OTHER STORIES

The Linguistic Biases In Personalized Automated Writing Feedback

LearnAgency

Walton Family Tops $220 Mill. for Literacy & Math Outcomes Nationwide

Walton

Limited Role for States Under Tax Credit Scholarship Rules

Chalkbeat

A Delaware School Once Felt Like a 'Prison.' Now It's a National Model

The74

Teachers Are Going to Hate It: How Social Media Hooked Teens at School

NYTimes

Hope in New NAEP Scores

After years of bad news on student test scores, there's finally a sliver of hope. The latest results from NAEP, the Nation's Report Card, found gains in both reading and math for 9-year-olds. Not only that, but they provide the first signs in more than a decade of increases among the nation's lowest-performing students. In math, for example, the highest performers (those at the 90th percentile), scores rose by 0.7 points. In contrast, for students at the 10th percentile, their math scores rose 7.5 points. Similarly, in reading, the lowest performers gained 9.3 points. However, these gains did not transfer up to 13-year-olds. Particularly in math, the NAEP scores of middle school students continued to decline, especially for low performers. The74

The Homework Conundrum

Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to assigning homework to students, experts say. The concept of 10 minutes per grade level per night for homework is not based on strong research. Instead, teachers need to connect homework to big-picture learning goals and show students the purpose it fulfills beyond busywork, said Denise Pope, senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education. In addition, they should offer extremely clear instructions and differentiate as much as possible. "You probably don't want to be grading homework, and never use it as a form of assessment," she said. K12Dive

Professional Development That Sticks

Effective teachers matter more to students' success than any other in-school factor. Effective principals matter a great deal, too, creating the conditions for improved student achievement, higher teacher retention, and a safe and supportive school climate. But what kind of on-the-job learning helps an educator become effective and continue improving, and how much of it is happening in schools? This new report from Education Week explores those questions and more about the state of PD, highlighting examples of best practices, how districts make the space for professional learning on their calendars and in their budgets, and data on what educators say about the PD they're receiving—or not. EdWeek