Research

In a recent Washington Post editorial titled "Why Great Teachers Matter to Low-Income Students," Joel Klein, Michael Lomax, and Janet Murgua take issue with those who believe that "schools alone cannot overcome the impact that economic disadvantage has on a child, [and] that life outcomes are fixed by poverty and family circumstances."   Citing recent NAEP data showing very different achievement results for students in different urban districts, the authors assert the importance of looking closely "at those whom we attract and retain to teach, with regard to their quality and to ensuring that they are distributed equally across our school districts." Read the full article here.

Despite popular belief, a new study by Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin for the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the answer to this question is “no.”  When the researchers studied a large (anonymous) Texas district, they found that teachers who left their school tended to be significantly less effective than teachers who stayed.  Click here to read the study.

Check out Citizen Schools to see how after school is just as important as during school.  Reports on their effective student engagement can be found here.

In a recent survey, educators held that student engagement in the content was a better, more accurate measurement of teacher effectiveness than student performance on standardized tests.  This finding, along with other results from the survey, can found on Ed Week here.

Though John Dewey is long gone, his emphasis on the power of connected, hands-on learning is still alive and well.  Meaningful, connected project-based learning keeps kids engaged, exploring, and learning.   For some excellent tips on how to make it happen in the classroom, see: Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement

An oldie but goodie still flies off the shelves at Houston A+ Challenge on a regular basis: Phil Schlechty's Working on the Work from 2002.  It still circulates among staff and those A+ works with because it remains the best resource on student engagement that educators can lay their hands on. 

Building on his previous work, Shaking Up the Schoolhouse, Schlechty begins by categorizing student engagement in the classroom into five behavioral responses: authentic engagement, ritual engagement, passive compliance, retreatism, and rebellion.  These responses underscore the book’s strategic intent, which is to transform classroom practice into meaningful, engaged instruction.  The remainder of the book examines the ways in which leaders at all levels in a district can transform schools, and the thread through all of this is student engagement. 

Jay Mathews, Washington Post, March 5, 2010

A new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study entitled “Who Benefits From KIPP?” is the first to use a randomized control group method to study the impact of KIPP's long school days, rigorous instruction, and school culture on fifth through eighth graders.
Critics of charter schools like KIPP often argue that they outperform local public schools either because they “cream” the best students or because their weakest students drop out (or both).  But a study of the KIPP Lynn charter school in Massachusetts finds no evidence of either.  Among the study’s key findings:

A new report from The Education Trust entitled Stuck Schools: A Framework for Identifying Schools Where Students Need Change—Now!  shows that schools characterized as “low performing” are not all the same; in fact, they vary considerably.  While some low-performing schools have remained “stuck” year after year, for example, others have made rapid and substantial gains. 

Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert, Newsweek, February 19, 2010

“For the first time in American history, there is the risk that the rising generation will be less well educated than the previous one... Studies show that more and more poor and nonwhite students aspire to graduate from college—but their graduation rates fall far short of their dreams. The graduation rates for blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans lag far behind the graduation rates for whites and Asians. As the minority population grows in the United States, low college graduation rates become a threat to national prosperity.”

To read the full article, click here.

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