Month: June 2018

GLOBAL
BBC News. Teacher numbers at lowest since 2013, official figures show   …qualified teachers leaving the profession outnumbered new recruits… A spokesman for the Department for Education pointed out that an additional 32,000 trainee teachers had been recruited last year.

Education Week. British Columbia’s Curriculum: A Glimpse of the Future?   In both cases, all teachers are required to have five years of college and university preparation, in Finland at that country’s research universities, in British Columbia to a standard comparable to the Finnish standard. 

Inter-American Dialogue. The Future of Education In Latin America And The Caribbean: Possibilities For United States Investment And Engagement  … potential future collaboration, including supporting teacher education and preparation, institutional reform and strengthening, pre-primary education and early childhood development, English instruction and expansion and the use of technology as a tool for learning.

International Education News. PISA Treatment? Exploring the Side Effects of Education Reform   …teachers with high academic performances in secondary schools have been found to benefit high performing students but hurt low performing students, contradicting the policy recommendation derived from PISA data that school systems should recruit high performing graduates into teaching.

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat. KIPP charter network launching biliteracy program at new Denver elementary school   KIPP plans to train teachers for five weeks this summer. Dobie-Geffen said teachers who already have the state’s credential for teaching students who aren’t fluent in English are “a bonus.”

Chronicle. Universities Are Hotbeds of Scholarship on Mass Incarceration. But Are They Doing Enough to Fix the Problem?   National surveys show that 60 to 80 percent of private institutions and 55 percent of public ones compel undergraduate applicants to answer criminal-history questions, according to a report by Judith Scott-Clayton of Columbia’s Teachers College.

EdWeek.
1) Gifted Students ‘Make the Most’ of School in Alaska  Strunk said there are no teachers at his school who are trained to work with gifted children.
2) Teachers View Immigrant Parents as Less Involved. That Mindset May Be Hurting Students  Teacher-preparation programs are partially to blame for these paradigms of “good” and “bad” parents that fail to take into account cultural differences… characterize having immigrant parents as a deficit, and professors shy away from critical conversations about race, ethnicity, and culture.
3) Will 3,000 Teachers in South Carolina Soon Retire Because of a Policy Change?   South Carolina estimates that it will need more than 5,000 new teachers each year, but teacher-preparation programs graduate about 2,000 candidates a year. 

Forbes. Over A Year Ago, A Federal Court Struck Down VAM: Why Are We Still Using It To Evaluate Teachers?

Hechinger Report.
1) Five things you should know about the people watching your children   Child care workers who earn a bachelor’s degree make more than their colleagues with just an associate’s degree or with no degree, but early childhood majors still make less than any other college-educated workers.
2) Piqued: The case for curiosity Scientists are discovering that curious learners from low-income households perform as well as affluent students.  Another option is for teachers to model curious behavior. Curiosity, as it turns out, is contagious.
3) The importance of difficult conversations in U.S. classrooms: Teaching about the migrant crisis   The teachers-in-training I work with speak of a “Food Around the World Day,” …They never discussed immigration when they were students, and they are unprepared to teach those who have recently come to the United States. There are ways to do better.

InsideHigherEd.
1) From Community College to a Selective University   ..a 2016 report from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College found that of the nearly 1.1 million students who enroll at two-year institutions each year, about 80 percent indicate their goal is to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree. But only 14 percent earn a bachelor’s degree within six years.
2) Senate Appropriators Boost Pell Grant   Senate appropriators on Tuesday advanced a fiscal year 2019 funding bill that boosts the Pell Grant and appropriates new funds to address eligibility issues for borrowers seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
3) The Graduate Training Trade-Off ‘Myth’  New study says “tension” between graduate training in research and teaching is false and that teaching training may actually build research confidence and output.

NYTimes [editorial]. How Entitled Parents Hurt Schools   In 1932, Willard Waller’s classic work on the sociology of teaching pronounced parents and educators to be “natural enemies”… Controversies can escalate quickly, and unprepared educators sometimes make things worse.

WashingtonPost. Bill Gates spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve teaching. New report says it was a bust.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. My Brother’s Keeper: Changing the Narrative – June 2018

NYS Board of Regents. Board of Regents Acts to Amend Dignity for All Students Act Regulations. Public comments accepted through 7/23/18

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) Digital Learning for the K-8 Classroom. This course is offered in an online, self-paced format. Students are invited to enroll any time.   …developed in partnership with award-winning educator, Detra Price-Dennis
2) Grounded in Service, Uplifting Students: Brittany Davis   …decided to pursue her master’s degree at TC, because she felt the College – and New York City – would prepare her to become a fourth- or fifth- grade teacher “in ways I wouldn’t experience anywhere else in the United States.”
3) Vialogues video featuring Felicia Moore Mensah: “Whiteness as Property in Science Teacher Education”

GLOBAL
EUReporter. Inclusive education and tailored approaches can help combat poor educational outcomes for #Roma   Camille Gangloff of the Council of Europe presented the INSCHOOL project, the aim of which was to enhance social inclusion of Roma by promoting inclusive education and teacher training in selected schools in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the UK.

UNITED STATES
Education Week.
1) Average Teacher Salary Is Below the Living Wage in Half the Country, Report Says   States with low teacher salaries… tend to have more teacher shortages, a higher teacher turnover rate, and more uncertified and novice teachers than those states that pay the most.
2) Indiana continues to see teacher shortage amid drop in pay   According to 2015 data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, enrollment in teaching programs and those graduating with teaching degrees declined 37 percent from 2004 through 2014.
3) New money for program to help veterans become teachers   The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a nearly $2 million grant for a Virginia program designed to help veterans become teachers.
4) Teachers With Signs of Depression May Do Less Planning, Explaining of Lessons   … very few teacher-preparation programs work with preservice teachers to identify and talk about their feelings, or how to manage stress.

Hechinger Report. Should taxpayers and schools invest in ‘growth mindset’ programs?   Growth mindset could turn out to be one of many tools that can help kids, along with well-trained teachers, safe schools, well-fed students, great curricula…the list goes on and on.

Inside Higher Ed.
1) California Higher Ed Leaders Oppose PROSPER Act
2) Higher Ed Innovation Roundup 6.11.18 BestFit is an app designed to help high school students find an institution that fits them best. It connects high school students with first-generation college students through an online interface. The app was designed by the winners of the Teachers College EdTEch Innovation award. [TC student designers incl: Rebecca Kwee, Asha Owens, Danielle Llaneza]
3) New data analysis from American Academy of Arts and Sciences says humanities Ph.D.s may earn less than their counterparts in other fields but are satisfied — particularly if they stay in academe.
4) Seeking Votes on PROSPER, GOP Appears to Come Up Short   GOP leaders quiet on next step for PROSPER Act after gauging member support this week, suggesting little chance of floor vote soon on House Republicans’ bid to overhaul Higher Education Act.

NEAToday.
1) Sex Education in Schools Needs an Upgrade   The standards have been supplemented with a variety of resources, including standards for teacher preparation and tools that can help educators develop or map their systems and find research supporting its recommendations.
2) Who is the Average U.S. Teacher?   The percentage of public school teachers who hold a postbaccalaureate degree (i.e., a master’s, education specialist, or doctoral degree) has increased since 1999-2000.

Pearson. 2018-19 edTPA Submission & Reporting Schedule [NOTE. Final 2017-18 submission date, August 16, 2018]

The Atlantic. The Long, Contentious History of the ‘Word Gap’ Study   One 2017 study published in the Harvard Education Review even found that the word-gap research had the unintended consequence of perpetuating negative stereotypes about the children of Latino immigrants, with teachers in classrooms serving such students resorting to less-sophisticated instruction.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. While revealing $7 billion education plan, Nixon criticizes schools that leave kids ‘destined for jail’ Nixon says she wants to tackle this teacher diversity gap across the state by investing $6 million annually in the Teacher Opportunity Corps, a state program designed to recruit and train more teachers of color.

NYSED Regents. June Meetings
1) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-1.5 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Extension of the edTPA Safety Net for Candidates Who Receive a Failing Score on the Library Specialist edTPA
2) Proposed Amendment to §80-1.5 Relating to Reinstatement of the Educational Technology Specialist Content Specialty Test Safety Net
3) 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
4) 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
5) Reappointments to the State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching (PSPB)

New York Post. Top education official on cheating scandal: Diplomas must mean something   “If you don’t know how to teach children, you can cheat or you can fail. Some choose to cheat,” said Eric Nadelstern, now a professor at Teachers College Columbia University. “If they teach students well, they’ll do well on the test and they don’t have to resort to cheating.”

New York Times. Cynthia Nixon’s Education Plan: Ambitious, Progressive, Expensive Another major initiative, called “College for All New York,” would provide free tuition to an additional 170,000 students at State University of New York and City University of New York schools each year, a project the campaign said would cost $600 million annually.

NEW YORK CITY
Barnard College/Bank Street College. Convening of Teacher Educators June 20  [Maria Rivera Maulucci <[email protected]>, Lisa Edstrom at [email protected]]

GLOBAL
Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich. US Secretary of Education visits PH Zurich  Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education of the United States, visited the PH Zurich on June 6, 2018. The education system and teacher education in Switzerland were at the center of her interest.

Al-Monitor. Egypt’s education system set for major overhaul   “…teachers must undergo training and professional development. Therefore, the ministry aims to train about 500,000 teachers across all governorates through Teachers First, a development program for teacher training.”

EdWeek. The Gates Foundation’s Education Plans Go International   Gates recently announced a change in strategy to its U.S. education programming, with a heavier focus on improvement replacing its former emphasis on teacher performance.

NYTimes. Mexican Court Orders New Investigation Into Missing Students  On Sept. 26, 2014, the 43 students from a teachers college disappeared in the town of Iguala in the southern state of Guerrero. The Attorney General’s Office said local police working for a drug cartel handed the students over to cartel members.

UNITED STATES
Chronicle. An Update of the Federal Law Governing Higher Ed Appears Dead. Now There’s a Fight Over Who Killed It.  …the Prosper Act. It is broadly unpopular with Democrats in Congress, college leaders, and many student-advocate groups because it would eliminate the subsidy on student loans that students now receive while in school, and would eliminate Grad PLUS loans, among other provisions.

Credible. Student loan cutbacks not expected to land on Trump’s desk this year   Even if the PROSPER Act sails through the House — a vote is expected as soon as this month — Republicans have a slimmer majority in the Senate. Democrats who hope to win back control of Congress in November aren’t expected to allow the bill to come to a vote.

EdSurge.
1) Computer Science Educators Wanted: How This New Program Is Addressing the Shortage   Public-private partnerships are one way to address the nation-wide shortage of computer science-trained educators, and the latest comes in the form of STEMpath, a new graduate-level educator certification program that isn’t quite a master’s degree.
2) The Key to 21st Century Classrooms Isn’t Tech. It’s Evolved Teaching.  The power of the teacher comes not [from] the information she shares but from the opportunities she creates for students to learn how to learn, solve problems, and apply learning in meaningful ways.

edTPA/AACTE/Pearson. October Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) Conference [Proposals Due June 15]

EdWeek.
1) Louisiana Hopes New Early-Childhood Credential Will Professionalize Workforce   Starting in 2019, all lead early-childhood teachers will be required to have a state-developed Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate, or be working toward one.
2) Ready for a Shooter? 1 in 5 School Police Say No   Thirty-three percent of officers responding to the Education Week Research Center survey agreed that “training and arming a select group of teachers would make schools safer.”
3) Want to Produce Good STEM Teachers? This Program Is Getting Results   Texas science and math teachers who are trained in the UTeach preparation program are substantially better at raising student test scores than other teachers in the state, a new study shows.

HechingerReport. Oklahoma externship pays teachers for hands-on experience in engineering and science   According to the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, in August, 2017, there were more than 500 teaching vacancies in Oklahoma. The state approved more than 1,400 emergency teaching certificates, allowing schools to hire people who were not yet certified teachers.

InsideHigherEd. Softening Claims of the Marshmallow Test   He said researchers and educators need to be more careful when making pronouncements about ideas like self-control, and to temper our expectations. “If we think that this is actually an important skill that we try to target for kids to unlock later life outcomes,” he said, “our results suggest, ‘Probably not.’”

NYTimes.
1) In the Age of Trump, Civics Courses Make a Comeback   For those teaching civics and civic engagement, the goal isn’t to get students to finish one project, but to make community involvement a habit — and one type of action often does lead to another.
2) The Cost of Going Back to School as an Adult   IBM’s Transition to Teaching program reimburses $15,000 of expenses to become certified as a teacher — an undertaking that Keith Gordon, 64, an IT software specialist, accomplished four years ago while working at IBM.

NEW YORK STATE
NYTimes. Gordon M. Ambach, New York Education Chief in ’80s, Dies at 83   He graduated from Yale in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in American studies and earned a master’s in teaching and an advanced certificate in education administration from Harvard.

Senate bill S08776; Assembly bill A10952. Contact your elected state legislators Urge them to co-sponsor proposed bills to amend the legislation that requires a 3.0 GPA for admission to graduate teacher education and school leader programs.

NEW YORK CITY
DailyKos. Building Bridges: A Good News Education Story [OpEd by Prof. A. Singer] The Hofstra program prepares teachers to engage their students as active learners who are comfortable living and working in diverse settings and examining difficult issues. The goal is that these young people, as they grow older, will become change agents who will work toward a more equitable and just future.

NYTimes. In a Twist, Low Scores Would Earn Admission to Select Schools   Amy Stuart Wells, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, said that all students can achieve at a higher level if teachers are well-trained and use an approach targeted to each child’s level of achievement, among other things.