Group items tagged

by Ronald H. Heck and Philip Hallinger in American Educational Research Journal, V. 46, No. 3 (2009) pp. 659-689. Abstract: One of a relative few longitudinal studies looking at effects of distributed leadership on school improvement and student achievement (elementary school). Findings favor distributed leadership both for "building the academic capacity of schools" and improving achievement. Available directly from publisher site (this page) or through your library's document delivery service. 2009

By Juhyung Harold Lee as a Viewpoint in SchoolBook, December 23 2011. Lee argues that coaching -- learning effective strategies from trusted former teachers -- is the key to improving teaching. 

By Josh Fischman, and part of The Chronicle (of Higher Education's) 2011 Special Report on Online Learning, published Nov 6 2011. Central Piedmont Community College developed an Online Student Portal learning system to improve retention among its students. They have had success with the system (in use 2004-2008). Now, with a Next Gen grant, they will roll the system out to 6 additional local schools to see if they can match the retention improvements. The system is based both on learning styles and on frequent intervention by students and counselors.

Teachers tell how to improve public schools.

Program supports and disseminates innovative reform projects for improving postsecondary education.

With a presence both on the internet and on TV (PBS), Teaching Channel calls itself a "showcase" of "inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools." The organization's mission "is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all K-12 students across America." Browse videos by subject, grade level or topic (all from the left-hand navigation). In addition, there is a blog. Users are encouraged to subscribe, and the Teachers space is also organized by subject and grade-level, as well as by roles. The site also provides a workspace.

Editorial from The New York Times, February 18 2013. This editorial points out the pitfalls of online college, identifying student attrition rates (in online courses) and the extra attention that "struggling" students need. The Times advocates for hybrid courses, as well as improving course design for any courses that are delivered 100% online.

By Hunter R. Boylan, National Center for Developmental Education; published by Continuous Quality Improvement Network with the NCDE, 2002.

SB finds Boylan's "is the best book I know of that specifically addresses the developmental classroom and what works."

Impact evaluations are important because they provide evidence about what works and does not work. It looks at what caused the improvement, or lack there of. This article from the Center for Effective Philanthropy talks about evaluation from the policy, practice, as well as philanthropy perspective.

Developmental Education - Beyond Remediation through Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction. "The purpose of the Summer Institute is to give those who work with developmental students the theory and practical applications to improve the success, retention, and persistence rates of their students."

This biographical page, by the IDEA Center (a nonprofit that promotes improvement of teaching, learning, and leadership) describes the career and significant presentation topics of L. Dee Fink; his most popular work seems to be The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well.

Dr. Fink was mentioned in the Editing, GULP forum, as L.H. attended one of his professional development presentations.

By Grant P. Wiggins. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges was founded in 1974. It is the only organization exclusively devoted to providing a national forum for the improvement of mathematics instruction in the first two years of college.

Current research being conducted at the Memory Lab includes studies that pertain to education, including how frequent quizzes might improve students' retention of new materials.

By Debra Viadero in Inside School Research, an Education Week blog, posted June 10 2009. Viadero describes the poster sessions at the annual federal Institute of Education Sciences, including a poster looking at the effectiveness of frequent quizzes for improving retention among 8th grade science students. For updated information on the study, follow the roediger tag.

By Ian Quillen of the Digital Education (blog) in Education Week, September 2 2010. This study suggests that "Algebra I teachers who were trained in and used a program that allowed them to monitor students' progress on graphing calculators led to significantly improved achievement by their students on a researcher-designed test." This blog post (and the video link) both stress that it is the combination of technology AND professional development that has provided these positive results. \nNOTE: First link to Summary of Findings is a Texas Instruments report (TI produces the graphing calculator that is part of the study). However, the study was conducted with outside consultants, including SRI.

From the Overview page, Next Generation seeks to "identify, improve, and scale solutions and will stimulate adoption of the many ways technology can deepen, accelerate, and support learning." The Gates Foundation is one funder.

PA brought this to our attention in October Coffee Klatch, having read several articles about the new initiative.

Conrad Wolfram presentation on TED.com (filmed July 2010; posted Nov 2010). Wolfram argues that math applications are all around us, and that people in a ever-wider variety of workplaces are excited about math...but students are not. Wolfram argues that bringing computers into the math classroom would help improve math's relevancy -- and build excitement as well. Use the tag wolfram to look at his "knowledge engine," Wolfram Alpha.

"A nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration." Creative Commons recommended license is one of the standards for content that is freely shared online. The idea of open educational content has implications for teachers, students, publishers, colleges/universities, etc.

NADE seeks to improve the theory and practice of developmental education at all levels.