Overwhelmed by Mounting Mental Health Issues and Public Distrust, a ‘Mass Exodus’ of Principals Could be Coming

Posted on March 10, 2022March 7, 2022 by coreeducation

Recently in The 74, Marianna McMurdock wrote a piece on pandemic-related school principal attrition. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Across the country, many principals are preparing to leave the education field altogether. A survey of more than 500 this fall by the National Association of Secondary School Principals has found nearly four in ten Read more about Overwhelmed by Mounting Mental Health Issues and Public Distrust, a ‘Mass Exodus’ of Principals Could be Coming[…]

Is Listening the Antidote to Teacher Turnover? Research Shows It Could Be

Posted on March 5, 2020March 2, 2020 by coreeducation

Writing for The 74, Brenda Tanner, a former school administrator and superintendent, explores the promise of gathering valuable information from teachers through customized surveys in order to improve retention. Excerpts from her piece appear below: District leaders have little access to the authentic, unvarnished perspectives that determine whether a teacher leaves or stays. This is Read more about Is Listening the Antidote to Teacher Turnover? Research Shows It Could Be[…]

Teacher Turnover and the Disruption of Teacher Staffing

Posted on May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 by coreeducation

Helen Ladd and Lucy Sorensen, writing for the Brookings blog, recently explored the concerns associated with within-school turnover, focusing on the churn in middle school core subject areas. Excerpts from their piece appear below: We draw on a recent paper in which we examined how middle schools in North Carolina responded to changes in the Read more about Teacher Turnover and the Disruption of Teacher Staffing[…]

To Improve Rural Schools, Focus on their Strengths

Posted on May 7, 2019May 4, 2019 by coreeducation

Writing for Education Next, authors Michael Q. McShane and Andy Smarick explore the challenges facing rural education as well as recommendations for a path forward. Excerpts of their piece appear below: A consistent criticism of education reform is that much of the agenda has been based on what some call a “deficit mindset.” That is, Read more about To Improve Rural Schools, Focus on their Strengths[…]

How State and Local Leaders Can Strengthen Teacher Pipelines

Posted on April 3, 2019March 29, 2019 by coreeducation

Diverse, learner-ready teachers in the classroom means students have access to the instruction and learning needed to meet education goals. But the reality is that too many students are without these teachers State and district leaders can change that by using data to make informed policy decisions that strengthen their teacher pipelines. Data Quality Campaign’s Read more about How State and Local Leaders Can Strengthen Teacher Pipelines[…]

State Efforts to Solve Teacher Shortages by Strengthening the Profession

Posted on September 12, 2018September 8, 2018 by coreeducation

Most states have been struggling to address teacher shortages for several years now, often filling the vacuum with underprepared teachers who aren’t able to give children the high-quality learning they need and who leave at two to three times the rate of well-prepared teachers. Most often, these teachers are hired in schools serving students of Read more about State Efforts to Solve Teacher Shortages by Strengthening the Profession[…]

Teachers in the US Are Even More Segregated than Students

Posted on September 11, 2018September 8, 2018 by coreeducation

Michael Hansen and Diana Quintero, writing in a Teacher Diversity in America series for the Brown Center on Education Policy, recently explored the distribution of teachers of color and find that teachers in the US are even more segregated than students. As we know, an increasing amount of evidence shows that alignment in the racial Read more about Teachers in the US Are Even More Segregated than Students[…]

Denver’s New Experiment with the First Year of Teaching

Posted on July 17, 2018July 15, 2018 by coreeducation

Melanie Asmar, writing for Chalkbeat, recently explored Denver’s new experiment to make the first year of teaching more bearable. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Next year, Denver is piloting the role of “associate teachers” in Denver Public Schools. These teachers will teach part-time in a high-poverty school and spend the rest of their Read more about Denver’s New Experiment with the First Year of Teaching[…]

A Policymaker’s Playbook for Transforming Teaching

Posted on July 11, 2018July 6, 2018 by coreeducation

District of Columbia Public Schools has been a source of some sensational headlines over the past decade, from an on-camera firing of a school principal to recent revelations of watered-down diplomas. But the school district arguably has done more to modernize public school teaching than any other in the nation. It is powerful work, yielding Read more about A Policymaker’s Playbook for Transforming Teaching[…]

Supporting our Teachers of Color

Posted on June 13, 2018June 10, 2018 by coreeducation

Recently in the Hechinger Report, former Education Secretary John B. King, Jr. and Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute wrote an op-ed recommending several actions that can be taken at the school, district, state and college levels to better support teachers of color. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Qualitative research from The Read more about Supporting our Teachers of Color[…]

Retaining High Performers: Insights from Teacher Exit Surveys

Posted on May 31, 2018May 26, 2018 by coreeducation

A new Bellwether report by Kaitlin Pennington and Alexander Brand analyzes District of Columbia Public Schools’ teacher exit survey data to better understand why high-performing teachers left, where they went, and what they say would have retained them. As school districts across the country report various kinds of teacher shortages, how to retain teachers has Read more about Retaining High Performers: Insights from Teacher Exit Surveys[…]

What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?

Posted on May 1, 2018April 27, 2018 by coreeducation

It is often difficult for school and district leadership to identify high-quality teachers who will remain in the classroom, especially among those who are just entering the profession and in the first years of employment. However, a recent study by Robert Vagi, Margarita Pivovarova and Wendy Miedel Barnard suggests that examining a prospective teacher’s instructional Read more about What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?[…]

States’ Sense of Urgency to Improve Teacher Policies Grinds to a Halt

Posted on January 5, 2018December 21, 2017 by coreeducation

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its biannual 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook (Yearbook), which finds that the rapid progress made by states over the last decade to modernize their teacher policies has largely slowed. Since the last edition of the Yearbook in 2015, few states have initiated any new actions to Read more about States’ Sense of Urgency to Improve Teacher Policies Grinds to a Halt[…]

Help for Drowning Teachers

Posted on January 27, 2016September 12, 2020 by coreeducation

This past fall, Roxanna Elden, author of the book See Me After Class, began offering teachers a lifeline. Aware that many teachers leave their jobs mid-year, she began offering what she called a Disillusionment Power Pack: an email subscription service that would send teachers constant notes of encouragement and reflection for one month. As an Read more about Help for Drowning Teachers[…]