The Secret Weapon for Fighting Teacher Attrition
A new study suggests that attrition rates are lower among teachers who have more say over running their classrooms and schools.
A new study suggests that attrition rates are lower among teachers who have more say over running their classrooms and schools.
New guidance for the federal Charter School Program states that applicants for these startup funds can demonstrate the need for additional charters by sharing information on the length of existing charters’ waitlists—a metric that is seriously flawed.
BOULDER, CO (July 14, 2022)—A recent Mackinac Center report claims that the proposed Michigan Student Opportunity Scholarship (MSOS) neovoucher program has the potential to create fiscal benefits for the state of Michigan and its school districts. Its conclusions were examined in a new review, however, and found faulty.
BOULDER, CO (June 23, 2022) – The federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 provided states with slightly more flexibility in the design of their school accountability systems. However, while states may take different approaches to measuring and reporting school performance, they have consistently chosen approaches of public reporting that collapse multiple school performance indicators into a summative rating.
The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 provided states with increased flexibility to design school accountability systems. A core element of the law is the requirement that states develop statewide systems allowing for meaningful differentiation among schools, and use this information to identify schools that should be the focus of improvement efforts. Individual states decide on the type of report card, or rating system, that they will use to report this information to the public.
In Seattle’s school district, a partnership between academics and educators is supporting systemic, equity-based reforms.
It may fly under the school choice radar, but open enrollment brings with it a whole set of equity-related baggage, a new analysis finds.
A new study finds that charter schools have better academic outcomes when their principals participate in collective bargaining.
A new study of school officials’ response to a racist incident in their district coins the term “white innocence playbook” to describe the ways in which language is used to disguise racism and avoid addressing its consequences and causes.
BOULDER, CO (May 24, 2022)—In response to Covid-related teacher shortages, the TNTP think tank (formerly “The New Teacher Project”) released a report with recommendations for district leaders in crafting short- and long-term teacher staffing plans. A new review of that report finds that it includes some positive elements but suffers from several research-related weaknesses.
In light of the pandemic which has likely resulted in rampant teacher absences and widespread teacher shortages, a TNTP report offers leaders clearly articulated employment goals and numerous recommendations for short- and long-term staffing plans. Although reliable evidence on the extent of teacher shortages is mixed, the report does provide leaders confronting staffing issues with some helpful questions and potentially useful recommendations. Despite these positive elements, however, the report has several research-related weaknesses.
BOULDER, CO (May 19, 2022) – Grow your own (GYO) programs are designed to recruit, prepare, and place community members as teachers in local schools. They do this through partnerships between educator preparation programs, school districts or local educational agencies, and community-based organizations. The nation is currently seeing new and thoughtful uses of the approach.
Grow your own (GYO) programs are designed to recruit, prepare, and place community members as teachers in local schools. They do this through partnerships between educator preparation programs, school districts or local educational agencies, and community-based organizations. The nation is currently seeing new and thoughtful uses of the approach.
The annual State of Preschool 2021 report documents the impact of the coronavirus pandemic during the 2021-22 school year.
BOULDER, CO (May 12, 2022) – In the coming weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will hand down a series of decisions that may transform American society. One of those decisions is in a case called Carson v. Makin, the latest in a series of cases brought to expand the use of private school vouchers. This decision in Carson may be particularly radical and transformative, explains University of Colorado Boulder professor and NEPC director Kevin Welner.
This policy memo examines some fundamental shifts, along with their real-world implications, within the past 60 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence, up to and including the current Carson v. Makin case. The Supreme Court is just a few small steps away from transforming every charter school law in the U.S. into a private-school voucher policy. Further, the nation may be facing a future of religious organizations proselytizing through charter schools that have been freed from obeying anti-discrimination laws—with LGBTQ+ community members being the most likely victims.
BOULDER, CO (May 10, 2022)—Summit Public Schools, a charter school organization operating schools in California and Oregon, published Pathways to Success: Exploring the Long-Term Outcomes of Alumni from Summit Public Schools in September 2021, detailing the success of its graduates. A review by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley of Arizona State University examines these questionable assertions made about the performance and life satisfaction of Summit graduates.
Summit Public Schools reports that its alumni graduated from college at nearly double the national average and self-reported high levels of well-being, fulfillment, and workplace satisfaction. It also reports that alumni from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds now make more than $60,000 per year on average working full time. Although the study may provide some information useful to Summit’s internal decision-making, its serious methodological issues prevent it from having any implications for practice or policymaking in general.
A Mackinac Center report recommends changes to the state’s current approach to financing public and charter schools, to move toward a system where more funding follows the student to either public, charter, or private schools—or to other service providers. The report provides some useful, albeit insufficiently researched, guidance on shifting categorical funding into core funding and modifying the state’s approach to financing programs for children with disabilities.
BOULDER, CO (May 3, 2022)—In recent years, supporters of school choice have promoted school finance reforms sometimes called “backpack funding,” but also called “money follows the child” or “student-based budgeting.” Whatever the term used, the idea is facilitate choice by attaching a funded amount to each student, with that payment following the students to their chosen schools.
NEPC Researcher Christopher Saldaña interviews Morgan Craven, Ellen Reddy, and Kameisha Smith about the use of corporal punishment in schools.
BOULDER, CO (April 28, 2022) – April 30th is the International Day to End Corporal Punishment of Children.
A new study examines the on-the-ground realities of implementing multiple education policies at the same time.
A recent research brief highlights the impact of school choice on resegregation.
NEPC Researcher Christopher Saldaña interviews Kristal Moore Clemons, Kendall Deas, and Jon Hale about Freedom Schools.
BOULDER, CO (April 14, 2022) – In this month’s episode of NEPC Talks Education, NEPC Researcher Christopher Saldaña interviews Kristal Moore Clemons, the national director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools program; Kendall Deas,
The Biden Administration has published proposed regulations concerning the Charter School Program that funds growth of the charter sector. NEPC Director Kevin Welner thinks he knows why charter advocates are in an uproar.
In-school suspension, seemingly innocuous, is not a new, helpful, nor racially just alternative.
When actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock, he was displaying “toxic masculinity,” NEPC Fellow Shaun Harper writes. Harper’s own research offers guidance for helping men and boys embrace “productive masculinity” instead.
An April Fools' Day solution for teacher burnout, compliments of state legislatures.
An Urban Institute report asserts that private fundraising, which is more likely to exist in advantaged schools, increases educational inequality. The report recommends that state and district policymakers track private fundraising and consider strategies for resource sharing and equalization. While the report’s claims are consistent with other research, problems with the analysis and presentation of the data severely undercut its validity, making it hard to know how much these patterns exist in Illinois schools.
BOULDER, CO (March 29, 2022)—A recent Urban Institute report analyzing the role of Parent Teacher Organizations and similar groups in Illinois echoes and amplifies the existing critique of private fundraising: that it exacerbates inequitable school funding. However, some weaknesses prevent it from making a convincing case.
Transgender and nonbinary (collectively referred to here as “trans”) students are ill-served by most school environments. They experience challenges trying to navigate institutions that, at best, are poorly designed to support them and that often work against them. Although some districts and states have developed laws and policies to improve students’ experiences, many are either ill-conceived, ineffectively implemented, or reinforce restrictive and inflexible structures regulating gender.
BOULDER, CO (March 24, 2022) – Transgender and nonbinary (collectively referred to here as “trans”) students are ill-served by most school environments. They experience challenges trying to navigate institutions that, at best, are poorly designed to support them and that often work against them. Although some districts and states have developed laws and policies to improve students’ experiences, many are either ill-conceived, ineffectively implemented, or reinforce restrictive and inflexible structures regulating gender.
A new research review explains how the nation’s skyrocketing housing costs are having a negative impact on children.
NEPC Researcher Christopher Saldaña interviews Wagma Mommandi and Kevin Welner about their new book, School’s Choice: How Charter Schools Control Access and Shape Enrollment.
BOULDER, CO (March 17, 2022) – In this month’s episode of NEPC Talks Education, NEPC Researcher Christopher Saldaña interviews Wagma Mommandi and Kevin Welner about their new book, School’s Choice: How Charter Schools Control Access and Shape
BOULDER, CO (March 15, 2022) – A recent report from EdChoice argues for expansion of policies that publicly fund private schools, contending that private schools could provide equal or better outcomes at lesser cost. A review released today examines the report’s methodology to determine the soundness of its claims, and it finds the cost-saving estimates to be based on unsubstantiated assumptions.
Advocates for increased privatization of public schools have long contended that private schools could provide equal or better outcomes at lesser costs. To bolster that argument, this EdChoice report asserts that voucher and voucher-like (tax credit scholarship and education savings account) programs have saved state and local treasuries some $12.4 to $28.3 billion dollars as student “switchers” use those programs to leave public schools and enter private schools. However, the report’s findings do not provide a sound base for policy decisions.
The education app Along appears to be a useful tool to help foster stronger teacher-student relationships and further social-emotional learning—at least until you read the fine print.