Program Evaluation
Standards
Inspections Piloted for Teacher-Prep Programs
The effort, now focused on New Mexico and Texas, seeks to gauge how standards for teacher preparation are playing out in lecture halls and K-12 classrooms.
Special Education
Tech. Compatibility Certification Set Up for Common-Core Testing
One of the groups building common-core assessments is enacting a process to ensure that tech products are compatible with the tests, including certification of devices in exchange for an annual fee.
Reading & Literacy
School Improvement Model Shows Promise in First i3 Evaluation
The federal Investing in Innovation, or i3, initiative bet heavily on the Success for All program, and an early evaluation suggests the investment is paying off.
Early Childhood
Child-Care Rating Systems Earn Few Stars in Study
Researchers find that the systems used in many states to gauge the quality of child-care programs have only a tenuous connection to children's learning outcomes.
IT Infrastructure & Management
New Sites Aim to Help Pick Best Ed-Tech Tools
The effectiveness of such review sites is still a big question mark, but their existence comes at a critical time, as schools face a multitude of decisions about what technologies to use.
School & District Management
Disputed Review Finds Disparities in Teacher Prep
The National Council on Teacher Quality says most of the reviewed programs are weak, but critics find fault with the project's methods.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
The NCTQ Ed. School Rankings: A Response From the Front Lines
The dean of the graduate school of education at Lesley University offers his response to the first-ever ranking of teacher education programs.
School & District Management
Disputed Review Finds Disparities in Teacher Prep
The National Council on Teacher Quality says most of the nation's teacher education programs that were reviewed are weak, but critics find fault with the project's methods.
Classroom Technology
Evaluating Quality in Digital Reading Products
Academic experts and children's advocates say teachers and parents are often left on their own to decide whether various products have any educational value.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Charting Pre-K's Value for All
Universal pre-K holds benefits for middle-class children, as well as the poor, William T. Gormley Jr. writes.
Federal
Opinion
Overcoming Four Barriers to Evidence-Based Education
Federal officials should help create a coherent system of supports for research-based innovation in schools, Robert E. Slavin writes.
Early Childhood
Head Start to Cull Low-Performing Centers
Some Head Start centers that had to recompete to keep their federal funding will now lose it.
Accountability
New Tools Seek to Evaluate Ed-Tech Products
A number of services have cropped up over the years to help schools answer the question: What works?
School & District Management
Charters' Path to Success or Failure Set Early, Study Finds
Charter schools' initial performance, whether good or bad, is a strong predictor of whether they succeed over time, a new Stanford University study concludes.