In a new Education Sector Chart You Can Trust, I show that Washington’s motto as “The Evergreen State” applies not just to an abundance of evergreen coniferous trees, but also to the state’s school districts, which almost never identify low-performing employees. Across all districts statewide, only a minuscule number of employees were deemed unsatisfactory: 0.92 percent of teachers, 1.42 percenContinue Reading »

Trending toward reform. The American Federation of Teachers’ push for a teacher bar exam shouldn’t come as surprising; teacher surveys, including Education Sector’s report, show that educators are leaning toward reforming how they’re prepared, evaluated, and retained. (Class Struggle/Washington Post)

A la carte school. Louisiana, Michigan, Arizona, and Utah are considering an initiative Continue Reading »

What should be on the new administration’s “to-do list” under the heading of education? That was the question posed to a panel of education experts Education Sector brought together this week at the event “Should There Be an Undersecretary of MOOCs? A Waiver Watchdog? And Other Questions for the Next Four Years.” The experts, all members of Education Sector’s K20 Task Force, took onContinue Reading »

Silly question—it might seem. How could someone be expected to teach piano if they do not know how to play themselves? Yet that is what the public schools are about to ask of teachers more generally. In two years, most public schools will administer new student assessments in reading and math, pegged to the higher academic standards of the Common Core. Although performance standards—how high a Continue Reading »

State policies on teacher quality. Sara Mead examines new teacher effectiveness laws in 21 states, including regulations regarding evaluations and personnel decisions like dismissals and retention efforts. The report includes state-by-state summaries. (Bellwether Education)

(Most) everything everyone thinks about education. Three-fourths of Americans believe that the Common Core State StContinue Reading »

Made, not born. More research suggests that good teachers aren’t inherently qualified to be a success in the classroom; they’re trained to do so. (Slate)

No matter what the law says. Officials in Palm Beach County, Fla., won’t allow parents to transfer their students out of low-performing schools, as mandated in No Child Left Behind, because of growing transportation costs and capacity cContinue Reading »

“Under the hood.” A new report out today examines 10 of the “most advanced and talked-about” teacher evaluation models. The report does not recommend one model over the other, but instead aims to serve as a resource for states and districts that continue to perfect their own models. (h/t Hechinger Report)

“Oh, you’re back?” A Connecticut administrator is forced to change his ways when heContinue Reading »

Last Friday I had the privilege of talking about the future of the teaching profession alongside an amazing cast of teachers, leaders, researchers, and policy folks at EWA’s annual conference in Philadelphia. The TED-type format–12 minutes for each of us– was fun and different from the regular panels (kudos to Greg Toppo who was a great MC). And it gave me the chance to walk on stagContinue Reading »

Writing in Forbes, Josh Barro highlights why public sector pension reform is such an important issue — in even the deepest blue of states like California and Illinois. In Illinois, as the chart below shows, pension expenditures have risen from 6 percent of general fund spending in 2008 to a proposed 15 percent of spending in fiscal year 2013.

Illinois did tackle pension refContinue Reading »

More than 12,000 New York City Teacher Data Reports will be released today, after a judge ruled Tuesday against the United Federation of Teachers’ argument that disclosing the ratings violates the teachers’ privacy rights. The Teacher Data Reports look like this. The ratings are based on value-added scores. They do not include value-added as one of several measures of performance. Although thisContinue Reading »