Governance and Policy
School Leadership, Teachers’ Roles in School Decisionmaking, and Student Achievement
This working paper summarizes the results of a study of leadership in elementary and secondary schools. The study focused in particular on instructional leadership – the extent to which school leaders focus on the core activities of teaching and learning – and teacher leadership – the extent to which teachers have input into school decision-making.
Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and PBIS in the School District of Philadelphia
The report details a two-year exploratory, mixed-methods research study on the disciplinary practices and climate of schools serving K–8 students in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Findings reveal that SDP schools are making efforts to reduce suspensions and improve climate, but critical barriers to these efforts include resource limitations and philosophical misalignments between teachers and school leaders.
The Evolving Role of the State Education Agency in the Era of ESSA and Trump; Past, Present, and Uncertain Future
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, states have considerably more flexibility and authority in K-12 education than they had under the previous federal education law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The Trump administration and the Republican Congress, meanwhile, moved in 2017 to further loosen federal accountability rules and give states even more control over their school systems.
A Hitchhiker's Guide to Thinking about Literacy, Learning Progressions, and Instruction
Where Learning Progressions have been identified, they have been seen as offering a basis for informing teachers' understanding of where their students are in their learning, and the specific problems they may be having, so their teaching can be adapted in ways that will help keep their students moving ahead. Progressions also can provide understandable reference points that assessments could target, so that their results would be more useful for informing teacher
State Leadership Development Policies An Analysis of 50 States and Territories
The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey
The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey analyzes the scope, factors, and context of the opt-out movement that occurred in New Jersey in the spring of 2015. Using test participation data released in February 2016 by the New Jersey Department of Education, we found that approximately 135,000 students did not take the state assessment in the spring of 2015.
Jonathan A. Supovitz
Jonathan Supovitz is the Executive Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) headquartered at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. At University of Pennsylvania, Supovitz is professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE).
