How to Encourage School Board Accountability

Dear School Board Member:

Among the many responsibilities that you have, overseeing the vision of a school district that seeks high achievement for all students is…

When Evaluating Teachers, What Works Best, High-Tech or Low-Tech?

In this Education Week article, Kim Marshall argues that when principals, assistant principals, and department heads supervise teachers, using laptops, tablets, and smartphones isn’t always the best approach. Here’s Marshall’s take on what works best in each of the four components of teacher supervision:

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TEACHERS’ ADVICE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA IN HIS SECOND TERM

President Obama's administration, which has had asometimes-strained relationship with…

Teacher Quality: Investing in What Matters

Spurred by awards of federal funding under the Race to the Top competition, many states are adopting teacher-evaluation systems with…

Voices: Common Core helps teachers prioritize

Written by Megan Lawson on Nov 15th, 2012.

The Autism Project: Parent to parent on dealing with a diagnosis

How Teens Do Research in the Digital World

By Greg Hutko

This recent Pew study—the first in a series of three on the role of technology in the classroom—investigates how the Internet has affected middle school and high school students’ research skills and strategies. While this survey of 2,500 AP and National Writing Project teachers (presumably those in the most advanced classrooms) does offer a peek into this complicated issue, the window remains…

How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement

By Andrew Saraf

What happens when teachers drop out? Conventional wisdom has long said that the costs associated with such transitions (e.g., the loss of routine and the loss of an experienced teacher) harm student achievement. Yet the leading research on this topic concludes otherwise: In 2010, Eric Hanushek and Steven…

Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Idea of Authentic Assessment

Tests don't just measure absorption of facts. They teach what we value.

BY GRANT WIGGINS

Edutopia

Credit: Thomas…

Teaching Climate Change in Sandy's Wake

When asked what was the greatest threat a statesman might face, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan is said to have replied, "Events, dear boy, events."

Hurricane…

Problems with Value-Added Teacher Evaluation in Secondary Schools

In this Education Week article, Stephen Sawchuk reports on two new studies that question the accuracy of value-added teacher evaluation in middle and high schools. What undermines the validity of value-added data, say the studies, is students being grouped by achievement. Value-added analysis compares a statistical estimate of students’ projected growth with…