Author Archives: Teach Effectively!

B. Grossen & J. Williams
I came across this photo when I was moving from the office I occupied for the past five years into a new one in an adjacent building. It’s a keeper!
As I recall, I caught this shot of Bonnie Grossen and Joanna Williams, two people who know more than I could [...] Continue reading →

Over on The Teaching Master, a blogger identified as Dana gave a shout out to Teach Effectively in a post entitled “Top 50 Blogs for Teaching Tips, Ideas and Inspiration.”
Teaching can be tough job. Teachers work hard, and sometimes do not get always get [sic] the recognition and pay they deserve. But, at the same [...] Continue reading →

In his recurring posts for the Washington Post, Dan Willingham has three suggestions about how to approach the problem of creating a system for evaluating teachers’ contributions to students’ outcomes. The guidelines are sensible and worth reviewing. Read them here.
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Ed Week reporter Christina Samuels reminded me that the US Department of Education has announced awards under the “Investing in Innovation Fund” (“i3″ program). There are substantial funds for cooperative agreements or grants aimed at promoting practices with demonstrated benefits.
Program Description: The Investing in Innovation Fund, established under section 14007 of the American Recovery [...] Continue reading →

According to Stannis Steinbeck, principal of Broadus Elementary School in Pacoima (CA, US), this is the view of the members of her faculty. According to data about the teachers’ effects on student achievement, not all teachers are effective. It should come as no surprise that some are more effective than others and some are woefully [...] Continue reading →

Over on Learning Matters in his blog, Taking Note, John Merrow published an entry entitled “On Learning to Read” that raises some good points, but nearly omits a terrifically important one. I suspect regular readers (whom I’ve neglected terribly in the recent months—sorry) can guess which one was omitted.
Here’s Mr. Merrow’s lead:
Why children want to [...] Continue reading →

The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) will soon open a Web page where one can respond to it’s call for proposals for the spring 2011 conference. Launched in 2008, the conference series continues to offer direct access to studies of education practices that effectively change students’ outcomes. Not every session will focus [...] Continue reading →

The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College (TN, US), which has produced lots of good stuff, published a module entitled “Fidelity of Implementation: Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based Practices and Programs.” The center has now announced a 7 July, Web-mediated meeting focused on the same subject.
Fidelity of Implementation: Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based Practices [...] Continue reading →

Writing under the headline “Fewer Chicago teachers making the grade: Study shows new evaluation system rates teachers on a tougher curve” in the Chicago (IL, US) Tribune, Tara Malone and Azam Ahmed report about the two-year-old Excellence in Teaching Project that has identified 20 times as many teachers as unsatisfactory as were identified under an [...] Continue reading →

Over on The Widget Effect, billed as “our national failure to acknowledge and act on differences in teacher effectiveness,” one can learn about an effort to alter the assessment of teachers. The project published report in 2009 about a study of teacher evaluation that people associated with the project conducted. That report describes the ways [...] Continue reading →