About one hundred educators, policymakers, and stakeholders gathered to attend a pair of forums on the practices of urban school leaders who are making dramatic gains in student achievement. Co-hosted by the Alliance for Excellent Education and New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), the event featured principals from Chicago, Washington, DC, and Sacramento, who shared their experiences regarding the effectiveness of strategies promoted by New Leaders for New Schools in high-poverty schools.

The Alliance released a brief exploring how to improve the distribution of teachers among and within low-performing high schools, and which outlines recommendations for federal policymakers in supporting and encouraging good practice at the state and local level. A panel of teacher quality experts discussed how state and local practice can inform federal policy.

At this event, the Alliance will release its newest brief, which explores ways to define and measure teacher effectiveness at the high school level and how to use this information to improve teaching. A panel of national experts on teacher quality—including experts on measurement and the use of effectiveness data to improve instruction—will discuss how research can be used to improve high school teaching.

Teachers are crucial to the success of our students. Yet many of them are leaving their schools and the profession, particularly in poorer, lower performing schools. Common wisdom says that good teachers are more likely to leave. But are they?

On Friday, February 22, Directions For Our Youth, Inc. (DFOY) hosted a Dropout Summit at Lehman College, City University of New York. Among the event sponsors were the Alliance for Excellent Education, America’s Promise, the Hispanic Federation and the After-School Corporation. The goals for the event were to assess progress since the Dropout Summit held in 2007 and to develop recommendations for local, state, and federal action.

Reauthorizing and improving NCLB is critical to our nation’s future -- to accelerating progress in assuring that all students, regardless of race or economic status, have access to a quality education. Every day we wait, thousands of students drop out of school, teachers continue to struggle for the support they need, and too many of our students, schools and communities miss out on the benefits that would come from improving the law.

Amid growing speculation over whether the U.S. Congress would reauthorize the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2008, the Alliance for Excellent Education and Catalyst Chicago convened a panel of experts to discuss ways that the law should be changed to be more supportive of local high school reform efforts—whenever reauthorization takes place.

The 2006 Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) results will be released to an international audience by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the early hours of December 4 in Paris. Join us at the National Press Club to hear Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at OECD’s Directorate for Education present the results of the OECD study including performance results in reading, mathematics, and science; a special focus on students’ attitudes towards science; and an analysis of the common elements of high performing education systems. More Information...

Alliance President Bob Wise, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), and education advocates discussed the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

On October 4-5, the Alliance for Excellent Education convened local, state, and national education leaders to discuss federal strategies for improving the achievement of our nation’s struggling middle and high school students. Last year’s conference examined the consensus that has been building around a federal agenda for high school reform. Leveraging that momentum, this year’s conference focused on explicit policies that should be included in NCLB to improve high schools.

Audio, video and materials from the Alliance for Excellent Education's High School Policy Conference