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D.C. Model Initiatives Demonstrate ‘Intersections in Education’ at YEP-DC Annual Conference

3/25/2014

Dozens of breakout sessions were offered. (Credit: Jeremy Meredith)

Creating student, teacher, and parent empowerment practices to improve student achievement was a common theme throughout several of the sessions at YEP-DC’s second annual Policy-to-Practice Conference on Saturday. More than 200 young education professionals gathered at Microsoft's Washington, D.C., offices to discuss how different stakeholders play a role in improving students’ quality of life in school and how those initiatives in the District of Columbia are driving results.

"It's about giving students different options and letting them pick what's right for them," Candice Mott, a career and technical educator in Prince George's County Public Schools, said during a session she facilitated on aligning school curriculum to career and industrial pathways. By doing so, Mott says, her students gain more satisfaction and confidence in the fields that interest them.

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Our Best Bet for Closing the Policy-Practice Divide

3/23/2014

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We can all agree that in order for education reform to be impactful, policymakers need to learn from practitioners and practitioners need to hear from researchers. But YEP Voices: A Report on and By the Next Generation of Education Leaders, a new survey of emerging education leaders across the country, shows opportunities remain rare for them to cross that policy-practice divide.

The survey, the first-ever of its kind, illustrates that even from the beginning of many young education professionals’ careers, bridging that gap between what happens in the classroom and what gets made into law isn’t made a priority. Only about 14 percent of survey respondents said they get regular opportunities to work with and learn from other sectors in education, although more than 99 percent of them agreed it was critical for the future of reform.

It’s a disappointing finding, particularly in this chaotic time of change in education reform from new teacher evaluations to more rigorous standards and assessments. If we’re not encouraging our young education professionals to reach across the divide and learn from their colleagues in other places, how we will break the cycle of policy, practice, and research working in conflict rather than in harmony?

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What the SAT Overhaul Teaches Us About Standardized Testing: Fix It, Don’t Scrap It

3/17/2014

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Let’s be honest: There’s a lot going wrong with standardized testing. I remember as a teacher, sitting in the back of our gymnasium during a pep rally in anticipation of state tests and thoroughly dismayed at the implicit message that success on tests was just about being motivated enough on test day. (And there are, of course, the more sinister cheating scandals.) Add to that the number of students with test accommodations that go unmet and the degree to which standardized tests often fall short of putting all demographic groups on equal footing, and these challenges leave many arguing that “no such measurement exists” to provide a “a simple, accurate measurement of student potential.”

This is what is so refreshing about the recent SAT overhaul. Rather than conclude that these challenges are evidence of the fundamental unworkability of standardized testing, David Coleman and the College Board have decided, instead, to build a better test. This is an attitude normally missing from discussions around the value of standardized testing. Too often, the shortcomings of many of our current tests polarize those in education to simplified positions both for and against testing that see it either as a panacea or a poison. But the truth is somewhere in the middle. Standardized tests do face real shortcomings, but those shortcomings shouldn’t be confused as evidence for abandoning testing altogether. They should be reasons to fix the tests.

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Is the Common Core Working in the Classroom?

3/11/2014

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The Common Core State Standards are a reality now for teachers in Maryland and DC, while Virginia is one of six states to omit the standards from their state education approach. YEP-DC asked local educators how the Common Core is playing out in their classroom. Are the standards increasing student understanding or presenting obstacles? What’s changed in pedagogical approach, and how are students are reacting to the shift?

Three teachers gave us a peek into their new Common Core worlds, and here is what they had to say:

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Funding Adult Education: An Urgent National Necessity

3/4/2014

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Credit: Ravenwerks.com

In recent years a lion share of the political commentary on education has focused on the need for expanding funding and access to early childhood education. At the same time, however, tackling early childhood education while ignoring adult education is equally as detrimental. Just as a lack of early learning impacts that child for years into the future, so do households with parents lacking the education necessary to guide their children’s academic growth. Beyond that, ignoring adult education has meant leaving generations behind and accepting a paradoxical economy with devastatingly high unemployment and jobs that can’t be filled by laborers without the skills they need to get them.

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about

YEP-DC is a nonpartisan group of education professionals who work in research, policy, and practice – and even outside of education. The views expressed here are only those of the attributed author, not YEP-DC. This blog aims to provide a forum for our group’s varied opinions. It also serves as an opportunity for many more professionals in DC and beyond to participate in the ongoing education conversation. We hope you chime in, but we ask that you do so in a considerate, respectful manner. We reserve the right to modify or delete any content or comments. For any more information or for an opportunity to blog, contact us via one of the methods below.

Bloggers

MONICA GRAY is co-founder & president of DreamWakers, an edtech nonprofit. She writes on education innovation and poverty.

LYDIA HALL is a legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she works on education, civil rights, and other issues. Lydia is interested in helping to bridge the gap between Capitol Hill and the classroom.

MOSES PALACIOS is an advocate for student rights and works as a Research Manager for the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) - a coalition of urban school districts across the nation. He writes on issues regarding the children of immigrants and students learning English as a second language. His views are his own and not representative of CGCS.

PATRICIA RUANE is a
research associate at an education nonprofit. She is an editor of Recess.

LESLIE WELSH is a high school social studies teacher in DC. She is an editor of Recess.

D.C. Model Initiatives Demonstrate ‘Intersections in Education’ at YEP-DC Annual Conference

Our Best Bet for Closing the Policy-Practice Divide

What the SAT Overhaul Teaches Us About Standardized Testing: Fix It, Don’t Scrap It

Is the Common Core Working in the Classroom?

Funding Adult Education: An Urgent National Necessity

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