How do we ensure that all schools are warm, welcoming, fair, and effective in the treatment of all students? How do we maintain safety and order, while protecting against the effects of the persistent, unconscious biases that plaugue our society?
Good Schools
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Good Schools IX / Creating Safe and Supportive Schools
Written on February 7, 2015READ MORE -
Good Schools VI / Multiple Measures of Teacher Performance: What Does It Mean? How Is It Implemented?
Written on October 3, 2014READ MOREThe quest to define and measure teacher effectiveness has sparked useful research on many different fronts, using different means to gauge various important outcomes. But it has also prompted many ieffective, punitive redesigns of techer evaluation systems. How do we create a system that is clear, fair, and useful for improving practice?
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Good Schools VIII / Doing Assessment Right
Written on March 2, 2013READ MOREIn the wake of No Child Left Behind, the demands on educational testing are heavier than ever – from diagnosis to instructional improvement to gate-keeping to accountability for students, teachers, and schools. What would a useful assessment system look like at the state and local levels? What are the conceptual and practical issues that must be confronted to achieve such a system?
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Good Schools V / Pushing the Teacher Evaluation Envelope: Designing the Most Valid and Reliable Systems Possible
Written on April 2, 2010READ MOREThe fifth meeting of district partners in the Albert Shanker Institute’s “good schools” seminar series was convened in the wake of the first round of the Obama Administration’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition. Although only two states were declared as winners, scores of others made plans and passed laws that changed state education systems in ways that could be positive or negative, depending on the care with which these changes are planned and implemented.
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Good Schools IV / Using the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act To Advance the Good Schools Agenda
Written on April 20, 2009READ MOREIn addition to shoring up decimated education budgets, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is a possible funding source for state and local education reform efforts. This seminar examines what the law really says and the sorts of projects it might fund to: improve teacher quality, develop effective curriculum, improve the achievement of low-performing students, develop useful assessments, etc.
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Good Schools III / Teacher Pay and Staffing Policies: What Works, What Doesn’t
Written on November 2, 2008READ MOREIn this November 2008 Good Schools Seminar, panelists including Doug Harris, David Osher, and Randi Weingarten discuss the evidence and policy on compensation and staffing policies for teachers in the U.S.
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Good Schools II / Developing the Teaching Corps We Need
Written on January 15, 2008READ MOREThis seminar series is part of an effort to build a network of union leaders, district superintendents, and researchers to work collaboratively on improving public education through a focus on teaching.
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Good Schools I / Unions, Teaching Quality and Student Achievement
Written on June 4, 2007READ MOREThis is the first in a series of two-day seminars, designed to help build a network of union leaders, district superintendents, and researchers to work collaboratively on improving public education through a focus on teaching.
