With new standards, curricular materials, assessments, and evaluations in many districts, the education landscape is changing rapidly. Feedback and leadership from teachers is essential to the profession at this critical time. In this month’s issue brief, we have assembled stories, survey results, and views of teachers reflecting on their own profession, as well as information Read more about May Issue Brief: Teachers on Teaching[…]
In a new primary sources survey, 20,000 teachers provide powerful insights on teaching in an era of change. The verdict is: teachers want their voices heard in order to offer direction on student success, Common Core implementation, teacher evaluation, and parental support. Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released results from the comprehensive Read more about Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on Teaching in an Era of Change[…]
Many teachers are taking part in the increasing number of Gates-funded teacher organizations, while others remain skeptical. These organizations, such as Teach Plus and VIVA Project, are providing teachers with a unique chance to discuss education policies, but many teachers outside these organizations question the authenticity of these dialogues because of the influence of conservative-leaning Read more about The Gates Foundation and the Dilemma of Teacher Voice[…]
The New York Times recently published an education article that asks, “Do teachers need to have experience?” They asked this question of five different educators who each inhabit different realms of the education field, and as might be expected, they received five unique answers to their question. We have picked out some relevant snippets from Read more about Do Teachers Need to Have Experience?[…]
TNTP has recently released the results of a new teacher survey, but it’s not your typical teacher survey. TNTP published “The Irreplaceables” in 2012 to look at how urban schools neglect top teachers. This study led to further questions concerning what high-performing teachers in high-need schools think about their classrooms and careers. So TNTP reached Read more about Perspectives of Irreplaceable Teachers[…]
The Center on Education Policy (CEP) at George Washington University has prepared three new reports based on state survey data about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The reports focus on state implementation efforts and professional development issues related to CCSS. “Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards: An Overview of States’ Progress Read more about States Report Progress in Implementing Common Core[…]
Improving systems for supporting and evaluating teachers is an urgent priority in states and districts all across the country. To learn from this work and strengthen efforts moving forward, the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program has published several profiles of leading efforts in the field. Recently, the Aspen Institute released the next installment: a Read more about Beyond Buy-In: Options for Combining Teacher Support with Teacher Effectiveness[…]
The professional lives of teachers have recently been flooded with “the new.” With new standards, new curricula, new evaluations, new assessments, and all the other changes that take place on an annual basis in schools and districts, very little remains constant from year to year. In this sea of changes, teachers must not be left Read more about July Issue Brief: Teacher Voice[…]
A new report by Kaitlin Pennington of the Center for American Progress highlights the increase of teacher-voice groups. These groups allow teachers to continue teaching while also having a chance to impact education policy more directly. Furthermore, they provide current teachers with more active leadership positions. In addition, these groups allow for a greater multiplicity Read more about What role will teacher-voice groups play?[…]
Aspen Institute’s Education & Society Program recently released a new report entitled, “Evaluating Evaluations: Using Teacher Surveys to Strengthen Implementation” by Ross Wiener of the Aspen Institute and Kasia Lundy of The Parthenon Group. Apple and other high-performing companies use employee surveys to drive continuous improvement. The report asks why schools couldn’t also use surveys Read more about Feedback from Educators Is a Key Resource for Continuous Improvement[…]
As Common Core implementation deadlines approach, new surveys suggest that teachers are open to using Common Core but may not be prepared to do so. Three and a half years after the launch of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, schools nationwide continue working to implement the new standards in English/language arts and mathematics, which Read more about Teachers and Common Core: An Ambivalent Relationship[…]
According to a MetLife survey, educators’ levels of satisfaction have dropped appreciably in recent years, but others see the change as a result of poor surveying techniques. “According to the survey, principal and teacher job satisfaction is declining. The responsibilities school leaders face have become increasing complex, and the biggest challenges leaders face are beyond Read more about How satisfied are educators with their jobs?[…]
Roughly 180 teachers, principals, and education advocates met at the US Department of Education’s (ED) headquarters last week to make connections and engage in conversations about how educators will lead the transformation of their profession. Educators drilled down on a number of topics and made recommendations for the next steps in the RESPECT Project. One Read more about Teachers and Principals Get Engaged[…]
Over the past decade, teachers have seen changes in both their conditions of employment-from pay to retirement benefits-and their practice. Far too often, these policies have been made by people who talk about teachers, rather than talking to them. Last fall, Education Sector surveyed a nationally representative random sample of more than 1,100 K-12 public Read more about Teachers “Trending Toward Reform”[…]
In a recent article for The Education Gadfly, Michael J. Petrilli offers his take on how we should proceed with education reform, particularly as it concerns teachers. Excerpts from his article are below: For all of its victories over the last couple of years, including Scott Walker’s on Tuesday night, the school reform movement finds Read more about How to Push for Reform Without Alienating Teachers[…]
In a recent op-ed piece for the Huffington Post, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan discusses his views on how to improve the teaching profession by sharing conversations he’s had with educators across the country. He captures a sentiment common among educators: they “love teaching though they wouldn’t mind a little more respect for their challenging Read more about Duncan: Ask the Teachers[…]