Two big names in American Education, Diane Ravitch and Marc Tucker, have recently written several articles outlining their opinions on the imminent implementation of the Common Core standards. Ravitch, known as more of an advocate of local educational agency and as an opponent of standardization, kicked things off with a blog post in which she Read more about Big Names Spar over Common Core[…]
More than one million students are slated to participate in first large-scale trial of online tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Members of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) began administering a Pilot Test of the assessment system in schools across the country. The Pilot Test is the first of two large-scale Read more about Pilot Test for Common Core begins in 6,000 schools[…]
If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs Read more about Reform to support Common Core[…]
ASCD, one of the largest international organizations of teaching professionals, has set their 2013 legislative agenda, and that agenda, quite simply, is legislation. The “key priority” for ASCD and its members in 2013 in terms of federal public policy priorities is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), of which the most Read more about ASCD sets 2013 Legislative Agenda[…]
The Alliance for Excellent Education suggests that New Hampshire’s shift from “seat time” measures of student proficiency to “competency-based learning” measures is one that other states would do well to follow. As this blog wrote about previously, the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour, has long been the measure by which students were judged before they Read more about How should student content mastery be judged?[…]
In a recent AEI Teacher Quality 2.0 report, Timothy Knowles argues persuasively for radical changes with a practical mindset. His article is called “New pathways for teachers, new promises for students: A vision for developing excellent teachers.” Knowles, John Dewey Director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute, writing as part of the American Read more about New Pathways for Teachers, New Promises for Students[…]
Between now and January 29, 2013 the team behind the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is soliciting feedback on their ongoing project of creating new K–12 science standards. The first draft of these new science standards was released in May of 2012. Tens of thousands of responses came in, and the NGSS writing team, working Read more about NSTA seeks Feedback for Next Generation Science Standards[…]
The organization created by former DC public schools chair Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, has recently released results from their State Policy Report Card. The results, to put it mildly, are poor and are an effort by StudentsFirst to motivate reforms at the state level that StudentsFirst argues that states have been unwilling to make. According the Read more about StudentsFirst gives 48 states C’s or below for Education Policy[…]
Since 1906, the Carnegie Unit, or credit hour/student hour, has been the standard unit by which student progress and mastery in American secondary schools and colleges have been measured. The Carnegie Unit was originally created in 1906 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a means by which professors could argue for Read more about Re-thinking the credit hour?[…]
Jal Mehta, assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-editor of The Futures of School Reform (2012), offers a clarion call to systematic educational reform in the United States. Mehta makes three key points in his article for the American Enterprise Institute: 1. Many efforts to reform American schooling over the past Read more about From ‘Tinkering to Utopia’ to ‘Remaking American Education’[…]
The 2012 McGraw Prize in Education winners have been named. Each winner will be presented with a $50,000 prize during the gala awards ceremony on Tuesday, September 18. This year, the 25th anniversary of the Prize, honors the following “Game Changers”: John Merrow has spent many years as an education reporter for National Public Radio Read more about Education “Game Changers”[…]
An analysis of reforms in the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) finds that the district has come a long way in a short time in terms of improving student achievement, granting schools more autonomy, and creating an environment friendly to innovators and new school providers. Baltimore and the Portfolio School District Strategy, a new report Read more about Progress and Promise with Baltimore’s Portfolio Reforms[…]
Green Dot Public Schools (GDPS), a charter school network operating in inner urban Los Angeles, announced earlier this month the approval of a contract with its teachers that includes a pay-for-performance evaluation tool. Though the agreement does not “make the critical link between teacher compensation and student performance,” it does position the charter group to Read more about Green Dot Announces Pay-for-Performance Agreement[…]
The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, or ConnCAN, recently published a new report on teacher effectiveness and evaluation that looks at key components of 10 teacher evaluation models. Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: A Look “Under the Hood” of Teacher Evaluation in 10 Sites, was conducted in partnership with Public Impact. The study was conducted in several Read more about Teacher Effectiveness: A “Look Under the Hood”[…]
On March 27, Education Sector held a panel discussion to discuss the challenges facing states as we head towards 2014. Between now and 2014, states will be facing the challenges of new Common Core standards, new assessments, new accountability systems, new teacher evaluations, new data systems, and for some states, implementing Race to the Top. Read more about Getting to 2014: The Choices and Challenges Ahead[…]
In his most recent blog post for Time, Andrew Rotherham discusses five things he believes teachers could learn from the US Marine Corps. He begins the article with a reflection on the fighting in Fallujah: “19- and 20-year-old Marines were trusted to make extraordinary split-second decisions in an environment more dangerous and confusing than most Read more about What Teachers Can Learn from the Marines[…]