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Study finds achievement gap persists for Hispanic students
Hispanic students have made significant gains on National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in math and reading since 1990, but a wide achievement gap between Hispanic students and their white counterparts remains, a new federal study released today shows. The National Center for Education Statistics found more improvement among English-speaking Hispanic students, suggesting that language proficiency may be playing a role in the findings.
Title: Deeper Learning Blog Carnival: Six questions for Better Professional Development
In this blog post, Allison Rowland from Envision Schools offers six questions to ask when evaluating and preparing effective professional development for teachers. Similar to effective lessons for students, effective professional development programs should be planned with a purposeful goal in mind, should be relevant and engaging for adult learners, should enlist teachers’ expertise...
Title: The Disproportionate Impact of Seniority-Based Layoffs on Poor, Minority Students
Title: Parent Involvement Continues to Be Important in Elementary Years
In this document, you will find what these leaders do to accomplish the lift-off of seven out of 10 low-performing schools in a brief period of time.
Title: Leadership for Learning Improvement in Urban Schools
Summary: This report is part of a series by researchers from the University of Washington’s Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy that investigates a range of topics concerned with how leaders can effectively and equitably contribute to improved student achievement, particularly in challenging school and district contexts. The questions examined in this report included: (1) what it means for leaders to work in a demanding environment; (2) what “supervisory leaders” (principals, assistant principals, department heads) do in these kinds of settings; and (3) what nonsupervisory leaders do. Examining 15 schools in four diverse districts, the authors conclude, among other things, that in these demanding settings, principals need to behave as “leaders of instructional teams, as much as individual instructional leaders.”
Title: Lift-off Launching the School Turnaround Process in 10 Virginia Schools
Authors: Daniel L. Duke and colleagues
Description: In most of the low-performing schools, you will probably witness the following conditions:
- Low reading achievement
- Low math achievement
- Attendance problems
- Discipline problems
- Lack of focus
- Unaligned curriculum
- Data deprivation
- Lack of teamwork
The list can go on and on. These conditions were exactly what the first cohort of Virginia’s Turnaround Specialists found them in.
School Turnarounds: A Review of the Cross-Sector Evidence on Dramatic Organizational Improvement
Prepared by: Public Impact for the Center on Innovation & Improvement
Turnaround leaders are deemed a critical component of successful turnarounds. A substantive body of cross-sector literature indicates that these leaders take a common set of actions. These actions include but are not limited to:
- Analysis and problem-solving
- Driving for results
- Influencing inside and outside
- Measuring and reporting
In addition ot the above four categories of actions, the following two specific actions stand out in the literature:
- Concentrating on achieving a few tangible winds in year one
- Implementing practices even when they deviate from norms to achieve goals
Characteristics that distinguish outstanding urban principals Emotional Intelligence, social intelligence and environmental adaptation
Author: Helen W. Williams
Source: Journal of Management Development, Vol 27 No. 1, 2008
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on two research questions. First, what are the emotional and social intelligence competencies that distinguish outstanding from typical urban principals? Second, how do outstanding and typical urban principals conceptualize and adapt differently to their external organizational environment?
Findings – Significant differences are found in both areas of inquiry. Outstanding principals demonstrate a broad and deep repertoire of competencies related to emotional and social intelligence. Twelve of the 20 competencies studied significantly differentiate outstanding and typical principals. In addition, the study found differences in how outstanding and typical principals conceptualize and adapt to their external organizational environment. Outstanding principals interact with a broader range of external groups and utilize a wider spectrum of boundary-spanning strategies.
Practical implications – Usefulness of the findings for school districts and universities is explored including the implications of a competency assessment and development approach for the recruitment, selection and preparation of principal candidates as well as leadership training for incumbent principals.
LEADERSHIP MATTERS
Evidence collected in the past three decades clearly suggests that effective school leaders significantly influence student learning and other aspects of school performance. Furthermore, cross-sector studies identified and documented a cluster of tactics that majority turnaround leaders engaged in accomplishing bad-to-great transformations. To further this line of research, Public Impact, a national education policy and management consulting firm, developed School Turnaround Leaders: Competencies for Success. This guide provides turnaround leader competency definitions, school examples, and detailed levels of increasingly effective competencies.
SCHOOL TURNAROUND LEADERS: COMPETENCIES FOR SUCCESS
Evidence collected over the last 30 years suggests that effective school leaders significantly influence student learning and other aspects of school performance.1 Documented experience also indicates that individual leaders in failing organizations in various sectors, including education, can effect rapid, dramatic improvements.2 School turnaround is possible, but it takes a broader, concerted effort with daring leadership at the helm and persistent, achievementoriented collaboration among staff. That is the stuff of which rapid, bad-to-great turnarounds across sectors are made.
This guide aims to help districts attempting turnarounds understand the underlying characteristics of leaders likely to succeed in this unique context, based on the best available research to date. As more schools attempt turnarounds, increasingly accurate, detailed descriptions of leaders who are successful in this context will be possible.
The Center for Afterschool Education
The Center for Afterschool Education is the out-of-school time division of Foundations, Inc. This is a great resource for both educators and administrators. The Center aims to make out-of-school time a time for exciting and energizing learning that helps children and young people succeed in every facet of life. On their website you will find information related to professional development, technical assistance and various other tools and publications. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook as well!
How Urban Schools Work Beyond the Boundaries of Social and Economic Conditions
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL FOR EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION -
IMPLICATIONS FROM UCEA:
JONATHAN KOZOL KEYNOTE
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