In May, the New York Times published an article “The Little Known Statistician Who Taught Us to Measure Teachers” which profiled the life of Dr. Bill Sanders. The author reflected on Dr. Sanders’ life and work improving education for all students. For those of us in education, Dr. Sanders’ work
Two of my colleagues have shared their experiences as a statistic and a child who could have been left behind. I too have my own story that helped drive my passion. All of us define equity in different ways. Equity is a concept that is hard to define, and we
Two colleagues and I, all former educators, have dealt with education equity gaps both as children and professionally. This is the second post in a series about our experiences. I encourage you to read the first entry, Equity in education: I was a statistic. Many people think of education equity
Conversations around equity in education are at a fever pitch. Decades of research show that students of color and low-income students are disproportionately taught by less effective or more inexperienced teachers. Civil rights leaders encouraged the Obama administration to require states to develop Equity Plans to ensure that every student
This predictive analytics post continues a blog series that highlights education leaders sharing successes and challenges of using data to drive school improvement. Sampson County Schools is a small rural school district in southeastern North Carolina. While overall graduation rates in the county were improving, one school wanted to do
As states build systems to evaluate the effectiveness of educator preparation programs, they must first know what “effectiveness” looks like. Are the characteristics of the candidates in the program, such as high school GPA, ACT or SAT score, or other admissions criteria, the most important indicators? What about the curriculum
With educator preparation programs (EPPs) under fire, states must make difficult decisions on how to hold EPPs accountable, provide information for program improvement, and offer consumer information to the public on EPP efficacy. In conversations I’ve had with state leaders grappling with this issue, I have seen a debate arise
Teacher preparation programs have received some pretty harsh criticism in recent years. For example… “If there was any piece of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education.” –Reid Lyon, National Institute of Health “By almost any standard, many if not most of the
As teachers, we lean into our experience. We trust our judgment about students and our instruction. We trade teaching stories with colleagues. And increasingly, we examine student growth data that illuminates our practice and occasionally suggests we refine our approach to individual students. In the past decade, states and districts
“(Teaching) is an incredible opportunity to be a catalyst for what we want the future to be," says Shannon Hardy, a 21-year math and science teacher from The Exploris School, a Wake County charter school in Raleigh, NC. Ms. Hardy uses data not just as a summative measurement tool, but
