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Eric.ed.gov – Six Lessons to Facilitate Deep Ownership of Ambitious Instructional Reforms

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In partnership with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, RFA has been studying Philadelphia schools’ take-up of an instructional reform that has demonstrated positive impacts on teacher knowledge and student learning in math. The Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) is designed to deepen teachers’ understanding of foundational concepts in math and engage them in regular formative assessment of their students’ problem-solving strategies. Implementing an ambitious educational reform such as this one is notoriously challenging, as project staff, district personnel, and school leaders struggle to move from initial professional development–where so much money is invested–to deep, routine engagement in schools and classrooms. Teachers’ instructional practices are difficult to change, and it is particularly hard to engender reform ownership in contexts full of competing demands. In our 2019 study… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teachers’ Perceptions of Teacher Supervision and Evaluation: A Reflection of School Improvement Practices in the Age of Reform

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study examined how principals in eight high-functioning elementary schools provide teacher supervision and evaluation to promote high levels of student achievement. Perceptions of teachers were measured to provide an understanding of which specific principal behaviors translated into better instructional practices within the selected schools. Schools were chosen based on their performance on both state communication arts and math standardized assessments, which were in the top 10% of all elementary schools in the state. Data were collected from 74 teachers using an online survey tool to assess perceptions about principals’ supervision within pre-observation and post-observation conferences. Quantitative analyses, part of a larger inquiry previously analyzed by the authors, revealed that 64% percent of the variability in principals’ pre-conference supervisory effectiveness was accounted for by discussing how students… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Black Teachers’ Retention and Transfer Patterns in North Carolina: How Do Patterns Vary by Teacher Effectiveness, Subject, and School Conditions?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Despite public interest and government action toward diversifying the teaching workforce in U.S. public schools, our knowledge about the retention and transfer patterns of Black teachers lacks specificity and clarity. In this study, I find that Black teachers’ annual retention rate was about 4 percentage points lower than that of White teachers in North Carolina elementary and secondary schools from 2004 to 2015. This Black-White teacher retention gap can largely be explained by Black teachers’ experience and education and the challenging school and community contexts in which these teachers worked. Compared with White teachers who had similar professional attributes and worked in similar school settings, Black teachers were more likely to stay in schools serving a larger proportion of Black students and to move to a school… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Determining Quantity and Strength of Relationships between STEM Camp Participants and the Math Student Camp Leaders

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: There is a global issue concerning the disparity in educational achievement associated with the socioeconomic status of students, known in the U.S. as the Achievement Gap. This Achievement Gap highly correlates with what has been called the Opportunity Gap for professional careers. This paper discusses this Opportunity Gap and how the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is addressing the gap at a local level through summer STEM camps. Specifically, this paper looks at the increase of social capital of the participants of the UNO and Girls Inc. Eureka-STEM! summer camp through the development of instructional relationships between underserved girls ages 12-14 and UNO’s Institutional Agents, namely the Mathematics student camp leaders who were also pursuing teacher certification. A new assessment approach through the use of Social Network… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Educators Collaborating to Improve Mathematics: Three Structures That Mattered in Math in Common Districts

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: For school districts in California, just as one set of revolutionary new content standards is beginning to feel familiar, another deep change is brewing. Districts have now had more than five years to wrestle with how they implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010). Many have made large-scale changes in their systems. However, state math assessment scores have remained flat, suggesting that many districts may still be in the early stages of understanding and implementing changes that are necessary to support instruction. This report describes how 10 districts participating in the Math in Common (MiC) initiative have approached implementation of the CCSS-M somewhat differently. To implement their district visions of the CCSS-M, each MiC district’s MiC leadership team developed three… Continue Reading