Efforts to help strengthen and improve public education are central to the Albert Shanker Institute’s mission. This work is pursued by promoting discussions, supporting publications and sponsoring research on new and workable approaches to ensuring that all public schools are good schools. As explained by Al Shanker below, these efforts are grounded in the belief that a vibrant public school system is crucial to the health and survival of the nation:
"...I believe that public education is the glue that has held this country together. Critics now say that the common school never really existed, that it’s time to abandon this ideal in favor of schools that are designed to appeal to groups based on ethnicity, race, religion, class, or common interests of various kinds. But schools like these would foster divisions in our society; they would be like setting a time bomb.
"A Martian who happened to be visiting Earth soon after the United States was founded would not have given this country much chance of surviving. He would have predicted that this new nation, whose inhabitants were of different races, who spoke different languages, and who followed different religions, wouldn’t remain one nation for long. They would end up fighting and killing each other. Then, what was left of each group would set up its own country, just as has happened many other times and in many other places. But that didn’t happen. Instead, we became a wealthy and powerful nation—the freest the world has ever known. Millions of people from around the world have risked their lives to come here, and they continue to do so today.
"Public schools played a big role in holding our nation together. They brought together children of different races, languages, religions and cultures and gave them a common language and a sense of common purpose. We have not outgrown our need for this; far from it. Today, Americans come from more different countries and speak more different languages than ever before. Whenever the problems connected with school reform seem especially tough, I think about this. I think about what public education gave me—a kid who couldn’t even speak English when I entered first grade. I think about what it has given me and can give to countless numbers of other kids like me. And I know that keeping public education together is worth whatever effort it takes."
Albert Shanker, 1997
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Citizen Power Challenge Grant Winners
Classroom projects such as learning about global cultural perspectives as a way to build compassion, planning a community garden to promote healthy eating, combating bullying, learning American Sign Language and building a health and wellness library are some of the 15 winning projects in the Citizen Power Challenge. The challenge, funded by the Aspen Institute’s Pluribus Project, is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the Albert Shanker Institute and First Book. More information and list of winners.
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2016-2017 Conversations
List of the 2016-2017 Conversations. Please note that due to the election, the first Conversation will be held the third Wednesday in November. There will be no December Conversation. The Conversations will resume in January, February, March, April and May. -
Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education Conversation Series
Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Insitute and the American Federation of Teachers, this monthly conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues. We invite speakers with diverse perspectives, including views other than those of the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers. What is important is that these participants are committed to genuine engagement with each other. Watch the past conversations and register for upcoming conversations. -
The Allocation of New Students to New York City High Schools
A research project documenting the characteristics and assignment of students who enter New York City's high school choice process for the first time.
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Let’s Talk: Professional Development Modules
The highest rate of vocabulary development (and corresponding acquisition of background knowledge) occurs during the preschool years. This makes preschool a crucial time for effective, content-rich instruction. Accordingly, the Institute has developed a series of Common Core State Standards (CCSS)-aligned modules, which are designed to strengthen the ability of early childhood educators to impart rich, academic content in fun, developmentally appropriate ways. The modules cover the academic domains of oral language development, early literacy, early science, and early mathematics.
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CTE 2014: Career Training for the Knowledge Economy
This conference, sponsored by the New York Citywide CTE Advisory Council, the United Federation of Teachers, and the NYC Department of Education, with support from the CTE Technical Assistance Center of New York State, the American Federation of Teachers, the Albert Shanker Institute, and the Association for Career and Technical Education. was a special addition to the annual professional development day for New York City CTE teachers.
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The Social Side of Education Reform
The Social Side is a lens that brings insight into a critical oversight in educational reform and its policies: Teaching and learning are not solo accomplishments but social endeavors -- they are best achieved, through trusting relationships and teamwork, instead of competition and individual prowess.
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A Novel Approach To Understanding Teachers' Work & Work Context
The University of Wisconsin and the Albert Shanker Institute are jointly developing the Educator Day Reconstruction Method, which provides a new and flexible way of measuring teachers' work and the broader context where it unfolds. The Educator DRM can be adapted to meet a district's information needs and can be used to complement existing data sources. We view this customization process as something to be accomplished collaboratively, with districts and stakeholders.
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The Good Schools Seminars
This seminar series is part of an effort to build a network of union leaders, district superintendents, and researchers to work collaboratively on improving public education through a focus on teaching. It emerges from the Albert Shanker Institute’s role as sponsor of provocative discussions about education and public policy reform.
A Conversation with Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider
Join us for our September AFT Book Club session featuring AFT President Randi Weingarten and distinguished authors Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, discussing their compelling new book The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual
A Conversation with Charles Blow and Randi Weingarten
Join us for our May AFT Book Club session featuring AFT President Randi Weingarten and renowned author Charles M. Blow, discussing Blow's memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Engage with Weingarten and Blow as they explore the multifaceted themes reflecting on the complexities of identity, trauma and resilience within the backdrop of a segregated Louisiana town. Blow's ability to weave his personal narrative with broader social critiques makes the memoir a compelling read for anyone interested in the intersections of personal experience and public advocacy.
AFT Book Club: Conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Randi Weingarten
This groundbreaking new book club series is brought to you by the AFT, Share My Lesson and the Albert Shanker Institute. Tune in each month for an evening of inspiration, intellect and innovation—where the power of words takes center stage! Each month you will hear a fusion of words and wisdom as influential authors, scholars and activists engage in a riveting dialogue that promises to ignite your passion for literature and social change.
PASSION MEETS PURPOSE: Promising Pathways Through Experiential Learning
Reading Reform Across America Webinar
The Intersection of Democracy and Public Education
The Shanker Institute and Education International are both celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2023. Both organizations share a common origin, Albert Shanker cofounded EI and was the inspiration for the ASI. To recognize the common origin and priorities of each organization, strengthening public education and committed to democracy, this Panel Discussion & Anniversary Celebration of the Albert Shanker Institute (25 Years) and Education International (30 Years) was held ahead of the International Summit on the Teaching Profession to take advantage of both organizations’ leaders being in Washington, DC at the same time.
Teaching About Tribal Sovereignty
This session is part of the series: A More United America: Teaching Democratic Principles and Protected Freedoms.
Available for 1.5-hour of PD credit. A certificate of completion will be available for download at the end of your session that you can submit for your school's or district's approval. Watch on Demand.Constitutional Voting Rights: Teaching the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments
Educating for Democratic Citizenship Conference
The Shanker Institute, the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University and Share My Lesson held a virtual three-day conference on Educating for Democratic Citizenship. Participants will be eligible for professional development recertification credit for these on-demand webinars.
Segregation and School Funding: How Housing Discrimination Reproduces Unequal Opportunity
Watch the discussion about the historical and contemporary relationship between racial segregation and K-12 school funding based on the Institute's new report.
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No Statute of Limitations on Learning to Read Well: What do Upper-Level Students Need When They Are Struggling to Read?
Our guest authors are Sue Pimentel, co-founder of StandardsWork, and David Liben, and Meredith Liben founders and directors of Reading Done Right.
In American middle schools, it’s not enough to merely know how to read. Students are expected to understand, analyze, and make meaning from grade-level complex texts, which is only possible if they have the skills and knowledge to read well—fluently and with ease.
Yet nearly one in three U.S. eighth-graders reads below a basic level, including almost half of Black and Hispanic students. Most often, these students blame themselves for weak literacy skills and assume they just aren’t as bright or talented as their classmates. Extra help that uses materials from elementary school does little to dispel the notion. And it denies students access to the sophisticated grade-level vocabulary and content that can help them catch up, a vicious cycle where students are forever left behind.
American educators need a better playbook to coach upper-level students up to grade level—one that seamlessly integrates within a mainstream classroom while exposing all students to appropriately rigorous content and ideas. It’s never too late to learn how to read well, and it need not come at the expense of learning the knowledge and vocabulary they are expected to know by graduation.
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New Hampshire’s Divisive Concepts Law Was Ruled Unconstitutional, Sending a Message to the Nation
Our guest author is Deb Howes, President of AFT-NH. A version of the article originally appeared in the Concord Monitor on June 14, 2024.
A funny thing happened on New Hampshire’s way to threatening to fire teachers for teaching so-called divisive concepts involving gender, race, history and identity. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled late in May that the law was so unconstitutionally vague that teachers would be “incentivized to steer well clear of anything that could be construed as violating” the law, thus inhibiting them from doing their best work—exactly the kind of work public school students deserve to help them learn and succeed—and forcing students “to bear the costs” of the law’s ambiguity.
The federal judge’s ruling sends a strong message to other states, such as Florida, Georgia, Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and South Dakota, that have passed variations of diversity, equity and inclusion laws restricting instruction on aspects of American history, sexual orientation, gender identity, race or racism.
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Tackling Chronic Absenteeism Is a Crucial Investment in the Future
Our guest authors are Kate Suchomel, the Lead Development & Communications Officer, and Jim Davnie, Executive Director, of the Minnesota Alliance With Youth.
This week, Minnesota Alliance With Youth had the opportunity to engage in conversations at the White House around addressing the issue of chronic absenteeism in our schools. At the “Every Day Counts Summit: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism and Increasing Student Engagement," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, along with state Governors and local leaders, highlighted the many efforts to increase student attendance and engagement and help students come to school every day.
The Alliance was invited to participate and share successes from our AmeriCorps Promise Fellow collaboration with the Check & Connect Student Engagement program in Minneapolis middle and high schools- a long standing collaboration that has resulted in significant attendance gains for Minneapolis students (the results of which are highlighted as a district-level example in the new Digital Backpack of Resources to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Your Community released by the National Partnership for Student Success).
Chronic absenteeism has become a critical issue for K-12 schools across the country, and Minnesota is struggling with exceptionally elevated rates in recent years. Statewide data from the U.S. Department of Education indicates a dramatic increase in the percentage of Minnesota schools with high or extreme chronic absenteeism, rising from 34% in 2017/18 to a staggering 71% during the 2021/22 school year.
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How Do Vouchers Defund Public Schools? Four Warnings and One Big Takeaway
Our guest author is Josh Cowen, Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University. His new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers is forthcoming at Harvard Education Press.
Over the past two years, school voucher systems and other related schemes that divert taxpayer revenue toward private K-12 tuition have passed state legislatures at unprecedented rates. Although these recent bills became law only, for the most part, in red states, their supporters include a handful of Democrats in other parts of the country as well. And all of this comes despite a decade of evidence that vouchers have led to some of the steepest declines in student achievement on record.
Regardless of which side of an otherwise ideological or political divide voucher advocates hail from, a common talking point for both is that voucher-like systems leave public school funding unaffected.
Such claims rely on a variety of funding strategies that include drawing resources to pay for vouchers from states’ general fund commitments outside of their school aid budgets, and the use of tax credits to make expenditures rather than direct appropriation.
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Teacher Appreciation: The Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO) Connects Equity and Justice to Education Policy and Practice
Our guest author is Melika Jalili, program manager at the Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO), UC Berkeley.
Whether it is a focus on the teacher shortage, a discussion of our public schools, or Teacher Appreciation Week, it seems everyone agrees that teachers deserve more respect and recognition. Making that recognition meaningful, by supporting educators to be the teachers they have always dreamed they could be, should be a priority for all of us.
Cue in, Dr. Travis J. Bristol, Associate Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Education, who announced the exciting launch of the Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO) at UC Berkeley last month.
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Reading Science: Staying the Course Amidst the Noise
Critical perspectives on the Science of Reading (SoR) have always been present and are justifiably part of the ongoing discourse. At the Shanker Institute, we have been constructively critical, maintaining that reading reforms are not a silver bullet and that aspects of SoR, such as the role of knowledge-building and of infrastructure in reading improvement, need to be better understood and integrated into our discourse, policies, and practices. These contributions can strengthen the movement, bringing us closer to better teaching and learning. However, I worry that other forms of criticism may ultimately divert us from these goals and lead us astray.
At the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the largest research conference in the field of education, I witnessed the spread of serious misinformation about reading research and related reforms. In this post, I aim to address four particularly troubling ideas I encountered. For each, I will not only provide factual corrections but also contextual clarifications, highlighting any bits of truth or valid criticisms that may exist within these misconceptions.
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Rick Hess’ Uber Driver Speaks Out
Our guest author is Leo Casey, Shanker Institute executive director emeritus.
I was out pounding the streets the other day, and a ride for Rick Hess at the American Enterprise Institute popped up on my driver’s app. Geez, I thought to myself, not him again. But I have to put food on the table and clothes on the back of my kids, so I headed over to AEI.
Ten minutes late, Rick jumps into my car, and starts in. “I want to ask you about…” I interrupted him: “Rick, before we get into what you want to talk about, I want to ask you a question first.”
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Loc-ing students out: Darryl George, the CROWN Act, and the Need to Combat Racial Discrimination in the Classroom
Our guest author is Jasmine Payne-Patterson, a Senior State Policy Coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at the Economic Policy Institute.
For some students and workers, hair is a trivial wardrobe decision, while for many Black and Brown people, their hairstyle can be a consequential element of class participation and a job offer. School dress codes and “business appropriate” dress often put high stakes and severe restrictions on how Black and Brown people can express their culture and identity through their hair.
Over the last several years, lawmakers in 24 states have sought to combat this problem by passing the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” (CROWN) Act. The CROWN Act is a law that protects against discrimination based on hairstyle and texture in schools, workplaces, and beyond by extending the definition of racial expression to include wearing braids, locs, twists, and other culturally significant hair styles.
Yet the recent court case of Texas high school junior Darryl George reveals that even in states that have adopted versions of the CROWN Act, as Texas has, Black and Brown people can still face educational and career disadvantages for their hairstyles when discriminatory systems—in this case a school dress code—are validated by judicial interpretation that ignores the intent of the law.
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From the Classroom to the Capitol: Teachers Can Make A Difference
Our guest authors José Luis Vilson and Dan Kliber are accomplished National Board Certified Teachers and activists.
The battle over the federal budget has dire consequences for schools across the country, particularly for those most in need of funding. Recently, some federal legislators have proposed extremely draconian cuts. The last education funding proposal from the U.S. House of Representatives would have slashed federal support for education by 30%, including an 80% reduction to Title I, which supports low-income schools. Had this proposal passed, public education as we know it could have been completely dismantled, putting over 200K teachers out of a job.
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School District Fragmentation, Segregation, and Funding Equity in New Jersey
District fragmentation is a very important but sometimes overlooked factor shaping school segregation, school funding equity, and the relationship between them. Put simply, fragmentation refers to the fact that, in some states, there are hundreds of small districts, while other states are divided into a smaller number of large districts. For example, at the extremes, there are 67 (countywide) districts serving Florida’s 3 million public school students, whereas New Jersey maintains around 600 districts for its 1.3 million students.
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How Relationships Matter In Educational Improvement
This short presentation explains some shortcomings of mainstream education reform and offers an alternative framework to advance educational progress.
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The Emergence of the "Precariat": What Does the Loss of Stable, Well-Compensated Employment Mean for Education?
The emergence of the global knowledge economy has revolutionized the nature of work in America – for the worse. Unionized, well-paying private sector jobs that were once a ladder to the middle class have been decimated. -
The Early Language Gap is About More Than Words
The vocabulary gap between rich and poor children develops very early and it is about more than just words. In fact, words are the tip of the iceberg. So what lies underneath? Find out by watching this three-minute video.
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The Next Generation of Differentiated Compensation: What Next?
This panel will examine the terrain of teacher compensation from a number of different perspectives, offering their recommendations on what a good compensation
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How Do We Get Experienced, Accomplished Teachers into High-Need Schools?
If a master designer had created American education as we know it, he would have to be a Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. American students with all of the advantages of wealth are disproportionately taught by the best prepared, most experienced and most accomplished teachers, while students living in poverty with the greatest educational needs are disproportionately taught by novice teachers who were poorly prepared and who receive inadequate support. -
A New Social Compact for American Education: Fixing Our Broken Accountability System
Twelve years after the passage of No Child Left Behind and five years into Race to the Top, America finds itself in a ‘test and punish’ system of school accountability that poorly serves the nation and its students.
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Disrupting the Pipeline
The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners; it is no exaggeration to call our national approach to criminal justice “mass incarceration.” And our prison cells are disproportionately filled with poor men of color, especially African-American men. Mass incarceration is one of the paramount civil rights and economic justice issues of our day.
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Early Childhood Education: The Word Gap & The Common Core
Given states’ difficulties in implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) thoughtfully, many early childhood educators have begun to worry about what the NAEYC refers to as “a downward pressure of increased academic focus and more narrowed instructional approaches.” But, as the NAEYC’s statement on the CCSS also observed, that “threat also provides an opportunity” for early education to exert more positive, “upward pressure” on the K–12 system. -
Quality Assessments for Educational Excellence
The conversation focused on federal and state policy on student assessment, with an eye to identifying policies that would promote best assessment practices. -
Civic Purposes of Public Education and the Common Core
One of the primary purposes of public education is to foster an engaged and well-educated citizenry: For a democracy to function, the "people" who rule must be prepared to take on the duties and the rights of citizens.