Putting Professional Learning to Work
Since 2004, the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) has offered the Executive Development Program (EDP), a leadership program for sitting school principals that is typically delivered in two-day workshops once per month over 12 months. From its inception through 2018, 15,000 principals across 23 states have participated in the EDP. This report presents findings from part of RAND’s evaluation of the EDP, focusing on how principals applied their EDP learning and coaching to their work as school leaders. The authors draw on a survey of 172 EDP participants, phone interviews of 74 principals, and nine in-depth case studies to examine what improvement efforts principals with EDP experience attempted in their schools and what strategies they applied to reach their goals.
Coaching, Training Help Principals Build Leadership Skills
Both one-on-one coaching and group sessions help principals in QPS and area districts build valuable leadership skills toward enhancing student achievement and growth. Michaela Fray, LEAD coordinator with Regional Office of Education No. 1, sees one key as building a hub, or consortium, of learners in leadership positions across the districts with help from two federal research grants. “The principals and superintendents are really the lead learners,” Fray said. “They don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t expect them to have all the answers. The ROE is looking to help broker resources and learning opportunities when they do have questions or they do have needs or do have an area they’d like to partner with another school district.”
Thought Paper on Institutional Closure
Increasing volatility in the higher education sector has resulted in a growing number of institutions undergoing changes of control through mergers and acquisitions, and in some cases, closure. In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bauman & O’Leary (2019) report that more than 150 postsecondary institutions in the United States closed in 2014 with this number continuing to trend upward in the intervening years. Since 2016, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has provided support for and responded to the closure of 40 degree-granting institutions.
Money Matters: How School Funding Inequities Affect Students, Taxpayers
SPRINGFIELD — Education officials in Illinois say the state is making solid progress under its new evidence-based funding program in narrowing the wealth-based disparities among school districts, but an analysis of the first year of that program shows just how far the state still has to go. During the 2017-2018 academic year, new data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows, school districts with large amounts of property wealth were better funded than their property-poor counterparts, enabling them to spend more money per-pupil. That in turn translated into higher student test scores in math and English language arts.
If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave and How to Disrupt Teacher Turnover
While more teachers of color are entering the classroom, data reveal that educators of color are also leaving at higher rates than their peers. To show the root cause of this problem and to identify solutions, The Education Trust and Teach Plus today jointly released new research that examines the challenges teachers of color face and documents the experiences of staff in schools that deliberately work to retain faculty of color.
