Latest CPRL News
Why do different school systems using the same strategies get wildly disparate results? CPRL co-founder Ayeola Kinlaw facilitated a powerful conversation at SXSW EDU with national, district, and school leaders on how their systems are getting strong outcomes by using CPRL's research-based leadership approach. They treat daily operations as chances to get ever better and transform top down structures into dynamic collaborative hives of activity that help them make decisions, solve problems, and implement services that give each student what they need when they need it. Listen to the conversation at SXSW EDU.
Listen in on this recent webinar conversation with researchers, high school leaders, and students on how high schools can help prepare young people not just for college or work, but to live a “good life” they define for themselves. This discussion is grounded in a new report from CPRL and CRPE that examined how six New England high schools are defining student success, and making changes to help students achieve it.
The74 and other publications speak with co-authors Maddy Sims of CPRL and Chelsea Waite of CRPE on their study of high schools in New England exploring how lessons schools learned during the Covid-19 recovery period can contribute to more lasting, transformative shifts in high school that prepare young people not only for college or work, but to live a “good life” on their own terms. Read about the report in The74, K12 Dive, and District Administration.
CPRL founder Prof. James Liebman discussed with talk show host Tavis Smiley whether a high-quality education should be enshrined as a constitutional right for every American. One of the key architects behind a proposed initiative to make education a constitutional right in California, Liebman explains the initiative's origins, its potential impact, and the broader implications of potentially making education a constitutional right nationwide. Listen to the podcast.
In her Hartford Courant op-ed calling for improvements to Connecticut's teacher certification requirements and pre-service training, CT 2023 Superintendent of the Year Jan Perruccio cites CPRL's research as evidence of the need for change. Read more.
Curriculum-based professional learning is growing as an essential ingredient for effectively implementing high-quality instructional materials in K-12 classrooms, write CPRL Executive Director Elizabeth Chu and researchers Grace McCarty and Molly Gurny in Learning Forward's The Learning Professional journal. Read the full story.
CPRL Insights
Through this work, CPRL seeks partner with approximately eight host cities or communities eager to develop new visions for their futures. To learn more about Future Ways of Living III, visit futurewaysofliving.com.
Abl. CEO, Howard Bell, mentioned our research on master scheduling in an opinion essay titled "Too many Black and Latino students are ‘academically alone’ in advanced classes." The Hechinger Report published the piece.
Project Director Meghan Snyder and team's report on the Purple Star School Designation Program was referenced in legislation introduced in New Mexico to increase support for military-connected families. With unanimous bipartisan support, it was signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishamon on April 6.
Learning acceleration must include rapid improvement in how system leaders facilitate change. In an op-ed, CPRL staff members Liz Chu, Ayeola Kinlaw, and Meghan Synder argue this point, using findings from their 2-year study of improvement networks funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read the op-ed in Teachers College Record.
CPRL Executive Director Liz Chu discussed findings from our 2-year formative evaluation of Networks for School Improvement (NSI) in a webinar hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which invests in NSI.
As part of our commitment to advancing racial equity, we also renewed our commitment to use the law as a meaningful lever for pursuing equity. We summarized some of those ideas in this op-ed published in The New York Daily News.
Check out the conversation between Rick Hess and CPRL's Executive Director, Liz Chu, published on Hess's Ed Week Straight Up blog.
Read a blog written by CPRL's Deputy Director of Quality and Improvement, Kimberly Austin, explaining our improvement methodology and approach.
Learnings From the Covid-19 Pandemic
Forbes featured CPRL's research about teaching and learning during the pandemic. The article highlights our analysis of the role of families during pandemic learning. It draws special attention to the finding that learning was not only aided by mothers and fathers but also by "superhero siblings" and other family members. The increased involvement of families gave teachers more information and resources to support student learning—a finding with implications for more inclusive school communities. Read the article.
CPRL Executive Director Liz Chu and Project Director Andrea Clay sat down with EdReports to share insights from CPRL's yearlong study of COVID-19's impact on teaching and learning. In the interview, they discuss how the pandemic created an urgent need to include families into the instructional core of schools, and high-quality instructional materials supported their inclusion. However, to reach all families and students, the pair note, teachers require greater access to high-quality instructional materials that are culturally relevant.
The sudden shift to remote learning not only propelled the use of technology in classrooms but also its use in school and district operations. In their recent blog post, CPRL's Liz Chu and Madeline Sims share their ideas for how these experiences with technology can upgrade hiring, PD, and more!
In their article, CPRL Exeuctive Director Liz Chu along with Erika Halsted, executive director at Minds Matter, and Jenna Yuan, director of communications at Student Voice and freshman at Columbia University, offer eight tips teachers can use to help high schoolers thrive despite the challenges created by hybrid and remote learning. Based on conversations with high schoolers from across the country, the authors offer practical next steps. Read their article in The 74 and share it with the hashtags #RISEtoThrive, #RedefineEducation, and #EducationalEquity
In a series of conversations hosted by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), CPRL Executive Director Liz Chu and 10 other policy experts describe the challenges school systems face in the absence of state exam data and other measures previously used to assess student learning and monitor progress towards more equitable outcomes. Read Liz's remarks and more in the report “State Accountability Systems in the COVID Era and Beyond,” published by CRPE.
In an op-ed, Liz Chu, CPRL's Executive Director, and Madeline Sims, Director of Consulting and Legal Strategy at CPRL, discuss the inclusion of families into the “instructional core,” a move they see in more successful examples of distance learning. Informed by conversations with leaders, stakeholders, and experts, they describe what this move means and observe that family participation provides a model for more democratic and racially just communities. Read their op-ed in The New Haven Register.
Learning Forward invited CPRL Executive Director Liz Chu and Evolutionary Learning Fellow Michael Arrington to discuss the tools school leaders and teachers need to effectively collaborate in distance learning environments. In their article, Liz and Mike describe strategic teaming resources, which were created in partnership with districts, schools, and education nonprofits. These teaming resources help school leaders and staff remain responsive to students' academic and social-emotional learning even when teaching in remote or hybrid settings.
CPRL Executive Director Liz Chu and Shannon Marimón, the Executive Director of ReadyCT, offer advice on distance learning. Liz and a CPRL team partnered with Shannon and other leaders in Connecticut to learn about what went well in Spring 2020 with distance learning and what could go better. They shared these thoughts in an op-ed published in The New York Daily News.
With so many unknowns about the coming school year, we are pleased to offer guidance for creating district- and school-wide remote learning plans. This guidance, which is the result of collaboration between us, the Connecticut State Department of Education, and leaders and educators from across the state, is designed to help districts create remote learning plans that attend to the needs of all students.