• Better teacher prep programs, not math coaches, is the answer to low math achievement

    Better teacher prep programs, not math coaches, is the answer to low math achievement0

    A few weeks ago Education Week published a story entitled “Are Math Coaches the Answer to Lagging Achievement?”. The article cites a body of research indicating that “one-on-one coaching can improve…student achievement.” The caveat is that most of the research has to do with coaching reading and literacy, with a smaller number of studies on

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  • KC Star article misses mark on “teacher shortage”

    KC Star article misses mark on “teacher shortage”0

    It wouldn’t be a new school year without the news media running another story that there is a teacher shortage. The Kansas City Star went as far as sounding it at crisis level by headlining a story that the shortage of teachers in the Kansas City area “forces…more unqualified teachers in the classrooms.” The truth

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  • “Huge blow” of superintendent turnover is nothing more than hot air0

    What do you think is the average tenure of a superintendent in a large urban school district in the U.S.? According to a national urban school district association, it is 3.2 years. How about in smaller schools? Across the country it’s about five years. Now let’s look at Kansas. According to KSDE, the overall average

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  • Teacher evaluations Part 1 – The first date syndrome0

    There has been a marked increase in the attention given to teacher evaluations in recent years. Most of that attention surrounds the results of those evaluations; how it is teachers are scored or rated. But what is missing from most of those reports is the actual process of how a teacher is evaluated. How is

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