Daily Archive for February 4th, 2008

Research-informed policy?

Published
by
JohnL
on 4 February 2008
in Administration, News, Policy and Research
. 0 Comments

The American Enterprise Institute will hold an event entitled “What 2008 Holds for Research in Education” 7 February 2008 in Washington (DC, US) at which policy analyst Rick Hess will lead a discussion of his book on how research affects educational policy. Here’s part of the hype for the event:

In a bold departure from previous federal programs, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires that federal dollars in education be steered toward programs and practices proven effective by scientific research. In 2002, Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act, which created the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to support and fulfill that requirement. With the reauthorization of the IES approaching in 2008 and the reauthorization of NCLB still pending, it is an opportune time to assess where we stand and what lies ahead for educational research. How has scientific research influenced policymaking and education research in the past six years? How can federal policymakers encourage effective interaction between research, policy, and practice?

At this event, AEI director of education policy studies Frederick M. Hess will present findings from his new book, When Research Matters: How Scholarship Influences Education Policy (Harvard Education Press, 2008). Susan Fuhrman, president of Columbia University Teachers College; James Kohlmoos, president of the Knowledge Alliance; Gerald Sroufe, director of government relations for the American Educational Research Association; and Grover “Russ” J. Whitehurst, the director of the Institute of Education Sciences, will join the discussion.

I hope that the discussion will be more than (a) a re-counting of Mr. Hess’ book and (b) a disagreement along political lines. I fear I shan’t make it, but I hope that some reader who does attend will provide a report of the proceedings.

Date and time: Thursday, 7 February 2008, 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM.
Location: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

To see the announcement go here. There is a link for registration on the announcement page.

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Principals’ roles

Published
by
JohnL
on 4 February 2008
in Administration, News, Policy and Research
. 0 Comments

In “Out of the Office and into the Classroom: An initiative to help principals focus on instruction,” Holly Holland describes an initiative aimed at promoting school principals as instructional leaders. Writing for the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA, US), Ms. Holland reports on using administrative managers to handle some of the routine work of a school that usually falls on its principal, freeing the principal to visit classrooms. Here’s how the Wallace Foundation, which is funding the project, describes it.

For many principals weighed down by the time demands of bus schedules and budgets, improving instruction too often takes a back seat. This brief journalistic account describes how schools in nine states are testing a new position, called School Administration Manager (SAM), whose job is to help free principals of many of these administrative distractions and allow them to spend more time on instructional matters. The goal of this promising new approach, pioneered by the Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools with Wallace’s support, is to hire a SAM to assume operational functions, track the principal’s time to see how much she is spending on instruction, and provide coaching to ensure that the principal actually becomes more focused on instruction.

Continue reading ‘Principals’ roles’

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