The Aspen Education and Society Program Digital Resource Library
States Leading Change
Teaching to the Core
Ten practical system suggestions to state leaders on how to ensure teaching at a high level by integrating teacher effectiveness and the Common Core work into a transformative whole.
The Common Core A Primer on Close Reading of Text
The emphasis on close reading in the Common Core necessitates new instructional strategies for literacy. This overview of the practice and implications of close reading provides actionable advice for practitioners and policymakers as they seek to elevate literacy instruction for all students.
Common Core Tools Tools for Teachers: Common Core PD Modules
This three-part professional learning package is designed to help educators make key instructional shifts in English Language Arts & Literacy for the Common Core.
Three modules cover:
--Text Complexity
--Text-Dependent Questions
--Close Reading Instruction
Three modules cover:
--Text Complexity
--Text-Dependent Questions
--Close Reading Instruction
Putting the Pieces in Place Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools' Teacher Evaluation System
The two top priorities in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools' Strategic Plan 2014 Teaching Our Way to the Top are: focusing on equitable instruction district-wide, and creating a performance-oriented culture based on continuous improvement and accountability for results. See what they've learned from implementing this work.
Means to an End A Guide to Developing Teacher Evaluation Systems
Teacher evaluation has emerged as a key strategy for improving student outcomes in public education. This guide is designed to help school systems and states design evaluation systems that support teacher growth and development. This focus is critically important because early work in leading districts suggests that the overwhelming majority of teachers fall in the middle range of the performance continuum. For these teachers, supporting improvement is critical.
Building It Together The Design and Implementation of Hillsborough County Public Schools' Teacher Evaluation System
Hillsborough County Public Schools has launched a teacher evaluation system that has attracted attention from educators and policy makers across the country. Centralized, collaborative, communications-driven and adaptable are key characteristics of Hillsborough's approach. The system consists of two main components: observation of instruction and teachers' value-added scores, based on student test results.