GLOBAL
Education International. Yemen’s education crisis deepens as unpaid teachers continue to strike Making matters worse, the government is now asking for unqualified volunteers to fill in for the striking teachers. At least two million children are not in school.
Hechinger Report. OPINION: Known for its intense testing pressure, top-performing South Korea dials it back [by TC Prof. T. Hatch] …professional development providers and teacher education institutions are focusing on helping teachers develop new instructional methods and career-related activities…
LGiU Scotland. Training about mental health for teachers is one part of the puzzle The Scottish Association for Mental Health recently surveyed over 3,000 school staff and found that two thirds of teachers (66%) felt they lacked training in mental health to carry out their job properly, with only 12 per cent saying they had received enough training in issues such as self-harming and eating disorders.
TC Record Book Review. Enhancing Teacher Professionalism: Global Lessons From High-Performing Education Systems by L. Darling-Hammond; A. L. Goodwin, K. Hammerness, K. Zeichner, et al., 2017
Washington Post. Early childhood education expert: I saw a brilliant way to teach kids. Unfortunately it wasn’t in the United States. The Nova Scotia Framework (similar to those of other Canadian provinces) was written by a broad network of early childhood professionals. These educators know how young children develop and learn, and they share common principles and values about child development.
UNITED STATES
AACTE. Urge Congress to Pass a Budget Deal and Increase Education Funding
Better Life Lab. There’s a Stigma Around Men Teaching Young Kids. Here’s How We Change It. … this could be a crucial opportunity to encourage more men to enter the important field of early childhood education, particularly since the United States lags behind most other industrialized countries in access to early education.
Education Week.
1) This Group Wants to Be the Match.com of Teacher Shortages in California The center will also guide interested people—whether high school students, college students, or people looking to switch careers—through the process of training and certification via a “vortal” (vertical digital portal).
2) Want to Protect Money for Teachers in Trump’s Washington? Good Luck. The House spending proposal for education for the next budget year eliminates about $2 billion in Title II funding that goes towards teacher training and a reduction in class sizes.
Edutopia. What Can We Do About Teacher Turnover? Controlling for other factors, three major things emerged as predictors of turnover: teacher preparation, school leadership, and compensation.
Hechinger Report.
1) Almost all students with disabilities are capable of graduating on time. Here’s why they’re not: U.S. education system is failing students with special needs. Yet general education teachers rarely have much training in special education. Few teacher education programs require more than one class on students with disabilities. Meanwhile, special education teachers have to balance completing extensive federal paperwork with planning lessons and teaching classes.
2) How preschool teachers feel about science matters, new research finds Most Head Start teachers hold a bachelors degree and that held true for Gerde’s sample but she and her team found previous education had no effect on the amount of science instruction teachers offered.
HuffPost. Transforming Teacher Preparation: How States are Leading the Way
Teaching Tolerance. Presenting Teaching Tolerance’s Digital Literacy Framework The need for digital literacy is acute and vital in today’s world. Our new initiative can help prepare students to navigate this world.
U.S. News and World Report. Best Graduate Schools of Education 2018
Washington Post.
1) A quarter of the schools Betsy DeVos has visited are private DeVos proposed drastic cuts in money for after-school programs, career and technical education, and teacher preparation in favor of dedicating $400 million to expand charter schools and private school vouchers and more than $1 billion to push states to adopt policies friendly to school choice.
2) The real reasons so many young people can’t write well today — by an English teacher The overall decline in student writing ability cannot be attributed to one cause. Recent studies have shown that many teachers are ill-prepared to teach writing when they enter the classroom.
NEW YORK STATE
HuffPost. Times Editorial Hypes Charter Schools [Rebuttal to NYTimes editorial below] But the real reason charter networks can’t fill positions is because of high teacher turnover. I know that, because I read it in the New York Times. Charter networks treat teachers as interchangeable parts that can be plugged into classrooms where they follow scripts and can be repeatedly replaced by other untrained personnel.
NYSED. Regents Meeting for November 2017 [agenda] Update on the edTPA Standard Setting Committee and Amendment to §80-1.5 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to Extend the edTPA Safety Net and Revise the Eligibility Criteria for the Multiple Measures Review Process
NYTimes.
1) The Best Charter Schools Deserve More Leeway on Hiring [Times Editorial Board] The national scope of this problem was documented a decade ago in a devastating report by Arthur Levine, a former president of Teachers College, Columbia University, who criticized universities for using teacher-training programs with low or no standards as cash cows…But what’s beyond doubt is that the state certification process is failing to provide strong teachers in sufficient numbers to fill the demand.
2) New York State Regents on Teaching [Rebuttal to Times Editorial Board] Relying on a decade-old study and research by an organization with a clear political agenda, you buy into the flawed notion that rigorous teacher training programs, including those offered by SUNY and CUNY colleges, don’t result in better qualified teachers.
Poughkeepsie Journal. Dutchess teaching workforce lacks diversity: Report The state should “improve the educator preparation pipeline, strengthen supports for educators of color, and make schools more inclusive environments in order to better serve our students and educators.”
NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) What I learned about the limits of school choice in New York City from a mother whose child uses a wheelchair Teachers should learn to include children with different abilities in their classrooms. Such a commitment means recognizing the value of inclusivity — not viewing accessibility as something ADA says you must do.
2) Why do some New York City schools get to choose their students? Here’s the case for and against ‘screening.’ …there’s a more practical reason to advocate for screening, said Samuel Abrams, a researcher at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Selective schools are a way to keep middle-class families worried about the quality of the average public school from opting into private school or decamping to the suburbs.
Teachers College.
1) CRACKING THE CODE: Teaching STEM for Citizenship in the 21st Century [Nov. 18, 9am-5pm]
2) Making a Federal Case: Michael Rebell and his students hope to convince the Supreme Court that education is a Constitutional right Teachers no longer receive preparation in leading discussions of controversial topics and are often expressly barred from doing so.
3) Mitigating the Misreading of Boys of Color in Schools This event is intended to ignite discussion on how educators can work with Black and Brown males in high schools to reimagine the educational landscape. [Dec. 9, 10am-1pm]
4) State of the College 2017 Felicia Moore Mensah received the 2017 Outstanding Science Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the Association of Science Teacher Education… Susan Recchia’s article on “Preparing Early Childhood Professionals for Relationship-Based Work with Infants” received the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Distinguished Article award.
