The Leading Edge

Our friends at CEF (Committee for Education) compiled an overview of some key education research pieces released so far this year. I thought I would share!

• Report Name: “Common Standards Will Not Affect Student Achievement.”
  Report Author/Organization: Tom Loveless, Brookings Institution
  Release Date: February 2012
  Will the Common Core State Standards improve student achievement? Not according to a study released by author Tom Loveless a few weeks ago. The crux of the argument in the Brookings Institution report is that there is not much of a connection between standards—even rigorous ones—and student achievement. If there was a connection, we would have seen signs of improvement from states' own individual standards—all states have had standards since 2003—but NAEP scores don't bear that out, Loveless argues.
  
  See the report: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2012/0216_brown_education_loveless/0216_brown_education_loveless.pdf
  Related: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/
  
• Report Name: “AP Report to the Nation.”
  Report Author/Organization: The College Board
  Release Date: February 2012
  The eighth annual Advanced Placement Report to the Nation from the College Board breaks down results and demographics of AP test-takers nationally and by state, finding a 7.3-point increase since 2001 in the percentage of public high school graduates earning AP scores of 3 or higher. Twenty-two states had a larger percentage point change than the national average, with Maryland leading with a 13.1-point increase. Yet the report also found hundreds of thousands of students were either left out of an AP subject for which they had potential or attended schools that didn't offer the subject.
  
  See the report: http://apreport.collegeboard.org/report-downloads
  Related: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2012/02/girls_like_biology_boys_like_p.html
  
• Report Name: “The Case of School Principals."
  Report Author/Organization: CALDER-American Institutes for Research
  Release Date: January 2012
  Last month, Stanford's Eric Hanushek -- who conducted many of the early economic analyses on teacher impact – presented a new research paper at a conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Educational Research. The findings show, in his words, that "principals matter."
  
  See the report: http://www.caldercenter.org/upload/CALDER-Working-Paper-32_FINAL.pdf
  Related: http: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Karin%20Chenoweth/principals-matter-school-_b_1252598.html
  
• Report Name: “What it would take."
  Report Author/Organization: Teachers College at Columbia University
  Release Date: October 2011
  A recent report by the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University establishes a legal framework for providing the country's neediest children with both improved educational resources and other "wrap-around services" -- including health care and after-school programs. The report details the cost of providing those services, and projects the long-term return on such an investment.
  
  See the report: http://www.tc.edu/equitycampaign/article.asp?id=8219 
  
• Report Name: Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)
  Report Author/Organization: United States Department of Education
  Release Date: March 2012
  The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released data on the comprehensive inequities for students of color. The data is Part 2 of the 2009-2010 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). The data are available to the public in a privacy-protected format. The 2009-2010 sample had approximately 7,000 school districts and 72,000 schools
  
  See the data: http://ocrdata.ed.gov/
  Press release: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/new-data-us-department-education-highlights-educational-inequities-around-teache
  
• Report Name: American Teacher Report
  Report Author/Organization: MetLife
  Release Date: March 2012
  The 28th Annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher reports the past two years have seen a significant decline in teachers' satisfaction with their profession, a decrease of 15 points since last measured, and the lowest level in the survey for over two decades. This decline is coupled with large increases in teachers who say they are likely to leave teaching, and in those who feel job insecurity. Those with high satisfaction are more likely to have adequate opportunities for professional development, time to collaborate with other teachers, more preparation and supports to engage parents effectively, and more coming together of parents and schools to improve learning and success of students.
  
  See the survey: http://tinyurl.com/yeygrcw
  Related: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/teachers-survey-job-satisfaction-metlife_n_1325268.html