Month: May 2019

GLOBAL
Calgary Herald. New Education Act would open high schools to mature students as old as 21   Bieber said newly graduated or student teachers can be as young as 22. And Grade 10 students often date Grade 12 students, “but what happens when those Grade 12s are now 21? Things get really muddy, really fast.”

New York Times. Brexit Is Sending Students Packing, Straining Private Schools on Both Ends   …the Council of British International Schools, which plans to start training teachers in cities like Brussels… International teachers are usually hired in the spring, but until the schools are sure how many pupils are coming, they are reluctant to make job offers.

World Education News and Reviews. Education in Mexico   Teachers are trained at dedicated state-supervised teacher training colleges, the escuelas normales superiores. Teachers at all levels are required to hold a licentiatura-level qualification, which is called the Título Profesional de Educación Normal (Professional Title of Normal Education). 

 

UNITED STATES
Association of American Educators Foundation. AAEF LETTER ON TEACHER DIVERSITY
Dear Secretary DeVos, …We at the Association of American Educators Foundation and the seventy-five undersigned education organizations believe that this is a problem we can all work together to solve and that doing so rewards not only our students, but current and future educators as well. We believe that increasing teacher diversity elevates the teaching profession and improves the lives and outcomes of all students.

Association of Teacher Educators. Distinguished Research in Teacher Education Award. [Submission deadline July 1]

Chalkbeat.
1) I was a white teacher who couldn’t talk about race. A journey through successful U.S. high schools changed my thinking.  …my first year in a new role: director of a new teacher preparation program. The class meets every Thursday for three hours. In it, teachers-in-training talk about racism — their own and that which permeates our society and our schools. I teach the course with two enormously talented colleagues, both women of color… we seek to disrupt two problematic beliefs: the belief that woke white saviors can “enlighten” their racist peers, and the belief that people of color bear sole responsibility for helping others come to terms with patterns of racial oppression.
2) What should new teachers of color know when taking the job? Veterans offer some advice.   Amid a teacher shortage, recruiting an educator in Illinois has become increasingly difficult. Chicago is pulling out all the stops with a series of videos promoting a teaching residency program that offers tuition discounts for apprenticeships in high-need schools.

EdSource. The Key to Minority Student Achievement Might Be Teacher Training Quality   Specifically, districts with low numbers of teachers with “substandard credentials”—which the report authors defined as emergency permits, waivers and intern credentials—achieved better results for all students regardless of race.

Education Week.
1) How Can We Get More Highly Effective Teachers to Serve as Mentors?   Relatively few highly effective teachers take on roles as mentors to student-teachers, researchers say. One solution? Pay them more—a lot more.
2) Joe Biden’s Education Plan: Triple Title I to Boost Teacher Pay and Student Supports   His plan calls for increasing the number of teachers of color by working with historically black colleges and universities and supporting paraprofessionals in obtaining teaching certificates, but it does not outline specific programs to support this work.
3) Most Classroom Teachers Feel Unprepared to Support Students With Disabilities   Overall, the survey respondents indicated the problems begin in teacher preparation programs, well before education students lead a classroom: Many teachers reported they were not required to take courses in working with students with disabilities or found that the courses they did take left them unprepared to work with all students. The work also details how states’ policies for educator certification have set a “low bar” for preparing general educators to teach students with disabilities.
4) Overlooked: How Teacher Training Falls Short for English-Learners and Students With IEPs Administrators must prepare new teachers, even those who had preservice training, to work with English-learners or special education students, because they “have no idea what they don’t know,” Samson said. “They are going to walk into the classroom on that first day and be shell-shocked.”
5) When the PD Plate Is Overfull: Growing requirements for trainings on non-academic issues—everything from food allergies to sexual assault—have made it hard for schools and teachers to keep up   All agreed: The state’s statutory teacher-training requirements, while well-intentioned, could be streamlined. Connecticut administrators estimated it would take 90 hours to adequately train teachers on a list of state-required topics—everything from sexual abuse awareness and food allergies to identifying safety threats and adolescent risk-taking behaviors.

Forbes. Joe Biden Struggles To Lift Heavy Education Baggage   The answer to Biden’s question is that you build the dignity and professionalization of teaching by not elevating shortcuts that diminish the profession (like Teach for America), by not implementing top-down reforms that dictate to teachers how to do their jobs, and by not pumping federal money and support into a parallel system of education premised on the notion that public schools are failing.

Inside Higher Ed. Biden Promises Fix to Public Service Loan Forgiveness   …promised in an education plan released Tuesday to “see to it” that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is “fixed, simplified and actually helps teachers.”… And he said he would boost the number of teachers of color enrolled in teacher training programs.

La Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Exit, Voice, And Charter Schools [by S. Abrams, TC National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education]    …in explaining the legendary excellence of the Finnish school system: outside of moving from one region or neighborhood to another, there is no exit in Finland…. This shared educational experience cannot be separated from the country’s heavy investment in high-quality teacher preparation, well-equipped schools, and generous teacher compensation.

National Education Policy Center.  Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019 [co-author L. Huerta, TC faculty] Recommendations Arising from Section III: Policymakers should: • Define certification training and relevant teacher licensure requirements specific to teaching responsibilities in virtual schools, and require research-based professional development to promote effective online teaching models.

New York Times. How to End the Child-Care Crisis [OpEd by. S. Polakow-Suransky, Bank Street College of Education President]  Step 4 is public financing of teacher training. Unlike other professions, early care is not supported by a system of preparation and ongoing training. Early educators need a deep knowledge of child development and the chance to receive feedback and coaching as they learn.

Philadelphia Inquirer. OPINION:  Black teachers matter. How do we get more in the classroom? As Columbia professor and black educator Chris Emdin remarked, for many black students, returning to school after they leave is like returning to the scene of a crime that hurt them… What does resonate with those who hadn’t previously considered teaching is an opportunity: Become the teacher you wish you had and knew you needed.

Teaching Tolerance. What’s My Complicity? Talking White Fragility With Robin DiAngelo   I am a former professor of education. I’ve worked many years in large, teacher-training programs. I think teachers are critical, and I think, regardless of intentions, when you have an overwhelmingly white teaching force—we have a very racially homogenous teaching force—you inevitably have the reproduction and the dissemination of racism and white supremacy, just by virtue of the homogeneity.

USA Today. Solving the teacher shortage crisis: APSU and CMCSS team up on new program   … first class of aspiring professionals embarking on a free three-year residency and degree program to turn themselves into teachers, as part of a partnership between Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools and Austin Peay State University.

Washington Post. New report on virtual education: ‘It sure sounds good. As it turns out, it’s too good to be true.’   Finally, with regard to teacher quality, they note that “little progress has been made … on issues related to teacher quality in virtual contexts … [and] little attention has been given to the unique challenges related to ensuring an adequate supply of high-quality teachers in virtual schools.”

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED.
1) 2019 New York State My Brother’s Keeper Symposium [May 31, Albany]
2) Board of Regents Meeting for June 2019

NYS Senate.
1) S. 5410. Relates to the cumulative grade point average admission requirement for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs. 5/29/2019 Advanced to Third Reading
2) S. 5985. Relates to the New York state masters-in-education teacher incentive scholarship program. 5/30/2019 Reported and Committed to Finance.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. May meeting agenda

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. I changed careers to teach at a Bronx school for students with severe disabilities. Here’s what I wish people knew about my students — and job.   When her son was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, she saw up close the struggles he endured and decided to change careers, going back to school to become a teacher. While pursuing a master’s degree, she taught at a Catholic school in the Bronx.

City University of New York. edTPA Support for CUNY Alumni   The edTPA support course will be offered from May 29th-June 20th at Medgar Evers College (MEC) on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6PM in the Library 2037 and The CUNY Graduate Center (GC) on Tuesdays and Thursday from 4:30-6:30PM.  

Queens Daily Eagle. New children’s art nonprofit wins $10,000 from QEDC   Cavadas and Lokken met at Teachers College, Columbia University while pursuing master’s degrees, and after teaching art in New York City, realized there was a potential to expand arts education around the city.

 

GLOBAL
Independent [UK]. Maths and physics teachers to be offered extra cash to stop them leaving profession   Nick Gibb, minister for school standards, said: “Teaching remains a popular career, but we want to make sure that we can continue to attract and keep the brightest and best graduates, particularly in subjects where specialist knowledge and expertise are vital to the future success of the economy.

National Online Teacher Training [UK].  a new approach to teacher training

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE). HEA criticism of teacher training programmes  A review of teacher training programmes in Ireland has criticised the level of fees charged to students studying to become teachers, and says course changes introduced seven years ago have contributed to the current shortage of post-primary teachers.  

 

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. New AACTE Research-to-Practice Video Series on Special Education Now Available

Atlanta Journal Constitution. Morehouse grads already making plans to pay good fortune forward   Ross Jordan entered Morehouse with half of his tuition paid. Then Robert F. Smith announced he was paying for the rest.. The kinesiology major was bound for Teachers College, Columbia University to earn a master’s degree in physical education saddled with $50,000 in undergraduate loans… After earning his master’s degree, Jordan, 22, plans to find ways to make kinesthetic learning more acceptable in a traditional classroom setting specifically for at-risk students.

Bernie Sanders. A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education   Establish a dedicated fund to create and expand teacher-training programs at HBCUs, minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and tribal colleges and universities to increase educator diversity…. Address the shortage in special education teacher recruitment, training opportunities, and pay for special education teachers.

Chalkbeat.
1) Rural Colorado faces a teacher shortage. University of Colorado Denver has plans to help.   By making high-quality educator preparation programs available in rural communities and recruiting candidates from those communities, administrators hope they can make a real dent in the teacher shortage.
2) Teach for America-Memphis has a new leader for the first time in a decade. What will she do?   For the first time in nine years, Memphis’ largest alternative teacher training program will have a new leader in Nafeesha Mitchell.

Chronicle of Higher Education. Why One Department Trains Its Graduate Students to Teach   The classics department requires graduate students to take a course that introduces them to educational research and encourages them to apply it to teaching in the discipline. The course, which Furman teaches, serves several purposes… Quite a few of its master’s students, he said, go on to teach Latin and related subjects at the high-school level.

Education Week. What’s Harder Than Learning? Unlearning: The biggest impediment to professional change might just be what you already know   Some teacher-preparation programs, for instance, let aspiring teachers practice classroom management and culturally responsive pedagogy with simulated students (who are either played by computer avatars or live actors). Those types of simulations can help change the behavior patterns of teachers, Dede said.

Edutopia. How to Prepare Students to Learn by Teaching: Strategies for having older students teach younger ones, shared by a teacher at a high school career academy for future teachers.   I’m the lead teacher of a high school Academy of Education—the students in my class are learning about becoming educators themselves. These students have a unique opportunity: They get to work with the children at our on-campus preschool, so they have a chance to practice teaching without leaving the building.

Forbes. 8 Things Every School Must Do To Prepare For The 4th Industrial Revolution   5.    Alter educator training  American philosopher John Dewey said, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow”… Failure needs to be embraced as an essential step to learning. Additionally, teaching will be much more personalized, which will be supported by bringing in technologies such as AI and machine learning.

Inside Higher Education. Making Sense of Metrics   4. The problem of education’s “black box.”This was an overriding theme of the conference specifically articulated by Corbin Campbell of Teachers College Columbia University. Given that learning happens inside individuals and often manifests itself in different ways inside those individuals, it is very difficult to measure what’s happening.

Hechinger Report.
1) How cities are convincing voters to pay higher taxes for public preschool: Seattle, Cincinnati and San Antonio are just three of a growing number of cities to develop high-quality public preschool programs paid for by new local taxes.   Seattle also earned a silver medal in the American Cities report for meeting all 10 standards indicative of high-quality preschools, such as teacher education level, class size, and teacher-student ratio.
2) Lessons from Boston: “no excuses” charter schools kept boosting student test scores after expansion   That led the authors to speculate that the standardization of hiring, training and teaching practices at these “no excuses” charter schools is driving the results. Much like at fast-food restaurants, there’s a lot that each charter school network does identically at every campus… New teachers didn’t write their lessons from scratch. In Boston, experienced teachers from the parent campuses spent a lot of time mentoring teachers in the expansion schools. During the hiring process, network leaders sought new teachers who believed in the school model before they started.

Learning Policy Institute. Preparing Teachers to Support Social and Emotional Learning: A Case Study of San Jose State University and Lakewood Elementary School   This two-part study offers information on how preservice and in-service teacher training can support good teaching practices and implement SEL in schools, while providing a picture of what SEL looks like when integrated into the school day.

Market Watch. More high-school students are using this hack to get a head-start on college — but the poorest students are being left behind  In many jurisdictions, in order for a high-school teacher to qualify to teach a college course, they need not only a master’s degree, but also a significant amount of master-level course work in the specific topic they’re teaching. For schools with limited budgets to pay teachers and challenging environments …that can be a tough find. 

National Center for Education Statistics. The Condition of Education. In 2015–16, some 90 percent of public school teachers held a regular or standard state teaching certificate or advanced professional certificate, 4 percent held a provisional or temporary certificate, 3 percent held a probationary certificate, 1 percent held no certification, and 1 percent held a waiver/emergency certificate. 

Washington Post.
1) If you don’t know what the historic Brown v. Board ruling is but know you should, watch this 6-minute video
2) Report: The effect chronic stress has on children at school — and why policymakers should care   Education reform efforts continue to focus mostly on how higher quality teaching can overcome social and economic challenges. Yet, these efforts have failed to make a meaningful difference in the achievement gap between black and white children. In part, this continued reform focus on in-class factors is the result of a failure to understand the pathways by which social and economic disadvantage contributes to depressed academic performance …

WJOL. Bill Suspending Teacher Basic Skills Test Heads To Governor   A bill suspending the use of a basic skills test for Illinois teacher licensing is headed to Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk. 

 

NEW YORK STATE
Commission on Independent College and Universities (CICU). (CICU) strongly supports expanding the masters-in-education teacher incentive scholarship program to students choosing to attend a private not-for-profit college or university (A.2404/ S.5985).  We urge you to coordinate with your campus’ government affairs office to send an email to or call Assembly and Senate Higher Education Committee members to request that they place this bill on the higher education committee agenda for a vote. 

My Brother’s Keeper. Changing the Narrative  Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC) II

New York State Education Department.Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21 and 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Related to Requiring Study in Language Acquisition and Literacy Development of English Language Learners in Certain Teacher Preparation Programs and in th   The public comment notice was published in the April 24, 2019 NYS Register. Comments must be received by June 23, 2019 Send comments to: Petra Maxwell, NYS Education Department, Office of Higher Education, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 975 EBA, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-2238, email: [email protected]

New York State Senate. S. 5410 May 21 vote: AYE/NAY 9/0. Relates to the cumulative grade point average admission requirement for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs. 

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching.  March meeting minutes.  April meeting minutes

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) New proposal would extend early childcare pipeline from birth to preschool for some NYC children   Stringer’s plan also builds in $25 million to pay for teacher training and education scholarships, which could help strengthen quality.
2) These 17 educators just won top honors from New York City    Through the Teacher Assistant Scholar Program, Ms. Tutelian is training the next generation of math teachers by empowering students to become teacher assistants.
3) To help more New York City teachers get comfortable teaching computer science, Cornell Tech offers a ‘safety net’   This residency model was developed by Cornell Tech to help teachers grow more comfortable delivering lessons in computer science, an increasingly in-demand subject for which, until recently, there was no formal state certification. 

GLOBAL
Deutsche Welle. Millions of Germans have trouble reading and writing   Literacy issues that pop up in adulthood in immigrant and impoverished communities begin in the classroom, requiring a rethink in the way teachers are trained in dealing with at-risk groups, McElvany added… “We simply don’t equip our student teachers enough to deal with the various environments and the various challenges of reality later on.”

TES. Exclusive: Could overseas training help England’s teacher recruitment crisis?   A new overseas teacher-training scheme is being touted as a way of tackling the domestic recruitment crisis by promoting the career’s potential for international travel.

World Didac Association. University of Helsinki and HY+ embark on an extensive education project in Pakistan   The main objective of the project is to offer the University of Helsinki’s expertise in the development and change of the educational culture of a teacher education college in Pakistan. 

 

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.  AACTE Commends Increase of Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Funds in Draft Funding Bill    Among the programs seeing an increase in funding is the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program, the only federal initiative dedicated to strengthening and transforming educator preparation at institutions of higher education.

American Educational Research Association. 2020 Annual Meeting Call for Paper and Session Submissions. San Francisco, April 17-21 [Deadline July 10]

Atlanta Journal Constitution. Will Georgia’s new dyslexia mandate make a difference?   Senate Bill 48, which Kemp signed Thursday, mandates dyslexia screening for every kindergartner. It also requires future teachers to learn the latest research about how to spot and help students who may have it.

Bloomberg. American Students Have Changed Their Majors: Health professions are in, education and the humanities are out. Here are some reasons for the shift.   Education degrees have been in a long decline, so to some extent what has happened is that women switched from teaching to health care.

Chalkbeat. Gov. Whitmer wants universal pre-K by the end of her four-year term. Will there be enough teachers?

Education Week.
1) Florida Governor Signs Divisive Bill Allowing for Armed Teachers   “Sworn police officers undergo extensive firearm training to respond to crisis scenarios, and we continue working on our skills and discipline throughout our careers. Teachers enter that profession to educate children, not to serve as school security,” Tony wrote in a letter to the school board.
2) History Instruction Indicted: Too Much Memorization, Too Little Meaning   But unlike some critics, who fault teacher training or weak course requirements, the report’s authors say bad curriculum is to blame. “Based on our analysis, this is not an issue of whether high school history teachers are adequately prepared or whether children today even study American history in school,” the foundation’s president, Arthur Levine, says in a statement.
3) We Need More Teachers of Color. Let’s Scrap Exams That Keep Them Out of the Classroom   A recent report estimates that each year, the exams screen out approximately 8,600 of 16,900 aspiring teachers of color. That exclusion rate is 27.5 percent higher than for white aspiring teachers. 

Hechinger Report. Twice exceptional, doubly disadvantaged? How schools struggle to serve gifted students with disabilities    Teachers need to be trained to recognize and understand children who are 2e. They need to try to remove the stigma that kids who have a disability cannot be smart.

Inside Higher Ed. Warren Zeroes In on Race   It’s notable that the Warren campaign released an analysis of what debt cancellation would mean for racial groups as well as different income brackets, said Judith Scott-Clayton, an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College at Columbia University who has studied the racial patterns of student loan defaults.

Medium|Politics. Can Elizabeth Warren Fix Higher Education?  “What the public sees is rising tuition costs,” explains Judy Scott-Clayton, a professor of economics and education at Columbia Teachers College. “If tuition is going up every year, how can it be that institutions actually have fewer resources? The answer is that states have been systematically investing less in higher ed per student than they were 20 to 30 years ago.” This divestment has resulted in a tuition spike as schools raise their prices to recuperate some of the money lost.

National Center for Teacher Residencies. NCTR, Mississippi to Develop the Nation’s First State-Operated Teacher Residency   The National Center for Teacher Residencies has received a $649,366 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the Mississippi Department of Education in the development of the nation’s first state-run teacher residency.

U.S. News & World Report. Illinois Lawmakers to Consider New Teacher Testing Methods   Two bills are pending in the Illinois General Assembly that would pause or permanently eliminate a basic skills test for new teachers that some officials say has contributed to a statewide shortage of educators

Washington Post.
1) California is overhauling sex education guidance for schools — and religious conservatives don’t like it   Tony Thurmond, the state’s newly elected education secretary, said teachers will have to undergo training to learn how to present the material in class.
2) Kindergarten teacher: ‘Why our youngest learners are doomed right out of the gate’ — and a road map to fix it  I would like to borrow a profoundly important document from brilliant teacher, child specialist and pre-eminent teacher trainer, Jean Feldman. I believe that when we adhere to the Kindergarten Bill of Rights…we will no longer hear that our youngsters are disinterested, hating kindergarten, acting out and “failing” because they are not yet reading.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSATE/NYACTE. 2019 Annual Fall Conference Saratoga Springs, October 16-18 [Proposals due May 15] 

NYSED Board of Regents. May Meetings
P-12 Education/Higher Education Joint Meeting
Classroom Academy – A Teacher Residency Program Update Presentation on the Teacher Residency Program in Queensbury, New York.

Higher Education
Proposed Amendment to Sections 52.21 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Requirements for Transitional D Programs that Lead to School District Leader Certification
Proposed Amendments to Section 80-6.1 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) for Educators in Nonpublic Schools
Proposed Amendment to Section 80-1.5 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Creation of Safety Nets for the Science Content Specialty Tests (CSTs)
Proposed Amendment to Section 80-5.17 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Conditional Initial Certificate Requirements

Definition of “University” in New York State

NYSED News. State Education Department Announces Recipients of 2019 Vice Chancellor Emerita Adelaide L. Sanford Scholarships   Also since 2016, NYSED awarded $9 million in Teacher Opportunity Corps II (TOC) grants to increase the participation rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers. NYSED awarded grants to 16 colleges and universities…

Times Union. Schools struggle to find teachers for English language learners   The report maintains that a state requirement, which mandates that English language learners receive English as a new language instruction, has contributed to the shortage of qualified teachers. It concludes that incentives could be offered by school districts to encourage teachers to get dual-certification so they can fill this need.

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. I teach pre-K in NYC. My job is not babysitting. This is what I really do and why pay matters.   Entrieri seized the opportunity, completing her master’s and passing the certification exams required to continue teaching…But the process of becoming a teacher, she says, has left her with mountains of debt. And because her job doesn’t offer benefits, she is living paycheck-to-paycheck, forced to make tough choices about whether to pay back her student loans or purchase health insurance. 

Teaching Residents @ Teachers College. May 2019 | Spring Edition Newsletter

GLOBAL
BBC News. Lack of teachers hampering Irish-medium secondary sector  Mícheál Mac Giolla Gunna, head teacher of Coláiste Feirste in west Belfast – the largest Irish-medium school in Northern Ireland with about 650 pupils – said there was an urgent need to plan for the training of new teachers to meet the needs of a rapidly growing sector.

Education International. Iraq: Teacher union invests in facilities to improve education in Kurdistan   KTU President Abdulwahed Mohamed reaffirmed that his education union should “… be able to provide teachers with the best possible services in terms of holding training courses, improving cultural and scientific levels, and generating interest in research focusing on persons with special needs as well as focusing on environmental protection”.

Inside Higher Ed. Iceland’s Missing Male Students: Sixty-four percent of students are women, the highest percentage of any European nation.  Courses with scarcely any men, such as playschool teacher education and social service counseling, have started to award male-only scholarships to redress the balance, explained Heijstra.

Washington Post. Quebec ban on religious symbols would fall heavily on hijab-wearing teachers   New teachers would be affected most by the bill… Chahira Battou is set to graduate this spring from teachers college. “The thing is that if I submit to the law, and I remove my scarf when I go to teach, that is when I become a submissive woman,” said Battou, 29.

 

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). 1) Call for Entries: 2020 AACTE Awards; 2) Call for Board and Standing Committee Nominations; 3) Call for Proposals, Reviewers for 2020 AACTE Annual Meeting “Disrupting Inequities: Educating for Change” [Login required]

AP. School safety at forefront of teacher rally after shooting  RALEIGH, N.C…The nearly $24 billion spending package includes money to raise teacher pay on average by 4.6%, with increases weighted toward the most veteran educators. A 10% salary supplement for teachers with master’s degrees, phased out earlier this decade, would be restored.

Atlanta Journal Constitution. Researcher says we lose too many teachers and lack of autonomy is a big factor   Since the late 1980s, the number of minority elementary and secondary teachers has increased by over 100%, outpacing growth in the number of nonminority teachers and outpacing growth in minority students.

Chalkbeat. With loan forgiveness and stipends, Colorado lawmakers hope to lure teachers to rural districts   All told, state education officials say there are 800 more people in the “pipeline,” preparing for teaching careers, than there were two years ago. But Colorado will need a lot more people to enter teaching — and stay in the classroom — to fill vacancies and replace thousands of educators expected to retire in the coming decade.

Education Week.
1) 4 Things You Need to Know About ‘Free College’ Proposals
2) A RedForEd Wave: Teachers in North and South Carolina Leave Classrooms in Protest   The protest was organized by the N.C. Association of Educators, with support from the grassroots group Red4EdNC. Teachers are asking for a 5 percent raise, extra compensation for advanced degrees…
3) Battle Over Reading: Parents of Children With Dyslexia Wage Curriculum War   In Arkansas, lawmakers have passed at least eight laws in the past seven years. The state is changing everything, including dyslexia screening, reading instruction, and teacher training and licensing.
4) College of Education Now Prepares Teachers in the Science of Reading [YouTube video; Univ. of Central Arkansas]
5) Defying Trump, Democrats Propose $4.4 Billion Boost for Education Spending  Trump wants to eliminate three prominent department programs: state grants for educator training, after-school activities, and block grants for student support and academic enrichment. Democrats want more money for all three… 

Hechinger Report.
1) 7 in 10 students aren’t writing at grade level — we can do better   In addition, a recent study from Teachers College, Columbia University, analyzed the implementation of WITsi in New York City’s most struggling Renewal High Schools between 2014 and 2016, and found that WITsi students were almost two and a half times more likely to be on track to graduate than students in schools without the approach.
2) Teachers go to school on racial bias   “Teachers want and need a space to talk about this. It feels useful. You feel the practicality of it.” This kind of dialogue, she said, was largely absent from her graduate school teacher-training program, where issues of race and bias were rarely mentioned.

NEA Today. Rodney Robinson Named 2019 National Teacher of the Year   Robinson… earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Virginia State University and a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

NPR. Teachers Begin To See Unfair Student Loans Disappear   In exchange for agreeing to work in low-income schools, aspiring teachers could get federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grants from the department to help pay their way through college. But those grants were often unfairly turned into loans that teachers had to pay back… Now, that fix has been expanded, and thousands more teachers are likely to get help.

New York Magazine. Years of Low Pay Helped Spark the Teacher Strike Wave   …NEA president Lily Eskelsen-Garcia said that when the union asks colleges of education why they’d experienced what she calls “a precipitous drop” in the number of prospective teachers, they cited low pay and student loans as deterrents.

New York Times.
1) Elizabeth Warren Wants to Cancel Student Loans. Critics Wonder if That’s the Right Solution.  In a post on Medium announcing the plan on Monday, Ms. Warren talked about how she, as an aspiring young teacher, had paid just $50 in tuition a semester at the University of Houston. “I could afford it on a part-time waitressing salary,” she said.
2) Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality

Penn State News. New process of teaching literacy to future teachers gets rave reviews   The PDS program is a collaboration between the College of Education and State College Area School District (SCASD) in which student teachers follow the schedule of a full academic year from August to June. The SCASD instructional coaches learned the collaborative learning experience at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.

Phi Delta Kappan. Toward equality of educational opportunity: What’s most promising?  In teaching, not all preparation institutions must meet rigorous standards. And not all candidates for teaching must meet rigorous standards before being allowed into the classroom. In other words, the teacher credentialing system is rife with loopholes, resulting in a teaching force of varied and uncertain quality.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Clarion University will relaunch a stand-alone School of Education   “This is necessary to be able to address the existing teacher shortage in special education, math and sciences, and the looming teacher shortage in all areas,” said Pam Gent, provost. “It is also necessary as we begin to pilot new and innovative ways to educate future teachers…”

Univ. of Texas at San Antonio. UTSA Teacher Residency Program produces first graduates

U.S. Dept. of Education. Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Grant Program CFDA Number 84.336S [Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: May 20, 2019]

U.S. News & World Report. Teacher Salaries Fell 4.5% Over the Last Decade  “When we go into colleges of education and ask them why they’ve seen a drop in the number of people applying to teacher colleges, they keep saying that these are prospective teachers who have to look at the pay they are going to receive as new teachers. And they are saying, ‘We won’t be able to pay off our student loans for that,'” Eskelsen García said. “People who want to be teachers are going into other professions because of the pay gap.”

 

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York State leaders want teachers to spend more time learning how to help English learners   Right now, students studying to be teachers in New York are required to spend six semester hours learning about language acquisition and literacy. Last month, state education policymakers proposed requiring teacher preparation programs to dedicate three of those hours to how English language learners learn and acquire language.

NYSED Office of Higher Education. April Newsletter
1) New Director of Teacher Certification
2) Expiring CST Safety Nets
3) Regulatory Amendment: Student Teaching Requirement
4) Proposal: Language Acquisition and Literacy Development Coursework Requirement
5) Proposal: School Counselor Education Program Registration Requirements and Certification
6) Proposal: Professional Learning and CTLE for Teachers Who Work with Teacher Candidates

New York State Register.
1) The public comment period is now open on a proposed amendment to extend the edTPA safety net for candidates who receive a failing score on the Library Specialist edTPA.
2) The public comment period is now open on a proposed amendment to extend the Educational Technology Specialist Content Specialty Test (CST) safety net expiration date.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. April meeting agenda

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. In a last-minute reversal, union representing thousands of NYC pre-K teachers calls off strike — for now   Teachers in community-run programs earn salaries starting around $42,000, while those in traditional public schools, who are represented by the United Federation of Teachers, start around $59,000. Regardless of the setting they work in, teachers are ultimately required to earn the same credentials and perform the same work.

NYCDOE. 2019-2020 Calendar [with corrected dates]

Washington Post. Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and this educator is starting to cringe: ‘I’ll trade appreciation for respect any day’  In New York City, most teachers attain master’s degrees before they ever begin work or finish them within the first few years… We are not seen as the “experts” in the very area that we have not only studied fastidiously, but also proved ourselves to be successful.