eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers make the greatest difference to student achievement. With new statistical and analytical methods used by a wide range of researchers, evidence has been mounting that teacher quality can account for a large share of variance in student test scores. The evidence on the distribution of qualified and effective teachers is also clear–and the findings are not good. Teachers who have met the demanding standards of National Board Certification and those who have generated higher “value-added” student achievement gains are far less likely to teach economically disadvantaged and minority students. As a result, high-poverty schools are more likely to be beset with teaching vacancies in math and special education, and… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Math experts developed Formative Assessment Lessons that teachers can incorporate throughout the year’s curriculum. Both tools target the “instructional core.” A study by Research for Action (RFA) examining the first year of piloting the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Math Design Collaborative (MDC) tools (2010-11) found evidence of initial success in tool use indicated by teachers’ perceptions that the tools positively influenced teacher practice. In the second year of the Initiative (2011-12), tool use grew within and across sites. The focus of the research has expanded accordingly to include an analysis of how the tools are being introduced to additional classrooms, schools and districts, and what strategies are most effective in sustaining and strengthening tool use. This brief focuses on efforts to scale up and sustain broader… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This booklet reports the results of a recent National Science Foundation study of the impact of mandated testing programs on curriculum and instruction in elementary and secondary mathematics and science education, especially the impact on teachers with large percentages of minority students. The study included three strands: (1) an item-by-item analysis of the most widely-used standardized tests and textbook tests in mathematics and science for grades 4, 8, and selected high school subjects; (2) a nationwide questionnaire survey responded to by 2,229 mathematics and science teachers in grades 4-12; and (3) interviews with 200 teachers and 100 administrators in 6 urban districts in 6 states nationwide. Included is a figure titled “Percent of items testing types and levels of thinking” and two tables titled “Percent of teachers… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Located just southeast of Fresno in California’s Central Valley, Sanger Unified School District (USD) serves approximately 12,000 students in 20 schools. Sanger USD students are predominately from low-income families (73%); most are Latino/a (70%), and about one in five (18%) are English learners. During the accountability era of No Child Left Behind, Sanger had earned the reputation of being a turnaround district based on district students’ steep and steady improvement on California’s Test of Basic Skills between 2004 and 2012. Its success hinged on developing an organizational culture of continuous improvement and an instructional regime of direct instruction for students’ basic skills mastery. This case study addresses the question of how Sanger USD managed to shift instruction and student support to achieve exemplary results on the new… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: “Focus on Basics” is a publication of the US Division of World Education, Inc. It presents best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used by adult basic education teachers, counselors, program administrators, and policymakers. “Focus on Basics” is dedicated to connecting research with practice, to connecting teachers with research and researchers with the reality of the classroom, and by doing so, making adult basic education research more relevant to the field. The theme of this issue of “Focus on Basics” is “Numeracy.” Articles in this issue include: (1) Using Part-Whole Thinking in Math (Dorothea Steinke); (2) Numeracy Matters (Myrna Manly); (3) Designing Instruction with the Components of Numeracy in Mind (Lynda Ginsburg); (4) Changing Practice, Expanding Minds (Kate Nonesuch); (5) A… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) supports teaching and learning in California’s second-largest school district, educating students from preschool to high school each day. Nearly three quarters of SDUSD students are students of color, including 47% who are Latino/a and 9% who are African American. Almost 60% of students are economically disadvantaged, and 24% are English learners. Despite the wide achievement gaps across the state between students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, SDUSD has excelled at supporting the learning of all students. SDUSD is one of seven districts studied by researchers at the Learning Policy Institute in a mixed-methods study that sought to learn from positive outlier districts in which African American, Latino/a, and White students all did better than predicted on California’s math and… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Sitting just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) supports teaching and learning in California’s largest elementary school system. Across its 47 schools, CVESD educators serve over 30,000 students each day, 90% of whom are students of color and over one third of whom are English learners. CVESD is one of seven districts studied by researchers at the Learning Policy Institute in a mixed-methods study that sought to learn from positive outlier districts in which African American, Latino/a, and White students did better than predicted on California’s math and English language arts tests from 2015 through 2017, after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status. This in-depth case study describes the critical practices and policies within CVESD that have promoted student learning, especially… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) has been nationally recognized as a consistently high-functioning district for more than 2 decades. The district educates approximately 72,200 students, from preschool to high school, in its 86 schools. Almost 90% are students of color, with 57% Latino/a and 12% African American, while 65% are from economically disadvantaged families and 15% are English learners. LBUSD is one of seven districts studied by researchers at the Learning Policy Institute in a mixed-methods study that sought to learn from positive outlier districts in which African American, Latino/a, and White students did better than predicted on California’s math and English language arts tests from 2015 through 2017, after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status. This in-depth case study describes the critical practices and policies… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In lower- and middle-income countries, including Ghana, students in rural areas dramatically underperform their urban peers. Rural schools struggle to attract and retain professionally trained teachers (GES 2012; World Bank 2012). We explore one potential solution to the problem of teacher recruitment: distance instruction. Through a cluster randomized controlled trial, we estimate the impact of a program that broadcasts live instruction via satellite to rural primary school students. The program equipped classrooms in 70 randomly selected Ghanaian schools with the technology required to connect to a studio in Accra. An additional 77 schools served as the control. Instructors in Accra provided math and English lessons to classrooms in the treatment group. The model is interactive, and students in satellite classes could communicate in real time with their… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct a meta analysis study with the goal of providing state and local education leaders with scientifically-based evidence regarding the effects of teacher professional development on improving student learning. The analysis focused on completed studies of effects of professional development for K-12 teachers of science and mathematics. The meta analysis results show important cross-study evidence that teacher professional development in mathematics does have significant positive effects on student achievement. The analysis results also confirm the positive relationship to student outcomes of key characteristics of design of professional development programs. The following are appended: (1) Meta Analysis Coding Form Excerpt: Scaffolded Guide for Determining Inclusion of a Document; (2) Effects… Continue Reading →
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