Research & Insights

Districts’ policies should enable teachers and administrators to fully capitalize on the benefits provided by strong evaluation practices.

The Supreme Court’s decision to end unions’ ability to collect “agency fees” from nonconsenting employees puts the onus squarely on teachers union leaders to demonstrate relevance and value to today’s teachers.

Though I’ve never considered myself an isolationist, I am increasingly questioning the value of looking beyond American borders for insights into education, at least regarding teacher quality.

Student teaching is intended to serve as the opportunity for aspiring teachers to apply what they have learned from their preparation programs in real classroom settings.

The nation has taken steps toward giving all students, regardless of their background, equal access to great teachers. By more equitably distributing teachers, can schools actually get more equitable results, or are teachers too small a piece of the achievement puzzle?

Paying teachers more to work in high-need schools and subjects—known as “differential pay”—is one of the most powerful tools school districts have on hand to secure the teachers they need.

It’s teacher hiring season, and school districts are out in full force working to recruit teachers.

In Tennessee schools, accountability starts at the top – and that might be making all the difference.

Teachers who had been getting a particularly bad deal stood up to advocate for change in their states, but while the first strikes set off others, it hasn’t really gone viral.

As school districts plan for the coming school year, many are already considering where to recruit a fresh crop of new teachers – teachers eager to put everything they’ve learned from preparation into practice.

About 20 school districts have adopted new staffing models known collectively as Opportunity Culture, each designed to maximize the impact of great teachers. Makes sense, but does it work? Thanks to a recent study from Ben Backes and Michael Hansen, the first bit of evidence is in.

Without first understanding a problem, it’s next-to-impossible to fix it. A new policy brief demonstrates how one state looked first to data to better understand its schools’ inequitable assignment of teacher talent, surfacing some issues that were largely unknown.

With decades of research that have shown the number of children struggling to read can be cut by two-thirds or more if the methods used to teach them to read are scientifically based, why aren’t teachers using these proven models?

In just a couple of weeks NCTQ will be releasing an updated set of ratings for graduate and alternative route teacher prep programs. These results are made all the more interesting by the release yesterday of some timely and promising data finding that programs are indeed making positive changes to improve the quality of their preparation.

Did you know that moving teachers between grade levels, or “grade switching,” can actually be harmful to student achievement? Read more in Can Moving Teachers Between Grade Levels Actually Be Harmful to Students?, a brief with specific tips on what school leaders can do to mitigate the damage from grade switching when planning teacher assignments for the coming year.

We’ve all taken plenty of tests in our time—so surely any of us could figure out how to assess our students, right? Not so fast! Strong assessment practice requires training in how to design, implement, interpret, and use different forms of assessment and data.

We’ve all had our favorite teacher. A teacher who has made a difference in our lives. And as much as our teachers want us to remember polynomials or the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the reality is that sometimes, we remember that teacher for the life lessons she taught us and how she made us feel, more than for what she taught.

Okay, I’m on a bit of a rant. I’ve now written here, here, and here about education advocates doing a rotten job communicating and celebrating successes and sticking to their knitting. In that vein…

Of late I am hearing a lot of noise about how we should steer clear of any mention of DC Public Schools in celebrating our successes. The district is now tainted, damaged goods.

Teachers often say that of all parts of their training, student teaching was the most valuable. This may leave their course instructors wondering: does everything they say go in one ear and out the other?

In light of the upcoming Supreme Court oral arguments on the highly significant Janus vs. AFSCME case, we took a look at state laws regarding collective bargaining and the type of fees that teachers unions are currently allowed to collect, depending on the state in which they are organized.

As a student, it is so frustrating when a teacher never returns your work. How will you know how you did? Teacher preparation programs instruct candidates to give frequent feedback on assignments so students can learn and grow. Yet many of these same programs are missing a major opportunity to improve upon their own practice by assessing the outcomes of their work—the teachers they graduate.