A new report from Urban Teacher Residency United looks at the inner workings of two highly effective urban teacher residency programs, Aspire Teacher Residency in California and the Denver Teacher Residency. Building Effective Teacher Residencies is the most comprehensive look at the inner workings of successful residency programs to date, sharing findings from a year Read more about Building Effective Teacher Residencies[…]
Members of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools said recently they will work to decrease the number of tests students take in elementary and secondary schools. The groups will form a task force to identify and eliminate unnecessary assessments. In a survey of its 67 member Read more about Do students take too many tests in their school career?[…]
The U.S. Education Department has recently rolled out another phase in its quest to ensure that lower income students have similarly excellent teachers as their higher income peers. What is the research behind the push for equitable distribution of teacher effectiveness? What are the issues and complexities of this work? In this month’s issue brief, Read more about October Issue Brief: Access to Effective Teachers[…]
Announcing Applications and Nominations for the TNTP’s 2015 $25,000 Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice. It’s the only national award exclusively for teachers in high-poverty public schools. TNTP is looking for the next set of winners. Last year, TNTP received thousands of nominations and over 820 applications from teachers nationwide. Start an application or tell Read more about TNTP publishes the 2014 Fishman Prize winners’ essays and announces the 2015 Competition[…]
There has been much talk in recent years about new incentive-based pay scales for teachers, but often the talk lacks the details to turn the talk into reality. But Baltimore City Public Schools (MD) has created a new pay ladder, and Education Week has published an interesting infographic with the details. The official name of Read more about Infographic: Climbing the Career Ladder in Baltimore[…]
A new research brief from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) documents practices and outcomes of four urban high schools that, through student-centered approaches, are providing building blocks of knowledge and skills students need as adults. These schools are non-selective and predominantly serve low-income students of color. Their vision shapes what students Read more about The Rich Potential of a Student-Centered Approach[…]
At The Lens, part of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Paul Hill offers a model for finding existing star performers in underperforming urban school districts. Every school district has teachers and administrators who are part of the problem but also teachers and administrators who are already or are very willing to be part of Read more about Conserving Principal and Teacher Talent[…]
Fourteen school systems around the country, including the District of Columbia and Prince George’s County (MD), will receive grants totaling $30 million to improve the effectiveness of unsung middle managers in large urban districts – those who supervise principals. The five-year program, funded by the Wallace Foundation, is designed to help improve management in sprawling Read more about Wallace Foundation aims to help school leaders get better, donates $30 million[…]
Maureen Kelleher at the Center For American Progress has written an interesting piece describing how several urban school districts have experimented with different school networks. The preliminary findings suggest that other urban school districts should be willing to let their schools create networks of common interests to help those schools that need it most. School Read more about The Rise of Networks: How Decentralized Management Is Improving Schools[…]
The fourth quarter of the school year is generally a time of preparation for schools and districts as they finalize next year’s budget, student and teacher schedules, and professional development for the upcoming school year. During this time of preparation, it is important that schools and districts discuss ways that they can support parents and Read more about ED Releases New Parent and Community Engagement Framework[…]
For more than two decades, Teach for America has been sending bright young college grads into challenging classrooms with as few as five weeks of up-front training and expecting them to teach for two years. That’s about to change. TFA recently announced a pilot program to give an extra year of training to 2,000 college Read more about Teach for America To Boost Training & Retention Efforts[…]
P-Tech schools, short for Pathways in Technology Early College High School, are the hottest new education commodity, especially in urban areas with progressive political leadership. They essentially are STEM focused public high schools at which students will spend four years, gain a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, receive curriculum and leadership from a Read more about At P-Tech Schools, get a Diploma and a Job[…]
“I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing especially tough odds to stay on track and reach their full potential.” President Barack Obama, January 28, 2014 President Obama is taking action to launch My Brother’s Keeper – a new initiative Read more about President Obama Launches My Brother’s Keeper Initiative[…]
Newly emerging research is beginning to shed light on the extent to which disadvantaged students have access to effective teaching, based on value added measures. “Value added” is a teacher’s contribution to students’ learning gains. Because individual researchers have varied in their presentation of this evidence, it is challenging for practitioners to draw lessons from Read more about A Summary of Recent IES Research on Access to Effective Teaching[…]
The new mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, the city’s first Democratic mayor since 1993, won his election in a landslide victory, gaining over 73% of the vote. His election means that there will be a traditional liberal, and one who has been outspoken about education issues, taking charge of one of the Read more about Duncan’s advice to de Blasio[…]
Applications and nominations are now open for the 2014 Fishman Prize. TNTP, a nonprofit organization working to ensure that all students get excellent teachers, recently opened the third annual application period for the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice. The prestigious award is given to four public school teachers a year who demonstrate exceptionally effective Read more about TNTP Seeks Superlative Teachers for $25,000 Fishman Prize[…]