Tuesday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the next round of Race to the Top (RTTT) program funding, with a new focus on district reform rather than states.  Teacher quality, turning around low-performing schools, data quality, and improving standards would continue to be at the heart of the program according to Duncan.  But the fourth round adds a new focus: personalized learning enContinue Reading »

I just might have to pinch myself. One of my dreams for higher education looks like it is actually going to come true. On Wednesday, the Department of Education released an action plan to enhance postsecondary graduation rate data. If you’re not excited about this, you should be. For years, we’ve been using incomplete—woefully incomplete—completion data. And yet policymakers and researcContinue Reading »

Source: quickmeme.com

Teacher pensions don’t tend to grab headlines like for-profit colleges or cheating teachers, but they have serious implications for teacher quality. As Bill Tucker wrote earlier this year in a legislator’s guide to pension reform, pension policies can affect whether an energetic and effective teacher chooses to stay in the classroom after Continue Reading »

Flickr photo by AlaskaTeacher

UPDATED 2/15: Although slightly behind schedule, President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education finally announced the first round of states to receive ESEA waivers today. Ten of the eleven early-bird applicants – Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – willContinue Reading »

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This week my colleague Rachel and I are in Vegas. Not on vacation, but at the US Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Conference. Yes, you read correctly. Vegas. Definitely an interesting place to talk about the billions of dollars of financial aid bankrolled by the federal government—and one which lends itself to an endContinue Reading »

Flickr photo by kmevans

States, listen up: Want to win an ESEA waiver? Like getting money from the federal government? Then you need to collect and report high schools graduates’ college outcomes – and not just for in-state, public colleges and universities, but for all postsecondary institutions.

Just as the administration has used multiple platforms (ScContinue Reading »

Together! On stage! Agreeing! Today, we hosted U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the Capital Hilton, where he released his plan for teacher preparation reform.  Among the approximately 170 education reformers in attendance were National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel and Teach For America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp. Afterward, a diverse panel shared a lively discussioContinue Reading »

UPDATE: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s plan for teacher education reform and improvement calls for urgency, accountability, and restoring quality to the profession nationwide.

“Teacher preparation programs are operated largely in the dark,” Duncan told a packed room of education reformers at the Capital Hilton in Washington this morning. “A good feedback loopContinue Reading »

On Friday, we’re hosting what is sure to be a lively discussion about reform in teacher preparation programs. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan first will release his plan for teacher education reform and improvement. Then, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel and Teach For America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp will chime in with their thoughts, and afterward, a distingContinue Reading »

On Friday, we’re hosting the Secretary at 9am at the Capital Hilton here in DC, where he’ll be announcing a new plan for teacher education reform, an issue we’ve written about recently here and here. NEA’s Dennis Van Roekel and TFA’s Wendy Kopp will both be offering remarks, followed by what should surely be a lively discussion with a terrific panel:  Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of Michigan’sContinue Reading »