INFORMING WRITING: New Alliance Report Offers Evidence That Classroom-Based Assessments Can Improve Writing Skills of American Students Article
September 19, 2011Effective assessments are promising tools to help ensure that students write well enough to meet grade-level demands.
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: NCEE Report Outlines American Agenda for Education Reform Based on Highest-Performing Nations Article
May 31, 2011After examining the policy agendas of the most successful countries, a new report from the Nation Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) argues that the strategies driving the best-performing education systems in the world are rarely found in the United States.
THE LINKED LEARNING APPROACH: A California-Based Reform Model Provides Direction for Transforming Teacher Preparation Article
September 07, 2010The traditional training options available to high school teachers need to be redesigned to better align teacher education with current high school reform efforts, according to a new brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education.
BREAKING THE CYCLE: New Report from Michigan State University Finds that Middle School Math Teachers Are Receiving Weak Training Article
April 19, 2010Middle school math teachers are unprepared to teach students at a level considered competitive internationally, according to a new report from the Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), a project based out of Michigan State University.
TEACHING FOR A NEW WORLD: New Alliance Brief Offers a New Vision for High School Teacher Preparation Article
November 09, 2009Despite pockets of excellence across the country, there are far too few teacher preparation programs that provide high school teachers with the skills they need to educate all students to be college and career ready.
ACHIEVING A WEALTH OF RICHES: New Alliance Brief Examines How Teachers Can Use Data to Transform Teaching and Learning Article
September 14, 2009Too many teachers are "data rich but information poor," meaning that while student data is becoming more abundant, not enough teachers have access to training, support, and the structures needed to use data effectively.
MOVING BEYOND AYP: New Alliance Policy Brief Calls for More Sophisticated Indicators to Determine Why Schools are Low-Performing Article
July 13, 2009A new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education says the nation must move away from solely relying on test scores and graduation rates to evaluate high schools if it is to successfully stem the high school dropout crisis and prepare all students for college and careers.
STATE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE ADOLESCENT LITERACY: NASBE Report Says that Addressing the “Pervasive” Low Level of Adolescent Literacy Will Take a Concerted Statewide Policy and School Improvement Effort Article
June 01, 2009A new report from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) argues that state education leaders are “painfully aware” of the low literacy levels among large numbers of adolescents, but these leaders have experienced difficulty framing an organized response to the crisis because states and districts generally lack systemic strategies for scaling up literacy instruction as part of subject-matter learning.
CONGRESS BEGINS BUDGET DEBATE: House and Senate Budget Plans Accommodate President Obama’s Education Proposals Article
April 06, 2009Earlier this year, President Obama released a budget outline for fiscal year (FY) 2010 that contained few actual numbers but proposed new investments in education, including an expansion of early childhood education, a focus on rigorous standards and assessments that are aligned to the demands of the global economy, efforts to better prepare and reward effective teachers and principals, and more opportunities for students to go to college and graduate.
OBAMA OUTLINES EDUCATION AGENDA: President Calls for “World-Class Standards” and an End to the High School Dropout “Epidemic” Article
March 23, 2009Saying that it was time to give all Americans a “complete and competitive education from cradle up through a career” and make America’s entire education system the “envy of the world,” President Barack Obama outlined a sweeping education reform agenda in a March 10 speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.