A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Tool Kit
Resources
- Communications Toolkit - Back to School Resources
- Civic Education and the 2009 Inauguration
- Staffing High-Needs Schools
- District-Wide Improvement
- Public School Success Stories - includes new brief on successful school turnarounds (April 2010)
- Reading & Mathematics
- Using Evidence for a Change
Communications Toolkit
LFA's Communications Toolkit aims to help education leaders communicate more effectively about public education. Based on focus groups and polling LFA commissioned in 2004 and 2005, the toolkit offers original research findings on public opinion, a guide to promoting public schools, and language for op-eds and speeches. It includes:
- "Values, Vision and Performance: American's Hopes for Their Public Schools", a Power Point presentation on the results of LFA's original research on public opinion of public schools.
- The "Practical Guide to Promoting America's Public Schools," which is designed to help educators and others interested in education promote public education in their communities
- Sample Language for Written Materials, such as columns, articles and letters
- Sample Language for Speeches
- New! Language for Back-to-School Communications! Use all or part of LFA's new back-to-school speech for your back-to-school presentations, columns or other communications. This language outlines a vision for 21st century public schools which is already taking shape in schools across the country. It reaffirms the extraordinary mission of our public schools and encourages strong partnerships among public schools, citizens and communities. Click here to download.
Civic Education and the 2009 Inauguration
In celebration of the 2009 presidential inauguration, the Learning First Alliance created a statement on the important role of public schools in a democracy. Feel free to use this statement in school assemblies, school board meetings, publications or for any other Inauguration observance.
The Learning First Alliance also worked with a number of partners to identify resources to help schools celebrate the inauguration. These resources are available here.
Staffing High-Need Schools
In 2005, Learning First Alliance organizations came together to produce a common framework for ensuring all students access to highly effective teachers and leaders in their schools: A Shared Responsibility: Staffing All High-Poverty, Low-Performing Schools with Effective Teachers and Administrators.
District-Wide Improvement: Success Stories
In 2003, the Alliance examined five high-poverty school districts with a strong track record of improving achievement. The resulting report, Beyond Islands of Excellence: What Districts Can Do to Improve Instruction and Achievement in All Schools, identifies a set of practical steps that schools and districts can take to move beyond a few excellent schools to success across entire systems. You can download the full report here, or you can review these related materials:
- Beyond Islands of Excellence - A Leadership Brief
- Case studies of individual districts, including: the Aldine Independent School District; the Chula Vista Elementary School District; the Kent County Public Schools; the Minneapolis Public Schools; and the Providence Public Schools
Public School Success Stories
The Learning First Alliance has published a new brief highlighting schools and districts that have had some success in turning themselves around. The stories and interviews in this document remind us that there are no simple solutions to complex problems: no overnight miracles, no magic pills, no cookie-cutter approaches. The schools featured in the document all faced big challenges. But all of them recognized their weaknesses and devised their own diverse strategies for overcoming them. As the nation focuses on the task of turning around struggling schools, stories like these provide important touchstones for policy and action. Download the brief here (PDF). (April 2010)
The Learning First Alliance has released a print collection of 25 stories about public schools and school districts that are using innovative strategies to give every student every chance at success in the 21st century. (April 2009)
Reading and Mathematics
The Learning First Alliance's publications on mathematics and science remain perennial bestsellers. Over 30,000 have been downloaded from the internet in the past four years, and we have sold thousands more in hard-copy. These publications include:
- Every Child Reading: An Action Plan, which details the Alliance's agreement on the most effect reading instruction.
- Every Child Reading: A Professional Development Plan, which provides teachers strategies improving their skills as reading instructors.
- Every Child Mathematically Proficient: An Action Plan, which advanced four research-based strategies for bringing American students to world-class standards in mathematics.
- Math tips for parents, teachers, and schools.
Using Evidence for a Change
June 8, 2010, the Learning First Alliance joined with the Knowledge Alliance/Center for Knowledge Use in hosting, with generous support from the WT Grant Foundaion, a policy forum entitled "Using Evidence for a Change: Challenges for Research, Innovation and Improvement in Education." The forum brought together individuals with a wide variety of perspectives on the state of education research and how it is (and should be) used in public schools. Read our brief report on the forum here.
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
