Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
Reform of educator evaluation, in Illinois and around the nation, is intended to more accurately identify effective and ineffective teachers and to inform teacher development. The reality is that more effort and attention has been focused on how to rate teachers within such systems than on how to design these systems to provide regular and useful feedback on teaching. If the 2010 Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) is to achieve its aims in Illinois, it must help teachers to learn and improve on the job.
For beginning teachers, the challenge is more pronounced. On average, new teachers are less effective than their more experienced peers. Improvements in individual teaching practices tend to occur during these early years in the classroom, when teachers are applying lessons learned during preparation and developing their own pedagogical approach. While beginning teachers should not be held to a different performance standard, they do require more intensive support and more frequent feedback to grow into highly effective practitioners. This is one reason why highly structured, intensive new teacher support is prized by beginning teachers -- and strengthens their teaching.
If PERA is to accelerate new teacher effectiveness, beginning teachers in Illinois will require more feedback and support than what is provided by this law alone. An aligned system of high-quality induction -- featuring regular contact with a mentor, frequent classroom observation, on -- going opportunities to engage in reflection and self-assessment, and actionable, "real time" feedback to inform instructional improvement throughout the school year -- would provide the necessary intensity of instructional support. To accomplish this, Illinois should design and articulate a comprehensive talent development system with teacher learning at its center.
Illinois is well-positioned to succeed. Its deep commitment to successful PERA design coupled with a gradual approach to implementation has put the state on the right track. Its existing induction program standards and new induction rules lend important tools to the effort to address the unique learning curve of beginning teachers.
This Guide explores how the state can solidify PERA's role in informing and supporting new teacher development. In this effort, we have identified two main priorities for Illinois policymakers and PERA implementers.
- Design a comprehensive educator effectiveness system that encompasses both evaluation and robust instructional feedback and support. For new teachers, this system must include induction support aligned with PERA's evaluation requirements.
- Encourage and enable teacher leaders to serve as teacher mentors and as peer evaluators. Instructional improvement is a collective responsibility and is too critical and time-intensive an endeavor to leave solely to school administrators.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Illinois
Education and Literacy, Parenting and Families
Families in many portfolio districts can choose from a variety of charter and district schools for their children. But to make these choices, parents often must fill out multiple application forms and navigate schools that may have different requirements, deadlines, and selection preferences such as sibling attendance or proximity to the school. Once parents complete the applications and schools make offers, some families receive multiple offers and often hold on to them until the last minute, while other families receive few or no offers, remaining on waitlists well into the fall. Not only is this process difficult for families, it favors families with the time and knowledge to navigate its inherent complexities.
In order to make applying to a choice school less complicated, some cities are building common enrollment systems that streamline enrollment across all types of schools. These cities are adopting a transparent matching process that systematically assigns students to schools based on both school and student preferences. Families are asked to rank the schools they prefer for their child (regardless of whether the school is operated by the district or is a charter school) in a single application process. Families then receive a match that takes into account their preferences and the priorities and admission standards set by the schools in the city.
Proponents of common enrollment believe that it is more equitable for families and schools and can lead to a more predictable and less tumultuous matching process overall. Common enrollment systems can also benefit cities and districts by eliminating the need to authenticate results from multiple charter lotteries, and by providing data on school demand throughout the city that might inform strategic decisions about managing the school supply. Even so, some detractors worry that centralized enrollment systems will erode the autonomy of schools and require administrative capacity that is rarely found in existing oversight agencies (typically school districts). Common enrollment also doesn't directly address the fact that most cities don't have enough high-quality seats to serve all of their students.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Western)-Colorado-Denver County-Denver, North America-United States (Southern)-Louisiana-Orleans Parish-New Orleans
Computers and Technology, Education and Literacy
The digital era has brought profound challenges and opportunities to countless institutions and industries, from universities to newspapers to the music industry, in ways both large and small. Institutions that were previously identified with printed material -- and its attendant properties of being expensive, scarce, and obscure -- are now considering how to take on new roles as purveyors of information, connections, and entertainment, using the latest formats and technologies.
The impact of digital technologies on public libraries is particularly interesting because libraries serve so many people (about half of all Americans ages 16 and older used a public library in some form in the past year, as of September 2013) and correspondingly try to meet a wide variety of needs.This is also what makes the task of public libraries -- as well as governments, news organizations, religious groups, schools, and any other institution that is trying to reach a wide swath of the American public -- so challenging: They are trying to respond to new technologies while maintaining older strategies of knowledge dissemination.
Libraries loom large in the public imagination, and are generally viewed very positively: 90% of Americans ages 16 and older say that the closing of their local public library would have an impact on their community. This means that many people have a stake in the future of libraries, and as the digital age advances, there is much discussion about where they are headed. To help with that conversation, Pew Research has spent three years charting the present role libraries play in Americans' lives and communities, in the hopes that this will set the foundation for discussions of what libraries should be in the future. The first stage of our research studied the growing role of e-books, including their impact on Americans' reading habits and Americans' library habbits. Our second stage explored the full universe of library services, as well as what library services Americans most value and what they might want from libraries in the future. This typology completes our third and final stage of research, which explores public libraries' roles in people's lives and in American culture writ large - how they are perceived, how they are valued, how people rely on them, and so forth.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
Education and Literacy;Race and Ethnicity
This report illustrates the successful college preparatory practices of Uncommon Schools, a network of 38 public charter schools in New York, New Jersey and Massachusettsthat serves nearly 10,000 low-income students and students of color. During the 2013 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools review process, a panel of national education experts chose Uncommon Schools as the best among the nation's 27 largest urban charter management organizations in closing achievement gaps, graduating its students and preparing them for college. The policies and practices highlighted in this report were drawn from a week-long site visit to Uncommon Schools conducted by RMC Research Corporation in November 2013 and a review of Uncommon's quantitative student achievement data from 2008-09 through 2011-2012.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Northeastern) / New Jersey;North America / United States (Northeastern) / New York;North America / United States (Northeastern) / Massachusetts
Aging, Education and Literacy, Women
Now more than ever before, women around the world are poised to make significant progress. Large-scale changes in every region could lead to advances for women -- as well as progress for countries and entire regions -- if well leveraged by societies, governments, and businesses.
This report explores women's status through the lens of shifting demographics, improving education, and stalled progress toward equality for women.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy
Educational attainment defines workforce success, and a robust workforce drives economic stability and growth. Therefore, everyone has a stake in developing systems that promote strong education outcomes and successful transitions to the labor market: businesses and employers that aim to simultaneously build up the next generation of consumers and strengthen the future workforce; elected officials who wish to sustain the city's current prosperity and growth; parents and concerned community members who want a vibrant, healthy community; and youth themselves, who by and large want to lead stable, productive lives.
Momentum has been building -- now is the time for the District of Columbia to develop such a system. Recent studies suggest thousands of youth between the ages of 16 -- 24 are disconnected, which is commonly understood to mean young people who are neither in school nor working. High dropout and unemployment rates and low post-secondary education attainment rates among District youth have led to a series of thoughtful and focused examinations of how the District of Columbia can reconnect youth to opportunity. Raise DC, the District's public/private partnership dedicated to establishing cradle to career alignment, is leading the charge with its focus on youth reconnection. This -- combined with the engagement of the foundation sector on the needs of disconnected youth and the recognition of other government and community working groups on this emerging and high-need sector of the youth population -- has opened the window of opportunity to combat youth disconnection through cohesive, evidence-driven, and cross-sector systems change.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Southern) / District of Columbia / Washington
As student debt continues to climb, it's important to understand how our once debt-free system of public universities and colleges has been transformed into a system in which most students borrow, and at increasingly higher amounts. In less than a generation, our nation's higher education system has become a debt-for-diploma system -- more than seven out of 10 college seniors now borrow to pay for college and graduate with an average debt of $29,400. Up until about two decades ago, state funding ensured college tuition remained within reach for most middle-class families, and financial aid provided extra support to ensure lower-income students could afford the costs of college.
As Demos chronicled in its first report in the series, this compact began to unravel as states disinvested in higher education during economic downturns but were unable, or unwilling, to restore funding levels during times of economic expansion. Today, as a result, public colleges and universities rely on tuition to fund an ever-increasing share of their operating expenses. And students and their families rely more and more on debt to meet those rising tuition costs. Nationally, revenue from tuition paid for 44 percent of all operating expenses of public colleges and universities in 2012, the highest share ever. A quarter century ago, the share was just 20 percent. This shift -- from a collective funding of higher education to one borne increasingly by individuals -- has come at the very same time that low- and middle-income households experienced stagnant or declining household income.
The Great Recession intensified these trends, leading to unprecedented declines in state funding for higher education and steep tuition increases.This brief updates our previous analysis of state funding trends by examining trends in state funding and tuition since the Great Recession.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
In the spring of 2015, large numbers of districts across the country will begin releasing scores on new, Common Core-aligned assessments. These scores will provide us with an initial look at how well our students are prepared for college and career based on the higher bar set by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Despite widespread adoption by most of the nation in 2010, according to the 2013 PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, 62 percent of respondents say they have never heard of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
To help prepare education practitioners and advocates for the changes ahead, we examined how recent changes in state assessments were communicated to stakeholders, and the results of those efforts. We interviewed parents, district and school administrators, state education officials, education advocates, union representatives and school board members in states that made changes to their assessments or cut scores in order to raise the bar of student expectations similar to Common Core-aligned assessments efforts now.
The findings offer a lens into what works for system leaders eager to develop strong support for new CCSS assessments and their overall efforts to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for college and career.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
