ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Linked Learning: Using Learning Time Creatively to Prepare Students for College and Career
Author: Almond, Monica R.
Date: 2014-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Public Education,Common Core State Standards,College Preparation,Career Development,Educational Change,High Schools,Urban Schools,Change Strategies,Time Factors (Learning),School Schedules,Educational Policy,Federal Aid,Systems Approach,Experiential Learning,Relevance (Education),At Risk Students,Minority Group Students,Low Income Groups,Observation,Interviews,Time Management

American public education is in a constant state of experimentation, with new waves of reforms and education initiatives unveiled routinely--many recycled and some reinvented. Yet few are truly innovative. The newest and most promising reform thus far are the Common Core State Standards, which are rigorous standards in English language arts and mathematics implemented in elementary through high school. These standards require new approaches to teaching and learning that ensure all students are adequately prepared for postsecondary education and careers without the need for remediation. New standards certainly offer new challenges; but they also provide new opportunities to fundamentally change the American public education system. A California-led initiative called Linked Learning offers a promising systemic approach to reform that is designed to address the challenges and has been touted as a suitable complement to implementing the Common Core State Standards. This report highlights the efforts of high schools implementing multiple Linked Learning pathways in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Oakland Unified School District, Porterville Unified School District, and Sacramento Unified School District. Each of these pathways has reconfigured the use of time in order to provide students with a more effective learning experience. Building on the lessons learned from these districts, as well as their collective expertise in high school reform and high-quality increased learning time, the Center for American Progress and the Alliance for Excellent Education provide a number of recommendations including: (1) Districts should give schools the flexibility to redesign their master schedules so that teachers and students have the necessary time to implement effective approaches to high school reform such as Linked Learning; (2) Learning from the California experience, states should enact high school reform policy to provide effective college and career pathways for students; and (3) Congress should increase funding and flexibility for 21st Century Community Learning Centers. An appendix provides supplemental tables.
Getting the Best People into the Toughest Jobs: Changes in Talent Management in Education
Author: Odden, Allan
Date: 2013-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Administrator Qualifications,Recruitment,Personnel Selection,Placement,Professional Development,Evaluation Methods,Tenure,Promotion (Occupational),Salaries,Governance,Educational History,Educational Change,Human Capital,Educational Policy,Talent,Employment Qualifications

It is indisputable that teachers and principals have the greatest impact on student learning. Unfortunately, the education system has hired and tenured thousands of ineffective teachers and principals, particularly in high-poverty urban and rural schools. As a consequence, these schools have low levels of student learning. To remedy this problem, the nation is engaged in multiple activities to get effective teachers into all classrooms and effective principals into all schools through more &quot;strategic management&quot; of education talent. Strategic talent management is an approach that manages all human resource programs--recruitment, selection, placement, development, evaluation, tenure, promotion, dismissal, and compensation--around a set of effectiveness metrics that capture instructional practice and student-learning growth. The theory is that effective principals should manage schools in ways that facilitate teachers' acquiring the instructional expertise they need to make them and the school effective--that is to say, successful in dramatically boosting student learning. This paper examines the evolving landscape of talent management in education, which is broken out in five sections: (1) Talent management, or lack thereof, in education at the close of the 20th century; (2) Educational change that began at the dawn of the 21st century; (3) Rumblings of change that evolved into comprehensive new federal and state human-capital management policies and local practices; (4) Rumblings of change that coalesced into a foundation of change across the country and the new world of talent management; and (5) Why the focus on talent evolved and quickly assumed such a prominent role in the nation's education policy and practice agendas.
Cutting Red Tape: Overcoming State Bureaucracies to Develop High-Performing State Education Agencies
Author: Hanna, Robert
Date: 2014-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: State Departments of Education,Administrative Organization,Educational Legislation,State Legislation,State Regulation,Skill Development,Personnel Evaluation,Recruitment,Government Employees,Compensation (Remuneration),Federal Regulation,Barriers,Politics,Organizational Culture

States serve a special role in the nation's public education system. Through elected legislatures, states have endowed their various state departments of education with powers over public education, which include granting authority to local entities--typically school districts--to run schools. In their oversight capacity, states--traditionally through state education agencies, or SEAs--monitor districts and schools to ensure that students are safe in school and that their education meets minimum quality standards. But such standards are typically not explained with any specificity. Inspired by a national movement to provide equitable opportunities to all children, states also collect and redistribute dollars intended to reduce local funding disparities. Moreover, many policymakers--particularly federal policymakers--and advocates have asked states to drive large-scale educational improvement through federal programs, including No Child Left Behind waivers, Race to the Top initiatives, or the No Child Left Behind, or NCLB, Title I School Improvement Grant program. Because of this wide scope of duties, those who lead SEAs--not just their executive administrators but also other high-level managers--serve an important role in the future of the country as schools are pivotal to the nation's global competitiveness. One major impediment to their success is bureaucracy. In this paper, the authors explore the red tape that binds state education leaders as they seek to make today's ambitious reforms a reality. In doing so, they examine state laws and regulations in four states: California, Louisiana, New York, and Ohio. This purposeful sample, which varies by geographic location and politics, includes states with straightforward, easy-to-navigate resources on state laws. The discussion is organized by five strategic areas that are critical to the successful functioning of SEAs: developing skills; aligning the organization to priorities; evaluating staff performance; recruiting talent; and paying competitively. [This report is part of a larger multi-year project on governance, conducted in partnership with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which evaluates the governance arrangements of our nation's K-12 education system and how they may be improved.]
The Promise of Education Information Systems: How Technology Can Improve School Management and Success
Author: Levenson, Nathan
Date: 2014-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Technology Uses in Education,Management Information Systems,School Districts,Elementary Secondary Education,Data,Educational Benefits,Educational Policy,Government Role,Educational Finance,Educational Research,Data Collection,Data Analysis,Decision Making,Productivity,Educational Change,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Time Management,Cost Effectiveness,Benchmarking,Academic Achievement,Talent Identification

Many school district strategic plans and education conferences are aggressively embracing technology to improve teaching and learning. Classroom technology typically includes blended learning, personalized learning, online courses for students, and professional development for teachers, among many other things. As districts wrestle with tighter budgets and higher academic standards, a different kind of technology might create game-changing transformation in the education sector: management technology. As the name suggests, classroom technology aims to improve what goes on in the classroom. Management technology, on the other hand, is more indirect: Management technology helps school and district leaders make better decisions, run leaner organizations, and target funds to programs that help kids the most. In short, it helps those in charge of districts and schools manage better. This report, which looks closely at the use of management technology in education, finds that most school districts fail to use these tools to improve their outcomes. In most cases, they lack both the technology and capacity to analyze their data and figure out effective and cost-effective solutions to raising achievement and reducing costs. Moreover, as this report argues, a large part of the problem is that the fundamental design and culture of schools today are not in sync with these new approaches. Finally, this report includes the following policy recommendations for how K-12 education can gain the same benefits from big data that many other sectors have: (1) States and the federal government need to facilitate the development of actionable management information; (2) Districts should make small investments to fund technology-infused analytics; (3) Bring talent, technology, and data to the decision-making table; and (4) Link results to key decisions such as continued funding or staff promotion.
Roadmap for a Successful Transition to the Common Core in States and Districts
Author: Martin, Carmel
Date: 2014-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Common Core State Standards,Student Evaluation,College Readiness,Career Readiness,Communication Skills,Critical Thinking,Transitional Programs,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Elementary Secondary Education,National Competency Tests

The Common Core State Standards present the greatest opportunity in decades to improve the quality of education afforded to all students. Uniformly raising standards across the majority of states and increasing the rigor of assessments sets an ambitious bar of college and career readiness for all students. Furthermore, assessing students against this more difficult benchmark will shine a bright light on schools and districts that are struggling to provide the caliber of education necessary for students to be successful. Armed with a more accurate picture of student performance, states and districts will be better positioned to direct resources and supports to students who need them the most. These new standards will also better prepare students to adjust to a changing economy by providing them with not just the base knowledge they need, but also the skills to be lifelong learners, effective communicators, and critical thinkers. It is true that the transition to the standards and assessments is difficult and will require patience, persistence, and continual parental and community engagement, with ongoing support and professional development for educators. But the tremendous benefits of the Common Core are too important to allow incomplete or inadequate implementation to undermine them. The good news is that across the country, states and districts are using promising and effective practices to implement the Common Core. The examples highlighted in this report are testimony to this effort. But more work remains, and states and districts should take note of best practices as they continue their transition to the Common Core.
Return on Educational Investment: 2014. A District-by-District Evaluation of U.S. Educational Productivity
Author: Boser, Ulrich
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Outcomes of Education,School Districts,Productivity,Educational Finance,Educational Equity (Finance),Budgeting,Academic Achievement,Elementary Secondary Education,Expenditures

In 2011, the Center of American Progress (CAP) released the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country. That project developed a set of relatively simple productivity metrics in order to measure the achievement that a school district produces relative to its spending, while controlling for factors outside a district's control, such the cost of living and students living in poverty. The findings of that first report were worrisome and underscored the fact that the nation suffers from a productivity crisis. The data suggested that low productivity might cost the nation's school system billions of dollars a year. What's more, too few states and districts tracked the bang that they received for their education buck. In this updated report, CAP uses these same metrics to once again examine the productivity of the nation's school districts. The authors embarked on this second evaluation for a number of reasons. In many areas, education leaders continue to face difficult budget choices, and more than 300,000 education-related jobs have been lost since the start of the Great Recession. At the same time, the advent of the new, more rigorous Common Core standards will demand that far more from educators, including better, tougher exams. In short, many educators are being asked to do more with less. The following was found: (1) Low educational productivity remains a deeply pressing problem, with billions of dollars lost in low-capacity districts; (2) Some of the nation's most affluent school systems show a worrying lack of productivity; (3) In some districts, spending priorities are clearly misplaced; (4) State approaches to improving fiscal effectiveness vary widely; (5) States have failed to make fiscal equity a priority and large funding gaps exist across school districts; and (6) State budget practices are often inconsistent and opaque. Frequently asked questions are appended.
America's Most Financially Disadvantaged School Districts and How They Got That Way: How State and Local Governance Causes School Funding Disparities
Author: Baker, Bruce D.
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Disadvantaged Schools,School Districts,Educational Equity (Finance),Educational Finance,Public Schools,State Policy,Educational Policy,Classification,Elementary Secondary Education,State Aid

This report explores some of the most financially disadvantaged school districts in the country and identifies a typology of conditions that have created or reinforced their disadvantage. This report looks at why this happens--and what can be done about it. First, this report lays out a typology of conditions that lead to severe fiscal disadvantage for local public school systems. It then provides examples of states, state policy conditions, and specific local public school districts identified as being severely financially disadvantaged. The report concludes by providing policy recommendations. Appended to the report are the following: (1) Methodological Appendix; (2) General Findings by State; and (3) Complete Lists.
High-Quality Professional Development for Teachers: Supporting Teacher Training to Improve Student Learning
Author: DeMonte, Jenny
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Faculty Development,Teacher Education,Educational Change,Common Core State Standards,Teacher Improvement,Student Improvement,Correlation,Coaching (Performance),Technology Uses in Education,Teacher Evaluation

Professional development in education has gotten a bad reputation, and for good reason. Everyone on all sides of the education reform and improvement debate agrees that what most teachers receive as professional opportunities to learn are thin, sporadic, and of little use when it comes to improving teaching. This paper is the first of a periodic series of reports and briefs by the Center for American Progress looking at professional learning--what states and districts are doing that is working, and what policies are in place to support effective teacher-training activities. The work of improving instruction to help students achieve deserves attention, particularly now when it is an important part of powerful reforms. This report is an attempt to map the landscape of professional learning to prompt ideas that can grow from the foundation--albeit small--that is already in place around professional learning.
Next-Generation Accountability Systems: An Overview of Current State Policies and Practices
Author: Rosenberg, Sarah
Date: 2014-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Accountability,State Policy,Educational Policy,College Readiness,Career Readiness,Educational Innovation,Educational Improvement,Educational Resources,Resource Allocation,School Turnaround,Educational Finance,Teacher Effectiveness,Faculty Development,Leadership,Elementary Secondary Education

With significant shifts in education, states are recognizing that students were not being taught at levels that adequately prepared them for college and careers and stepped up to develop and implement more rigorous standards. As part of this transition, states have also committed to better supports for educators to adapt to the new standards, better assessments to measure student learning, and better accountability systems to understand where schools are struggling and how to help them improve. Building on the positive aspects of &quot;No Child Left Behind,&quot; the &quot;Council of Chief State School Officers,&quot; or CCSSO, released a vision for the future of accountability systems. This vision described an accountability system that is grounded in college- and career-readiness standards, collects a broader array of data to more accurately understand school and district performance, and uses those data to better support schools and districts, with an emphasis on the lowest performing. In order to illustrate the variety of innovative approaches to accountability that states are exploring, this report provides examples of next-generation accountability concepts implemented by states. While this study provides an overview of the landscape, it is not fully representative of the variety of state approaches to accountability. CCSSO notes, looking beyond &quot;No Child Left Behind,&quot; understandings of innovation at the state level will inform and shape the conversation around accountability systems moving forward. This paper is the first in a series of work from the &quot;Center for American Progress&quot; on accountability, as they partnered with &quot;Council of Chief State School Officers&quot; on this project in order to bring greater transparency and recognition to the innovative work being done at the state level.
Testing Overload in America's Schools
Author: Lazarín, Melissa
Date: 2014-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Testing,Testing Problems,Urban Schools,Suburban Schools,School Districts,Elementary Secondary Education,Standardized Tests,Common Core State Standards,School Culture,Test Preparation

It appears that schools and families are at a crossroads when it comes to testing. High-quality assessments generate rich data and can provide valuable information about student progress to teachers and parents, support accountability, promote high expectations, and encourage equity for students of color and low-income students. But it is important to acknowledge that for some children, testing exacts an emotional toll in the form of anxiety and stress. In undertaking this study, two goals were established: (1) to obtain a better understanding of how much time students spend taking tests; and (2) to identify the degree to which the tests are mandated by districts or states. Key findings from this study include: (1) Despite the perception that federally mandated state testing is the root of the issue, districts require more tests than states; (2) Students are tested as frequently as twice per month and an average of once per month; (3) Actual test administration takes up a small fraction of learning time; (4) There is a culture of testing and test preparation in schools that does not put students first; (5) District-level testing occurs more frequently and takes up more learning time in urban districts than in suburban districts; and (6) Districts are not transparent about testing practices or purposes.
Valuing All Our Families: Progressive Policies That Strengthen Family Commitments and Reduce Family Disparities
Author: Fremstad, Shawn
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Family Relationship,Social Values,Family (Sociological Unit),Social Class,Social Influences,Public Policy,Immigration,Crime,Justice,Change,Family Structure,Marital Status,Birth Rate,Family Violence,Well Being,Children,Employment Level,Family Income,Marriage,Working Class,Birth,Educational Attainment,Economic Factors,Socioeconomic Influences

Stable, healthy marriages and relationships can bolster the economic security and well-being of adults and children. However, reality is much more complex. Relatively few children currently live in families with married parents in which only the father is employed. In fact, more than half of U.S. children today will spend at least part of their childhoods not living with two biological parents. As argued in this report, a clear-eyed approach that better aligns family policy with the lived experience of 21st century families could provide the necessary supports to improve American family life. In reviewing the extensive research that has been done on families today, this report offers a new framework for understanding family indicators that can influence child and adult outcomes and highlights some key economic and social policies that would strengthen family commitments and reduce family disparities. The report is presented in five parts: trends and changes; the three S's of family; class gaps, factors driving class gaps, and policy recommendations that would update family policy in ways that make it more likely that all of our families are stable, healthy, and strong. This report also highlights the need to reform the United States' immigration and criminal justice systems to avoid separating families unnecessarily.