The Grand Island school board has approved a study of Grand Island Senior High, which will look at school culture, educational leadership, student learning experiences, organizational structure and the school improvement process for GISH. Superintendent Steve Joel said he thinks the McREL study can get the district out of its rut when it comes to its thinking on school improvement at Senior High.
McREL, two of its research studies, and one staff member were nominated for inclusion in Influence: A Study of the Factors Shaping Education Policy, a new study from a research group associated with the national newspaper Education Week. The study, which was based on a two-stage survey of education experts from across the country, sought to identify the most influential person, organization, research report, and information source in education policy over the past decade. McREL was nominated as an influential information source, and two McREL research reports, School Leadership that Works and Classroom Instruction that Works were nominated for inclusion of the list of most influential reports. McREL Senior Fellow Bob Marzano was also nominated as an influential person.
Argus Leader reporter Jon Walker quoted McREL’s Bryan Goodwin in an article on Sioux Fall’s shifting its semester exams for its high schools to before the holiday break. Goodwin noted that across the country, more districts and schools are re-examining the traditional, agrarian school calendar.
Several Missouri school administrators have recently joined the Leadership Legacy Consortium (now in its second year), sponsored by the Missouri Association of School Administrators. The consortium is built on McREL's Balanced Leadership Framework™.
Many states are revisiting their academic standards lists in an effort to consolidate the standards to allow teachers to spend more time focusing on the most important knowledge. "Everybody recognizes that we can't keep trying to do what we do now," said McREL senior scholar Robert Marzano. "It's too much. We have to race through stuff in the name of coverage."
In a paper released last week, two experts at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, the federally funded regional laboratory in Denver known as McREL, distill 27 studies on district leadership and student results. Using meta-analysis techniques, they combined the effects found in those studies and arrived at a positive and statistically significant correlation.
In what we believe to be the largest-ever quantitative examination of research on the impact superintendents have on student achievement, McREL researchers have shown that district leaders can have a significant, positive effect on student achievement.
September 25
Super-sized schools The Argus Leader
Argus Leader reporter Jon Walker interviewed McREL’s Bryan Goodwin about research on school size for an article on Sioux Fall’s efforts to address students’ needs in its burgeoning high schools.
This article discusses the purpose of homework, and gives parents guidelines about how much help to offer, and how much homework they and their children can expect, based on research conducted by McREL.
The Sarasota County (Fla.) School Board's long-range strategic plan for school reform — the NeXt Generation Learning initiative — was initially met with resistance. The Sarasota County School Board hired McREL to evaluate the plan in February. The findings from that evaluation suggest that the resistance was based on a lack of effective communication. The school board will reorganize the communications department and create a new communications plan to improve public and staff understanding of the initiative.
Nevada's Nye County School District is successfully building a culture of excellence in all of its schools through annual school improvement plans aimed at addressing areas of weakness. Led by tech-savvy Superintendent Rob Roberts, the district will use McREL's Technology Solutions to incorporate educational technology in the classroom experience.
In the second installment of a three-part series on Professional Development, eSchool News online examines how schools are using technology to provide professional development to teachers at reduced costs. The article examines McREL's Online Learning Communities program, which combines interactive Web videoconferencing with discussion groups and often includes teachers at several different locations at a time that is convenient for them.
A news report on the impending wave of retiring principals in Fairfax County, Va. cites McREL's research on the impact of school leaders on student achievement.
Dr. Jean Williams, former Director of the Center for Research in Education for RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., has been appointed as the new Vice President of Research and Evaluation at McREL.
Harford County schools (Md.) initiated the "Best Bets" program to focus curriculum on building vocabulary, improving note-taking, summarizing topics, and identifying similarities and differences in an effort to reduce achievement gaps and reach more students. "These are the things shown to have a high probability of improving student achievement," said acting coordinator of curriculum and professional development Jackie Tarbert, who cited research by Robert Marzano and McREL.
A new research study reports that McREL's Online Learning Communities program, a Web-based professional development program, has positive influences on teacher collaboration and the development of a professional community - two important conditions needed to improve instruction and raise student achievement.
Reuters reporter Laura Zuckerman interviewed McREL President and CEO Tim Waters for an article that was published in the Boston Globe on the growing trend in many parts of the nation toward four-day school weeks.
New research from McREL affirms both the complexity of and key role leaders play in schools that "beat the odds" by succeeding in helping high-needs students attain high levels of achievement.
A new report from McREL highlights how four unique, rural schools in Wyoming, Colorado, and Missouri, have helped their students achieve despite the hardships they face.
School newspapers are gradually disappearing across the country, often replaced by multimedia projects in an attempt to meet today's language arts standards, such as those recommended by McREL, which encourage all students to participate in viewing and creating media. This article examines some of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of multimedia projects in place of school newspapers.
McREL's work with Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Iowa is making a difference for preschoolers and their teachers. McREL partners with Mississippi Bend to provide technical assistance and professional development in an Early Reading First project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. As one of the teachers in the project notes, McREL's strategies for early literacy development "work with every student."
An extensive analysis of rigorous research from McREL concludes that standards-based education reforms can have a positive influence on student achievement - if they are implemented properly. Unfortunately, research shows that in many places, teachers lack the knowledge and skills they need to create effective standards-based schools and classrooms.
A new study from McREL has found that professional development for teachers can have a positive impact on student achievement if it meets specific criteria. However, most teacher professional development programs do not meet these criteria and, as a result, have had mixed results in improving student achievement.
Gov. Bill Owens announced Colorado's delegates in the 2006 session of the National Youth Science Camp®. Selection of Colorado's delegates was coordinated by McREL.
No one can predict the future of schooling, but McREL's understanding of global, economic, demographic, technological, political, and generational trends can be used to develop possible scenarios educators may face in the next decade. Bryan Goodwin, McREL's senior director of communications, shared this scenario building work with educators at the Excellence in Education conference in Lincoln, Neb., explaining that, "U.S. schools, as currently designed, are not likely to meet the expectations that no child is left behind."
A report released today from McREL calls for a new approach to school improvement, one that balances a prescriptive content approach and a context-driven process approach. "At McREL, we believe that schools need both research-based guidance on how to raise student achievement and also practical wisdom for managing the complexities of systems change," said Lou Cicchinelli, McREL's Executive Vice President.
The U.S. Department of Education has announced that Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) will continue to serve as the educational laboratory for the Central Region states of Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The laboratory at McREL will be one of 10 regional educational laboratories that form a nationwide network for research and dissemination designed to provide educators with proven guidance on how to improve student achievement.
Good professional development often becomes cost-prohibitive for struggling school districts. Author Carl Vogel explains how computers, videoconferencing, and the internet can be used to help deliver high-quality professional development at a low cost. He highlights how McREL's Online Learning Communities can provide a high-quality, low-cost professional development system for schools and districts.
High school seniors with demonstrated academic achievement in science are invited to apply for scholarships to attend the National Youth Science Camp®, a science honors program to be held in West Virginia this summer. Earl Legleiter, a senior science consultant at McREL will review applications and select the two most qualified students to receive scholarships for the three-week camp.
Laura Lefkowits, vice president of policy and planning services at McREL, will lead and all-day forum at Kettle Moraine School District in Waukesha County, Wis., to discuss the effects of future trends on education. The forum marks the beginning of a year-long process in which McREL will help the district plan for possible scenarios it could face within the next ten years.
