News: Formative Evaluation

New Teacher Induction and “Tenure with Teeth”: Improving Hiring and Staffing in a Nation Where Teaching is At Risk (Part II)

Blog discusses the four Pillars needed to address continuing gaps in teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. This Part II focuses on how schools train and support three types of newly-hired teachers...

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Closing the (Pandemic?) Reading Gap in Our Schools: We Need to Link Sound Assessment with Strategic Intervention

Blog critiques August 4, 2022 National Center for Education Statistics report identifying how many students ended the past school year with literacy skill gaps. Also critiquing three follow-up popular...

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Curbing the Pandemic Slide by Putting the Right Students into the Right Instructional Groups (Part II)

Curbing the Pandemic Slide by Putting the Right Students into the Right Instructional Groups.  Which Peas are You Going to Put in Your Pandemic Pod? (Part II)Dear Colleagues,Introduction   While clear...

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Using Valid Assessments of Students’ Functional Literacy, Math, and Language Arts Skills to Instructionally Group Students this Fall (Part I)

The Importance of Assessing—NOT Guessing—Each Student’s COVID-19 SlideIntroduction   Despite the fact that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths continues unabated—if not increasing in man...

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Underachieving, Unresponsive, Unsuccessful, Disabled, and Failing Readers (Part II)

Underachieving, Unresponsive, Unsuccessful, Disabled, and Failing ReadersDiagnostic Assessment Must Link to Intervention: If We Don’t Know “Why,” We Can’t Know “What” (Part II)Dear Colleagues,Introduc...

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Literacy Instruction and Student Reading Proficiency: The Multi-Tiered Whole Must be Greater than the Sum of Its Disconnected Parts (Part I)

How a Comprehensive Blueprint Prevents Isolated Solutions and Inconsistent ResultsDear Colleagues,Introduction   Well. . . “all of a sudden,” there has been a nationwide rush of policy, publ...

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