Professsional Development; Teacher Leadership

Source: Annenberg Edexchange

Date: March 2025

Does Increased Agency Improve the Effectiveness of Self-Directed Professional Learning for Educators?

"The role of teacher agency in professional learning has been the subject of several qualitative studies but has not yet been tested in an experimental setting. To provide causal evidence of the impact of teacher agency on the effectiveness of professional learning, we conducted a preregistered randomized controlled trial in an online computer science course with volunteer instructors who teach students worldwide. All instructors (N=583) received automated feedback on their instruction throughout the course, with half randomly assigned to have choice over the feedback topic. While choice over feedback topic alone did not significantly impact instructors' engagement with feedback or measured changes in their instruction, it led to improved student attendance---an effect that was strongest for instructors who actively engaged with additional professional learning resources, including training modules and teaching simulations. For this motivated subset of instructors, having choice over feedback had significant positive impacts on both their instruction and student outcomes compared to the control group. These findings suggest that agency in professional learning may be most effective when combined with instructors' intrinsic motivation to pursue self-directed improvement. Our study paves the way for further empirical investigations into when and how agency can be effectively integrated into professional learning systems."

Math Education / Teacher Education, Quality, and Professional Development

Source: NCTQ

Date: 4/8/25

Solving for Math Success

"Math skills are critical for students' success in other subjects and later in life, yet far too many teacher prep programs fail to give aspiring teachers the essential knowledge they need to be effective math teachers-undermining student learning before the first lesson even begins.

To develop great math teachers, teacher prep programs must increase the time they spend on fundamental math concepts. Teachers need to know how to do more than just follow the steps in math to get the right answer. They need to know why those steps work."

School Reform and Restructuring

Source: Bellwether

Date: 4/10/25

Navigating Declining Enrollment: A Toolkit for California District Leaders to Design Stronger Schools and Systems

"California's K-12 enrollment is projected to decline for the next two decades due to lower birth rates, reduced immigration, and out-of-state migration. With fewer students, school districts will receive less state funding and may be forced to make difficult budget decisions that could include reductions to programs, staff, or schools. Those budget adjustments don't have to mean fewer opportunities for students. Navigating Declining Enrollment: A Toolkit for California District Leaders to Design Stronger Schools and Systems aims to help district leaders approach budget realignment strategically. It offers practical resources and research-based guidance on redesigning school systems to improve student learning in a resource-constrained environment. "

School Reform and Restructuring

Source: CRPE

Date: 4/9/25

Launching districtwide innovation: Lessons learned from a year of pursuing "Bold Ideas" for systemic change

"Over the 2023-24 school year, CRPE partnered with 11 districts across the country to support and study their "Bold Ideas"-ambitious initiatives designed to make student learning more joyful, individualized, and relevant. These pilots weren't just tech upgrades or isolated experiments. They were aimed at deep, structural change: reimagining instruction, leadership, and how school systems support learning.

These 11 districts were selected because they demonstrated "readiness"-a clear vision, committed leadership, and early-stage community engagement. But even the most prepared districts encountered serious implementation challenges. This brief highlights what helped some teams adapt and move forward-and what stalled progress for others-in one of the most detailed accounts to date of how school systems navigate the hard realities of piloting change in real time."

Student Achievement

Source: Mackinac Center

Date: 4/10/25

The Michigan Context and Performance Report Card: Public Elementary & Middle Schools, 2025

"The Context and Performance Report Card stands apart from standard measures of academic performance. It controls for the differences in students' socioeconomic status at each school. This provides a more accurate appraisal of a school's performance, since higher rates of student poverty are strongly correlated with lower academic subject test scores. Without this needed adjustment, school report cards could overrate the effectiveness of schools with relatively affluent student populations or underrate the effectiveness of schools with less affluent students.

The CAP report card also does not rely on creating a benchmark for "good" school performance. Rather, a school's score on the report card is based entirely on how well that school performs compared only to other schools. A high "CAP Score" means only that a school performs well compared to its peers.

As with prior editions, the report card uses multiple years of student achievement data so as not to allow one year's results to unduly influence a school's ratings. This report is the fifth in a series designed to measure the academic performance of Michigan elementary and middle schools. Similar report cards were published in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019."

Vouchers

Source: Center for American Progress

Date: 4/8/25

Introducing a Framework for Private School Voucher Accountability

"As privatization efforts to redirect funding from public K-12 schools to private institutions continue to expand, an accountability framework for private voucher programs must be implemented to ensure positive student outcomes and thorough oversight of taxpayer dollars. "

Review of Thousands Served: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin's Parental Choice Programs

Source: School Choice Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty

Reviewed by: Maria M. Lewis, Pennsylvania State University; Julie F. Mead, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Scholars, advocates, and policymakers have long expressed the concern that many private schools receiving taxpayer subsidies through voucher programs would fail to serve children with disabilities. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, in collaboration with School Choice Wisconsin, recent published a report challenging those concerns.

In their review of Thousands Served: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin's Parental Choice Programs, Maria M. Lewis of Pennsylvania State University and Julie F. Mead of the University of Wisconsin-Madison determine that the report's conclusions challenge precise state data with imprecise administrative estimates and are therefore misleading and unhelpful.

The Education Department's approach to civil rights enforcement is changing. Here's how.

By: Naaz Modan, K-12Dive

"The U.S. Department of Education seems to be taking a new, more aggressive approach to its civil rights investigations - despite shutting half of its civil rights enforcement offices across the nation - as shown by communications from the department and the recent investigations themselves."

Losing homeschool data

By: Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report

"The most recent survey of families took place in 2023, and it would have been the first indication of the growth of homeschooling since the pandemic. The data collection was nearly finished and ready to be released to the public, but in February, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) terminated the contract for this data collection, which is part of the National Household Education Survey, along with 88 other education contracts. Then in March, the federal statisticians who oversee the data collection and could review the final figures were fired along with almost everyone else at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). As things stand now, this federal homeschool data is unlikely to ever be released."

Teacher with PTSD entitled to accommodation under ADA, 2nd Circuit says

By: Laurel Kalser, K-12Dive

"A high school math teacher with post-traumatic stress disorder was entitled to a 15-minute break as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act even if she didn't need one to perform her job's essential functions, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held March 25 in Tudor v. Whitehall Central School District."

See Which States Are Telling Trump Their Schools Don't Use 'Illegal' DEI

By: Matthew Stone & Mark Lieberman, EdWeek

The department initially gave states 10 days to respond, but extended the deadline to April 24 in a follow-up letter. The agency is also asking state education chiefs to collect certifications from local districts. State leaders are starting to share whether they intend to comply with the certification order, and early reactions are breaking down largely along party lines.

What did I say in class today?': Teachers feel watched under Trump's anti-DEI push

By: Leila Fadel , Arezou Rezvani , Taylor Haney , Kyle Gallego-Mackie, NPR

"Soon after President Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order titled "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," which seeks to restrict how schools discuss race, gender and "equity ideology" in the classroom. The order grants the Education Department the power to rescind federal funds from schools that violate the directive. To help enforce the new rules, the Education Department also launched an End DEI portal, where students or parents can report on teachers for diversity, equity and inclusivity lessons taught in class. All of it is raising questions about who has the right to exercise free speech in public education-"

GreatLakesCenter.org