ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Strategic Design of Teacher Compensation
Author: Shields, Regis
Date: 2012-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Compensation (Remuneration),Influences,Educational Attainment,Teaching Experience,Teacher Evaluation,School Districts,Evidence,Teacher Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Correlation,Educational Change,Public Sector

Spurred by the national focus on revitalizing the teacher evaluation and support/development process, as well as the current economic downturn, many school districts are reviewing how teachers are compensated. While a few courageous districts have completely upended current structures, most districts are undertaking changes that leave the most prevalent structure--experience steps and educational attainment lanes--untouched, with modest tweaks at the margin to recognize performance and contribution. As districts consider new compensation structures, they are moving into mostly uncharted territory. The majority of the school systems across the country implement the basic elements of the step-and-lane compensation structure that treats all teachers the same, regardless of performance or responsibility. As a result, there are few proof points that districts can draw from as they undertake a design process to link teacher compensation with performance and contribution. In the current wave of compensation reform, one school district--Denver, Colorado--has had a comprehensive structure in place for a sufficient length of time to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of specific performance and contribution components. In addition, there are a handful of formal evaluations on the various performance bonus structures that school districts and states have put into place over the last 10 years. School districts can also draw from lessons learned in other professions, both private and public sector. Finally, they can look abroad to practices of high-performing education systems in other nations, as well as emerging and established research on employee motivation for the marketplace in general and for the teaching profession. The series of guidance memos presented in this paper are intended to provide teachers, districts, Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), and states with a starting point on this journey of reinvention. They provide a high-level summary of how the salary component of a teacher-compensation structure can integrate performance and contribution. This paper focuses on the salary component for two reasons. First, it represents the largest share of teacher compensation both from the perspective of the employer and the employee. Second, it is the primary--and, unfortunately, usually the sole--focus of nearly all districts currently contemplating compensation reform. A compensation glossary is included. (Contains 58 endnotes.
Fair Student Funding and Other Reforms: Baltimore's Plan for Equity, Empowerment, Accountability and Improvement
Author: Frank, Stephen
Date: 2012-09-09
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Urban Environment,Urban Schools,Goal Orientation,Educational Improvement,Instructional Leadership,Empowerment,Funding Formulas,Educational Finance,Financial Needs,Financial Policy,Resource Allocation,School District Spending,Student Needs,Accountability,Public Schools,Educational Change,School Based Management,Educational Equity (Finance)

Superintendent Andres A. Alonso arrived in Baltimore in 2007 with a vision for improving the city's struggling schools. His vision included empowering school leaders and creating accountability for student learning through a series of reforms that center around a new system for giving resources to schools, called Fair Student Funding (FSF). FSF attempts to create equity across schools and students by targeting resources according to student needs--academic and social-emotional--and build a system of school-based autonomy and flexibility focused on fulfilling those needs. Instead of awarding employees to schools based on staffing ratios, under the leadership of Alonso in 2008-2009, Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) adopted a per pupil funding formula. This gave dollars to schools with the amount weighted to vary based on estimates of student learning need and the schools' respective needs. Since the rapid implementation of FSF and related reforms, City Schools has moved off the federal &quot;needs improvement&quot; list. The district has celebrated a 50% decline in the drop-out rate (from 9% to 4%), a notable improvement in student performance, and the reversal of a decades-long enrollment decline. With the rapid implementation and encouraging results, FSF and related reforms continue to be a work-in-process, as Baltimore City Public Schools adjusts student weights, renegotiates contracts and builds capacity and support at the school level. At the request of Carnegie Corporation of New York and with the cooperation of City Schools, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) set out to examine Baltimore's implementation of FSF and the reforms that accompanied it. In this summary, ERS shares the extent to which City Schools has met the objectives of FSF and related reforms and summarizes key lessons learned. (Contains 1 footnote.)
Rethinking the Value Proposition to Improve Teaching Effectiveness. Rethinking Teacher Compensation
Author: Shields, Regis Anne
Date: 2012-12-01
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Districts,Teaching (Occupation),Employer Employee Relationship,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Selection,Teacher Qualifications,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Salaries,Merit Pay,Rewards,Incentives,Quality of Working Life,Teacher Motivation,Teacher Morale,Teacher Persistence,School Culture,Institutional Characteristics,Recognition (Achievement),Faculty Development,Teacher Improvement

All employers, including school districts, enter into a "Value Proposition" with their employees--the complete set of offerings and experiences provided by the employer, compared to other similar opportunities. A successful Value Proposition reflects the needs of both employer and employee, not only attracting and retaining employees with the right skills and knowledge, but giving employees the rewards and working conditions that motivate and engage them at the level and quality desired by the employer. Because teaching effectiveness is the single most important in-school factor for improving student achievement, rethinking the Value Proposition and how it gets communicated is one of the crucial levers available for school districts to increase their student achievement through improved attraction and retention of excellent teachers. What employers offer in any Value Proposition is broader than salary and benefits, and includes professional growth and career opportunities, work-life balance structures, and recognition. It also encompasses working conditions--things like quality of leadership, opportunity for teamwork, student motivation and discipline, and demands and structure of the job. This brief gives districts a roadmap for re-envisioning and rebuilding their Value Proposition. It requires a dramatic change in perspective, and deliberate shifts in investments to better meet district needs while also considering teacher preferences. (Contains 4 figures and 18 endnotes.)
One Vision, Seven Strategies
Author: Miles, Karen Hawley
Date: 2012-12-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Public Education,Democratic Values,Economic Climate,Income,Expenditure per Student,Poverty,Advantaged,Achievement Gap,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,Urban Schools,Educational History,Educational Strategies,Educational Practices,Educational Improvement,Systems Approach,Teacher Effectiveness,School Effectiveness,Best Practices

The "American Dream" is under duress as the economy slows, incomes stagnate, and upward mobility is more limited than at any time in recent history. Despite a steady increase in per-pupil spending on public schooling over the last decades, not enough students graduate with proficiency in reading and math. And despite some progress over the past decade, students living in poverty and who are African American or Hispanic, still lag far behind white students with more means. Yet not all schools are failing. There are many exemplary schools including urban schools that are succeeding despite high poverty rates, and growing numbers of district leaders taking courageous steps toward real and lasting improvement. To achieve the nation's ambitious performance goals for all students, school-level change alone is not the answer. Americans need to raise their sights and reorganize the entire educational structure in which their schools function. In the authors' work with urban districts, they have developed a multi-dimensional vision for restructuring public education for today's goals and realities. This vision is built around seven transformational strategies for organizing resources--people, time, and money--to support the creation of high-performing schools at scale. These strategies should not be viewed as "best practices" or "success factors" that can be implemented independent of each other. Instead, they should be seen as an integrated set of seven strategies for transforming education to meet the new goals for learning. (Contains 5 endnotes.)
School Budget Hold'em Facilitator's Guide
Author: Education Resource Strategies
Date: 2012-04-18
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Budgeting,Central Office Administrators,School Districts,Games,Experiential Learning,Boards of Education,Stakeholders,Resource Allocation,Goal Orientation,Alignment (Education),Group Dynamics,Needs Assessment,Strategic Planning,Learning Activities,Simulation

"School Budget Hold'em" is a game designed to help school districts rethink their budgeting process. It evolved out of Education Resource Strategies' (ERS) experience working with large urban districts around the country. "School Budget Hold'em" offers a completely new approach--one that can turn the budgeting process into a long-term visioning exercise around how the district can best serve its students. The game format enables school leaders and colleagues to step outside of the constraints of day-to-day decision-making and review the district's resource use in a more integrated way. As one creates "hands" of investments and savings options that extend beyond typical operational efficiencies, one will see possible ways to improve district performance while still meeting budget reduction goals. Much of the power of "School Budget Hold'em" comes from playing the game with others and engaging in a dialogue about what is possible even in these tough fiscal times. The important thing to remember is that there are no right or wrong answers. What matters is what is right for one's district. "School Budget Hold'em" can be useful in many different contexts and in many different ways. The authors have seen it work successfully with: (1) district leaders looking to find a way to address a looming budget reduction; (2) school board members looking for how to best support districts to make difficult choices that maximize student learning; (3) state policymakers and education advocates looking for how to best support districts to make difficult choices that maximize student outcomes; (4) parents and community members looking to get an introduction to district budgeting; (5) education policy students looking for a hands-on approach to complement their coursework; and so much more!
Series Overview. Sustaining School Turnaround at Scale. Brief 1
Author: Education Resource Strategies
Date: 2012-03-15
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Urban Schools,School Districts,Federal Programs,Partnerships in Education,Educational Improvement,Nonprofit Organizations,School Turnaround,Institutional Evaluation,Holistic Approach,Selection,Strategic Planning,Accountability,Alignment (Education),Institutional Autonomy,Models,Social Support Groups,Sustainable Development

Members of the non-profit organization Education Resource Strategies (ERS) have worked for over a decade with leaders of urban school systems to help them organize talent, time and technology to support great schools at scale. One year into the Federal program they are noticing significant differences in district turnaround approaches, engagement of partners and spending strategies. Most districts seem to have promising practices to share as well as common challenges. With this backdrop, ERS held the summit, Sustaining Turnaround at Scale that brought together central office leaders and principals from eight districts, as well as attendees from organizations that partner with turnaround schools and influence the conversation about turnaround. Over the course of the two-day summit, participants shared their experiences and perspectives on topics ranging from school designs to central office structure and from data usage to principal pipelines. The sessions were structured to enable creation of some common lessons and frameworks that could be shared within and across districts. Session participants confirmed five critical components of a complete district strategy for sustainable turnaround at scale: (1) Assess; (2) Target; (3) Define; (4) Plan Resources; and (5) Integrate. These components are explored briefly, and follow-up briefs will cover the areas that participants identified as providing the greatest challenges or opportunities. This is the first brief in a series produced by ERS that complies and analyzes the results of its Sustaining Turnaround at Scale Summit held in October 2011. Participants in Sustaining Turnaround at Scale Summit are appended. (Contains 2 figures and 11 footnotes.)
Investing for Sustainable Turnaround. Sustaining School Turnaround at Scale. Brief 2
Author: Education Resource Strategies
Date: 2012-03-15
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Federal Government,Federal Programs,Grants,Capacity Building,School Culture,School Effectiveness,Low Achievement,School Districts,School Turnaround,Partnerships in Education,Nonprofit Organizations,Resource Allocation,Sustainable Development,Educational Improvement,Needs Assessment,Strategic Planning,Accountability,Educational Change,Alignment (Education)

The Federal government has brought the issue of low-performing schools to the forefront of public conversation by committing $3.5 billion over three years to turn around these schools. As of March 2011, over 1200 schools across the country had been awarded School Improvement Grants (SIG). Given the magnitude of this short-term investment and the urgency of the problem, staff at Education Resource Strategies (ERS), have been studying how districts are organizing their resources--SIG and other--to turn around their neediest schools. This brief addresses the critical question: How can districts use SIG and other, often temporary resources to build lasting change that improves both student performance in target schools and district systems to keep schools from failing in the first place? This brief proposes a set of five practices for organizing turnaround resources to ensure that districts and their turnaround schools land in a permanently better place when temporary dollars run out. This is the second brief in a series produced by Education Resource Strategies (ERS) compiling and analyzing the results of its &quot;Sustaining Turnaround at Scale&quot; Summit held in October 2011. Additional resources are included. (Contains 2 figures and 6 footnotes.) [For &quot;Series Overview. Sustaining School Turnaround at Scale. Brief 1,&quot; see ED541226.]
Educational Changes in Russia. Bulletin, 1919, No. 37
Author: Bach, Theresa
Date: 1919-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Technical Education,Foreign Countries,Educational Change,Democracy,Textbooks,Social Change,Social Systems,Educational Practices,Access to Education,Educational Legislation,Political Influences,Educational History,Organizations (Groups),Spelling,Russian,Higher Education,College Faculty,Universities,School Administration,State Church Separation

In the press reports bearing upon conditions in Russia since the outbreak or the revolution in March, 1917, little mention has been made of the tremendous changes that have shaken the entire educational system in that country. One needs only read &quot;Vyestnik Vremennavo Pravitelstva&quot; (&quot;Messenger of the Provisional Government&quot;), Russia's official gazette for the publication of the acts and decrees promulgated by the various ministries and other administrative bodies since the revolution, to become impressed with the deep and far-reaching reforms that have uprooted the entire system of the old education built on principles of autocracy and the privileges of the few. A school system of such a type could not exist in a country striving for democracy. This was realized by the Provisional Government headed by Prince Lvov and later on by Alexander Kerenski. To eradicate the evils of that system, to throw the schools open to the humble and the poor, to establish &quot;a single absolutely secular school for all citizens,&quot; was the task at which the new authorities set to work. This bulletin attempts to indicate the outstanding features of the new laws and regulations since the early days of the revolution. Unfortunately because the scarcity of material it is impossible to tell at present how far the acts and decrees promulgated by the various authorities and outlined in this report have been actually carried out. Nor it is possible to state with any degree of accuracy the educational changes that have taken place in Russia since the overthrow of Kerenski and the establishment of the Lenin-Trotski regime. For lack of information this report closes, therefore, with the early months of the Bolshevist rule. Contents include: (1) Introduction: Historical development; (2) Secularization of schools; (3) Administration of schools: Provisional Government; Bolshevik regime; (4) Parents' associations; (5) Abolition of restrictions: National and religious groups; Private Instruction; (6) Educational ladder; (7) Teachers' training institutions; (8) Reform in spelling; (9) New textbooks and other publications; (10) Higher education: New universities and faculties; (11) Technical education; and (12) Adult education. (Contains 30 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]
Education in Switzerland, 1916-1918. Bulletin, 1919, No. 38
Author: Pearson, Peter H.
Date: 1919-00-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: College Entrance Examinations,Foreign Countries,Religion,Comparative Education,Teaching Methods,School Districts,Attendance,Tuition,Physical Education,Religious Education,Medical Education,Child Labor,Educational Testing,Educational Trends,Trend Analysis,Health,Race,Second Languages,Educational Practices

Switzerland has an area of only a little over 15,900 square miles, a population of about three and one-half millions, but 25 distinct political units--Cantons--each virtually autonomous in the control of its schools. There is no Federal educational board to issue plans, decrees, letters, or special instruction tending to unify the system. Under this freedom of development the schools have assumed their character in accordance with the language, religion, race, industries, and historical traditions that prevail in the several Cantons. The resulting variety in organization and methods makes it impossible to give a general account of the schools equally applicable to all parts of the country; hence, features that may be regarded as fairly typical will be sketched from reports coming from specific localities, as Bern, Basel, or Zurich. The Federal regulations that the Cantons have in common provide for obligatory attendance, free tuition, and, to some extent, free instruction material during a period designated by each Canton, optional attendance at instruction in religion, participation in required gymnastics, uniform entrance examination for students of medicine. The Federal Union also contributes to the support of all primary schools; it prohibits the employment of children of school age in the factories; and, finally, it imposes a uniform educational test on the recruits that each year enroll for service. This bulletin describes the general conditions and characteristics of schools in Switzerland. It is followed by a discussion of the practical trend of the school work and its regard for the pupils' health. (Contains 9 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]
Monthly Record of Current Educational Publications. Bulletin, 1919, No. 42
Author: Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education (ED)
Date: 1919-06-00
Type: Historical Materials
Subjects: Journal Articles,Periodicals,Educational History,Educational Theories,Educational Practices,Educational Change,Educational Psychology,Child Development,Educational Testing,Evaluation Methods,Teaching Methods,Curriculum,Kindergarten,Elementary Schools,Rural Education,Secondary Education,Teachers,Teacher Education,Higher Education,Educational Administration,Governance,Architecture,Hygiene,Maintenance,Physical Education,Social Development,Social Influences,Child Welfare,Moral Values,Values Education,Religious Education,Vocational Education,Career Counseling,Military Personnel,Professional Education,Civics,Acculturation,Immigrants,Veterans,War,Womens Education,Deafness,Blindness,Special Needs Students,Disabilities,Extension Education,Libraries,Reading,Federal Government,African Americans

This bulletin comprises a general survey in bibliographic form of current educational literature, domestic and foreign, received during the monthly period preceding the date of publication of each issue. Books, pamphlets, and periodicals mentioned may ordinarily be obtained from their respective publishers, either directly or through a dealer, or, in the case of an association publication, from the secretary of the issuing organization. Publications are listed according to topic. Contents include: (1) Educational history and biography; (2) Current educational conditions; (3) Educational reconstruction; (4) Educational theory and practice; (5) Educational Psychology; (6) Educational tests and measurements; (7) Special methods of instruction; (8) Special subjects of curriculum; (9) Kindergarten and primary school; (10) Rural education; (11) Secondary education; (12) Teachers: Training and professional status; (13) Higher education; (14) School administration; (15) School management; (16) School architecture; (17) School hygiene and sanitation; (18) Physical training; (19) Social aspects of education; (20) Child welfare; (21) Religious education; (22) Manual and vocational training; (23) Vocational guidance; (24) Vocational tests: Army personnel; (25) School gardens; (26) Commercial education; (27) Professional education; (28) Civic education; (29) Americanization of immigrants; (30) Military training; (31) Education of women; (32) Negro education; (33) Education of blind and deaf; (34) Exceptional children; (35) Education extension; (36) Libraries and reading; and (37) Bureau of Education: Recent publications. [Compiled by the Library Division, Bureau of Education. Best copy available has been provided.]