Report Round-Up

Meeting the Challenge: The Role of School Leaders in Turning Around the Lowest-Performing High Schools from the Alliance for Excellent Education. This policy brief recommends policies that focus on a schoolwide, systematic approach to improving professional learning and collaborative practices.

Return on Educational Investment by the Center for American Progress. This report measures the "educational productivity" of more than 9,000 districts and shows that districts getting the most for their money tend to spend more on teachers and less on administration, partner with their communities to save money and have school boards willing to make unpopular decisions, like closing underenrolled schools

Cracking the Student Aid Code: Parent and Student Perspectives on Paying for College by the College Board. This study finds that many parents have little understanding of how much it costs to attend college and of financial aid options.  And that the knowledge deficit is biggest for those who already have the least access to higher education: students from Latino families and from low-income backgrounds.

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Great Op-ed in The Hill

Colin Kippen, the executive director of the National Indian Education Association, recently authored an op-ed in The Hill. A brief excerpt is below. Click here to read the full piece.

In helping states navigate the important work of implementing higher standards, it is critical that we engage communities of color to ensure the needs of every student are well represented. Those of us who have worked to increase achievement among Native students know exactly what happens when an education system fails to consider the cultural values of those it is supposed to serve. Forty-nine percent of Native students leave high school without receiving a regular diploma. Disproportionately high dropout rates make it clear that those who do not see themselves or their perspectives reflected in what they learn in the classroom often disengage. In Native communities, the end result is a constant battle against high unemployment, poverty, and the hopelessness caused by a lack of opportunity. Communities of color must insist on being meaningful partners at every stage of the process to dramatically reform our education system so they may help educators implement standards that are not only strong and rigorous, but also culturally responsive. It is our collective responsibility as communities, parents, educators, and policy makers to use common standards as a catalyst for these reforms.

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Morning Announcements: January 21, 2011

In South Carolina, a sweeping $350,000 state-funded initiative to prevent dropouts at a high school with one of the Midlands’ highest dropout rates is only five months old but already drawing rave reviews.

The Christian Science Monitor asks, can Obama and Congress meet minds to revamp No Child Left Behind? According to Alliance VP of Federal Advocacy Phillip Lovell, “it's a potential win that everyone can come home with and campaign on."

The New York Times reports on new research finding that taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know but it actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques. The Times also ran a story on rethinking evaluations when almost every teacher gets an ‘A’.

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Eight school chiefs to watch in 2011

The Christian Science Monitor recently compiled a list of eight school chiefs to watch in 2011. Who is on the list? See below or read the full article here.

1. Jason Glass, new director of the Iowa Department of Education
2. Janet Barresi, new superintendent of public instruction in Oklahoma
3. Christopher Cerf, new education commissioner in New Jersey
4. Tony Bennett, Indiana superintendent of public instruction
5. Deborah Gist, Rhode Island commissioner of elementary and secondary education
6. Paul Pastorek, Louisiana state superintendent of education
7. Gerard Robinson, Virginia secretary of education
8. Eric Smith, Florida commissioner of education

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Jeb Bush Discusses the Potential for Digital Learning to Transform Education

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Upcoming Alliance Event in Washington, DC

On February 8, the Alliance and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education will host the event: A Standards-Based Approach to Improving Teaching: Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium. See below for more details:

When: February 8, 2011  -  8:30 – 11:00 am (Continental breakfast available at 8:30 am; program begins at 9:00 am.)

Where: Washington Court Hotel, Atrium Ballroom, 525 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

What: A discussion about the initiative launched by the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium that holds promise for shaping a common vision of skilled teaching commensurate with the national goal of preparing all students for college and careers. Twenty states have joined together with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Council of Chief State Schools Officers, and Stanford University to create a common teacher performance assessment that can be used to make preparation and licensing performance based. The event will highlight the pilot underway and the implications for policies to improve the quality, consistency, and coherence of teaching nationwide. This event is made possible with support from the Metlife Foundation.

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Does your Organization Want to Partner with the Alliance?

The Alliance has announced the launch of a major digital outreach campaign to collaborate and communicate with like-minded organizations across the nation through whatever levels of technology they have available. The initiative will permit ongoing and active sharing of education policy and advocacy information focused on improving academic outcomes for the nation’s high school students. The new digital campaign seeks to expand existing partnerships and create new ones. To find out more, click here or simply watch the following video:

 

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Utah Superintendent Defends Common Core Standards

Utah Superintendent of Public Instruction Larry Shumay recently blogged in defense of the common core state standards. See below for an excerpt or check out the full post here. If you are interested in learning more about common standards or where your state stands, visit our common standards portal.

Recently, some members of the Utah Senate expressed concerns over Utah joining with 40 other states in creating and implementing a set of common core standards in the areas of language arts and mathematics for our K-12 students. The members of the Utah State Board of Education and the staff at the Utah State Office of Education welcome the senators’ interest and encourage their inquiry. After honest investigation, we believe they will come to the same conclusion that the Board has come to: Common core standards will help increase the academic rigor of Utah’s public schools and help make students across the nation more academically (and, consequently, economically) competitive with their peers from around the globe.

The first thing you should know about the Common Core is that it is not a federal program. This is the product of individual states like Utah working in cooperation to improve schools. It is not a top-down federal approach and the standards are not politically biased. The driving force behind the core was the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Utah Governor Gary Herbert is a member of the National Governors Association, as are all the nation’s governors. The latter group, CCSSO, includes in its membership State Superintendent Larry K. Shumway and his counterparts from the other states. The participating states are now also working on creating tests to measure learning the common core in English and math. Utah’s Associate State Superintendent Judy Park is leading that effort as chair of the assessment group.

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Morning Announcements: January 19, 2011

A Florida state lawmaker is proposing legislation that would require elementary school teachers to evaluate parents based on the quality of their involvement in children’s schools. And a different Florida lawmaker is championing a bill that would replace the FCAT’s, the annual state exams, with the High School Competency Test.  

Teach for America used to have a small pilot program in Seattle Public schools in the mid 1990s and now its working its way back to the area.

In Detroit, the Board of Education is proposing a settlement to gain back academic control from the district’s emergency financial manager. 

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Ask the Expert: Mariana Haynes

District policies play a considerable role in determining principals’ instructional behaviors and successes in transforming high school culture, according to a new brief released today from the Alliance for Excellent Education. "Meeting the Challenge: The Role of School Leaders in Turning Around the Lowest-Performing High Schools" recommends policies that focus on a schoolwide, systematic approach to improving professional learning and collaborative practices. Mariana Haynes wrote the brief and we recently interviewed her to learn more about the importance of school leadership. Do you have a question for Mariana? Simply, type it in the comments section below and she will do her best to respond. 

What do we know about the impact of school leaders on teaching and student achievement?

Of all school-related factors that impact student achievement, school leadership is second in importance only to classroom instruction. A major report from the Wallace Foundation looks at the way leadership influences student learning by creating the conditions and the expectations in high schools that there will be excellent instruction and a culture of ongoing learning for educators and students in the school. Leader effects are largely indirect and are strengthened by professional communities and the collective influence of all participants in adopting practices that enhance student learning.

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