Cool Thinking on Hot Topics

The Cool Thinking on Hot Topics series will bring together experts from the policy, research, and practice worlds around topics and critical challenges facing education today through video discussion.

NEW Emerging Insights into Effective Professional Development

Over the last 20 years, educators have distilled a set of key components of what makes up effective professional development for teachers. These include a focus on content and pedagogical content knowledge, a connection to the ongoing work of teachers in their classrooms, sustained experiences (not the isolated workshop), and alignment with the surrounding system. Yet, while many of these tenets have been incorporated into professional development programs, we have not exactly seen a surge of more effective professional development.
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ESSA State Plans: Perspectives from National Association of State Boards of Education members

In a partnership with National Association of State Boards of Education, the CPRE Knowledge Hub presents this series on ESSA State Plans. Drew University Professor and CPRE Researcher Pat McGuinn sits down with four State Board of Education members to talk about their current thought processes when it comes to the drafting of the state plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act.
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Educator Labor Markets

University of Wisconsin-Madison Assistant Professor Peter Goff leads viewers through the first Cool Thinking on Hot Topics series on labor markets in education. Goff begins with an introduction to the current way in which problems are solved in education, and suggests a shift in paradigm to help improve the challenges facing education today.
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K-3 Policymakers' Guide to Action: Learning from the Education Commission of the States

Education Commission of the States partners with CPRE Knowledge Hub to provide viewers with context regarding their new report, K-3 Policymakers' Guide to Action: Making the early years count. The Cool Thinking on Hot Topics series on the K-3 Policymakers' Guide to Action kicks off a conversation with Bruce Atchison, Director of Early Learning at the Education Commission of the States. Atchison explains how Education Commission of the States realized a significant disconnect between pre-kindergarten and K-12 policy and therefore sought to draw policymakers attention to improving the quality of K-3, leading to the development of the K-3 Policymakers' Guide to Action.
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Autonomy and Regulation of School Choice

This Cool Thinking on Hot Topics provides a cohesive look at one of the most critical conversations occurring in the education landscape today: school choice. By bringing together policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to analyze, critique, and provide context to the most relevant aspects of the school choice debate, this Cool Thinking will provide new perspectives to help viewers consider the debate with a new focus.
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