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Massachusetts

Policy Challenges Conferences

Policy Challenges Conferences: Bridging Research and Practice hosts regular events with targeted audiences around the Northeast and Islands Region to bring evidence to practitioners, from Institute of Education Sciences Practice Guides published by panels of experts to key findings from REL-NEI’s research staff. Table talks, Q&A with expert speakers, and breakout sessions all serve to advance the conversation and connect research to practice.

View the Event Archives

	Multiple Measures of Teacher Effectiveness (June 2010) Leaders from the six New England states are participating in a regional network—the New England Collaborative for Educator Quality and Effectiveness (NECEQE)—to review research and share state efforts to develop policies and programmatic support for the complex challenge of measuring teacher effectiveness. This daylong meeting convened leaders from the Collaborative and their invited colleagues to delve more deeply into topics central to this undertaking: (a) defining teacher effectiveness, (b) measuring and evaluating teacher effectiveness, and (c) professional development and compensation systems tied to teacher evaluation. Featured speakers included Dr. Laura Goe and Charlotte Danielson.
	Webinar: Measuring Teacher Effectiveness in New England (May 2010) In this webinar co-hosted with the New England Comprehensive Center and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, Dr. Douglas Harris at the University of Wisconsin–Madison presented current research on value-added models for measuring teacher effectiveness. Among the webinar participants were representatives from the New England Collaborative for Educator Quality and Effectiveness (NECEQE), a newly formed initiative comprised of teacher-effectiveness leaders from each of the six New England states. Archive available.
	Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom (January 2010) This daylong conference in Framingham, Mass., brought together nationally recognized mental health researcher Dr. Krista Kutash with teams of educators from districts across Massachusetts. Dr. Kutash presented five evidence-based recommendations for improving classroom behavior from an Institute of Education Sciences Practice Guide on behavior management, which she co-authored. Dr. Kutash also met individually with the district teams to discuss how they can implement the recommendations in their particular schools.