Who is best positioned to implement districtwide strategic plans? It’s a question central office leaders grapple with as a plan is rolled out across many school sites — and staff members — within a district. But there’s one role that serves as a critical link between the central office and school leaders to ensure that […] The post Invest in Principal Supervisors: How Districts Can Unlock Strategy to Better Serve School Communities appeared first on Bellwether ..read more

A district’s strategic plan is only as effective as its implementation. But good implementation demands intentional supports and a scaffolded approach to continuous reflection, refinement, and improvement. These ingredients for strategic plan success, though challenging, are opportunities for district leaders to carve out disciplined time to revisit a plan, chart progress, and pivot to needed improvements — all while ensuring that it remains a living, evolving North Star.  Implementation with fidelity is hard work. And it can be difficult to know where to begin or how to chart progress in ..read more

District leaders across the country are pulled in a million competing directions. They carry an immense responsibility to run safe, effective schools, all while centering student needs and mitigating crises. But no matter how well leaders execute on each of those individual priorities, it won’t add up to the results everyone wants for students without a comprehensive and unifying strategy.  What’s too often lost in the churn of competing priorities — to the detriment of strengthening student supports and setting a district up for effective implementation — is the essence of good strategy ..read more

As states grapple with how to fund colleges and universities in an equitable and sustainable way, several are revising their higher education funding formulas. These formulas – a primary mechanism by which states distribute funding to and among institutions of higher education (IHEs) — are a critical piece of the overall funding picture for colleges and universities, with state and local funds augmented by other sources like tuition and federal funding. For example, to better align their funding formulas with state goals and priorities, states have adjusted formulas by incorporating new studen ..read more

Bellwether is actively working to embed AI throughout the organization. Over the past year we have created a variety of internal AI-related resources, including an AI Playbook that provides a set of guiding principles for how team members can use AI and an AI Use Policy that covers issues such as use, misuse, and data protection and privacy. We also convened an internal AI task force comprising a set of AI “power users” to lead training, communication, and needs identification across the team. To date, the team has received some basic training on using tools like ChatGPT, resulting in base-lev ..read more

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests’ instructional relevance. Multiple Choices: Weighing Updates to State Summative Assessments helps policymakers and advocates understand what they may gain and what they may lose when considering potential shifts in assessments. The report examines several of the most common pr ..read more

The education sector is no stranger to technological fads and shifts. Flipped classrooms, Massively Open Online Courses, 1:1 device programs, and other tech-forward approaches are variations on the same tune: over-hyped introduction, muddled and inconsistent implementation, and results that fall well short of their initial, transformative promise.  The introduction of ChatGPT nearly two years ago felt like a renewal of this all-too-familiar cycle. But there’s good reason to believe the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education will present a far different challenge to educators ..read more

The Assembly Grant Program launched in July 2023 to help families access flexible, personalized learning options. Innovative solutions that help families access funding, information, and guidance are crucial to ensuring that all families – especially those furthest from opportunity – can take advantage of options like extracurricular activities, high-impact tutoring, specialized education supports, and/or alternative learning models.   Phase 1 of the grant program invited applicants to submit their ideas for new solutions. We received more than 150 applications from organizations acr ..read more

Across the nation, innovative learning models are reshaping K-12 education and offering experiences that go beyond traditional classrooms — community-based programs, local summer camps, online courses, university partnerships, and much more. Navigation organizations have become essential allies to families in accessing these opportunities, providing information and personalized guidance to identify suitable learning options and take advantage of available funding.  But navigation organizations face many challenges – including the complexity of direct funding programs, a dearth of data on ..read more

When is someone considered an adult?  Throughout modern American history, policymakers have usually addressed these questions piecemeal, without much regard for the standard they or their predecessors set on other issues. The result is a patchwork of policies on age restrictions without a clear set of guiding principles — mirroring society’s broader lack of clarity about what “adulting” means in 2024.  This confusion has real-world consequences not just for the young people whose lives are shaped to varying degrees by incoherent policies, but also for institutions that have to enforc ..read more