CCSSO State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness scee.groupsite.com

CCSSO welcomes the Nation's top teachers and will convene them in Washington DC from April 22 - 26, 2013.  The National Teacher of the Year will be announced on April 22.  Throughout the week, CCSSO is initiating online conversations about great teachers.  

We hope you and your networks join in the conversations by participating in a number of social media events.  Below is a list of activities throughout the week.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds today released an education reform package that will bring Iowa closer to its goal of providing a world-class education to all children, no matter where they live.

Building World-Class Schools for Iowa: A Legislative Brief

The package presented for the 2013 legislative session focuses on providing great teaching in every classroom to raise student achievement and to prepare Iowa's children to compete for jobs in a competitive global economy.

"We have many good schools with committed educators, but they are stuck in a system designed for the 20th century, not the 21st century," ..

Megan M. Allen is a National Board Certified Teacher, 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year Finalist. She is a proud fifth-grade teacher in Tampa and a 2012-13 Center for Teacher Quality teacherpreneur. I'm proud to call her my friend. You'll understand why after reading this blog that was originally published by Good Magazine.

Confession: I have a penchant for sticky notes. They are the perfect size for the "sticky-note fairy" (wink, wink...guess who?) to sprinkle kind words of encouragement to surprised students and faculty. One day a brown cardboard box filled to the brim with ..

Starting July 1, Phil Rogers, formerly the Executive Director of the Kentucky Education Standards Board, replaced Roy Einreinhofer who held the position for twenty-four years as the new The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) Executive Director.  In the days leading up to his job change, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take with Phil about his time at the Kentucky Standards Board and the future of NASDTEC.

Valerie: 

Hi Phil, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me.

Phil:      

No problem, I thank ..

A couple of months ago I had the profound pleasure of attending the International Summit on the Teaching Profession.  The 2012 Summit convened education ministers, leaders of national teachers' organizations, and teacher leaders from twenty-three countries with high performing and rapidly improving educational systems.  One might be an education geek if he is more awe-struck by ministers of education as opposed to say LeBron James or Albert Pujols.  Check.

The two-day event proved riveting because the countries that the United States holds in high esteem gathered to admit how much more needs to be accomplished.  The United ..

      Here’s What Education Writers Suggest....

Communication issues rank high on the list of concerns expressed by SCEE members as states roll-out new educator effectiveness initiates.  As the Education Writer’s Association (EWA) concluded their annual seminar last week in Philadelphia, it was clear that education remains a priority in the media. Reporters expressed interest in covering topics related to the Common Core, teacher evaluation, increased expectations of principals, the value of teacher education, and the overall discussion across the country of higher education issues.

While they didn’t offer what message they ..

Today and tomorrow, state and district school chiefs, union leaders, and school board members from 41 states and more than 100 school districts are meeting in Cincinnati to share innovative ideas and successful policies to strengthen the teaching profession.  (Links to watch the event live are HERE.)  

At the conference today, the co-sponsoring organizations signed a new compact to transform the teaching profession, which begins with a statement of principle:

Improving student learning and educational equity require strong, consistent, and sustained collaboration among parents, teachers, school boards, superintendents and administrators, business leaders and the community. And such ..

Released last week, New Teacher Center's Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction provides the first comprehensive look at induction policies in each of the 50 states (based on data from the 2010-11 school year).  For each state, NTC summarizes existing policies related to 10 key criteria most critical to the provision of universal, high-quality induction and mentoring support for beginning educators.  These criteria work in concert to support and guide local school districts to design and implement high-quality induction programs.  States that come closest to meeting all 10 criteria will raise the likelihood that every new educator receives a sufficient ..

By Abby Hexter via Chiefline

Idaho State Superintendent and CCSSO President Tom Luna testified February 16 before the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on two bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). 

The House Education and the Workforce Committee is currently considering proposals introduced by committee Chairman John Kline to reauthorize ESEA, The Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act. 

In his testimony, Superintendent Luna explicitly called for immediate ESEA reauthorization, and said that “…for the last 10 years, American schools have lived under a law that is akin ..

National Education Association President, Dennis Van Roekel, today released a major new statement, Leading the Profession: NEA's Three-Point Plan for Reform. NEA's three-point plan includes:

• Raising the bar for entry
• Teachers ensuring great teaching
• Providing union leadership to transform our profession

This statement is informed by the work of the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching (CETT). Convened in December of 2010 by the NEA, the CETT is an independent panel comprised of twenty-one teachers and leaders, including eight teachers of the year. CETT was charged with developing recommendations for transformation, which are in their report also released today, Transforming ..