December 19, 2014
In this paper, Addison makes the argument that performance architecture is a framework that allows someone to assess all features of an organization so that the parts of the system can be aligned to support an innovation. Read More…
December 16, 2014
The School Leaders Network has released a new report exploring the costs of principal turnover. Read More…
December 15, 2014
In a recent article in The New Yorker, James Surowiecki makes the argument that high performance coaching for athletes and classical musicians has become the standard for these professions and posits that it should be for educators as well. His position is that coaching is the best way to assure that teachers know the right things to do and continue to do them.
Surowiecki, J. (Nov. 10, 2014) Better all the time. The New Yorker.
November 18, 2014
Two recent opinion pieces, that appeared on the Thomas Fordham Institute web site, offer a look at issues regarding principal preparation. Read More…
October 29, 2014
A report by the Brown Center on Education Policy released in September 2014 finds that school superintendents are around for only a short time and have very little impact when it comes to improving student performance. Read More…
October 2, 2014
West Ed has a new wed site to support educators cope with the demand for providing effective instruction under the guidelines of Common Core. Read More…
September 25, 2014
This op-ed piece by Daniel Willingham examines recent research conducted by Roland Fryer. The study, Injecting Charter School Best Practices into Traditional Public Schools: Evidence from Field Experiments, reviews attempts to implement in public schools the lessons that Fryer learned about what makes effective charter schools (Dobbie & Fryer, 2011). The study concluded that the interventions did not produce significant improvement in student performance.
Willingham’s article makes several very critical observations. The first is the importance of disseminating results of studies that fail to produce the projected effects. This is fundamental to a vibrant evidence-based model of education: understanding what works and, equally important, what does not work. Unfortunately, educators and universities do not place the same value on negative results as on positive results. Willingham makes this point when he asks the critical questions, what went wrong and why did the study fail to arrive at the hypothesized results? Too often, educators reject a practice out of hand as a consequence of a particular study when the important lesson might lie elsewhere, perhaps in a poorly designed practice or a failure to implement the practice as designed.
http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog
February 5, 2014
On January 8, 2014, The U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a school discipline package to assist educators in developing a course of action to deal with the increasing need to successfully handle discipline and safety issues in schools. The report includes Read More…
October 31, 2012
Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy is a report published by the National Academies Press. Although written for researchers, the papers is important for anyone involved in making public policy. The paper identifies reasons why Read More…
September 28, 2012
This randomized matched controlled study compares the impact of charter schools to public school middle school and high school student’s achievement, high school graduation rates, and post-secondary enrollment rates. In general the Read More…