E-Update for October 22, 2014
E-Update for October 22, 2014
Updates
Today, October 22, the First Five Years Fund and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills will host “Today’s Skills Start with Early Learning: A Panel Discussion” at 11am. The event will focus on a discussion on the importance of expanding high quality early learning and how it can promote school readiness and set children on a path for career and life success. Panelists will include: Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek (the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology, Temple University), Cheri Sterman (Director of Education, Crayola), Dr. Kathleen Kremer (Head of Preschool Research, Fisher-Price), and Dr. John Holland (National Board Certified Head Start Teacher). RSVP here.
EducationCounsel News
This month, the Association of American Medical Colleges released a revised Roadmap to Diversity and Educational Excellence: Key Legal and Educational Policy Foundations for Medical School, authored by EducationCounsel. The Roadmap provides guidance on legal and policy underpinnings for developing and evaluating sustainable, mission-driven, diversity-related policies and practices. The second edition includes new guidance based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Fisher v. University of Texas. The publication can be downloaded for free here.
Events
On October 23 at 6pm, the American Educational Research Association will host the 11th Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research, “A Long Shadow: The American Pursuit of Political Justice and Educational Equity.” The lecture will focus on political justice and educational equality and will serve as a way to observe the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision. James D. Anderson, a noted expert in education and desegregation history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will give the lecture. RSVP here.
On October 27 from 8am to 6:15pm, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) will host the ninth annual Education Forum at the 2014 SETDA Leadership Summit. The theme of this year’s event is leading and learning in the digital age. With representation from state education and technology leaders from across the country, the Education Forum shines a spotlight on the full scope of the digital transformation of policy and practice underway in K-12 education today. Participants will be challenged to address education issues in new and innovative ways, with a focus on state actions related to ensuring student data privacy, managing the shift to digital and open content, implementing online assessments, and addressing issues of equity of access to broadband and devices. RSVP here.
U.S Department of Education
Bullying of Students with Disabilities Addressed in Guidance to America’s Schools: As part of National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today issued guidance to schools detailing public schools’ responsibilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act regarding the bullying of students with disabilities. If a student with a disability is being bullied, federal law requires schools to take immediate and appropriate action to investigate the issue and, as necessary, take steps to stop the bullying and prevent it from recurring.
October 21, 2014
U.S. Department of Education Announces Final Rule to Help Colleges Keep Campuses Safe: The Obama Administration today announced publication of the final rule implementing changes made to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA). That law and the new rule strengthen the Clery Act to more effectively address, and ultimately reduce, sexual violence on college campuses, including domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The Clery Act requires institutions of higher education to comply with certain campus safety- and security-related requirements as a condition of participating in the Federal student financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act.
October 17, 2014
Publications
Aspen Institute Education & Society Program and Leading Educators Paper: Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap for Teacher Leadership that Works: The paper provides school districts with concrete strategies for maximizing the potential of highly effective teachers to influence their colleagues, shift school culture and advance teaching, learning, and student achievement. The good news is that school districts across America increasingly are investing in the development of new career pathways for their best teachers as a reward and retention strategy. Unfortunately, they often do so without regard for the impact they want these teachers to have or how this can reinforce and strengthen other reforms. As a result, these initiatives have yet to stem attrition or improve achievement in any consistent or widespread fashion. This paper serves as a blueprint for building effective teacher leadership programs.
October 20, 2014
Brookings Institution Paper: How Income Share Agreements Could Play a Role in Higher Ed Financing: In response to growing concerns over the issue of higher education finance, policy makers, advocates, and entrepreneurs have developed and proposed an array of solutions to address the shortcomings of our current system. Income Share Agreements (ISAs) are one such proposal that deserves more attention. This paper explores how ISAs allow students to raise funds to pay for their degrees by selling “shares” in their future earnings. This solution is sometimes dismissed as a gimmick, akin to indentured servitude, despite the fact that it has the potential to offer improvements over traditional loans in terms of shielding students from risk and providing information about quality, two widely held objectives among advocates and policy makers.
October 16, 2014