Teachers Who Break Contracts
Face New Risks

The Arizona State Board of Education has approved stricter penalties for public-school teachers who resign without local district approval. The board's action, which goes into effect immediately, means teachers will risk suspension of their teaching certificates if they do not honor their employment contract by staying on the job throughout the school year. Previously, a resigning teacher could receive a letter of censure. However, as it becomes harder to find teachers, and more teachers break their contracts in order to make more money elsewhere, officials want to make sure educators go through the proper channels when resigning from a district. "We understand people wanting to earn the most they can, but there is a legal responsibility when signing a contract," said state board member Anita Mendoza.


Teacher Compensation Database

The Education Commission of the States has created an interactive online database with research on a number of redesigned teacher compensation programs. Users have the option to view full reports, select reports by state, or build a customized report that spans across states and multiple indicators. Although this is not an exhaustive list of redesigned teacher compensation programs, a diverse array of program types and elements are covered.


Investing In Infants And Toddlers: The Economics Of Early Childhood

Early childhood professionals have long recognized the importance of early social and emotional development and its connection to early cognitive development. Now, support for early investment is even stronger. Recent focus on issues of “human capital” (defined as education and skills) has led economic researchers to a conclusion that those in the early childhood field have known all along: investing in high-quality early childhood programs reaps considerable savings and numerous personal and social benefits.  This ZERO TO THREE article outlines current economic research, its application within the field of child development, and ways in which early childhood professionals and economists can join forces to advocate for greater investment in programs that support infants, toddlers and their families.


Involving Families In High School And College Expectations

A policy brief by Education Commission of the States finds that while four in five high school students expect to complete a college degree, fewer than a third will actually earn a baccalaureate six years after high school graduation. The paper examines the troubling gap between educational aspirations, what students (and parents) need to do to achieve those expectations, and what states are doing to better communicate to students and parents the importance of being academically prepared for college.


Postsecondary Experiences Of Career & Technical Education Students

The courses students take during high school plays a critical role in their ability to transition to postsecondary education and pursue a range of postsecondary degree options. Although the importance of academic courses taken during high school is well documented, less understood are the associations between high school courses that prepare students for the world of work, now commonly referred to as career and technical education (CTE) courses, and students’ postsecondary educational experiences. This publication presents data on the postsecondary educational experiences of students from the high school class of 1992 who concentrated in CTE while in high school, and demonstrates the richness and unique potential of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88/2000), which gathered both high school and postsecondary transcripts from a nationally representative sample of students.


The Whole Child In A Fractured World

An Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) report, The Whole Child in a Fractured World, reviews the most current education data and what it means for the education of the whole child. ASCD Executive Director Gene R. Carter notes that this report is designed to serve as a resource document for the Commission's work of recasting the definition of a successful learner from one whose achievement is measured solely by academic tests to one who is knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically engaged, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.

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