Month: December 2016

INTERNATIONAL
VVOB. Improved mentoring skills; higher achievements during teaching practice In Cambodia, student teachers are required to carry out 14 weeks of teaching practice throughout their 2-year training programme.

NATIONAL
AACTE. Call for Participation – Study on Yearlong Preservice Preparation Models [Bank Street SFP]

EdWeek.
1) How Massachusetts Built a World-Class School System [M. Tucker blog] Massachusetts … built their own tests set to a much higher standard, using them to ratchet up significantly their standard for teacher licensure.
2) Mountain View School District considers arming teachers The Idaho County Sheriff’s Office would provide firearms training … that would allow a firearm to be carried on school grounds.
3) Va. Governor Asks Retired Teachers to Come Back to Work to Curb Shortage The Virginia Education Association president told the Post that while the union supports McAuliffe’s attempt to fill the classrooms with qualified teachers, there needs to be a long-term solution.

EdSurge. Brain Science and Education: How Much Should Teachers Know? Schools such as Bank Street College or Teachers College at Columbia—which offers a Neuroscience and Education degree program—have already began trailblazing the field.

edTPA/AACTE. Two New edTPA Resources Available

Getting Smart. PBL Quick Start Guide For Teachers

Hechinger Report.
1) College and university enrollment is down for fifth straight year …students over 24, who now make up 40 percent of undergraduate and graduate enrollment.
2) Who should be in charge of licensing Mississippi’s teachers? Task force calls for independent board to take on that role

InsideHigherEd. Is Distance Ed Rule DOA?   Education Department finally issues rule on state approval of online programs [SARA], but with opposition in Congress, it may never go into effect.

LATimes. One solution to failing K-12 schools? Let universities help We truly feel we can prepare educators in a much stronger way at local school sites.

Larry Ferlazzo [Blog]. The Best Collections Of Education Research – 2016

Lipscomb Univ. Lipscomb once again at the head of the class on 2016 Tennessee Teacher Preparation Report Card

NYTimes.
1) To Boost the Economy, Help Students First Ironically, the benefits of these programs disproportionately fall on graduate and professional degree holders with high loan balances …
2) Yellen Tells College Graduates That Value of a Degree Is Rising …research also shows that a college or graduate degree typically leads to a happier, healthier and longer life.

The Newport Plain Talk [TN]. State board launches newly designed teacher preparation report card  Since 2009, Tennessee has provided data on the effectiveness of colleges, universities, and educator preparation providers.

TCRecord. Disadvantaged Language Minority Students and Their Teachers: A National Picture …these teacher-training programs have only become widely available in the past several decades, and veteran teachers did not have the option of obtaining the same types of certification.

USDE, Office of Educational Technology. Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation: Policy Brief

Wall Street Journal. The government is reducing Social Security checks to recover unpaid student debt

NEW YORK STATE
Comm. on Independent Colleges and Univ. (CiCU)/Bank Street College. Teacher Prep Sustainable Funding Project [SFP] Webinar

NYSED. State Education Department Awards $10 Million In My Brother’s Keeper Grants For MBK Challenge Grant Programs And Teacher Opportunity Corps II …TOC grants will increase the participation rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) Great divide: How extreme academic segregation isolates students in New York City’s high schools Students in poor-performing schools often contend with ill-prepared teachers, lower expectations, and more behavioral issues…
2) In a win for the UFT, city reaches deal that moves further away from evaluating teachers based on multiple-choice tests

NYTimes. Columbia Challenges Vote by Graduate Students to Unionize

INTERNATIONAL
NYTimes.
1) Defiance and Disillusionment in Heartland of South Korean President’s Support …Park Chung-hee, the divisive Cold War dictator who attended teachers college and taught in Daegu before embarking on a military career.
2) Life After the Caliphate: Boko Haram’s Nigerian Former Stronghold Now a Safe Haven Some of the women work in the school which also helps train them to become teachers,
3) Mexico’s Drug War Marks a Decade Amid Doubts, Changes In Iguala, Guerrero, where 43 teachers’ college students disappeared in 2014, relatives of other people who have vanished were emboldened enough to form a group…

TCRecord Book Review. Child Advocacy and Early Childhood Education Policies in the Caribbean … recommendations for policy and practice provide clear strategies to remedy the issues of teacher training and large classroom sizes.

World Economic Forum. Where are the worst teacher shortages?

NATIONAL
AACTE.
1) ESSA Regulations, Deadlines Now Set for Accountability, State Plans States can submit their consolidated state plans by either April 3 or September 18, 2017.
2) NCTQ Teacher Prep Review members-only Institutional Response Kit. [AACTE sign in required]

AERA.
1) CFP [due Jan. 25]
2) Handbook of Research on Teaching (Fifth Edition)

Brookings Institute. Teacher observations have been a waste of time and money We need more research to identify teaching practices that link directly to learning, rather than using notions of what effective teachers should be doing.

EducationWeek.
1) Congress Faces Range of Education Issues in Next Session Less certain is the fate of final ESSA accountability and testing regulations … as well as rules on teacher preparation
2) Ed. Department to Ed. Schools: Rethink Tech Training for Future Teachers
3) For Advice on Teacher Preparation, States Turn to the Experts: Teachers Themselves
4) GOP Lawmakers Put ESSA Accountability, Teacher-Prep Regulations on Hit List The Obama administration’s teacher preparation regulations under the Higher Education Act and its accountability regulations for the ESSA appear headed for the trash heap
5) House Freedom Caucus Seeks to Dump Obama Transgender, Nutrition Rules The Senate Republican Policy Committee has also put teacher-prep rules on its hit list.
6) In Some States, a Tug of War Over ESSA Plans “What’s going to be important is whether states have a … vision of what the role of public education will be in promoting the well-being of the state,” said Jeffrey Henig, a political scientist at Teachers College, Columbia University
7) Many Teachers Can’t Talk About LGBT Issues in the Classroom, Report Finds Educators acknowledged that harassment was prevalent, but that they lacked training and support to know when and how to help.
8) Program helps teacher assistants become certified teachers
9) Technology Should Replace Basic Teaching Tasks, a New Paper Says   As school districts across the country have struggled recruiting teachers for certain subjects, technology has been used as a stopgap measure to curb the shortage.
10) Two Va. School Districts Invest in Teacher Training, See Student Achievement Gains

Hébert, C (2017). What Do We Really Know About the edTPA? Research, PACT, and Packaging a Local Teacher Performance Assessment for National Use. The Educational Forum, 81: 68–82. The article argues that the distinctions between the assessments are too vast to rely on PACT data to support the edTPA, given the localized nature of PACT and the way in which it is scored.

Hechinger Report.
1) Four reasons why there’s no substitute for classroom time in teacher training Today’s simulations are not yet sophisticated enough to challenge a teacher candidate to merge content knowledge, appropriate questioning, culturally sensitive pedagogy…
2) What should new teachers know before they set foot in a classroom?

NEA. Oakland educator’s African American girls’ initiative teaches girls of color they matter too She and Malloy have started training educators at their school to engage girls of color through a culturally responsive lens…

New Republic. Can Democrats Save Public Schools from Trump and DeVos? Democrats have to recognize their own culpability. Ravitch and Samuel Abrams, …at the Columbia University Teachers College, both say Obama, in particular, helped make it possible.

NYTimes.
1) Betsy DeVos and God’s Plan for Schools Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University… was Mr. Trump’s first pick for secretary of education. Liberty University teaches creationism alongside evolution [incl. teacher prep pgms].
2) Make Colleges Diverse

PRWeb. Pearson Releases Research-Based Learning Design Principles for Public Use

The Hunt Institute. Defending the Teacher Prep Regulations: Why They Deserve to be Saved …it’s unlikely that states will ever have to put these new regulations into action. The new Congress that takes office in January is likely to nullify them under the Congressional Review Act.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Regents.
1) Development of New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) State Plan |  PDF [Draft plan released in May; public hearing and comment period May-June, submit to Governor in July (30 days), submit to USDE in Sept.]
2) Appointment to the State Professional Standards and Practices Board  BR (CA) 3
3) Proposed Amendment of Section 80-5.4 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Employment of Substitute Teachers Without a Valid Teaching Certificate  BR (CA) 6 *

NEW YORK CITY
DNAInfo.
1) Number of Art Teachers in City Schools Hits 11-Year High, Chancellor Says …the DOE says it employees 2,757 full-time, certified arts teachers, a number not seen in 11 years.
2) Rapper Charged in Irving Plaza Shooting Speaks to HS Students at Columbia Troy Ave… was a guest of Christopher Emdin, an associate professor in science education at Teacher’s College

INTERNATIONAL
EducationWeek. The 2015 PISA Results: What Do They Mean?  When they are in teachers college, they are required to at least minor—and in some cases major—in the subjects they are going to teach…

HuffPost. The Global Search for Education: Everything You Need to Know About PISA …these countries have a steadfast commitment to outstanding teaching and to supporting schools and students that are struggling.

NYTimes. What America Can Learn About Smart Schools in Other Countries Generally speaking, the smartest countries tend to be those that have acted to make teaching more prestigious and selective…

OECD. Singapore tops latest OECD PISA global education survey  …successful countries share: high and universal expectations for all students; a strong focus on great teaching; resources targeted at struggling students…

NATIONAL
AACTE.
1) Board Election Results
2) Statement on DeVos Nomination for U.S. Secretary of Education
3) Webinar: Dec. 2016 Federal Update

American Association for Employment in Education. Educator Supply and Demand Survey

DataQualityCampaign. Good Guidelines Can Foster Growth: A Teacher’s Perspective on ED Teacher Prep Regulations

EducationWeek.
1) Advice From 2016-17 Milken Educators: How to Create a Successful Classroom
2) Elementary Teacher-Prep Programs Are Getting Better, According to [NCTQ] Study
3) ‘Fake News,’ Bogus Tweets Raise Stakes for Media Literacy …over-emphasis on standardized test preparation, and slow-to-evolve teacher-preparation efforts have left the K-12 sector struggling to keep pace

EdSource. College campuses to receive $8 million to boost teacher-prep programs Twenty-nine California colleges and universities will share $8 million in state grants aimed at stemming teacher shortages…

Hechinger Report.
1) Arkansas schools hire untrained teachers as people lose interest in the profession
2) Finland can teach Betsy DeVos a thing or two about valuing teachers and school choice that’s real Networks of top schools, teachers and training programs can produce many educational choices.
3) How to find minority teachers who want to stay in the job? Schools are turning to their own former students as teaching recruits

HuffPost. Undermining Public Education Has Been A Bipartisan Affair [by A. Singer, Hofstra Univ. Social Studies Teacher Ed] Teaching and learning are not passive activities. Students and student teachers learn best from interaction and engagement with others…

NCTQ. Standards For Traditional And Non-Traditional Teacher Prep The Teacher Prep Review (TPR) evaluates critical areas of traditional and non-traditional teacher preparation

SeattleTimes. Finnish teachers, seen as global stars, call U.S. schools exhausting, uninspired …getting into a teacher-training program in Finland is akin to acceptance at M.I.T. — only the very top applicants make the cut.

The 74. A ‘Founders’ Excerpt: How 4 Visionary Entrepreneurs Joined Forces to Launch Uncommon Schools Lemov remains part of Uncommon, but he has shifted to full-time teacher-training work that was launched by his best-selling book …

YouTube [Open Access]. Autism Classroom- EdTPA Practice Filming One- “Pre-teaching Concepts for Outdoor Zoo Field Trip” While getting ready for the EdTPA here in Georgia, I decided to start filming my large group lessons in my classroom.

NEW YORK STATE
Albany Times Union. Resources needed for students new to English [NYSED Commissioner Elia at public hearing] …including an easing of dual-certification requirements for teachers and a push for bilingual programs at the pre-kindergarten level.

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). Mary Beth Labate Appointed President of CICU

NEW YORK CITY
Bed-Stuy Patch. Patrice Bridgewater of Bedford Academy HS was honored at Sloan Awards for Excellent in Teaching in Science and Mathematics. She won a merit scholarship to Brooklyn College and graduated in 2010. She immediately returned to teach at Bedford Academy.

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). Webinar: Sustainable Funding Project at Bank Street College of Ed [Dec. 19]

TCRecord.
1) Pushing Back Against Teacher Attrition Making deep mentorship a key component of teacher preparation can begin to close the gap between preparation and active teaching.
2) “Them That’s Got Shall Get”: Understanding Teacher Recruitment, Induction, and Retention …Simply put, we train teachers poorly and then treat them badly—so they leave in droves

INTERNATIONAL
IEN. Real Singaporean Lessons: Why do Singaporean Students perform so well in PISA? …enhanced by high standards of teacher recruitment, effective teacher preparation and professional development.

NATIONAL
AACTE.
1) Lessons From ‘Resilience’ on Achieving a Whole-Child Focus in Educator Preparation
2) Penn Center for MSIs Convening Highlights New Report
3) Subscribe to AACTE Advocacy Action Alerts

AERA. Election Implications Loom for Federal Education Leadership, Education Research Funding

Bloomberg. The Feds Have No Idea What Student Loan Forgiveness Will Really Cost Us …assessment of [USED] agency officials: “They’re either being extremely deceitful or extremely incompetent.”

Chalkbeat. What Trump’s election means for undocumented educators Ruiz, Fuentes nd Molina became teachers through Teach for America, a national organization that recruits college graduates to teach…

Dell Foundation. Teacher preparation: Limits of top-down regulations

EdWeek.
1) How Should Reading Be Taught in a Digital Era?
2) Reflecting on First-Round Accreditation Reviews Under ‘Tougher’ Standards
2) Study: Most Professional Training for Teachers Doesn’t Qualify as ‘High Quality’
3) Which Teacher Prep Programs Meet Tough New Accreditation Standards? …according to an inaugural report released on Monday by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

HechingerReport. New study shows variety in teachers’ influences on kids’ futures, and how poorly we measure that …we have evidence that these skills are teachable.

InsideHigherEd. Separate and Not Equal New book argues that sometimes faculty members of color going up for tenure are judged by a higher standard than are their white peers.

JTE. Podcasts

NCTQ. Within Our Grasp: Achieving Higher Admissions Standards in Teacher Prep [State Teacher Policy Yearbook]

NYTimes. Why Trump’s Education Pick Won’t Be Able to Privatize U.S. Schools

The Atlantic. When Finnish Teachers Work in America’s Public Schools …both of whom graduated from Finnish teacher-training programs in the ‘90s, taught in Finland for seven years, married Americans

The Tribune. University of Northern Colorado gets $2.2M grant to fund rural education center

Turning Point USA. Professor Watch List [Education faculty incl. Jennifer Adair, Univ. of Texas; William Ayers, Univ. of Illinois]

WashingtonPost. What’s the worst that could happen with Betsy DeVos as education secretary? Two scenarios.  Scn1: Enrollment in teacher preparation programs plummets. Scn2: …there is a drop in applications to teacher preparation programs

NEW YORK STATE
Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). Webinar: Sustainable Funding Project at Bank Street College of Ed [Dec. 19]

Lohud Journal News. Teaching programs plummet at state colleges

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Could Donald Trump’s school voucher bonanza become a reality in New York City? A voucher program in New York “would require a lot of political support, more so than is here now,” said Aaron Pallas, an education professor at Teachers College.

Selected. Transitioning Mid-Career to Teaching Panel, Dec. 8

SmartBrief. Our teachers can help America [by Josh Thomases, Dean of Innovation, Policy & Research, Bank Street College of Education]

TCRecord.
1) Now What, Professor? Three Ways a Trump Presidency Could Be Good for American Education … Pearson Education, has essentially colonized American classrooms in determining how our teachers are certified …
2) Pushing Back Against Teacher Attrition Thus, contrary to public perception, graduates of teacher preparation programs are not finished products when they emerge from this preparatory phase.

The New Yorker. What New York City’s Biggest School Reformer Sees in Donald Trump Success Academy students wear Catholic-school-like uniforms, and teachers are trained to emphasize high expectations, orderliness, and routine.