The American Education Policy Landscape
Jennifer A. Rippner
In today’s complex educational environment, it’s critical for educators to understand the policy landscape. Research-based and grounded in a non-ideological perspective, The American Education Policy Landscape is an essential guide for educators, graduate students, and policymakers alike. This accessible resource unpacks complex concepts and provides a comprehensive overview of early childhood, K-12, and higher education policy issues, including governance structures at the local, state, and national levels; the process of policymaking; issues of educational finance; and the impact of stakeholders. The American Education Policy Landscape provides aspiring and practicing educators, analysts, researchers, and policymakers with the foundational knowledge and context for understanding education policy, enabling them to make effective decisions, provide informed advice, and craft critical research questions on education.
Counting What Counts: Reframing Education Outcomes
Yong Zhao
Overemphasizing test scores as measures of achievement is potentially harmful to education. The contributors identify key traits such as mindset, motivation, social skills, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit that students, teachers, and schools need to acknowledge and cultivate. Educators are asked to shift the evaluation paradigm to focus on a multiplicity of skills necessary for success in the twenty-first century.
Improving Teacher Evaluation Systems: Making the Most of Multiple Measures
Jason A. Grissom, Peter Youngs
This is the first book to gather and address what we have learned about the impacts and challenges of data-intensive teacher evaluation systems—a defining characteristic of the current education policy landscape. Expert researchers and practitioners speak to what we know (and what remains to be known) about evaluation measures themselves, the implementation of evaluation systems, and the use of evaluation data. The authors argue that rigorous teacher evaluation systems have the potential to promote school improvement but only if the systems are carefully designed and implemented and the data they generate are interpreted and used appropriately. This timely and important volume will be relevant and useful to school and district administrators, policymakers, researchers, and teacher education institutions grappling with issues of teacher accountability and school leadership.
UnCommon Learning: Creating Schools That Work for Kids
Eric C. Sheninger
Integrate digital media and new applications with purpose and build a culture of learning with pleasure!
Let students use real-world tools to do real-world work and develop skills society demands. Be the leader who creates this environment. UnCommon Learning shows you how to transform a learning culture through sustainable and innovative initiatives. It moves straight to the heart of using innovations such as Makerspaces, Blended Learning and Microcredentials. Included in the book:
- Vignettes to illustrate key ideas
- Real life examples to show what works
- Graphs and data to prove initiatives’ impact
Visual Note-Taking for Educators: A Teacher’s Guide to Student Creativity
Wendi Pillars
We’ve come a long way from teachers admonishing students to put away their drawings and take traditional long-form notes. Let’s be honest: note-taking is boring and it isn’t always the most effective way to retain information. This book is a guide for teachers about getting your students drawing and sketching to learn visually. Whether in elementary school or high school, neuroscience has shown that visual learning is a very effective way to retain information. The techniques in this book will help you work with your students in novel ways to retain information. Visual note-taking can be used with diverse learners; all ages; and those who have no drawing experience. Teachers are provided with a library of images and concepts to steal, tweak, and use in any way in their classrooms. The book is liberally illustrated with student examples from elementary and high school students alike.
