Tag: Teacher Effectiveness
Rethinking Professional Development
August 25th, 2011
I’ll be honest—during my teacher tenure I didn’t always pay attention in professional development sessions. I either lesson planned, graded papers, or focused my efforts on the million and a half other things I needed to do yesterday. That’s why I had to pause when I saw several million dollars of Race to the Top funding going towards...VIEW ARTICLE
Our Schools: Balancing Urgency with the Long View
August 15th, 2011
This blog post was originally published on "Town Square Delaware" as part of its August education series. My career in public education began in the classroom, teaching special needs students and working with a lot of students who didn’t see much of a future for themselves. I think of those years often and about the impact I had, hoping that...VIEW ARTICLE
Teacher Preparation Expanding, Policies Improving
August 11th, 2011
Nearly one-third of new teacher hires throughout America (compared to 15% in Delaware) are trained by alternative certification programs, according to a recently released report by the National Center for Alternative Certification. These programs, which bypass traditional higher education preparation routes, recruit and select talented...VIEW ARTICLE
Plugging the Summer Brain Drain
August 10th, 2011
Average American students lose approximately one month of learning in both math and reading over summer vacation, a recent RAND Corporation study finds, with low-income students losing at least two months of reading knowledge while their upper-income peers actually gain a month. However, good summer programs – those with small classes...VIEW ARTICLE