Foreword to Clear Teaching

I will try to be brief. I read your letter to Brearley parents and your recent newsletter.  Bravo!! I am a retired professor who trained teachers and who has, since 2005, headed an organization that helps parents, policymakers, and taxpayers deal with education quality issues in their schools.  Called the Education Consumers Foundation, we are like Consumer Reports, only focused exclusively on education. Much of what we recommend with regard to both Critical Race Theory (CRT) and school … Read More

Teachers & Teacher Preparation

Disconnected and Unaccountable Teacher Training is at the Heart of Schooling Failure Evidence from the few states where such data is collected indicates that many elementary and secondary school students fail to make adequate progress because they too frequently encounter ineffective teachers, i.e., teachers whose students’ achievement growth is significantly less than one year of achievement gain per school year. Part of the problem is that many school districts are only now beginning to systematically monitor or address the problem … Read More

ECF Cost Calculator

Reading Failure Is Costing Us Our Future: Here Are the Numbers for Your School or District

Consumer Empowerment

American Decline can be Reversed through Grassroots Action Public education has been decaying on the inside for decades. Educators blame poverty, poor parenting, changing demographics, the growth of hedonistic popular culture, insufficient funding, and myriad other factors. Seldom mentioned, however, is education’s failure to adapt and overcome these conditions. In the view of most educators, schools are doing all they can–an explanation that is contradicted by the measurable differences in effectiveness among teachers within the same school and … Read More

Education Consumers Foundation

Who We Are We are trained, experienced, and independent educators. We use data and analysis to help parents and taxpayers identify good schools and navigate the others. What We Do We turn school performance data into graphics and explain what they mean about school quality. Why We Do It? Our mission is to improve education by showing those who use and pay for schools how to recognize good ones, find better ones, and get the most from the … Read More

Tennessee Teacher Prep Change Would be First in the Nation

posted in: Home Carousel, News & Announcements, The Tennessee Model |

A bill before the 2019 Tennessee General Assembly could lead to dramatic improvements in teaching, learning, and college readiness for Tennessee’s PK-12 students. The bill would require the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to incentivize Tennessee’s public universities for producing a greater percentage of highly effective new teachers.  It would do so by incorporating the percentage of newly graduated teachers who produce above-average achievement gains into THEC’s Quality Assurance funding program. Although Tennessee’s universities have historically produced many excellent teachers, a decline in quality … Read More

Early Reading Success & College

posted in: News & Announcements |

In most states, a school district’s number of proficient third-grade readers is highly predictive of the number of 8th graders who will be proficient five years later.  The significance of this fact is that 8th-grade reading skill is highly predictive of high school outcomes and preparedness for work and college.   In other words, third grade reading success is vitally important because it predicts the trajectory of a child’s educational career.  The above chart school district reading scores illustrates … Read More

Teacher Ed Needs Accountability

posted in: General Information, News & Announcements |

Tennessee Education Schools Need Accountability, Not a New Report Card J. E. Stone, Ed.D. December 8, 2016 Tennessee has had a Teacher Preparation Report Card since 2007 and it has had no impact on the effectiveness of Tennessee’s newly trained teachers. The reason is that the sanctions promised by Tennessee’s $500 million Race to the Top grant were never implemented. As of 2015—the last year for which the number of “highly ineffective” teachers are reported–the state’s teacher training … Read More

Early Reading Success Predicts Later Educational Success

posted in: Home Carousel, home-carousel |

In most states, a school district’s number of proficient third-grade readers is highly predictive of the number of 8th graders who will be proficient five years later.  The significance of this fact is that 8th-grade reading skill is highly predictive of high school outcomes and preparedness for work and college.   In other words, third grade reading success is vitally important because it predicts the trajectory of a child’s educational career.  The above chart school district reading scores illustrates … Read More

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