The State Innovator’s Toolkit: A Guide to Successfully Managing Innovation under ESSA
This guide addresses opportunities under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to drive school improvement, challenging states to rethink older, more traditional approaches and support real innovation. It reviews several principals that can help state leaders support districts’ and schools’ change efforts. It also outlines in detail 6 approaches to spark innovation which states might consider. This… Read More ›
Gateway to Opportunity: Extending Learning into the Summer and into the Workplace
As the school year kicks into gear, it is often a time for reflecting back on summer. I can’t tell you how frequently I bump into students who tell me they were bored and up to “nothing really” over their breaks. With the work that I do, it is hard for this response to not… Read More ›
Competency-Based Education: Staying Shallow or Going Deep?
This report examines what it means to be competent in the 21st century. It begins with an overview of competency-based education. It then explores the competencies needed for career and college readiness with attention given to existing personal and deeper learning competency frameworks. The report concludes that competency in the 21st century must include academics as well as… Read More ›
Learner-Centered Culture Includes Educators, Too
Ask an adult who is not an educator to describe a classroom, and you might still hear something like this: “A teacher is standing in front and lecturing to students seated neatly in rows. Everyone is on the same page of the textbook and doing the same exercises because there’s a quiz tomorrow and everyone… Read More ›
State Policy & K-12 Competency-Based Education
This issue brief from iNACOL offers advice for state leaders who want to support policy for K-12 competency-based education. The brief includes background on the development of and an overview of competency, sometimes called mastery-based education. It features a series of recommendations for state policy-makers hoping to stimulate a shift towards competency-based education or nurture… Read More ›
CBE 360 Survey Toolkit
Competency-based education (CBE) allows students to master skills and knowledge at their own pace. This toolkit, developed by American Institutes for Research (AIR) features surveys from a recent AIR CBE study which schools can administer to gain a comprehensive picture of CBE implementation in six research-based core areas: learning targets, measurement of learning, instructional approaches and supports,… Read More ›
Comparing Good Jobs to Good Classrooms: Essential Elements for Supporting People to Learn, Persist, and Succeed
Originally posted on September 19 on Jobs for the Future Recently, I read an employer profile for the Kentucky-based materials manufacturer Universal Woods, written by Steven Dawson. Universal Woods is a manufacturer of hard surface panels and flooring headquartered in Louisville, KY, with 200 employees, and operations in Ohio, Australia, and Belgium. To many, Universal Woods… Read More ›
Using Title I to Promote Deeper Learning
This webinar will address how states can use resources provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to implement deeper learning practices in schools and school districts. State and local policymakers, in addition to district and school leaders can use deeper learning as the framework from which to design their plans to meet the ESSA requirements… Read More ›
Leadership Competencies for Learner-Centered, Personalized Education Informational Webinar
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Jobs for the Future (JFF) have released Leadership Competencies for Learner-Centered, Personalized Education, a resource that serves as a first step in identifying the knowledge, skills, and dispositions leaders must master in order to build and sustain learner-centered, personalized schools and learning environments. This set of competencies describes and… Read More ›
The 2017 Lawrence W. O’Toole Teacher Leadership Awards Winners
As high schoolers around New England return to class for another exciting year, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation is proud to honor the innovative educators who are rethinking how, when and where learning happens to put students at the center of their education. In celebration of their outstanding work to renovate and reinvent learning across… Read More ›
Tools for Looking Under the Hood of Competency-Based Education
This webinar will highlight the forthcoming Competency-based Education (CBE) 360 Survey Toolkit, a resource that uses surveys from a recent AIR CBE study to provide a comprehensive picture of CBE implementation in six research-based core areas. States, districts, and schools that want to realize competency-based education’s (CBE) college and career readiness potential must ensure that core CBE features are… Read More ›
How to Artfully Enroll Parents in Learner-Centered Transformation
This article from the Principal of Red Bank Elementary School in South Carolina, shares successes and failures the school faced while building family support for student-centered changes. The author asserts that for successful school transformation, parents must be “artfully enrolled” in the process. This began with challenging parents to grapple with tough questions about traditional schooling.… Read More ›