The Aspen Education & Society Program provides an informed and neutral forum for education practitioners, researchers, and policy leaders to engage in focused dialogue regarding their efforts to improve student achievement, and to consider how public policy changes can accelerate progress. Through our meetings, analysis, commissioned work, and structured networks of policymakers and practitioners, the program develops intellectual frameworks on critical education issues that assist federal, state, and local policymakers working to improve American education.
Also from The Education & Society Program:
Tools for Teachers: Professional Development Modules for Common Core ELA
October 2012
This three-part series of professional development modules is designed to meet the needs of educators making the key instructional shifts in ELA & Literacy for the Common Core. Each module-on text complexity, close reading and text-dependent questions, and designing close reading exemplars-comes with a Powerpoint presentation and facilitator's guide designed for PD instructors, as well as a suite of supplemental exemplars, worksheets, and other resources.
Common Core Implementation: A Primer on Close Reading of Text
October 2012
To assist teachers in understanding and employing the Common Core instructional emphasis on close reading in the classroom, this primer addresses three key questions:
1. What is "close reading" of text, and what are its essential attributes?
2. What is the role of background knowledge in the development of reading comprehension, and when should teachers activate and/or provide background knowledge?
3. What should teachers and district leaders consider about close reading as they prepare to implement it in practice?
Watch a webinar from the authors
Common Core State Standards: What Will it Take For Our Students to Succeed?
October 9, 2012
To mark the release of new Common Core resources, the Aspen Institute Education & Society Program convened a panel of distinguished leaders of implementation to assess current efforts and outline priorities for the work ahead.
Panel: Sonja Brookins-Santelises, Chief Academic Officer, Baltimore City Public Schools; Michael Cohen, President, Achieve; and Dwight Davis, Classroom Teacher and Teach Plus Fellow, District of Columbia Public Schools.
Building It Together: The Design and Implementation of Hillsborough County Public Schools' Teacher Evaluation System
March 30, 2012
Hillsborough County Public Schools has launched a teacher evaluation system that has attracted attention from educators and policy makers across the country. Centralized, collaborative, communications-driven and adaptable are key characteristics of Hillsborough's approach. The system consists of two main components: observation of instruction and teachers' value-added scores, based on student test results.
Putting the Pieces in Place: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools' Teacher Evaluation System
March 30, 2012
The two top priorities in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools' Strategic Plan 2014 Teaching Our Way to the Top are: focusing on equitable instruction district-wide, and creating a performance-oriented culture based on continuous improvement and accountability for results.
Key Takeaways:
- Target use of teacher performance data
- Engage a broad group of stakeholders throughout the school, district, and community. Especially teachers.
- Track implementation with monitoring, feedback surveys and other oversight
- Build and adapt the system based on data collected
- Shift the district's focus from managing the amount of money and services provided to schools to focusing on student achievement and graduation rate
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