Research and Best Practices
The largest in-depth study of school leadership to date, this report gathers and analyzes quantitative data confirming that education leadership has a strong impact on student achievement, as measured by student test scores. The study shows that leadership makes its mark largely by strengthening a school’s “professional community” – an environment where teachers work together to improve classroom instruction. It also finds that rapid turnover of principals reduces student achievement. In addition, the study shows that although the.....
Resources
Learning From Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning
The largest in-depth study of school leadership to date, this report gathers and analyzes quantitative data confirming that education leadership has a strong impact on student achievement, as measured by student test scores. The study shows that leadership makes its mark largely by strengthening a school’s “professional community” – an environment where teachers work together to improve classroom instruction. It also finds that rapid turnover of principals reduces student achievement. In addition, the study shows that although the.....
Learning Port
Across states, national organizations and technical assistance investments, an extensive amount of professional development material is available. This library of over 700 professional development resources provides local educators with easy access to an array of resources that can be used or customized to meet their needs.
Principal and Teacher Evaluation: A Compilation of Information and Resources for Schools and Districts Developing Educator Evaluation Tools
This document lists information and resources relating to principal and teacher evaluation that districts may find helpful as they develop tools to review a teacher's or principal’s performance. ACC has identified a number of tools, some of which provide examples that include student data in the evaluation process, which are research-based and offer promise as an effective practice. However, any resource’s inclusion or omission from this list does not constitute ACC’s endorsement or lack of endorsement.
Bringing Literacy Strategies into Content Instruction
This document provides research-based guidance on academic literacy instruction in the content areas, specifically focusing on the effective use of text in content areas. It reviews the research evidence about content-area literacy instruction for adolescents and suggests ways teachers can use content-area texts to enable students to understand the vocabulary and concepts they contain. This document also provides a brief synopsis of working with adult learners and the most promising professional development practices identified in research......
Alaska Professional Educational Associations/Organizations relating to Social Studies
This resource links to EED's Curriculum Frameworks Project. Because this page lists a number of Alaska's social science professional organizations and related professional development providers in Alaska, it may be helpful for social science educators looking for professional development opportunities.
Literacy Skills for the Social Studies Classroom
This source features information and strategies for helping students develop the reading and writing skills needed for success in the social studies classroom.
Health Topics Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. This source lists both research and methods schools can practice to reduce childhood obesity.
The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%. Obesity is the result of caloric imbalance (too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed) and is mediated by genetic, behavioral, and environmental.....
Uncharted Territory: Using Tiered Intervention to Improve High School Performance
A new report from the High School Tiered Interventions Initiative (HSTII), a collaboration among the National High School Center, the Center on Instruction, and the National Center on Response to Intervention, summarizes what HSTII has learned thus far about effective implementation of RTI in high schools.
Tiered Interventions in High Schools: Using Preliminary ‘Lessons Learned’ to Guide Ongoing Discussion, provides a brief description of the RTI framework and the essential components of RTI, illustrates how the essential components of.....
Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching
This source describes seven characteristics of culturally responsive teaching:
1. Positive perspectives on parents and families
2. Communication of high expectations
3. Learning within the context of culture
4. Student-centered instruction
5. Culturally mediated instruction
6. Reshaping the curriculum
7. Teacher as facilitator
Space learning over time with review and quizzing
A key aspect of effective teaching and learning is helping students retain information over the course of the school year and beyond. Research has shown that exposing students to key concepts and facts on at least two occasions, separated by several weeks to several months, greatly reduces the rate at which information is forgotten. This is accomplished by spacing the introduction of material over time and by reviewing material with short quizzes, review games, targeted homework assignments, and exams.
View this multimedia overview to learn.....
Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices
For the purposes of this website, these recommendations have been merged into four practices: Vocabulary Instruction; Comprehension Strategies; Engaging Text Discussion; and Intensive Intervention. This Practice Guide was developed by an expert panel convened by the Institute of Education Sciences. It is designed to address challenges in improving literacy levels in middle and high school and providing interventions for struggling adolescent readers. The Practice Guide offers a set of five research-based recommendations. A summary of the.....
CTE's Role in Adolescent Literacy
This ACTE Brief explores the key role that CTE programs can play in increasing adolescent literacy engagement. High-quality CTE programs expose students to rigorous and relevant information-rich content that motivates them to develop their literacy skills. CTE teachers integrate content-area reading and writing strategies to aid students' learning, and courses provide numerous enrichment activities to help students apply higher-level literacy skills to their interests and future goals.
Reinventing the American High School (Association for Career and Tech Ed)
In this paper, the Association for Career and Technical Education review the challenges and current efforts in high school redesign, and offer a number of recommendations about what elements should be included in our mutual efforts to reinvent the American high school for the 21st century.
Toolkit for Implementing the School Improvement Grant (SIG) - Transformation Model (CII)
This document is intended for use after the LEA has determined that the Transformation Model is the best fit for the school. The purposes of this document are to:
• outline action items involved in implementing the School Improvement Grant (SIG) Transformation Model and
• provide tools and resources to help districts and school implement the Transformation Model.
Guide to Teacher Evaluation Products
Accurately measuring a teacher's effectiveness is a complex and difficult task. Like building a puzzle, developing a teacher evaluation system requires multiple pieces that must be placed together in a purposeful way to create a holistic evaluation system.
This guide can be used by states and districts to explore various evaluation methods and tools that represent the "puzzle pieces" of an evaluation system.
The guide includes detailed descriptions of more than 75 teacher evaluation tools that are currently implemented and tested in.....
School turnaround videos that illustrate different models for SIG grants w/Letter from USDOE official
Colleagues:
Last week, the press shop issued a release publicizing the “suite” of school turnaround videos OCO has produced to better educate and inform the public about the Title I School Improvement Grant Program and further illustrate and explain the different models districts may choose to implement with SIG grant funds. In addition to the marketing we have done to the broadcast stations and education outlets in our ed.tv network (the response has been very strong for dvds and digital downloads), we would appreciate you spreading.....
Early Literacy Learning - Guides for Practitioners
These guides can be used by early childhood educators, child care providers, early interventionists, and other early childhood practitioners for promoting infants’, toddlers’, and preschoolers’ literacy learning using interest-based and highly engaging activities.
Resources for Designing ILPs for Students Who Have Not Passed the AKHSQE
This resource is for educators looking for ideas as they develop individual student learning plans for students who have not passed the AK HSQE.
