NWCC Newsletter
Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northwest has released a new video demonstrating two evidence-based strategies for helping kids learn and appreciate math. Finding moments in the day to cultivate young children's natural curiosity about numbers and shapes can instill a lifelong love of math—and lay the foundation for academic success.
The National Council on Teacher Quality released a guide to help programs address the set of challenges associated with building the content knowledge that teacher candidates need to reach the classroom and succeed once they arrive.
Programs that prepare elementary teachers have a daunting responsibility – they are readying the people who will teach children reading and numeracy, build a foundation in STEM and social studies subjects, all while providing many children's first introduction to formal schooling. By rising to this challenge, programs may also help a more diverse cohort of teachers reach the classroom. Given the magnitude of this task, programs may run into a few hurdles along the way.
The Center on Standards & Assessment Implementation released an updated brief outlining what CTE standards are and their role in educational offerings for students. Included are resources that can be used to guide the development of CTE standards or programs.
The Center on Great Teachers & Leaders released a tool to identify and visualize diversity gaps across the entire educator career continuum, from “future teachers” graduating from high school and entering preparation programs, to preservice teachers entering the educator workforce, and growing and developing into experienced classroom instructors.
The Center on Education Policy released a report highlighting state and local implementation of ESSA’s evidence requirements and the roles of education leaders and researchers in advancing evidence use in school improvement. The findings reported here are from interviews conducted by CEP staff with state officials who oversee school improvement in seven states. The interviews focused on state experiences with initial implementation of the ESSA evidence requirements, including state efforts to identify evidence-based interventions and assist districts with their school improvement efforts.
The Education Commission of the States released a policy guide exploring how state leaders can more intentionally and effectively develop a culture that uses data to inform critical education decisions.
RAND released a report whose findings suggest that when districts focused attention on activities related to principal pipelines, then principals, schools, and students benefited. Six large school districts that built principal pipelines, a set of measures to cultivate effective school leaders, saw notable, statistically significant benefits for student achievement across their communities. After three years, pipeline-district schools with newly placed principals outperformed comparison schools in other districts by more than 6 percentile points in reading and almost 3 percentile points in math, an unusual accomplishment.
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released a guide designed to support states in identifying federal funding sources that can be accessed (and often coordinated or combined) to support efforts to improve the conditions for learning, and to identify strategies that state leaders might pursue as they begin to enter into partnerships to improve conditions for learning.
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