tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32369016419878885712012-01-16T23:52:57.976-05:00Musings on issues, policies, and practices in preK-12 educationPatricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-49478238353975677982010-03-03T00:27:00.001-05:002010-03-03T00:29:07.327-05:00

The Canadian education blogs were buzzing last month about Erin Anderssen’s commentary on merit pay for teachers, published in The Globe and Mail. Too often merit pay generates polarized rhetoric rather than thoughtful discussion. To Anderssen’s credit, she introduces some of the research and contextual issues that frame the debate about this reform strategy.Anderssen notes, for instance, that

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-58823738333221605862010-01-05T23:21:00.002-05:002010-01-05T23:27:29.853-05:00

Early care and learning should be one of Canada’s most significant educational policy issues in this new decade. Why? Because we are so very bad at providing high-quality early learning environments for our youngest citizens and the rest of the world knows it. It was less than two years ago when UNICEF issued a report card in 2008 that compared government policy and results for young children and

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-7832489290225727652009-06-22T14:18:00.005-05:002009-06-22T14:27:03.106-05:00

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Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-70611538032588905542009-06-16T08:33:00.002-05:002009-06-16T08:38:03.838-05:00

Over $6.4 million in grants to leading national policy organizations were announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These grants support new efforts to identify why many young Americans drop out of college and to propose new policies and practices necessary to help low-income, African American, and Hispanic students complete their educations. Grants Announced Today: • American

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-29331968319382881912009-06-06T07:57:00.003-05:002009-06-06T08:11:10.360-05:00

One of my personal areas of advocacy is improving the quality of early childhood education. As a working parent seeking high-quality daycare and preschool services, I was frustrated by the lack of information about the quality of these services. I was, after all, leaving my child--my most precious possession--in the hands of these providers. For this reason, I now contribute my services to a

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-52646936514546924162008-09-21T08:28:00.004-05:002008-09-21T08:37:27.011-05:00

One of my recent blog finds is Dean Millot's blog on the Education Week website. Dean offers straight talk on a range of school improvement topics from a market-driven perspective. His critiques of school district requests for proposals (RFPs) on school improvement topics are usually dead on (and this comment is from yours truly -- someone who reviews RFPs on a daily basis). Check out this blog

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-60458382238443540642008-09-21T08:19:00.002-05:002009-06-16T08:39:55.211-05:00

Check out the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), a non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. EPI research focuses primarily on the issues related to educational opportunity throughout the education continuum, from early childhood education to graduate and professional studies, including adult education and workforce development. Specifically, EPI focuses on

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-18286325217041817272008-07-26T08:45:00.002-05:002008-07-26T08:47:01.610-05:00

Found this nice selection of articles and reports on the Teacher Quality Partnership website on the topic of value-added assessment: http://www.teacherqualitypartnership.org/valueaddedassessment.html.

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-37147119135015063312008-05-26T12:29:00.003-05:002008-05-26T12:34:59.367-05:00

In the world of educational policy, where the chatter of policy wonks and policymakers often edges out the voices of key stakeholders, it is refreshing to see a publication such as "Waiting to be Won Over" (Education Sector, 2008), which shares the opinions of teachers on a wide range of issues facing K-12 education today. Want to know about teachers' opinions on incentive pay? Burnout? Teacher

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-21076989135491459132008-05-26T12:05:00.004-05:002009-06-23T08:49:21.543-05:00

Hooray for the new Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. The Center is led by the very able Henry Levin, the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the David Jacks Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Economics at Stanford University, and Clive Belfield, an Assistant

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-33952681943184035582008-05-26T11:37:00.003-05:002008-05-26T11:47:48.983-05:00

Economic analyses of early childhood programs are hardly new: the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program cost-benefit analysis is an obvious example. But a new study by the RAND Corporation, "The Economics of Early Childhood: What the Dismal Science Has to Say About Investing in Children," aims to serve as a primer for policy-makers in the use of cost/benefits/rate-of-return analysis in making early

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-3936389279708213582008-03-15T06:47:00.003-05:002008-03-15T06:58:31.390-05:00

This week the final report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel was released. (See link on this page.) The dominant theme of this report is to put “first things first:” which includes streamlining mathematics curriculum in Grades PreK–8 and emphasizing a "well-defined set of the most critical topics in the early grades"; blending research-based instructional approaches to building

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-28872747244645920772007-10-21T21:34:00.000-05:002007-10-21T21:43:55.660-05:00

It's news when the nation's largest school district--New York City--announces a teacher incentive plan that would give cash bonuses to teachers at some of the city’s high-needs schools that raise student test scores. Union officials supported the plan because it gives the incentive bonus to the whole school and not just to individual teachers who raise student test scores. NYC's move comes in the

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-36220849022054608752007-08-20T18:10:00.000-05:002007-08-20T18:19:48.489-05:00

Is NCLB really raising student achievement as its proponents argue? Fuller et. al. report that test-score improvement among 4th graders in 12 states has fallen off in reading and slowed in math since the enactment of NCLB. Unlike a recent report from the Center on Education Policy, which found consistent and significant increases in state-test scores since NCLB became law in early 2002, this

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-66238167310559565732007-08-15T20:09:00.000-05:002007-08-15T20:36:59.072-05:00

On August 9, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2272, the "America COMPETES Act" or the "America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act." This bill authorizes various programs at the National Science Foundation and the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Education intended to strengthen education and research in the United States

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-13669812713428759542007-07-25T17:36:00.000-05:002007-07-25T17:43:51.620-05:00

Education Week's blogger extraordinaire, Alexander Russo, posted House education committee chairman George Miller's memorandum to House freshmen from earlier this month, which outlines Miller's stance on NCLB. The two-page memo dated July 7 outlines nine key proposals for revising the controversial law. Here's a link to the memorandum: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweekineducation/upload/

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-26356840459775632942007-07-25T17:25:00.000-05:002007-07-25T17:32:18.759-05:00

Under NCLB, states are required to report the percentages of students achieving proficiency in reading and mathematics for grades 3 through 8. As tempting as it is to compare proficiency scores across states, researchers are well aware of the pitfalls of this approach, given the differences in state curriculum standards and assessments. In a recently released report (see link below), the

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-56434368902740739612007-07-05T19:51:00.000-05:002007-07-05T20:00:28.653-05:00

The heightened focus on accountability in education and growing interest in high school reform in recent years has focused attention on one of the most significant indicators of a high school’s performance: the student graduation rate. Yet there has been considerable debate in educational policy circles for several years about how many students actually earn a diploma. Various reports cite

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-22652866294814539802007-06-20T21:36:00.000-05:002007-06-20T22:17:49.453-05:00

The new report by TeacherSolutions takes a favorable view of one of the profession's most controversial issues--merit pay. Merit pay is certainly not a new idea in American education. Merit pay policies have been formulated, adopted, implemented, and evaluated throughout the twentieth century. Single salary schedules for teachers, typically based on teachers' qualifications and years of

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-76313403137404901492007-06-20T21:27:00.000-05:002007-06-20T21:35:31.442-05:00

We’re going to keep working to give every Virginia child a world-class education, and we’re going to start sooner, by offering prekindergarten to every Virginia four year old. –Governor Timothy Kaine, November 7, 2005 (Samuels, 2005). Universal pre-kindergarten was a core element of Virginia Governor Kaine’s election platform, and he reiterated this policy position during his election-night

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-8902846198699823252007-05-18T21:18:00.000-05:002007-05-18T21:39:57.140-05:00

Tonight, I've been reading Arthur Levine's newest installment in his series of policy reports based on the results of a four-year study of America’s education schools. After targeting teacher education and school administrators' training, he turned his critical eye on the preparation of educational researchers. As a Ph.D. student in educational policy and research, I found myself nodding

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-253975790101861002007-04-27T21:31:00.000-05:002007-04-27T21:37:20.267-05:00

A new report from the Center for Teacher Quality supports performance-pay plans that advance student achievement and the teaching profession. This new study proposes rewarding small teams of teachers who raise student achievement together; rewarding teachers who accept challenging assignments in high-needs schools; and redesigning pay systems so that teacher success, not seniority or graduate

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-8191386031045276982007-04-27T20:58:00.000-05:002007-04-27T21:25:50.472-05:00

Chris Whittle, founder of the Edison Schools, weighed in on education reform in "Homeland Offense," a policy brief published by WestEd. Whittle uses a military metaphor to call for radical school redesign and business approaches to education. It's a strange, offbeat work of fiction drawn from Whittle's equally odd "Crash Course." There's a link to the policy brief below. You've been warned.

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-59516385695064383552007-03-20T20:59:00.000-05:002007-03-20T21:26:50.569-05:00

At the National Press Club earlier this month, a group of business leaders, economists, and philanthropists launched a modest, $3.1 million, ten-year project to make early education a top U.S. priority. Entitled Partnership for America's Economic Success, the partnership is now in the midst of a two-year research phase, and is commissioning about 15 studies to discern the economic benefits of

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-30374787893110487932007-03-02T22:06:00.001-05:002008-09-21T09:09:40.688-05:00

I spent my lunch-hour today listening to an informative webinar on “Secondary-Postsecondary Learning Options,” a catch-phrase coined by the American Youth Policy Forum (www.aypf.org) to describe schools and programs that link secondary education with two- and four-year institutions of higher education and allow high school students to participate in college-level courses. The webinar was

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-21614499367132238342007-02-25T22:24:00.000-05:002007-02-25T22:39:13.568-05:00

Thank you, Christopher Swanson, for identifying the movers and shakers in US education policy in Influence: A Study of the Factors Shaping Education Policy. Swanson asked leading education policy experts to identify and rate highly influential agents or “Influentials” across four different categories – Studies, Organizations, People, and Information Sources. Topping the list of studies was the

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-58509947321691247482007-02-25T07:10:00.000-05:002007-02-25T07:40:32.925-05:00

The BIG news this week was the release of data from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Also known as "The Nation's Report Card," NAEP is the only national standardized continuing assessment. It assesses the performance of students aged 7, 12, 14, and 17 in reading, math, science, writing, US history, civics, geography, and the arts.Given the tremendous investment in NCLB

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-89267147127035834462007-02-25T06:29:00.000-05:002007-02-25T06:44:31.272-05:00

One of my favorite ed policy blogs is by Alexander Russo, a former Senate education staffer and journalist now part of Education Week's strong stable of writers. He covers the major education news and trends with a political edge and slightly offbeat sense of humor. Check it out sometime at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweekineducation/.

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-57733902700983214952007-02-24T22:24:00.000-05:002007-02-24T22:25:35.679-05:00

The long-awaited report of the Commission on No Child Left Behind was issued yesterday, and it was filled with recommendations on how to improve the controversial law. High schools, previously sheltered from the penetrating reach of NCLB, could, if the commission's recommendations were adopted, face increased accountability. Among the commission's recommendations: to require districts with

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-54396840437624243982007-02-24T22:23:00.000-05:002007-02-24T22:24:10.768-05:00

The squabbling in the nation's capitol continues over the President's proposed budget for FY08. Wednesday’s session before the House Committee on Science and Technology was filled with bickering, although the overall funding for the National Science Foundation was slightly increased. At issue was the apparent reduction in funding for science education and particularly in the area of teacher

Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3236901641987888571.post-6948290315697679952007-02-24T22:01:00.001-05:002007-02-24T22:01:34.916-05:00

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Patricia Moore Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03085899721571748338noreply@blogger.com0