Jonah Steele is a current high school student, writing on Medium about the current debate over education reform. He laments the fact that students do not seem to have any input, or at least are not taken seriously, in this debate. Mr. Steele states: Regardless of how many times you’ve watched a TED talk pop Read more about A High School Student on Education Reform[…]
In a recent opinion piece in Education Week, David Gamberg, superintendent of both the Southold Union Free School District and the Greenport Union Free School District, reflects on what makes a good school. Below are excerpts from his piece: Words matter. Of course, brick and mortar are only a small part of the story. The Read more about What Defines a Good School?[…]
A recent survey by the Association of American Educators asked its members about how they felt about education reform. The survey asked its members about current issues in education including School Choice, Virtual Education and Technology, Testing and Assessments, Teacher Preparation and Leadership, and the 2016 Presidential Election. The results were surprising: The organization’s 2016 Read more about Teachers Speak Out on Education Reform and Use of Technology[…]
The new Every Student Succeeds Act returns to the states much of the authority for directing school improvement that the federal government had assumed in the past 15 years. Some states are ready to roll, but plenty are searching for potential role models. Fortunately, at least two such candidates are easy to find. Earlier this Read more about A Tale of 2 States: Lessons to Be Learned[…]
Policy implementation is perhaps the most difficult element of education reform. But what if policy development and implementation were flipped? What if policy design began with an implementation perspective? In a blog post in Education Week, Jal Mehta explores this concept: The idea of Human-Centered Systems Design is that if we want to design policies Read more about The Case for Human-Centered Systems Design[…]
With the authorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act, all eyes are on State Education Agencies (SEAs) for direction and leadership related to education reform. There is no doubt that SEAs will serve an essential role in the future of our country’s educational system, but the scope of that role will be largely determined by Read more about January Issue Brief: Effective State Education Agencies[…]
Don’t Quit on Me: What Young People Who Left School Say about the Power of Relationships examines, from the perspective of young people themselves, the roles that relationships with adults and peers play in decisions about staying in, leaving, and returning to high school. Building on previous studies, including last year’s Don’t Call Them Dropouts, Read more about Don’t Quit on Me: The Power of Relationships for High School Graduation[…]
How do you solve big problems in education in a way that honors the knowledge and expertise of educators in a methodologically rigorous way? How can what’s working in individual classrooms and schools be used to address problems on a larger scale? Educator Networks, or Networked Improvement Communities, are groups of educators who assemble to Read more about November Issue Brief: Educator Networks[…]
The National Association of State Boards of Education’s fall issue of its journal, The State Education Standard explores the many ways policymakers can ensure that those who teach and lead our children in public schools are better prepared and better supported to do their jobs well. Research shows that teacher quality makes the biggest difference Read more about A Fresh Look at Preparing Teachers and Leaders[…]
The Sustainability Rubric for Local Educational Agencies is a tool developed by the United States Education Department for LEAs to assess the sustainability of a specific priority reform that they are undertaking. This rubric is flexible enough to help LEAs with wide-ranging reform goals, but also will help the Agency create practical ways to evaluate Read more about Sustainability Rubric for Local Educational Agencies[…]
There is a proposal going around about a new type of charter school, one that is very low risk and modeled on the 4.0 Schools project in New Orleans, called tiny schools. These are small schools that are started in a library or classroom with volunteer students who are willing to learn. The students can Read more about Tiny Schools: Models of Innovation[…]
Michael J. Petrilli of the Fordham Institute on Education recently delivered an address to the New York State Council of School Superintendents about how to end the American education reform wars. Admittedly coming from a more conservative perspective, Petrilli advocates three main goals for school leaders: Be the voice of the sane, sensible center. Grab Read more about How to End the Education Reform Wars[…]
While there are certainly shortcomings of the SAT and ACT exams, they are still a benchmark to evaluate the American education system because millions of students take these tests across the nation. The results from 2014 are not good: Only 28 percent of 2015 ACT-tested high school graduates met college-readiness benchmarks in each of the Read more about Stagnant ACT and SAT Results Demand Educational Improvements[…]
At a crucial moment with the best possibility of an ESEA re-authorization on the near horizon and with only about one year left before the end of the Obama administration, long-serving Education Secretary Arne Duncan has stepped down. It is unclear why, but we do know that the President wanted Duncan to finish the course: Read more about Arne Duncan Stepping Down as Education Secretary[…]
When teachers enter the profession during a recession, they’re more effective at boosting student test scores in math, a new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds. Recession-era teachers didn’t have as much of an effect on student reading scores. The study considers data for 33,000 fourth and fifth grade teachers in Read more about How the Recession Helps Student Math Scores[…]
Rachel B. Baker at AEI Education has a new report out about Competency Based Education (CBE) programs at the college level. Following is a portion from the introduction to the executive summary: The basic idea underlying CBE is simple: programs award credit based on demonstrated student competencies rather than on the amount of time a Read more about The student experience: How competency-based education providers serve students[…]