Month: April 2018

GLOBAL
KT Press. Rwanda Launches $6M Technical Teacher Training Institute

Phnom Penh Post. Cambodia Teacher Training Project (CTTP)

The Star, Kenya. Number of trainees in teacher training colleges rises, bureau statistics show

 

UNITED STATES
Association for Teacher Educators. CFP Annual Meeting Atlanta, GA Feb. 15-19 [deadline July 1]

Chalkbeat. Newark looks to build school-to-work ‘pipeline’ by boosting vocational education   Individuals who have studied or worked in certain industries can get provisional teaching certificates, but they must then undergo two years of classroom supervision and coursework to become fully certified.

Chronicle of Higher Education.
1) Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He’s Not Real.  After The Chronicle spent more than a week trying to verify Cloud’s existence, the company that owns The Student Loan Report confirmed that Cloud was fake.
2) It Matters a Lot Who Teaches Introductory Courses. Here’s Why.   Because Ran’s new paper combines administrative data from six community colleges with a detailed faculty survey, it is able to shed light on why students who take early courses with adjuncts (a term it uses interchangeably with part-time faculty) fare worse, said Ran, a senior research assistant in the Community College Research Center at Teachers College of Columbia University.

CNN Opinion [L. Darling-Hammond] What teacher strikes are really about  Because teaching has grown so unattractive as a profession, teacher education enrollments have dropped by more than 30% in recent years while turnover also climbed.

Education Week. ‘I Am Scared to Walk Into a Classroom’: A Preservice Teacher on School Violence   This cannot be an issue on which future teachers remain idle and silent, twiddling our thumbs. Current teachers, responding to suggestions from lawmakers that teachers should be armed, began the #ArmMeWith movement… It’s never too early for preservice teachers to join the conversation.

Hechinger Report. Study: The U.S. isn’t doing enough to prepare students for the automation age   …the five top-performing countries have all started to adapt teacher education for the workforce changes ahead, the study says. This often involves training teachers in the use of advanced technologies.

Inside Higher Ed. Pentagon on PROSPER [US Higher Education Act reauthorization] Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which was created with bipartisan support in 2007, promises that student loan borrowers who work for employers in the public or nonprofit sector and make 120 qualifying monthly payments will have the remainder of their federal loan balance discharged. It potentially makes the armed forces, as well as other public employers, attractive to younger workers [including teachers] who might not consider that option otherwise…

Learning Policy Institute. Diversifying the Teacher Workforce: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color   Barriers to recruitment and retention include: Inadequate teacher preparation when teachers enter through alternative routes and try to teach while they are in training…

NYTimes.
1) Public Servants Are Losing Their Foothold in the Middle Class   “My adjusted gross income is $28,000,” said Shala Marshall, a Spanish teacher at Jenks High School. A 17-year veteran with a master’s degree and a finalist for Oklahoma teacher of the year, Ms. Marshall has two children. “I can’t support a family on that,” she said.
2) Teaching Activities for: ‘A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.’
3) The Teachers’ Revolt Spreads to Arizona   … Arizona has such an acute teacher shortage that many schools are already hiring teachers without formal education training, some with only high school diplomas. 

Politico. Third judge rules against Trump move to end DACA

The Hill. The risk of kicking higher ed reauthorization down the road   …HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), indicated markup of the bill could begin this month. Let’s hope it does.

The 74. How the Push for Preschool Teachers to Earn Costly College Degrees Could Strain a System in Which Wages Are Only Half of K-12 Teachers’

 

NEW YORK STATE
My Brother’s Keeper.  2018 Symposium for MBK Communities [April 27-28] featured speakers incl: TC Prof. Dr. Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz

NYSATE/NYACTE. CFP Fall Conference Oct. 12-18 [deadline May 15]

 

NEW YORK CITY
NYC Dept. of Education. WeTeachNYC.  Search the library for lessons, professional learning resources, etc.

Teachers College.
1) Office of Teacher Education (OTE) social media updates OTE Twitter  OTE LinkedIn
2) Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC) Program. 2018-19 applications now open [deadline Sept. 10]

GLOBAL
FE News [UK]. Secret RoATP application window revealed  Thirty-six teacher training organisations have joined the register of apprenticeship training providers during a secret application window…

Greater Kashmir.  20 NGOs roped in to improve school education, teacher training

Scroll.In. A new training policy proposed to help Indian teachers upgrade their skills may not help much

TES [UK]. New-teacher preparation has gone ‘off the boil’

 

UNITED STATES
Chronicle of Higher Education. Why Does the Public Distrust Higher Ed? Too Many Women    Except at elite institutions, where the degree is as much about powerful connections as it is about learning, higher education’s value is shrinking as a two-track system develops — one in which women go to college and men get credentials by other means.

edTPA/AACTE.
1) Call For 2018 Conference Proposals [Deadline: June 15]
2) Handbook Improvement Survey
3) New NCTQ Review Offers Mixed Feedback on Graduate Teacher Prep, Alternative Routes

Education Week.
1) Here’s How the Public Views Teachers, Their Salaries, and Their Impact  Second most cited improvement-Improve teacher training
2) South Carolina Spends $500,000 on Ad Campaign to Recruit New Teachers   The state estimates it will need more than 5,000 new teachers each year. In-state teacher-preparation programs graduate about 2,000 candidates a year.
3) The Teaching Force Has Grown Faster Than Student Enrollment—Except in These 4 States

Hechinger Report. Former educators answer call to return to school   At the same time, the number of new college grads with degrees in education has been declining, so many positions are left unstaffed when veteran teachers leave. 

National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. #RewritePROSPER
The PROSPER Act (Higher Education Act):

• Eliminates Grad Plus loans and Perkins loans
• Eliminates Public Service loan Forgiveness
• Caps student loans at $28,500 annually and $150,000 in total
• Eliminates Subsidized Stafford loans
• Eliminates federal work study for graduate students

NYTimes. How Liberty University Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Online  Other students were left simply to flounder, contrary to Falwell’s claims of close attention from distant instructors. Lydia Terry-Dominelli, who lives in a suburb of Albany, N.Y… decided to get her teacher’s certification… struggled further with confusing assignments in another graduate-level education course…

The Atlantic. Why American Students Haven’t Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years   While some elementary teachers have embraced the approach advocated by the NAEP panel, it’s clear that most have been trained to in methods that aren’t supported by research, and that many are resistant to change.

US Education Dept. FY 2018 Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Competition Announcement: applications for Early-phase, Mid-phase, and Expansion competitions.

Zippia. The Most Disproportionately Common Majors In Each State   Ohio-Teacher Education

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED News. State Education Department Proposes Rule to Allow Individual Evaluation for Certain Teaching Certificate Titles  A Notice of Proposed Rule Making will be published in the State Register on April 25, 2018. Comments on the proposed changes will be accepted through June 25, 2018 and can be submitted by email to <[email protected]>

SUNY Cortland. Teacher Education Program Meets Tough New Accreditation Standards   When the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Accreditation Council issues its formal decision in October, SUNY Cortland — home to New York’s largest comprehensive teacher education program — is likely to become one of only eight New York colleges with CAEP’s rigorous seal of approval.

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Five boroughs in five days: Follow along with Chancellor Carranza on his inaugural school tours   With interest in teacher preparation programs plummeting, Fariña thought encouraging middle and high school students to explore teaching would help fix the problem. Carranza seemed to share in her excitement about the academy. “My heart is really full,” he said. “We’re generating the next generation of teachers right here in this school.”  

Teachers College.
1) All Things to All People: Preparing teachers – and others – to meet the individual needs of those with developmental disabilities   “We’re not just about one method,” says the ID/Autism Program Director, Laudan Jahromi, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education… And that makes Amanda really perfect for us, because not only does her research align with the goals of this program – that is, preparing professionals to use evidence-based strategies with individuals with disabilities..
2) Center for Innovation in Teacher Education and Development (CITED) conversation Decolonizing Teacher Education: Learning from YPAR & Critical Literacies Wed. April 25
3) #TakeActionTuesday Work-In and Letter Writing: Higher Education Act Tues. April 24, 11:30-1:30 Everett Lounge

GLOBAL
New York Times. An Expert’s View: Sir Ken Robinson   If I were secretary… I would support the comprehensive development of early-years education. I would institute a “soup to nuts” review of the selection, training and support of teachers.

Tes. How a ‘balance bike’ approach to training will give us better teachers

The Hindu. Teacher training goes digital

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Call for Entries: AACTE Dissertation Award [Deadline: Aug. 20]
2) Call for Entries: AACTE Outstanding Book Award [Deadline: May 3]

Brunswick News.  Teacher education program paying local dividends College of Coastal Georgia’s impact locally is felt in many ways.

Chronicle. How Ed Schools Became a Menace [L. Asher OpEd]. Ed schools, such as Teachers College at Columbia, or Penn’s Graduate School of Education, have trained and certified most of the nation’s public-school teachers and administrators for the past half-century.

CNN. These charts show why America’s teachers are fired up and can’t take any more   Nationwide, teacher education enrollments dropped 35% between 2009 and 2014, the most recent year for which data are available

Education Week.
1) Can Hiring Ed. School Students Help Solve Substitute Teacher Shortages?   Nebraska is not alone in its attempt to leverage teacher candidates as a way to solve the substitute teacher shortage. California, for instance, also allows ed school undergraduates to earn substitute teacher certification, and for the past two years so has Pennsylvania. Illinois lawmakers are considering the idea.
2) Rauner signs law to ease licensing out-of-state teachers   Teachers must show evidence of completing a state-approved educator preparation program comparable to Illinois’.
3) Review of Graduate and Alternative Programs Finds Gaps in Teacher Prep   In graduate-level and alternative programs, there’s a mismatch between the preparation that teachers get and the real demands of teaching, according to a National Council on Teacher Quality review of 714 programs that prepare both elementary and secondary teachers.
4) South Carolina Education Department recruiting teachers  The ads come as South Carolina faces a teacher shortage, in part because fewer young people are majoring in education in college.

Hechinger Report.
1) Out of poverty, into the middle class   Five most popular career choices according to the survey of Lowell students …#5 teacher
2) Universal preschool is most cost-effective, study finds   The difference in student performance, she writes, could not be explained by differences in class size or teacher education.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Faculty Salaries Up 3%  AAUP’s annual report on faculty compensation takes on salary compression, gender inequality and more.
2) Virtual Avatars for Online Students, Too  Students in many teacher training programs for the last few years have, as a precursor to actual classroom experience, engaged with virtual avatars to simulate the experience of interacting with real-life students. Now online students can get the same opportunity.

National Association for Music Education. NAfME Honors Frederick Burrack and Kelly Parkes [TC Assoc. Prof.] as Lowell Mason Fellows  This past March at the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference, NAfME honored exemplary leaders in music education …

NEPC. VAMboozled!: Identifying Effective Teacher Preparation Programs Using VAMs Does Not Work

NPR Education. He Was Oklahoma’s Teacher Of The Year, Then Moved To Texas For Better Pay. Now What?  Really, for our daughter… we didn’t want to gamble 12 years of her education. The likelihood that she would be with an emergency certified educator was just too high.

New York Times [PROPSPER Act OpEd]. Don’t Let the G.O.P. Dismantle Obama’s Student Loan Reforms  Under the bill, new borrowers would pay 50 percent more per month and would no longer have their loans forgiven after 20 to 25 years of repayment. The bill would also drastically cut the amount that can be borrowed for graduate school.

Washington Post. The teacher boycotts are a reminder of what Americans often get wrong about ‘class’   But the teacher walkouts are a reminder that even professionals with master’s degrees in some of the country’s largest cities endure many of the same economic challenges associated with those in blue-collar jobs.

 

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Top New York policymakers to tackle state budget, student privacy, and teacher certification at April meeting   The state is looking to combat teacher shortages, and changes to teacher certification may be on the horizon as a result. One item up for discussion looks to expand the number of teachers who can help students with disabilities. The other is focused on early childhood education and literacy.

NYSED News. State Education Department Proposes Rule to Allow Individual Evaluation for Certain Teaching Certificate Titles  The State Education Department today proposed regulatory changes to reinstate an individual evaluation pathway in certain certificate titles for teacher candidates who have not completed an approved teacher education program but have completed coursework and field experience.

NYSED Regents April Meetings.

• Amendment to Subpart 80-3 and Section 80-4.3 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Creation of Limited Extensions for Teachers Holding a Students with Disabilities Generalist Certificate Who Teach a Special Class in Grades 7-12 and a Statement of Continued Eligibility for Teachers Holding a Students with Disabilities Generalist Certificate Who Teach a Special Class in Grades 7-12 and Were Previously Allowed to Teach in Another Content Area by School Districts Using the HOUSSE Rubric for Federal Aid Purposes under the No Child Left Behind Act
• Proposed Amendment to Sections 80-3.3 and 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to Allow Individual Evaluation for Certain Certificate Titles in the Classroom Teaching Service
• Proposed Amendment to Section 80-4.3 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Grade-Level Extensions for Certain Candidates Who Hold a Students with Disabilities Generalist Teaching Certificate
• Proposed Amendment to Section 52.21 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Graduate Admission Examination Requirements to Implement Chapter 454 of the Laws of 2017. In order to implement the change in law, which has an immediate effective date, the proposed regulation amendment to §52.21 of the Commissioner’s Regulations makes it clear that the graduate admission examination requirement does not apply to certified teachers and school administrators who already hold a graduate degree.

SUNY Update on TeachNY. Presentation to the Board of Regents

WKBW Buffalo. State Education Department has plan to decrease teacher shortage   The State Education Department proposed regulatory changes to reinstate an individual evaluation pathway in certain certificate titles for teacher candidates who have not completed an approved teacher education program but have completed coursework and field experience. 

 

NEW YORK CITY
New York Times. As Tests Begin, Chancellor Comes Out Against ‘Opt Out’  “Today’s N.A.E.P. results show that we are not where we need to be on math education.” He said the city would immediately increase teacher training in elementary math…

Teachers College.
1) AERA 2018 Annual Meeting.  Who, What, When, Where: A full listing of 376 presentations by the Teachers College extended community
2) Center for Innovation in Teacher Education and Development (CITED) April 12, 13 events
3) Haeny Yoon, an Expert on Children’s Play, Receives AERA Emerging Scholar Award   Emerging Scholar Award from the Critical Perspectives of Early Childhood Education Special Interest Group

 

GLOBAL
The Irish Times. Ten ways to tackle the teacher supply crisis   In no other profession are trainees asked to deliver a service unpaid for two years, while paying fees of more than €12,000 while they do so. We don’t ask nursing students to do so, so why do we expect teachers to teach unpaid?

The Guardian. Outdoor learning grows in Scotland as grasp of benefits takes root   The rest of the UK has likewise seen a huge growth in forest nurseries, teacher training and campaigns to celebrate outdoor learning…

The New York Times.
1) An International Final Four: Which Country Handles Student Debt Best?   The judging panel, which includes… Judith Scott-Clayton, associate professor of economics and education, Teachers College, Columbia University…
2) Johan van Hulst, Who Helped Save 600 Children From the Nazis, Dies at 107   He headed a teachers’ college in Amsterdam when he came up with a plan to save hundreds of children from being sent to Nazi death camps.

Voice of America. Techno Teachers: Finnish School Tests Robot Educators  Despite their skills in language and mathematics however, the robots’ inability to maintain discipline amongst a class of primary school children means that, for the time being at least, the human teachers’ jobs are safe.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 2018 Annual Meeting Closing Keynote with Diane Ravitch
2) Diversifying the Teaching Workforce: An Observer’s Reflections

EdWeek.
1) ESSA Pressures States to Assure All Students Have Good Teachers   Instead, many states included lofty goals in their ESSA plans that could take a decade or more to be realized, such as improving teacher preparation…
2) How Oklahoma’s Low Pay Dashed My Hopes of Teaching in My Tribal Community   After getting my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, I accepted a position to teach on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Laveen, Ariz…
3) New Teachers Report That They Feel Well-Prepared for Their Roles   … 80 percent of beginning teachers reported feeling most prepared to teach their subject matter, while 75 percent felt well prepared to align their instruction to content standards.
4) Tech Giants Announce New Funding for 1-to-1 Devices, Computer Science Education  Verizon Innovative Learning, the education initiative of the telecommunications company’s foundation, pledged more than $200 million Monday to furnish technology, teacher training, and internet connectivity…
5) Why One West Virginia Teacher of the Year Stood on the Picket Lines   Without competitive wages and excellent teacher preparation programs we will continue to be unable to fill the over 700 vacancies we currently have in classrooms across the state. 

Forbes. Teacher Strikes Strike Deeper Than Paychecks  Teacher education enrollment dropped by 35% between 2009 and 2014, and almost every U.S. state is experiencing teacher shortages. Several states have recently lowered certification requirements to attract people to the profession.

InsideHigherEd. More Aid for Student Parents: Congress triples federal funding for low-income student parents   … completing an online master’s degree through Grand Canyon University and expects to begin student teaching this fall before starting a career as an elementary school teacher — an outcome she said wouldn’t have been possible without the on-campus childcare.

National Center for Education Statistics. Preparation and Support for Teachers in Public Schools: Reflections on the First Year of Teaching   This Statistics in Brief investigates early-career teachers’ preparation for teaching and receipt of support by selected characteristics of the schools in which they taught during the 2011–12 school year.

NYTimes.
1) A Student Loan Fix for a Teacher, and Many Other Public Servants  “The fight isn’t over until every single nurse, teacher, police officer and firefighter gets the student loan forgiveness that they earned.”
2) Building Skills Outside the Classroom With New Ways of Learning   Lasell’s “Pathways to Teacher Diversity” — part of a statewide effort supported by a Gates Foundation grant — is a partnership with four school districts in the state intended to encourage more high school students of color to pursue careers in education.

The Nation. No Wonder Teachers Are Saying Enough Is Enough   About half of public-school teachers have a Master’s degree. For every $1 someone with a Master’s makes, a teacher with a Master’s makes 79 cents.

Washington Post. Algorithms: Why you should learn what they are, how they affect you and your kids — and whether they actually work   This post looks at this problem and argues for “algorithm transparency.” It was written by Charles Tocci, an assistant professor of social studies education at Loyola University Chicago, a parent and a former high school teacher in Chicago Public Schools.

 

NEW YORK STATE
Inside Higher Ed. New York Budget Restores Bundy Aid   Boosters of private colleges in New York are cheering after the state passed a budget including funding for a long-running program providing unrestricted aid to independent colleges based on their degree productivity.

NYS Education Dept.  April Regents meeting agenda

NYS Register. Continuous Accreditation Requirement for Educator Preparation Providers  Data, views or arguments may be submitted by April 9th to: Kelly Grace, NYS Education Department, Office of Higher Education, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 979 EBA, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 486-3633, email: [email protected]

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. ‘Connecting kids with who they are’: Why school diversity advocates are optimistic about Chancellor Richard Carranza  “There was a palpable, racist antithesis to the establishment of mariachi curriculum,” he told a documentary filmmaker. “How can you be against connecting kids with who they are?”

Diverse Issues in Higher Education. NYC Men Initiative Diversifies Teacher Workforce   “One place where we lose students in the [teacher] pipeline is actually in the K-12 setting,” said Dr. Travis Bristol…

NYTimes. Homework Therapists’ Job: Help Solve Math Problems, and Emotional Ones   Today, most educators are trained in social-emotional development, and advancements in brain imaging are increasingly indicating how closely cognition and emotions are linked.

Teachers College.
1) TR@TC2 hosts: “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!” – Book Talk at Teachers College [Mon, April 16, 2018 5:00 PM]  William Ayers, Crystal Laura, and Rick Ayers debunk persistent misconceptions about teachers, teachers’ unions, school “choice,”…
2) TR@TC2 AERA presentations. Teaching Residents research presentations