News
- June 25, 2014
By Andrew Myers
A study of Miami-Dade's transfer policy suggests that moving poor-performing teachers into better schools improves equity.
The ability to move teachers, against their wishes, to a different school is a necessary tool, argue school and district leaders, to improve teacher performance and get the right mix of teachers across a district.
But forced transfers remain hotly contested, and critics say the policies only shuffle ineffective teachers to new schools or place them in situations where their skills are underused.
- June 18, 2014
Daphna Bassok talks about her research on The changing nature of early childhood learning in the age of accountability.
- June 15, 2014
After New York City encouraged principals to be more deliberative in awarding tenure, ineffective teachers were more likely to leave schools or the profession voluntarily—to the benefit of students, according to a recently released working paper.
Even though the overall percentage of teachers actually denied tenure did not change much, the more-rigorous process appears to have reshaped the workforce—suggesting that changes in practice rather than underlying tenure laws, may bear fruit, said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University professor and one of the study's authors.
- June 12, 2014, EdSource
Ed100 walks parents through a range of California school issues and policies in 10 chapters divided into manageable subsections.
A joke around Sacramento is that it takes a Ph.D. in Proposition 98 to understand how California schools are funded and governed.
The truth is that a good short course is probably all that’s needed for the basics of California’s complex education policies. And now there is one – Ed100.org.
- June 12, 2014
Teacher tenure discussions often suggest that what is in the best interest of teachers is also in the best interest of students. But the groundbreaking decision in the Vergara case makes it clear that early, and effectively irreversible, decisions about teacher tenure have real costs for students and ultimately all of society.
- June 12, 2014
In a stunning decision, a judge in the California Superior Court has ruled that, because education is a fundamental right of California youth, the laws governing teacher tenure, teacher dismissal and rules for layoffs are unconstitutional. This ruling only applies to California – and surely will be appealed by the teachers union – but it could open up consideration of students' rights in a larger number of states.
- June 11, 2014
A new study of New York City schools shows that recent teacher tenure reforms dramatically reduced the portion of teachers approved for tenure. Many relatively ineffective teachers whose probationary period was extended instead of being granted tenure voluntarily left their teaching positions.
- June 11, 2014
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled June 10 that California's teacher tenure laws deprive students of their constitutional right to an education. The closely watched case, Vergara v. State of California, could change the way teachers are hired and fired in the state and around the nation.
Stanford News Service spoke with William Koski, the Eric and Nancy Wright Professor of Clinical Education at Stanford Law School and director of the Youth and Education Law Project, and Eric Hanushek, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow on Education Policy at the Hoover Institution, about the ramifications of the case. Both Koski and Hanusek are on the faculty of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where they are also both professors by courtesy.
- June 08, 2014
Inequitable education class actions are not new. For decades, many states have been sued for not giving low-income children the opportunities provided in affluent communities. But this suit is different. Previous class actions focused on inadequate funds, teacher quality, facilities and materials, such as textbooks. This suit is about insufficient and inequitable time for learning. Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek, who chronicled unequal education suits in his book “Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses,” said this complaint is “something new” that focuses on “what the students are getting in the classroom.
- June 06, 2014
Lindsay Fox talks with Douglas Staiger on teacher value added measures
- May 30, 2014
The Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford Graduate School of Education has won a $4 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The funding will support about 30 doctoral students and promote the latest skills in education policy research with two- and four-year fellowships in a variety of disciplines.
- May 29, 2014
We have come a long way since the State Board of Education adopted the Common Core standards in 2010. The transition requires comprehensive policy changes. Policy changes thus far have helped streamline systems that were outdated or out of sync with how 21st century school systems should operate.
In addition to Common Core standards in English language arts and math, we have adopted new English language development standards and an implementation plan. We have also adopted the Next Generation Science Standards to improve science education and to better prepare and engage students in more in-depth science, computing and engineering courses. Our goal is to ensure that all students graduate prepared for college and careers.
- May 27, 2014
Eric Hanushek, Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, discusses his research on "U.S. Students from Educated Families Lag in International Tests"
- May 27, 2014
Congratulations to Eric Taylor and Ilana Umansky for receiving National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship 2014. The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $25,000 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.
- May 26, 2014
Douglas Staiger, John French Professor in Economics at Dartmouth College, talks on his paper "Have We Identified Effective Teachers? Validating Measures of Effective Teaching Using Random Assignment" at Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.
- May 26, 2014
Wendy Tokuda speaks about "Students Rising Above," a nationally recognized television series she has spearheaded for over sixteen years on low-income, San Francisco Bay Area teenagers who have overcome great adversity at Stanford's Workshop on Poverty, Inequality, and Education.