New England Secondary School Consortium

Leadership in Action

ABOUT THE SERIES

Welcome to Leadership in Action, a series of briefings on some of the most important educational issues affecting our students, high schools, and communities. We hope these briefings will help school leaders strengthen our schools, empower our teachers, rebuild our economy, and give every student a better chance to succeed in life.

Want to Receive Our Briefings?

THE BRIEFINGS

  • What are Extended Learning Opportunities?

    Issue #18:

    In response to the need for engaging, relevant, and equitable approaches to teaching and learning, schools are finding ways to support and formally recognize student learning that transpires anywhere and at any time.

    BRIEFING #18 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What is Performance Assessment?

    Issue #17:

    To get a clear picture of students’ progress toward important standards, we need assessments that provide more complete evidence of their learning.

    BRIEFING #17 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • How Do Colleges View Proficiency-Based Transcripts?

    Issue #16:

    A goal of proficiency-based learning is to create more college-ready students. How are colleges getting ready for them?

    BRIEFING #16   I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Are Student Portfolios?

    Issue #15:

    How can teachers accurately determine whether students have acquired essential but hard-to-measure skills such as critical thinking, or group collaboration? One strategy is the student portfolio.

    BRIEFING #15    I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What is Assessment?

    Issue #14:

    When it comes to evaluating student learning, teachers need more than tests. They need a variety of assessments to identify what students need to learn in order to achieve every learning goal.

    BRIEFING #14 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Are Personal Learning Plans?

    Issue #13:

    Personal learning plans can bring greater focus, direction, and purpose to the decisions students make about their high school education.

    BRIEFING #13 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Is Proficiency-Based Grading?

    Issue #12:

    Proficiency-based grades incentivize students to work harder and learn more because progress and effort are recognized and rewarded.

    BRIEFING #12 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • How Does Proficiency-Based Learning Work?

    Issue 11:

    How is it possible that a student can graduate from high school and yet be unable to read or write well, do basic algebra and geometry, identify major countries on a map, understand how our political system works, or explain the scientific method?

    BRIEFING #11 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What are Learning Standards?

    Issue 10:

    There has been a lot of national discussion recently about “learning standards.” Yet there has been significantly less discussion about what learning standards specifically are, what they are not, how they actually work in schools, or why they even matter.

    BRIEFING #10 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Are Professional Learning Communities?

    Issue 9:

    We know that great teachers can change a student’s life. And every day, we are finding out more and more about what makes great teachers great.

    BRIEFING #9 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • Education, Prosperity, and Economic Competitiveness

    Issue 8:

    Across all time periods, cultures, and countries, education has been an enduring, universal gateway to prosperity, health, and social stability.

    BRIEFING #8 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Are Personalized Learning Pathways?

    Issue 6:

    For decades, high schools have offered students more or less the same traditional selection of choices: this class or that class, a higher-level course or a lower-level course, an academic program or a technical program.

    BRIEFING #6 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What is a Proficiency-Based Diploma?

    Issue 5:

    For more than a century, American high school students have earned “credits” for passing courses. When they accumulate enough credits, they receive a diploma. The problem with this approach is that credits do not always equal competency.

    BRIEFING #5 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Should a 21st Century High School Look Like?

    Issue 4:

    In the whirlwind of the 20th century, the United States became a global economic powerhouse mainly because it had the world’s most educated workforce. But America’s competitive edge has since disappeared. How can we make sure our students and citizens are once again among the best educated in the world?

    BRIEFING #4 I WANT TO KNOW MORE

  • What Can the World’s Best Schools Teach Us?

    Issue #3:

    When our students graduate, they will enter a world that is no longer defined by national borders, and they will be competing for jobs alongside ambitious, highly skilled workers from Europe, Asia, and countries across the globe. In an age when customer-service calls can be answered in India, we need to empower the next generation with the best education possible.

    BRIEFING #3I WANT TO KNOW MORE

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