Public Impact
Brookings, January 25, 2018, by Michael Hansen and Ben Backes
Since President Trump took office, it seems that most education news has moved away from a key pillar of the Obama-era education platform: teacher quality. Increasing teacher quality, particularly for disadvantaged students, was a principle that surfaced time and again from the Department of Education under secretaries Arne Duncan and John King.
Milken Educator Awards, January 25, 2018
Arkansas teacher Dawn McLain engages her 6th grade science and math students any way she can, whether it be with robotics, design modeling or rocketry. And while big science may be helping lift her students’ test scores into the stratosphere, her classes are invariably down-to-earth and feature hands-on learning.
This column first appeared in Education Next on January 17, 2018. What if every student actually could have an excellent teacher? According to a new study released through the CALDER Center, it might be possible. Study authors Ben Backes of American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Michael Hansen of the Brookings Institution found that students in classrooms […]
By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published on EdNext. What if every student actually could have an excellent teacher? According to a new study released through the CALDER Center, it might be possible. Study authors Ben Backes of American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Michael Hansen of the Brookings Institution found that students in classrooms […]
EdWeek, January 12, 2018, by Madeline Will
When highly effective teachers are given a hybrid role to lead other teachers, the students on their team perform better in math and, to a lesser extent, reading, according to a new study.
Students in classrooms of team teachers led by “multi-classroom leaders” showed sizeable academic gains, according to a new study from the American Institutes for Research and the Brookings Institution. The team teachers were, on average, at the 50th percentile in the student learning gains they produced before joining a team led by a multi-classroom leader. […]
What does Beyoncé have to do with great teachers? Ranson IB Middle School Principal Erica Jordan-Thomas wants you to know: “There are Beyoncé educators in every single school building dropping number 1 albums year after year in the form of mind-blowing results with their kids.” But, Jordan-Thomas says in her just-posted Fall 2017 TEDx talk, […]
When Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders describe their jobs—providing intensive, on-the-job coaching, support for planning, and data analysis leadership to a team of teachers while continuing to teach students, too—they hear the same question: How do you fit all that in? See the answer in a new video and vignette from Public Impact: Days in the […]
For years, my school, Washington Elementary in Big Spring, Texas, struggled to meet all our students’ literacy needs. We group students in tiers, as in the “Response to Intervention” model, but each year we were still left with extremely large groups in Tier II and Tier III — struggling students and chronically struggling students. Each […]
When you’re not sure where to start, ask your students! Well, not always, but when I came to Charlotte, North Carolina’s James Martin Middle School as a multi-classroom leader in 2014, I felt overwhelmed. I started as the MCL for sixth grade, where for the previous three years the students had been experiencing negative learning […]
RTV 6 ABC, April 17, 2017, by Katie Heinz and Victoria T. Davis
Amid the proposal to close three of the district’s seven high schools, IPS is offering a new program to teachers interested in mentoring other educators and students. IPS administrators said the goal of Opportunity Culture is to improve teaching effectiveness while retaining teachers.
WTHR NBC, April 11, 2017, by Rich Van Wyk
Here’s an idea to improve schools and teachers. Pay exceptional teachers more money. Give them the responsibility of helping other teachers and keep them from quitting to take better paying jobs. Indianapolis Public schools is trying to do just that and getting recognition from the National Council on Teacher Quality.