Educator Effectiveness

Teachers' Top Three from ESE - August 18, 2016

1. FYI: Massachusetts Participating in CASEL Initiative
   The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) chose eight states, including Massachusetts, to participate in CASEL's Collaborating States Initiative this summer and fall. (The other states are California, Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.) The initiative aims to help states as they adopt and implement policies, guidelines, and/or standards to support statewide implementation of social and emotional learning. The collaborative's definition of social and emotional learning is on the CASEL site, and so are other resources, including this brief on what instruction in social and emotional learning actually looks like.

2. What We're Reading: "Leveraging ESSA to Support Teacher Leadership"
   Teaching Policy Fellows at Teach Plus, a Boston-based nonprofit that seeks to empower teachers to become education policy leaders, have written a policy memo about how districts can use part of their federal funds to support teacher leadership. This portion of federal funding (Title II) could be used for teacher-lead professional development, expanded career opportunities, and training and support for members of instructional leadership teams, the fellows write.

3. New Resource: Newcomer Toolkit from USED
   The U.S. Department of Education has created a Newcomer Toolkit to help teachers and administrators to better serve recently arrived, foreign-born students. The toolkit includes tips on instruction, supporting students' social and emotional needs, and establishing partnerships with families.

   (On a related note: There were 85,762 English language learners in Massachusetts public schools during the 2015-16 school year. While some districts had none, in others, ELLs made up 30 percent or more of enrollment.)