The George W. Bush Institute’s Middle School Matters initiative and The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin (MCPER) recently published the second edition of the “Middle School Matters Field Guide,” a collection of research-based principles, practices, and strategies deemed essential for middle school success. The updated field guide Read more about Middle School Matters Field Guide[…]
Effective teacher teams can produce a variety of positive outcomes, from increased student achievement, to improved school climate, to high levels of teacher resilience and retention. But cultivating effective teacher collaboration is more complex than simply assigning a common planning period to a group of teachers. In this month’s issue brief, we explore best practices Read more about April Issue Brief: Teacher Collaboration[…]
In a recent Getting Smart article, Bonnie Lathram and Tyler Nakatsu explore how educators can get started with Deeper Learning. They suggest six entry points: Be a maker As an educator, what artifacts are there that can showcase the “makers” that you and your students are? Bring your own talents to the work you are Read more about Getting Smart: 6 Entry Points for Deeper Learning[…]
A recent blog post from Education Week takes a look at the current state of professional development for teachers and finds a brave new world of “micro-credentialing.” The following example shows just how it works: Last year, Kay Staley and Jessica Scherer, literacy coaches in the Kettle Moraine district in Wisconsin, led groups of teachers in Read more about Micro-Credentialing: A New Look at Teacher Professional Development[…]
Learning Forward and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) recently released a white paper on the role that teacher agency plays in creating successful professional learning opportunities. The white paper, Moving from Compliance to Agency: What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work, defines teacher agency as “the capacity of teachers to Read more about What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work[…]
A recent report released by New America called Beyond Ratings examines state teacher evaluation systems and evaluates their usefulness as tools for teacher growth. The report highlights what actions states have taken so far to ensure evaluation systems are being used to develop teachers’ practice, and what more needs to be done. In particular, the Read more about Evaluation Systems as Tools for Professional Development[…]
A recent report from New America: Ed-Central blog, titled Beyond Boundaries, looks at states’ role in the teacher evaluation process. New teacher evaluation systems are an increasingly common aspect of teachers’ daily lives. To ensure that all students have access to quality teaching, the vast majority of states have adopted new, more rigorous teacher evaluation Read more about New Report calls for States to Shift Teacher Evaluations Toward Support[…]
One of the main differences between the U.S. education system and the systems that outperform it in student achievement is the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom in front of students versus the time spent in professional development activities. This chart, “Teaching Hours,” shows time spent actually teaching within the classroom, and does Read more about More Teaching, Less Learning?[…]
In a recent post in Education Week, Marc Tucker examines the teacher professional development systems in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, British Columbia, and Shanghai. Professional development looks very different in all these places than it typically does in the United States. It is the main driver of school improvement. Far from something that takes the Read more about Professional Development Transformed[…]
Did you know that parents and teachers can view PARCC test items from last year’s test? Almost 850 of the test questions are online in the Partnership Resource Center. This guide is designed to help you easily navigate the many test questions and related materials, including sample student responses to open-ended test questions, such as Read more about Your Guide to Finding and Using PARCC Test Items[…]
Discovery Education, a leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, invites superintendents and curriculum leaders to attend a unique new series of professional learning events exploring critical topics in education leadership. This series, which launches on January 28 in Hershey, PA, will explore critical topics in education including equity, personalized learning, Read more about Free Instructional Leadership Series from Discovery Education[…]
How do teachers learn? What are the implications of teacher learning (or the lack thereof) for students? What is the value of a teacher who really learns? During the month of November, members of the CTQ Collaboratory tackled these questions and more during a round table discussion centered on the topics of professional development, personalized Read more about Center for Teaching Quality: How do teachers really learn?[…]
Most high school students are accustomed to learning in two ways: by listening to the teacher and by reading books and other texts. These familiar ways of learning work for them so long as their teachers demand only that they grasp and remember the given content. However, if the goal is to help students learn Read more about Deeper Teaching: Students at the Center of Learning[…]
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is offering and funding tuition-free programs for school and college educators. These programs are for one to five weeks and focus on important topics, texts, and questions in the humanities. In addition, they can be used to: enhance intellectual vitality and professional development of anyone who participates, build Read more about Tuition-Free Summer Programs for Teachers[…]
The Center for Courage and Renewal is launching a new website, Teaching with Heart, Fire and Poetry. It is an online community and resource hub for teachers to explore their work with other teachers. The community was inspired by the books, Teaching with Heart and Teaching with Fire. In these books, teachers speak about who Read more about A New Online Community for Teachers[…]
We first blogged about Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) here: https://www.coreeducationllc.com/blog2/using-the-wisdom-of-educators/ But what exactly is an NIC, and how does it differ from a Professional Learning Community, Action Research group, or Community of Practice? The Carnegie Foundation offers a helpful guide: Networked improvement communities (NICs) are scientific learning communities distinguished by four essential characteristics: FOCUSED ON Read more about What is a Networked Improvement Community?[…]