Leveraging Partnerships to Improve Teaching and Learning

As a nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led public policy organization that seeks to deliver well-researched analysis and reasoned solutions to the nation’s most critical issues, the Committee for Economic Development (CED) has long supported efforts to improve education from preschool through the K-12 and postsecondary levels.  Recently, CED published a series of briefs that cover a variety of approaches to improving K-12 education through enhanced teacher effectiveness, improved STEM education, and the integration of digital learning. Two of the briefs examine efforts in Kentucky to evaluate teachers and to support new teachers.  Three briefs discuss various aspects of a CED-supported model for using business partnerships to advance STEM education at a school in Miami, Florida, and the final brief looks at initiatives in Texas that are addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by digital learning and technology in the classroom. Although the initiatives differ in many ways, there a few important common themes—engaging and supporting teachers in the change and reforms efforts, providing opportunities for professional growth and support, leveraging partnerships between schools and businesses and other stakeholders, and integrating technology as a tool for learning among both students and teachers.