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Eric.ed.gov – Project Exc-EL (Excellence for English Learners): Final Evaluation Report for the National Evaluation of Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund. NEi3 Evaluation Submission

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this evaluation was to understand the development, implementation, and impact of Project Exc-EL (Excellence for English Learners), a school-wide intervention focused on providing teacher professional development and training to better support English learners (ELs) in New York. Project Exc-EL focuses on training teachers to use data to identify EL student needs, creating a school climate focused on college and career readiness, and providing school coaches to support teachers as they serve EL students and their families. Project Exc-EL developed and implemented an enhanced, comprehensive design that addressed the unique and urgent needs of low-incidence EL population school districts — districts that are struggling to provide a comprehensive, rigorous education for the newest members of their communities. The project employed a data-driven, tiered approach to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Kids Today: The Rise in Children’s Academic Skills at Kindergarten Entry

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Private and public investments in early childhood education have expanded significantly in recent years. Despite this heightened investment, we have little empirical evidence on whether children today enter school with different skills than they did in the late nineties. Using two large, nationally representative datasets, this paper documents how students entering kindergarten in 2010 compare to those who entered in 1998 in terms of their teacher-reported math, literacy and behavioral skills. Our results indicate that students in the more recent cohort entered kindergarten with stronger math and literacy skills. Results for behavioral outcomes were mixed. Increases in academic skills over this period were particularly pronounced among black children. Implications for policy are discussed. [This paper was published in “Educational Researcher” v46 n1 p7-20 2017 (EJ1132546).] Link til… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Ministry of Education 2012/13 Annual Service Plan Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The education system is complex, but at its core, it is a learning partnership between the student, the family and teachers. This partnership — supported by the Ministry — is ultimately responsible for ensuring every learner receives a high quality education. A high quality education enables learners to realize their full potential and contribute to the well being of society. It supports students as they develop the foundational skills of reading, writing, and math, as well as other essentials necessary in the 21st century, such as self-reliance, communication, critical thinking, inquiry, creativity, problem solving, innovation, teamwork and collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, and digital information literacy. This annual service plan report provides data and discusses the results related to the measures in the Ministry of Education 2012/13-2014/15 Service Plan.… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Do More, Add More, Earn More: Teacher Salary Redesign Lessons from 10 First-Mover Districts

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: William Taylor, 29, a third generation Washington, D.C. resident stands out for a number of reasons. For one, he is an African American man who taught math at an elementary school for many years. Taylor excelled in the role, so much so that he now coaches his fellow math teachers at Aiton Elementary School, which is located in a high-poverty Washington D.C. neighborhood. He has also been profiled in the national news–specifically in “The Atlantic”–where it was noted that, in a typical school year, 60 percent of Taylor’s students start their first day in his class doing math below grade level, but by the end of the year, 90 percent of his students are performing above grade level. For his exemplary work Taylor earned $131,000 in 2013–another… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Getting Ready for the Common Core State Standards: Experiences of CPS Teachers and Administrators Preparing for the New Standards. Research Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The success of any education reform depends on many factors. A critical component is whether school staff are supportive of the initiative and view it as likely to improve educational outcomes. Equally important is whether school staff have the professional development opportunities they need to ensure their practice is aligned with the goals of the initiative. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been preparing to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) since 2011-12. Teachers were expected to teach the new English and Language Arts (ELA) standards by 2013-14 and the new math standards one year later, in 2014-15. This report describes teachers’ and administrators’ experiences preparing for this transition, using survey responses from the spring of 2014 and the spring of 2015. Survey questions focused on four… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Great Expectations: The Impact of Rigorous Grading Practices on Student Achievement

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We know from previous survey research that teachers who hold high expectations for all of their students significantly increase the odds that those young people will go on to complete high school and college. One indicator of teachers’ expectations is their approach to grading–specifically, whether they subject students to more or less rigorous grading practices. Unfortunately, “grade inflation” is pervasive in U.S. high schools, as evidenced by rising GPAs even as SAT scores and other measures of academic performance have held stable or fallen. The result is that a “good” grade is no longer a clear marker of knowledge and skills. Authored by American University’s Seth Gershenson, “Great Expectations: The Impact of Rigorous Grading Practices on Student Achievement” examines to what extent teachers’ grading standards affect student… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Right Trajectory: State Teachers of the Year Compare Former and New State Assessments

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: “The Right Trajectory” brings to the forefront an often-overlooked voice in the debate about new state assessments developed in consortia: that of the best teachers in the country. This research suggests, despite challenges still to overcome, that these front-line experts believe that the new consortia tests are an improvement on the former assessments and so represent movement in the right direction for students and for education in their states. What do great teachers think of the new assessments compared to the previous ones? As part of state transitions to college and career ready (CCR) standards, including the Common Core State Standards in more than 40 states (NGA & CCSSO, 2010), states are for the first time administering new summative assessments aligned to those standards and aiming for… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – What Makes Special Education Teachers Special? Teacher Training and Achievement of Students with Disabilities. Working Paper 49

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper contributes importantly to the growing literature on the training of special education teachers and how it translates into classroom practice and student achievement. The authors examine the impact of pre-service preparation and in-service formal and informal training on the ability of teachers to promote academic achievement among students with disabilities. Using student-level longitudinal data from Florida over a five-year span the authors estimate “value-added” models of student achievement. There is little support for the efficacy of in-service professional development courses focusing on special education. However, teachers with advanced degrees are more effective in boosting the math achievement of students with disabilities than are those with only a baccalaureate degree. Also pre-service preparation in special education has statistically significant and quantitatively substantial effects on the ability… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Implementation and Impacts of Pay-for-Performance: The 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Grantees after Three Years. NCEE Study Snapshot. NCEE 2016-2006

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The goal of the grants is to increase the number of high-performing teachers in high-need schools by rewarding educators for improving students’ achievement. The report on which this snapshot is based describes TIF implementation in all 2010 TIF districts and analyzes, in greater detail, the implementation and impacts of pay-for-performance in 10 evaluation districts that implemented the TIF program for three years. Using information from the first (2011-2012), second (2012-2013), and third (2013-2014) years of TIF implementation, the report addresses the following four questions: (1) What are the characteristics of all 2010 TIF districts and their performance-based compensation systems? What implementation experiences and challenges have TIF districts encountered?;… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Strategic Staffing? How Performance Pressures Affect the Distribution of Teachers within Schools and Resulting Student Achievement. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-15

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: School performance pressures apply disproportionately to tested grades and subjects. Using longitudinal administrative data and teacher survey data from a large urban school district, we examine schools’ responses to those pressures in assigning teachers to high-stakes and low-stakes classrooms. We find that teachers who produce greater student achievement gains in math and reading are more likely to be placed in a tested grade-subject combination in the following year and that the relationship between prior performance and assignment is stronger in schools where principals have more influence over assignments. This strategic response has the consequence of disadvantaging achievement in early grades, however, concentrating less effective teachers in K-2 classrooms, which in turn produces lower achievement for those students, as measured by low-stakes assessments, that may persist into tested… Continue Reading