Press Releases

While teacher shortages continue to be a critical issue in the United States, a lesser known but equally important shortage is also hampering the country’s efforts to provide quality educational opportunities for students—principal shortages. Nationally, nearly one in five principals leave their schools each year and the average tenure of a principal is about four years. These numbers are higher in the under-resourced schools that tend to serve the highest populations of students of color and students from low-income families.

Two studies create a through line from children to practitioners to policy, describing the essential skills required for young children to be kindergarten ready, the skills educators need to teach them, and effective policies and practices for early educator preparation.

Can teaching and learning practices that foster “deeper learning” among all students—not just the most advantaged—be successfully replicated across large numbers of schools? The answer is an unqualified “yes,” according to a new study released today by the Learning Policy Institute. 

Students applying to some New England colleges and universities have seen a new option on their application forms allowing them to submit performance assessment artifacts. The option is made possible through a national initiative, Reimagining College Access (RCA), that brings together more than 100 education organizations, k-12 school systems, and colleges and universities.

A recent LPI study identified more than a hundred California school districts in which students across racial/ethnic groups are outperforming similar students in other districts on new math and reading assessments that measure higher order thinking and performance skills. Many of these districts also are closing the gap on a range of other outcomes, including graduation rates. The critical question is: How did they do it?”

A new Learning Policy Institute report looks at how California’s Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC) is changing the paradigm for teacher learning. Rather than using outside consultants, who often conduct one-time workshops that are less likely to provide meaningful, sustained learning, ILC taps the expertise and experience of local teachers, principals, and superintendents who are trained and supported to provide ongoing professional development to peers in their own districts—and, in many cases, to other schools and districts in their regions.

EdPrepLab brings together 15 of the nation’s leading teacher and principal preparation programs to collaborate on further developing and documenting models for preparation that equip educators to advance deeper learning and equity, and that can inform other programs across the nation.

Social and emotional skills, habits, and mindsets—such as self-awareness, self-regulation, communication, compassion, and empathy—can set students up for academic and life success. A new case study by the Learning Policy Institute looks at a preservice and inservice programs preparing teachers to integrate social emotional learning into instruction.