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Bilan Jama examines racial disparities in school disciplinary outcomes, and argues that schools need resources and policies to address this issue adequately and equitably.
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It is with great sorrow that we report the death of Eugenia Kemble, the founding executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute, after a long battle with cancer. In her honor we are establishing and accepting donations for the
Eugenia Kemble Research Grants.
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ASI's Jose Enrique Calvo Elhauge discusses gun control and the idea of arming teachers in the wake of another mass school shooting.
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Three Harvard researchers discuss their work on how schools can foster a "growth mindset," the idea of developing knowledge and skills over time, rather than assuming individuals are born with fixed abilities.
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Is it possible to influence staff social relations to promote professional learning and school improvement? Here’s what James Spillane and his colleagues found.
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Bill Penuel and Caitlin Farrell discuss how long-term research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have helped districts select, adapt, and design evidence-based programs
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Joshua Starr argues that the primary responsibility of education leaders seeking to improve student achievement is to empower educators to learn together.
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Professor Corrie Stone-Johnson describes the challenges school leaders face in building networks within and across schools and offers suggestions for how leadership preparation can support future leaders to do this work.
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University of Chicago researchers Elaine Allensworth, Molly Gordon and Lucinda Fickel zero in on the role of school-community relations in school improvement.
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Esther Quintero discusses her new book, an edited volume synthesizing research on how the context of teachers’ work matters for teaching quality and student achievement.
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Danette Parsley of Education Northwest shows how rural schools address the challenges they face, while leveraging their inherent assets, to establish professional networks of teacher leaders.
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Geoff Marietta, Chad d'Entremont, and Emily Murphy discuss the importance of collaboration in schools and districts, and how to foster teamwork that improves results.
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As school systems devote tremendous resources to examining the effectiveness of individual teachers, how can we encourage schools to make room for collaborative practices?
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A new ASI publication features six of the most important blog posts from a series that attempts to shine a light on new research pointing to the centrality of the social dimension in educational improvement.
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Professors Mark Smylie, Joseph Murphy, and Karen Seashore Louis share their research and theory about what caring school leadership is and why it is important.
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NYC teacher J. Vincente describes East Side, one of a growing network of 38 NY public HS where teachers routinely work interdependently to serve all students and grow as professionals.
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Professor Matthew Ronfeldt summarizes his and others' high quality empirical research on teacher collaboration, and its impact on student performance.
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Professor Andy Hargreaves uses the research and his own experience working with leaders and practitioners to explore how teacher collaboration and teacher leadership can be accelerators of positive change.
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Professors Kara Finnigan and Jennifer Jellison Holme argue that school segregation by race and poverty is one of the underlying causes of school failure, and that it has been largely overlooked in federal and state educational policy in recent decades.
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Harvard's David Sherer and Johanna Barmore review the empirical research on teacher collaboration and argue for increased focus on the conditions that foster effective teamwork.
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By changing the configuration of actors in the school setting, it is possible to influence who will interact with whom – and, in the process, disconfirm the preconceptions that undergird stereotypes and unconscious biases.
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In Vista Unified Schools, Superintendent Dr. Devin Vodicka approached improvement by understanding social dynamics and relationships first, a process that was aided by data and research, with the goal of building trust and partnerships throughout the system.
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District research director Alvin Larson discusses his school climate survey, which serves as an early warning system and intervention protocol that can help students develop and maintain pro-social attitudes and effective coping skills, contributing to a positive school climate.
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Susan Moore Johnson argues that reformers should be very cautious about relying on value-added to make high stakes decisions, as these models may undermine school-based improvement efforts already underway.
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Researcher John Lane argues that teachers, and thus education reform efforts more generally, would benefit from opportunities to learn about the social dynamics of classrooms.
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Professors Matthew Kraft and John Papay discuss research showing that the school contexts in which teachers work have a profound influence on their job decisions and effectiveness.
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Those who advocate for an overly strong focus on testing results in accountability systems often ignore the potential of social-relational and other contextual measures to help schools improve.
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Harvard's Bryan Mascio argues that true education reform can only come once we begin to see teaching and learning as highly complex cognitive processes that have vital relationships at their core.
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A review of rigorous research on the relationship between aspects of teachers' social-organizational environments and their students' achievement growth.
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Social capital is critical for school improvement; research suggests that educational leaders who wish to reap its benefits should carefully weigh decisions about leadership roles, teaching assignments and professional development.
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The Century Foundation's Greg Anrig argues that effective public schools are built on strong collaborative relationships, including those between teachers and administrators.
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Short video on why educational improvement is both about the capacities of individuals (human capital) and the broader social context (social capital).
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A list of resources exploring the idea that social relationships and networks are critical for understanding and improving school performance.
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MSU Professor Ken Frank discusses his constitution for effective school governance, designed to facilitate coordination and cooperation among teachers.
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Recent research suggests that the sports teams with the most superstars don't always perform the best. Is this true in education?
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To what extent are dispositions such as motivation, persistence and engagement, mediated by social relationships and social-relational context?
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Profs. Alan Daly and Kara Finnigan present research on the relational struggles facing urban systems, particularly those experiencing high levels of churn.
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Professors Carrie Leana and Frits Pil discuss the importance of teachers' social capital, and their research showing its influence on student outcomes.
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Can charter and regular public schools simultaneously compete and collaborate to promote systemic improvement?
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Professor Bill Penuel discusses the importance of direct collaboration between researchers and practitioners in education reform.
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Professors Alan Daly and Kara Finnigan argue for improving value-added models by considering the importance of social interaction and collaboration in schools.
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Evidence and arguments for those still skeptical of the idea that teachers' relationships and collaboration may be just as important as their human capital.
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Recognizing that bias may help explain disparities in student disciplinary outcomes by race, sex and other subgroups is important, but requires caution.
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Research suggests that teachers' social capital - their relationships, networks and collaboration - may be just as important as their human capital.
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Professors Kara Finnegan and Alan Daly discuss their research showing the importance of social relationships in implementing education policy.
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Two infrequently-mentioned arguments for increasing diversity in the teacher workforce, rooted in decades of social scientific theory and research.
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Two more questions on implicit bias: How can we support teachers' orientation to get to know their students? What other strategies can mitigate implicit bias?
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The research on implicit bias is fascinating, but the fact that it is automatic, and therefore outside of our conscious control, can be harder to stomach.
