While there is considerable scholarship describing principles for effective professional development, there have been few attempts to examine these principles in practice. In this paper, we identify and examine the particular design features of a mathematics professional development experience provided for middle grades teachers over 14 weeks. The…

This new working paper uses survey responses and student grades and test scores to examine how math instruction and student outcomes have changed in schools with differing levels of CCSS professional development since the implementation of the new Common Core Mathematics standards (CCSS-M) in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 2014-15. It found that…

When CME Group Foundation (CME) was formed in 2007 with an endowment from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust, its founders set out to engage in grantmaking that would improve education from cradle to career and strengthen the region's economy. During its first decade, nearly a quarter of CME's grants targeted early childhood education with an…

Evaluating a school system requires benchmarks of success. In order to know whether it is successful we need to know not only what is happening, but what should be happening. This paper interprets, and comments on, the aims California has for its public school system, and offers ways of thinking about the evidence in the light of those aims, and…

To serve children with language impairments (LI), speech language pathologists and other educators need approaches supported by evidence (Hoffman et al., 2013). In evidence-based practice (EBP), educators integrate children's needs, strengths, interests, and preferences with research and expertise (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, and in many cases exacerbated, disparities among students that result from their socioeconomic status, language background, race and ethnicity, and disability classification. Now more than ever, school systems need to understand student needs and respond with targeted supports that address these needs. One…

Susana Velasco always thought she designed lessons for her kindergarten students to help them meet the academic standards for their grade. But now she feels better equipped to adapt instruction to meet the needs of all the children in her class--a skill she has developed through her school's participation in the Literacy Design Collaborative…

This article focuses on the growing development towards new forms of '"distributed" governance within current large-scale educational reforms. The emphasis is on so-called "governance through standards" as a transformative reform complex which manifests itself in a simultaneous process of regulative destabilisation and (global)…

Many students do not meet expected standards of writing performance, despite the need for writing competence in and out of school. As policy instruments, writing content standards have an impact on what is taught and how students perform. This study reports findings from an evaluation of the content of a sample of seven diverse states' current…

Many states have adopted the Common Core Standards for literacy and math and have begun enacting these standards in school curriculum. In states where these standards have been adopted, professional educators working in K-12 contexts have been working to create transition plans from existing state-based standards to the Common Core standards. A…

Research suggests deep conceptual learning (DCL) is distinctly different than surface learning. Deep conceptual learners tend to think, discuss, and question more, seeking to understand rather than only memorize. A commonality of the Common Core standards in mathematics and the Next Generation Science Standards is greater focus on depth by…

Successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) should result in noticeable differences in primary and middle school math classrooms across the United States. "Common Core Math in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey" takes a close look at how educators are implementing the…

Using administrative longitudinal data from five states, we study how value-added measures of teacher performance are affected by changes in state standards and assessments. We first document the stability of teachers' value-added rankings during transitions to new standard and assessment regimes and compare our findings to stability during stable…

This first Early Implementers Initiative evaluation publication discusses one of the major shifts required by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), namely the shift to integrated instruction. The integration of science and English language arts (ELA) is the focus of the first main section, and the integration of the science disciplines…

This paper analyzes the history, current practice, and dangers associated with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). With roots in American progressive education and particularly in the movements for Outcome-Based Education and Self-Esteem, SEL is now pushed onto state and local education systems by the federal government and even international…