Produced by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd, this 13th annual report on the California teacher workforce takes an extended look at principals in the Golden State and their vital role in supporting teacher effectiveness. The center provides new information on budget cutbacks to teacher professional development, declining enrollment in preparation programs, drops in the rate of newly credentialed teachers, and escalating educator retirements. The report also…
A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
January 24, 2013EdSurge discusses a Bill of Rights and Principles, newly developed by a group of people passionate about learning, serving today’s students, and using every available tool to respond better to the needs of students in a global, interactive, digitally connected world....
Digital Content: What Does the Future Hold for Education Systems?
January 23, 2013GETideas.org hosted this GooglePlus hangout on the future of digital content. The online discussion featured a panel of education experts, including Nicole Allen, affordable-textbooks advocate, Student PIRGS; Una Daly, communication college outreach director, OpenCourseWare Consortium; and Cable Green, director of global...
Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement: A Realist Analysis
January 22, 2013In Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement, author Roy Nash argues that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of educational group differences can, and must be, constructed. A move to such an explanatory framework will allow society to take into account the...
Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools
January 14, 2013In Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools, renowned educator and technology expert Jim Lengel provides a refreshing and hopeful picture of what schools should look like, including a groundbreaking seven-step process for envisioning and building them that draws on the...
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December 19, 2011The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Effective Learning Environments (CELE) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have launched the Database of Best Practices in Educational Facilities Investment, which informs the planning, design, construction, management, and evaluation of educational spaces, combining resources for strategic investment in educational infrastructure, with exemplary school and university facilities from all over the world. Drawing on the output of a joint CELE/EIB…
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December 19, 2011Disabled Students in Education: Technology, Transition, and Inclusivity by David Moore, Andrea Gorra, Mike Adams, John Reaney, and Helen Smith reports on 15 research projects aimed at improving the educational prospects of disabled people. Through its discussion of three main themes—technology, transition, and inclusivity—this book aims to be of interest to disabled students, their parents and teachers, and the people who run and set policies for their educational providers. If you…
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December 14, 2011These Web Tables from the National Center for Education Statistics (U.S.) examine the demographic and postsecondary enrollment characteristics of undergraduates who attended for-profit institutions in 2007–08 and present the six-year outcomes of undergraduates who first enrolled in for-profit postsecondary institutions in 2003–04. Data are presented for all for-profit students and separately for students who attended less-than-2-year, 2-year, and 4-year institutions. To provide additional context, the tables also include comparable data…
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December 13, 2011While the number of global and country-level ranking and classification systems continues to expand, a regional classification and assessment of higher-education institutions (HEIs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has not been developed. Such a system is needed given the rapid expansion of the higher-education sector in the region, as new domestic institutions and branch campuses of overseas institutions emerge and as higher education in the region…
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December 9, 2011In 2007, New York City schools commenced a school-level pay-for-performance program for teachers and staff in about 200 schools. The authors of this RAND report found that the program didn’t improve schools or student outcomes. Why? Because the program failed to create conditions that theory suggests are necessary for performance-based incentive programs to change behaviors, and the program did not appear to motivate teachers to change their behaviors. If…
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December 7, 2011The Blend My Learning project brought together Envision Schools, Google, the Khan Academy, and the Stanford University d.school to chronicle the performance and engagement of low-performing high school algebra students receiving a mix of traditional teacher-led instruction and self-guided instruction though the Khan Academy website. This report draws from qualitative interviews and observations, as well as quantitative data from pre- and post-course assessments in algebra. Though the experimental methods and…
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December 7, 2011This report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents results from the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in reading. Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 assessment. Student performance is reported as average scale scores on the NAEP reading scale and as percentages of students who attained the achievement levels set by the National Assessment Governing Board. District…
