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January 2010
Restructuring Under NCLB
The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act created a process for identifying low-performing schools and strategies for restructuring these schools. In “
Improving Low-Performing Schools: Lessons from Five Years of Studying School Restructuring Under No Child Left Behind,” the Center on Education Policy studies the effect NCLB and related state policies have had on improving low-performing schools in six states. The report concludes that differences in state accountability systems have contributed to uneven restructuring rates because schools that are identified as low-performing in one state would not receive the same designation if they were located in a different state. The report also argues that no federal restructuring strategy can be directly credited with increasing the likelihood of underperforming schools improving their adequate yearly progress.
The Effects of the Stimulus Package
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), commonly referred to as the economic stimulus package, set aside $100 billion for America’s public education system. To discover how states are using this money, the Center on Education Policy surveyed 44 states and the District of Columbia about the impact of ARRA funds and summarized the findings in “
An Early Look at the Economic Stimulus Package and the Public Schools." One of the survey’s main findings was that in applying for ARRA funds, states seemed unsure about their plans to fulfill the two ARRA application assurances that hinge on local conditions. Specifically, states struggled to explain how they would use ARRA funds to increase teacher effectiveness and turn around their lowest performing schools, two tasks that often fall on the shoulders of principals and teachers rather than policymakers.
October 2009
Online Learning Trumps Classroom Instruction
A report conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education reveals that, on average, students instructed in online learning conditions score higher in tested performance than students instructed in traditional classroom settings. “
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies” evaluated research from 1996 to 2008 that compared online learning conditions with classroom settings. Students who completed some or all of their coursework online scored, on average, nine percentage points higher on tested performance than students taught in classrooms. Chapter 4 may be particularly useful to principals and teachers because it discusses “blended learning,” a particularly effective teaching style that combines elements of online and face-to-face instruction.
Emotional Intelligence in Principals
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is gaining recognition as an important quality of effective leaders. The study,
The Level of Emotional Intelligence in Principals of Recognized and Acceptable Schools, investigates whether there is a relationship between school principals’ EI and the academic success of the schools they lead. The study compares Texas principals’ EI with different academic performance ratings. The study does not find any correlation between principals’ EI and schools’ academic performance but makes a compelling argument for further research on how principals’ EI might affect characteristics of school transformation.
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