Mary Ryerse and Susan Brookhart, writing for Getting Smart, recently analyzed the research base for formative assessment. Excerpts from their piece appear below: The original research base on formative assessment is most typically traced back to the 1998 publication Assessment and Classroom Learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998), the first widely cited review of literature on Read more about The Research Base for Formative Assessment[…]
Many states will be transitioning to new ESSA-aligned accountability systems over the next few years, and the way those accountability systems are presented to teachers could have a dramatic impact on how they are perceived in states. A new PIE Network resource offers lessons learned from successful implementation efforts, and a useful reminder of what Read more about New Case Studies: Policy Implementation Hinges on Educator Support[…]
A recent article by the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) investigates whether STEM teacher candidates who score better on licensure tests are also more effective at improving student performance once they enter the teaching workforce. After replicating earlier findings that teacher basic-skills licensure test scores are a modest and Read more about Tying Teacher Certification Test Scores to Secondary STEM Achievement[…]
A new study finds that teacher candidates who passed the edTPA teacher performance assessment for certification and licensure on their first try tended to boost their students’ reading test scores more in their first year of teaching than those who didn’t. While that finding is good news for supporters of the Teacher Performance Assessment, or Read more about edTPA Teaching Exam’s Ties to Effectiveness Mixed[…]
In a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, Robert Wachter focuses on the effects of metrics and measurement on the health care and education professions. While arguing that we, of course, need to hold professionals accountable, he cautions against unanticipated consequences. Following is an excerpt from this piece: Measurement cannot go away, but Read more about How Measurement Fails Doctors and Teachers[…]
With an estimated 1.5 million new teachers entering schools over the next decade, what can policymakers do to ensure that the next generation of teachers is ready to teach on day one? A new brief released by the Education Policy Center at American Institutes for Research (AIR), A Million New Teachers Are Coming: Will They Read more about Improving Teacher Preparation[…]
Just four years after passing a law mandating that prospective teachers must pass the Test of Academic Proficiency (TAP) within five attempts, Illinois state board of education officials have scrapped this law in hopes of “manipulating the pipeline” of new teachers. State officials, dismayed at the disproportionately low number of minority teachers compared to minority Read more about Illinois scraps limits on basic skills test-taking[…]
Following on the heels of the announcement by the AFT about a “bar-exam for teachers” and announcements by states of prospective teacher tests that include practical teaching elements, the educational testing giant ETS will begin offering their own version of this sort of test. Field-testing began last month for the Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service‘s Read more about ETS Wades Into Market for Teacher-Performance Exams[…]
Indiana is the most recent state in which the debate over the best way to certify teachers has moved to center stage. There is a new proposal moving through the Indiana Board of Education that would allow anyone with a 3.0 GPA from the four-year college at which they graduated to teach as an “adjunct” Read more about New Battle Looms over Indiana Teaching Requirements[…]
The American Federation of Teachers, led by President Randi Weingarten, has recently published a report entitled “Raising the Bar: Aligning and Elevating Teacher Preparation and the Teaching Profession.” This report calls for a more rigorous process by which teacher candidates would be certified. The process would consist of the following steps: Teachers demonstrating subject area Read more about AFT calls for Bar Exam for Teacher Candidates[…]
In Cincinnati, newly released research finds that teacher participation in a teacher evaluation system that includes highly structured classroom observations increases student performance. Released in the Fall 2012 edition of Education Next, the study looks at practice-based teacher assessment that relies on multiple, highly structured classroom observations conducted by experienced peer teachers and administrators. Researchers Read more about Does evaluation make teachers more effective?[…]