GLOBAL
National Council on Education and the Economy. Solving the Teacher Shortage Crisis: How Some Countries are Working to It While some American states and districts have responded to shortages by bringing unqualified and unprepared individuals into the profession, some of the world’s top-performing education systems are taking a different tack to combat teacher shortages – and a few others have figured out how to prevent them entirely.
The National. Dubai’s education regulator to step up background checks on teachers Dr Al Mahdi said… “We want to know if they were okay in the country of origin or the country where they were working before they came here…If you want to be a teacher, you must have a good conduct.”
Voice of America. Incoming Mexican President to Accept Truth Commission … Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday his administration will accept a truth commission to investigate the case of 43 teachers-college students missing since Sept. 26, 2014, drawing rare praise and expressions of hope from the long-suffering parents of the victims.
UNITED STATES
AACTE/SCALE.
1) 2017 edTPA Administrative Report. While the average scores of African American/Black and American Indian or Alaskan Native candidates was lower than those of other subgroups (p < .01), the fact that African American/Black candidates made up a very small portion of the candidate pool (6%) and the N for American Indian or Alaskan Native is less than 100 should be noted.
2) 2018 TPA Conference preliminary program [Oct. 19-20 San Jose]
Chalkbeat. Where Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker stand on key education issues, from charters to Chicago’s school board Rauner…recently signed legislation that aims to ease the teacher shortage by relaxing requirements on certifying retirees, substitutes, and out-of-state candidates.
Data Quality Campaign. What Parents and Teachers Think About Education Data Teachers face barriers to using data in the classroom, including a lack of time and training to put data to work for students.
Education Week.
1) Are Too Many Students Working Below Grade Level? Indeed, the [TNTP] report surmises that few teachers have been taught to master differentiation effectively, and in reality this means giving students work below what they’re capable of.
2) Barricade or Flee? Simulator Trains Educators and Police for School Shootings
3) The ‘Montessori Mafia’: Why Tech Titans Like Jeff Bezos Support the Model One big question, however, is whether it is Montessori that makes the difference, or whether the type of educators drawn to the philosophy are primed to be excellent teachers no matter what.
4) We Learn by Doing: What Educators Get Wrong About Bloom’s Taxonomy [commentary] Unfortunately, in my experience, Bloom’s Taxonomy has also done a lot of damage. For the past 40 years that I have been working with teachers, I have observed the primary effect of Bloom’s Taxonomy to be this: It creates a hierarchy in teachers’ minds about how we learn.
Inside Higher Ed.
1) Academic Minute: Gaps in Clinical Teaching Practice [5 min. audio file]
2) Academic Minute: Skilled Practice in Teacher Education [5 min. audio file]
3) Department of Ed Told to Offer Guidance on Loan Program The Education Department has not provided enough guidance on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to borrowers or loan servicers, a Government Accountability Office report found.
4) House Passes Bill With 2019 Education, NIH Funding The bill includes the second consecutive annual increase in funding for the Education Department despite two White House budgets that called for shrinking the department. The bill will now go to the White House for President Trump’s signature.
Lincoln Star Journal. With rule change rejected by governor, some Nebraska teachers-in-training left in limbo The rule change in question — which requires a governor’s signature — would have adjusted the passing requirements on a proficiency exam required to be admitted into any of the state’s teachers colleges.
MPR News. There’s a science to teaching children to read “[We need] to try to create a more seamless system for teacher preparation and to bring in the pre-service programs to recognize that their product is not just a graduate with a certificate. Their product is how well their own students will perform when out in the classroom in k-12 achievement,” said Kelly Butler of the Barksdale Reading Institute.
New York Times. Jeff Bezos Cites a Big Number, but Few Details, in Plan for Low-Income Montessori Preschools She warned against online-only teacher-training programs, which have proliferated, but may not offer hands-on student teaching experience in Montessori classrooms.
PBS Education. 9 Tips For Teaching Kindness in the Classroom
NEW YORK STATE
NYSATE/NYACTE. 2018 Annual Fall Conference [Oct. 10-12, Saratoga Springs] Columbia Univ. presenters: L. Edstrom, M. Maulucci, D. Manning
NY Times. Why New York Isn’t Celebrating Higher Test Scores “It does undermine the credibility of an assessment system when things change so much in a short number of years,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “It’s very confusing even to people who are paying attention.”
The Buffalo News. Teacher shortages in New York State? Depends where you look The percentage of people who enrolled in teacher preparation programs in New York dropped 40 percent between 2010 and 2016. The percentage who completed the program dropped 38 percent.
NEW YORK CITY
Bank Street College of Education. Practice Makes Preparation: Teacher Stories Teachers should succeed because of their preparation, not in spite of it. The United States has a fractured teacher preparation system. As a result, many teachers arrive in the classroom with limited coursework, little real-world experience, and no practice in front of a full class.
Chalkbeat. With a bold school integration plan in place, Brooklyn parents begin to sweat the details “Teachers not only in our district but all over our city are truly amazing,” said Lenore DiLeo Berner, the principal of M.S. 51… “It’s a bit of a myth that any school has any one type of student. Our teachers have been trained to teach all kinds of students, all kinds of learners.”
Teachers College. Student Essay: Why teachers must look beneath the surface [Wenimo Okoya] Teachers are not trained to look for health issues or students’ underlying trauma – even though those issues powerfully affect their learning and achievement. Lakeisha’s death five years later pushed me to look still further beneath the surface.
