Education Research Report TODAY

Education Research Report

Education Research Report 

TODAY

Are Public School Teachers Adequately Compensated? xx

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10min

It is difficult to definitively answer the question of whether public school teachers are adequately compensated. To provide context for understanding the research on the adequacy of teacher compensation, this Center on Education Policy brie f describes how the public K-12 education system is funded (including how events how the Great Recession impact teacher compensation) and highlights recent a

How States are Responding to ESSA’s Evidence Requirements for School Improvement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 11min

This report, based on interviews with officials from seven state departments of education, explores state efforts to assist local educators with selecting evidence-based interventions to improve low-performing schools. The report also contains some recommendations for making research more accessible to educators. Several themes emerged across multiple state interviews that could be informative fo

Personalized Learning: The Promise and the Reality

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 31min

Personalized learning programs are proliferating in schools across the United States, fueled by philanthropic dollars, tech industry lobbying, marketing by third-party vendors, and a policy environment that provides little guidance and few constraints. In Personalized Learning and the Digital Privatization of Curriculum and Teaching , Faith Boninger, Alex Molnar, and Christopher M. Saldaña, of th

YESTERDAY

The impact of Take Stock in Children's® (TSIC's®) FLIGHT program

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently reviewed research that examined the impact of Take Stock in Children's ® ( TSIC's ® ) FLIGHT program on students’ college access and enrollment, general academic achievement (high school), and attendance (high school). The results are summarized in an intervention report released by the Institute of Education Sciences today . FLIGHT provides eligible st

Student Outcomes and Parent Teacher Home Visits

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

Parent Teacher Home Visits (PTHV) is a strategy for engaging educators and families as a team to support student achievement. The PTHV model developed from an understanding that family engagement is critical to student success. This study addresses the following research questions : 1 . To what extent does schools’ implementation of PTHV predict school - level outcomes? 2 . To what extent does st

Trial of the MindOut Program for Disadvantaged Post-Primary School Students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

School-based social and emotional learning programs aim to provide students with the skills they need to deal with life challenges, thereby enhancing their social and emotional wellbeing, academic outcomes, and reducing their risk of mental health difficulties. While there is a robust evidence base on the effectiveness of these programs originating from the US, there is a relative paucity of rese

Research on Programs For Struggling Readers in Elementary Schools

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

This article reviews research on the outcomes of diverse reading approaches on the achievement of struggling readers in elementary schools. 61 studies of 48 different programs met rigorous standards. 84% were randomized experiments and 16% quasi-experiments. Outcomes were positive for one-to-one tutoring and were positive but not as large for one-to-small group tutoring. There were no differences

Effects of College-and Career-Ready Standards on Student Achievement: Significant negative effects for grade 4 reading; Negative effects were also observed for grade 8 reading, grade 4 math, and grade 8 math

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 21h

Full report Since the release of the report A Nation at Risk, standards-based reforms have been a crucial part of federal and state efforts to improve education. College- and career-ready (CCR) standards--the focus of the current wave of standards-based reform—differ from states’ previous standards in importantways.Most notably,the new CCR standards were explicitly designed around thegoal of ensu

English Language Learners in America’s Great City Schools

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 22h

In 2013, the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) published the first-ever report on English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in member districts, reporting on a range of indicators in addition to ELL enrollment and languages spoken by such students. This report updates most of the data presented in the 2013 Council ELL report, shedding light once again on ELL enrollment, student performance

Higher Education Trends

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 23h

For 17 years, the New Media Consortium convened panels of experts from higher education and posed three key questions for them to discuss: What is on the five-year horizon for higher education institutions? Which trends and technology developments will drive educational change? What are the critical challenges and how can we strategize solutions? The resulting Horizon Report series charts the fiv

2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

In 2018, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered the digitally based Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) assessment to better understand what U.S. students know and can do in the areas of technology and engineering. Eighth-grade students were presented with real-world technology and engineering challenges. They were asked to respond to questions aimed at assessin

APR 29

Education may be key to a healthier, wealthier US

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

According to the United States Department of Education, the U.S. high school graduation rate will reach an all-time high this year, which is good news for both our economy and health. Policy makers often use education policy to strengthen the workforce and boost earnings, productivity and employment. But earning a diploma may also lead to a longer, healthier life. A new study from the University

Being a car commuter with obesity linked to a 32% increased death risk

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow, Scotland (28 April - 1 May) shows that individuals with obesity who commute by car have a 32% higher risk of death, from any cause, compared with those individuals with a normal weight and commute via cycling and walking. The study is by Edward Toke-Bjolgerud, University of Glasgow, UK, and colleagues. Previous work, u

'Pedigree is not destiny' when it comes to scholarly success

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Santa Fe Institute IMAGE: For pairs of computer science faculty matched by (A,B) work environment prestige or (C,D) training environment prestige, (A) publication and (B) citation counts are statistically independent of differences in doctoral prestige... view more Credit: Samuel F. Way What matters more to a scientist's career success: where they currently work, or where they got their Ph.D.? It

Quality Rating Systems for Early Learning Programs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

In several publications released today (April 29 th ), the Institute of Education Sciences describes the progress that Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grantee states made in implementing rating systems to document and improve early learning program quality. The RTT-ELC grant 

Education Research Report

In U.S., 54% Say Teachers Unprepared to Handle Discipline

In U.S., 54% Say Teachers Unprepared to Handle Discipline

In U.S., 54% Say Teachers Unprepared to Handle Discipline

Less than half of U.S. adults (43%) believe teachers are "very prepared" or "prepared" to handle discipline issues in the classroom -- while a slight majority, 54%, say they are "unprepared" or "very unprepared."

When asked about six possible solutions to address discipline issues in schools, six in 10 Americans, the most for any solution suggested, say greater access to mental health services for students would be "very effective." Stricter disciplinary practices -- more detentions, suspensions or expulsions -- are viewed as least effective among these six solutions.

How U.S. education leaders choose to address significant discipline issues in school systems today is important given the national trend of students being pushed out of school by punitive discipline practices. This trend has been coined the "school-to-prison pipeline," as students who drop out are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested.

The specific policies that will most effectively address the significant discipline challenges teachers face in the classroom are being tested nationally -- but importantly, the U.S. public believes teachers require more training and support to handle these challenges.

In U.S., 54% Say Teachers Unprepared to Handle Discipline

Teachers union announces second strike at Sacramento City Unified | The Sacramento Bee

Teachers union announces second strike at Sacramento City Unified | The Sacramento Bee

Teachers announce second strike at Sacramento City Unified School District

The Sacramento City Teachers Association, embroiled in a labor dispute with the financially troubled Sacramento City Unified School District, announced Tuesday that it will hold its second one-day strike on May 22.

The teachers union made the announcement at a press conference at its Sacramento headquarters, joined by leaders from the California Teachers Association, Oakland Education Association, United Teachers of Los Angeles, Sacramento Central Labor Council, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, California Nurses Association and others.

SCTA President David Fisher on Tuesday declared the union’s first strike successful. He said the April 11 walkout, protesting alleged unfair labor practices, was kept to one day to minimize impact on students but pressured the district to “finally acknowledged that all solutions need to be on the table, including reducing the superintendent’s salary and chopping from the top.”

However, he said the district still is not honoring its labor agreement “and may force another strike on May 22.”

On that same date, the California Teachers Association is holding a “Day of Action” at the Capitol in Sacramento.

In a district statement Tuesday, board President Jessie Ryan said, “On May 22nd rather than striking, we should join forces to demand full and fair funding at CTA’s #RedforEd Capitol Action Day.”

Sacramento City Unified is $35 million in the red, and the second strike would come weeks before the deadline to identify deep cuts and balance its budget by the end of June or face a takeover by the state.

“SCTA leaders have announced another strike at a time when our district is running out of money, on the brink of insolvency and state takeover,” Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said in the district statement. “This strike will once again have a negative impact on our students, particularly those CONTINUE READING: Teachers union announces second strike at Sacramento City Unified | The Sacramento Bee

Embarrassment for Trump as teachers of the year shun White House award ceremony

Embarrassment for Trump as teachers of the year shun White House award ceremony

Embarrassment for Trump as teachers of the year shun White House award ceremony

Kentucky and Minnesota teachers of year boycott White House ceremony to protest Trump policies - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/05/01/two-award-winning-teachers-boycott-white-house-ceremony-protest-trump-policies/?utm_term=.dcce740222f8

Two state teachers of the year skipped a White House awards ceremony meant to honor them to protest President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Education Week reported that rather than attend the Oval Office ceremony on Monday, Kentucky Teacher of the Year Jessica Dueñas and Minnesota Teacher of the Year Kelly Holstine decided to hold a press conference on Tuesday to explain why they weren’t attending.

“It’s uncomfortable for me right now to not be with my peers, but it’s the right choice,” Dueñas, a 6th-grade special education teacher at W.E.B. DuBois Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, told Ed Week. “When I’m gone someday from this earth, I feel like I’m going to be on the right side of history, for speaking up for my students and my state in this manner.”

Holstine, who described herself as an “out, gender-non-conforming lesbian” and Minnesota’s first teacher of the year from the LGBTQ community, said she could not attend due to the Trump administration’s homophobic and transphobic policies.

“I feel that the policies of this administration, and the homophobia and the transphobia and the demonizing of the LGBTQ people, is so damaging and hurtful,” she said. “And it creates an environment where other folks feel emboldened to also feel that hatred.”

Holstine explained to Ed Week that many of her students at Tokata Learning Center in Shakopee, MN, an alternative learning center, are undocumented, have family who are undocumented or are Somali refugees.

“I cannot in good conscience even implicitly support an administration that does not support my students,” Holstine said.

Dueñas revealed to the magazine that one of her parents was formerly undocumented CONTINUE READING: Embarrassment for Trump as teachers of the year shun White House award ceremony

CURMUDGUCATION: Florida Really Is The Worst

CURMUDGUCATION: Florida Really Is The Worst

Florida Really Is The Worst

There are plenty of states in the country that are not very friendly to public education, but Florida under its new governor has established itself as the very worst state for public education. The worst. Its hatred of public school teachers and its absolute determination to dismantle public education so that it can sell off the pieces to privatizers and profiteers puts the sunshine state in the front of the pack.

The Newest Baloney

The latest nail in the coffin is Senate Bill 7070, a bill that adds yet another school choice program to the Florida portfolio of choiceness. That bill was passed today and now needs only Governor DeSantis's signature, which it will get quickly. The bill offers up vouchers that can be used for private schools, including the religion-based ones, like the ones that teach dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth together and the ones that maintain their right to discriminate against, well, whoever. The vouchers will be one more drain on the public tax dollars intended to fund public education, but then, a key feature of the Florida approach has been to keep underfunding public schools so that charter and private schools can look better by comparison.

No signs of help for education anywhere on the horizon

One Democratic representative during the discussion of this bill pointed out that Florida has been proud of its accountability system (the stupid test-score based awarding of letter grades to schools) and these vouchers will completely circumvent that system.

"What are we doing?" Montford said. "We're allowing them to take public funds to go to schools where the standards are not as high, or maybe don't have any standards. And worse than that, we don't even know what those standards are. Why are we supporting allowing parents to take their children to schools that don't fit the accountability system that we all are so proud of? Why are we doing that?"

Just spitballing here, but I'm betting the answer is "The accountability system was just a tool for CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Florida Really Is The Worst

Jonathan Rodrigues: When Segregation Is the Innovation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jonathan Rodrigues: When Segregation Is the Innovation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jonathan Rodrigues: When Segregation Is the Innovation

The privatizers got badly beaten in 2016, when they tried to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. Funded by the Waltons and the usual coven of billionaires, they asked the public to endorse a proposal to launch 12 charter schools every year, wherever they wanted to open. The referendum was overwhelmingly defeated, much to the surprise of its sponsors.

Governor Charlie Baker is a Republican who has appointed a choice-friendly State Board, so the privatizers have not given up hope for undermining democracy.

Now they are back with a proposal for “innovation zones.” 

Jonathan Rodrigues writes:

In a world where we’re more and more accustomed to jargon inherited from corporate start up world like “disruption” and “big data”, “innovation” stands out as one of the most empty vessels in which we project meaning without much thought of it.

In the education world in particular, almost anything can be “innovative”. Even bringing back purposeful segregation and differential treatment under the guise of educational opportunity. Governor Baker’s latest “Innovation Partnership Zones” may be clever, but it’s certainly not very innovative.

If only segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace CONTINUE READING: Jonathan Rodrigues: When Segregation Is the Innovation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio Legislature Must Pass HB 154 to Eliminate State School Takeovers in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland | janresseger

Ohio Legislature Must Pass HB 154 to Eliminate State School Takeovers in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland | janresseger

Ohio Legislature Must Pass HB 154 to Eliminate State School Takeovers in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland

The members of the Ohio Legislature must pass House Bill 154, thereby repealing Ohio House Bill 70, which provides for the state to seize governance from locally elected school boards in the state’s lowest scoring school districts. HB 70 was passed in 2015.

House Bill 154, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Representatives Joe Miller (D-Amherst) and Don Jones (R-Freeport), would dissolve existing state-appointed Academic Distress Commissions and their appointed CEOs in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland.  By passing HB 154, the Legislature would restore the governance of these school districts to their locally elected school boards. HB 154 would also restore respect and collective bargaining rights for their teachers.

Under the current HB 70, Ohio identifies any school district which has received three years of consecutive “F” grades on the state report card as in academic distress and subject to state takeover. Youngstown and Lorain are now completing their fourth school year under HB 70 state takeover.  East Cleveland was seized at the beginning of the current school year. Other districts facing HB 70 state takeover in the near future are Dayton next year and Columbus, Canton, Mansfield, Toledo and several others the following year.

The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram‘s Carissa Woytach describes the provisions of HB 154 which would offer broader support to districts deemed in academic distress: “Starting July 1, ‘failing’ districts under takeover would transition out of the Academic Distress Commission model and into a community learning center or other option. Starting July 1, 2020, districts that were not subject to an ADC but had received an overall F on the report card would begin to transition into an alternative model—including a community learning center… It also would allow for the Ohio Department of Education to provide support in creating the improvement plan and CONTINUE READING: Ohio Legislature Must Pass HB 154 to Eliminate State School Takeovers in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland | janresseger

Louisiana Educator: The Real Reasons for the Louisiana Teacher Shortage

Louisiana Educator: The Real Reasons for the Louisiana Teacher Shortage

The Real Reasons for the Louisiana Teacher Shortage

State education officials are now alarmed about the growing teacher shortage in Louisiana. What are the causes of the decline in certified teachers, and how can we fix it?

I would hazard a guess that most legislators have no clue that theyhave been primarily responsible for the teacher shortage in Louisiana. So they are looking for solutions in areas that may not help alleviate the problem.

Here are the usual reasons given for the Louisiana teacher shortage and how to cure it: Sure, teacher salaries are too low and a big boost in teacher salaries in Louisiana would get a few more young people to choose teaching. Unfortunately, the Republicans in the legislature are too tight fisted to allow more than a measly $1,000 raise proposed by Governor Edwards for next year (and that is still not a sure thing). Sure, if the State were to drop standards for teacher certification as is being proposed by the LDOE and some superintendents, that will draw more warm bodies into the teaching field. Maybe providing extra pay for teachers in shortage fields such as math, ELA, science and special education would add a few more desperate workers in those areas.

Those are the quick fixes being considered by the legislature in HB 310. But the real problem causing the present teacher shortage can be summarized with the title of the Aretha Franklin song: R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Unfortunately respect is the last thing the reformers and self appointed bosses of public education are willing to give.
For 16 years now, the reformers have operated on the assumption that the teaching profession is failing and deserves little respect. The power brokers believed they could fix the profession by putting it under the control of a bunch of "elite non-educators" who would demand better performance or else!

Starting in 2004, laws were passed that would allow the state to take over so called failing schools where student performance was CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: The Real Reasons for the Louisiana Teacher Shortage

Want to ‘Fix’ Public Education? Then Fix the Economy! | The Merrow Report

Want to ‘Fix’ Public Education? Then Fix the Economy! | The Merrow Report

Want to ‘Fix’ Public Education? Then Fix the Economy!

I was raised to believe in public schools.  My parents taught me that good public schools both improve and unite their communities.**  Moreover, they said, great teachers transform children’s lives by unlocking their potential, which allows them to cast off whatever shackles they had been born into and rise into the middle class and beyond.  Education was liberation, they said, and I embraced the view that schools did not simply ratify the social status a child was born into.

Now, however, I realize that our economic system is so sharply tilted in favor of the privileged that even the best efforts of teachers are not enough to open the doors of opportunity to significant numbers of poor and underprivileged students.

What’s to be done?   Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, politicians in Florida and elsewhere, many Republicans, and ‘Corporate Democrats’ like Cory Booker want to change the way we go to school–by providing vouchers or opening more charter schools.  This approach, which they call ‘choice,’ will not even begin to touch the inequity that pervades education. In fact, I believe these changes would weaken an already endangered system.

It may be helpful to look back to how things were just over a half century ago. As it happens, things have not always been so unfair.

After finishing college in 1964, I taught for two years in a public high school just CONTINUE READING: Want to ‘Fix’ Public Education? Then Fix the Economy! | The Merrow Report