural Education Innovation and Research Competition[…]
States are now deeply engaged in developing plans for their federal education spending for the next several years. Now is the time to rethink systems and strategies and to focus funds and efforts on what matters most for learning: great teachers and leaders for every student and school. Written collaboratively by all three partners of Read more about Building the Educator Workforce Our Children Need Now[…]
The U.S. Department of Education has released non-regulatory guidance to help support the nation’s educators and elevate the teaching profession. The guidance encourages states and districts to prepare, train, and recruit high-quality teachers and principals to increase student academic achievement. With the enactment of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states and districts have the opportunity Read more about Education Department Encourages Support for Educators and Teaching Profession[…]
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers new opportunities for states and school districts. In general, ESSA’s new rules do not take effect until July 1, 2017,which gives state education agencies (SEAs) an opportunity to assess whether their current policies and practices related to federal formula grant funds are aligned with state education objectives (such Read more about Maximizing ESSA Formula Funds: State Self-Assessments[…]
As this blog reported, the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act was signed into law on December 10, 2015. The new law, deemed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is good for the next four years. SY2016-17 is a transition year, and the law will be in full effect in SY2017-18. We have previously provided Read more about What ESSA Means for Teacher Effectiveness[…]
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently rolled out a new plan to make the FAFSA (the federal tax form needed to apply for federal student aid for college) quicker, easier, and more accessible to more students. Following is a brief outline, from the White House website, of some of the major changes: Earlier, Read more about Obama’s New Federal Financial Aid Rules Allow Earlier Applications[…]
Christopher Cross has written an insightful piece for Teachers College Record, focusing on the need to establish a national policy on education so that there is a clear understanding of our national priority and appropriate roles for states and the federal government. An excerpt: We have no stated national commitment to education, no understanding about Read more about The U.S. Needs a National Policy on Education[…]
When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002, the U.S. national high school graduation rate was 72.6 percent. Today, the national high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 81 percent and the number of low-graduation-rate high schools has declined considerably. While this progress is Read more about Never too Late: Why ESEA must fill the Missing Middle[…]
A new policy paper by Rick Hess and Bethany Little for the American Enterprise Institute and Results for America wants to bring the thinking of baseball’s “Moneyball” to federal education policy. Key points: The ‘moneyball’ strategy, which used data to help improve success and cost-efficiency in baseball, should be applied to the US education system Read more about Moneyball for Education: Using Data, Evidence and Evaluation to Improve Federal Education Policy[…]
For the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2015, the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) will conduct 11 grant competitions in six program areas: Arts in Education, Charter Schools, Investing in Innovation, Opportunity Scholarship, Ready to Learn Television, and Supporting Effective Educator Development. Announcements of these competitions began last month and will Read more about Update on OII’s FY 2015 Grant Competitions[…]
The U.S. Department of Education recently announced the start of the 2014 grant competition for the Investing in Innovation (i3) program’s Scale-up and Validation categories. This competition will continue the Department’s investments in promising strategies that can help close achievement gaps and improve educational outcomes for our neediest students. The i3 program aims to develop Read more about 2014 Investing in Innovation Competition[…]
As summarized here, the federal government has recently reported on the success of the Race to the Top program. But can we know the impact of Race to the Top after only four years? A new report by Tiffany D. Miller and Robert Hanna at the Center for American Progress suggest that we truly can’t, Read more about Four Years Later, Are Race to the Top States on Track?[…]
More support for educators and increases in student achievement are among signs of progress at the anniversary of President Obama’s signature education reform, at least according to the U.S. Education Department. In the four years since the Obama Administration announced its first Race to the Top grants, the President’s signature education initiative has helped spark Read more about White House Report: Race to the Top Setting the Pace for Gains across the Education System[…]
In a time when the Obama Administration’s tenure is winding down and when Congress has yet to make any significant progress toward a remake of ESEA, some measured thoughts about the role of the federal government in American education are quite timely. Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly, of the American Enterprise Institute, have Read more about Hess and Kelly: What should a federal education agenda look like?[…]
The new budget bill, which moved through both houses of Congress quickly and was easily passed by both houses, represents a 2.6 percent increase over the post-sequester budget for FY 2013. The fiscal relief is not evenly spread, with some programs receiving significant increases and others continuing at lower levels. CLASP has deep expertise in Read more about Budget Impact on Education, Families and Children[…]