The following is a list of recent resources for those focused on the professional improvement of teachers, principals, and other educational leaders.
Changes in State Education Leadership: The past week has brought significant changes in state leadership. From new governors to legislators to chief state school officers and state board of education members, there are many new faces in state education leadership positions. Our latest Ed Note blog post provides a synopsis of the major state changes, as well as an infographic depicting the high-level shifts.
The Right Match: A Strong Principal in Every School: The Chicago Public Education Fund (The Fund) released its third annual comprehensive school leadership report, The Right Match. The report describes challenges with principal hiring and recommends solutions to ensure the right principal match for all of Chicago’s public schools.
Long Story Short: How Can We Alleviate the Shortage of Special Education Teachers? Teacher shortages is a severe problem in special education. In this video interview, Lynn Holdheide, AIR principal technical assistance consultant, discusses her work with the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform Center (CEEDAR) to address the shortage and support students with disabilities.
Taking Collective Action to Ensure Schools are Safe for All Students: Across Oregon and the nation, we’ve seen an increase in hate speech, violence and racist acts designed to intimidate and threaten students of all ages. The leadership team of the Oregon Leadership Network is deeply concerned about this lack of civil discourse in the context of free speech rights. To address this urgent issue, the OLN has offers this new blog, Taking Collective Action to Ensure Schools are Safe for All Students, to provide recommendations, resources and actions to support student safety.
Trump Picks Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary: President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Betsy DeVos, a conservative philanthropist and Republican Party official known for her advocacy for private school vouchers, as education secretary, the transition office announced Wednesday. (Inside Higher Ed, November 23).
ESSA Would Handcuff a Trump Education Secretary on Common Core and More: The law specifically bars the education secretary, any education secretary, from monkeying around with states’ standards. The law says, very explicitly and in a bunch of different places, that the secretary can’t tell states they must adopt—or steer clear of—a particular set of standards, including the common core. (Education Week, November 11)
North Carolina School District Confronts Inequities in Large-Scale Shifts: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in Charlotte, North Carolina, are addressing a thorny issue at the heart of their commitment to education: ensuring equitable access to high-quality education for all students. Their new approach includes a “diversity-driven magnet lottery,” plans for equitable access to technology, materials and high-quality teaching, and cultural competence training for teachers. This approach represents a shift from earlier policies which prioritized enticing teachers to high-needs schools (Helms, CharlotteObserver.com).
Seven Steps U.S. Schools Should Take to Harness Data-Driven Benefits in Education: A new report from the Center for Data Innovation asserts that U.S. school systems are failing to realize the potential benefits other industry sectors are achieving from the intelligent use of data, and that federal, state and local policy leaders must do more to embrace data-driven learning. (EdScoop, November 15)
Data Systems: Education Commission of the State released “50-State Comparison: Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems” noting that 17 states plus Washington D.C. have a full P20W system-that is, a data system that connects early learning, K-12, postsecondary and workforce core agencies.
