Month: January 2020

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of January 27 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Center for Teacher Education Research. The Fourth Global Teacher Education Summit. [Beijing Normal University 23-26 October]

DutchNews.nl.  Teachers strike, but there is no more money, education minister says   Slob told the Telegraaf that the cabinet has pumped lots of extra money into education, and has improved the salaries of primary school teachers. Efforts are also being made to encourage people to switch careers, and more people are signing up to teacher training colleges, he said.

NL Times. Over 4,000 Schools Close As Teachers Start Their 2-Day Strike   And the number of applications for teaching training programs, both from new students and from professionals looking to switch careers, are on the rise, he said in NPO talk show Op1. 

Teachers Union of Ireland. TUI members to take strike action on Tuesday, 4th February over failure to eliminate pay discrimination
The following measures are required to end pay discrimination:  •Elimination of the remaining differences in the early points of scale for ‘new entrant’ grades …  •Commencement on point 3 of scale in recognition of the six-year (primary degree and PME) unpaid training period 

UNESCO. CFP: World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, deadline 10 Feb. [2-4 June, Berlin].

UNITED STATES
100Kin10. 2019 TRENDS REPORT: Trends and Predictions that will define STEM in 2020   …Public Education & Business Coalition with three other partners is contributing to an ongoing body of work focused on digital literacy as a component of teacher preparation…

AACTE.
1) Developing Trauma-Informed Teachers: The Story Of One Teacher Preparation Program   … enables preservice teachers to then identify classroom practices, inviting growth and learning while eliminating practices that retraumatize or inhibit school success. This critique allows them to now create a trauma-informed education plan, then implement and evaluate its efficacy in order to determine best practices for students in their classrooms.
2) Discounted Hotel Rates for AACTE Annual Meeting Extended until February 10! [Feb. 28 – Mar. 1, Atlanta]
3) Recruiting Special Education Teachers Takes New Form at UNC Charlotte   … department of special education and child development received a grant to produce a video to recruit future special educators to the university. Led by Christopher O’Brien, associate professor and special education undergraduate program director, the production features faculty, students, and alumni of the special education teacher preparation program.

AACTE/StanfordSCALE. 2020 Teacher Performance Assessment Conference Preliminary Program [March 26-28, Austin, TX]

Atascadero News. Cunningham Introduces Legislation to Address Teacher Shortage   … AB 1982 would no longer require a prospective teacher to take the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) if the individual earned a B or better in college-level courses that correspond with the three major areas covered in the test (reading, writing and math).

Bipartisan Policy Center. Report: A New Course for Higher Education. …comprehensive package of recommendations that Congress should consider as part of reauthorization of the Higher Education Act… Turning the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program into a flat monthly benefit would also advance simplicity and better support public servants at the beginning of their careers, when wages tend to be lowest

Boston Globe. State eyes plan to improve diversity among teachers   …seeking to allow teachers who repeatedly fail their exams to receive a license based on their actual work experience — vetted by an expert — instead of their test scores. His proposal would also allow educators in some instances to take another licensing test offered in 26 other states.

California State University. Making a Difference: Men of Color as Teachers   Across the CSU, more initiatives have cropped up aimed specifically at preparing male teachers of color. For example, the Future Minority Male Teachers of California (F2MTC) project recruits high schoolers for CSU teacher education programs

Chalkbeat. Most Colorado teacher prep programs don’t teach reading well, report says. University leaders don’t buy it.   Kathy Schultz, the dean of the school of education at the University of Colorado Boulder, said her university, like several others in Colorado, doesn’t volunteer information on course syllabi and reading material to the National Council on Teacher Quality because university leaders don’t consider the council’s methodology valid.

Education Week.
1) Advocates for Science-Based Reading Instruction Worry California Plan Sends the Wrong Message   The legislature passed a series of bills that required schools to use materials that taught phonics, created new English/language arts standards, and provided funding to train teachers in phonics instruction.
2) Rural schools court `homegrown’ teachers amid shortage   Across the country, a movement to train homegrown educators is gaining momentum, according to Professor Angela Valenzuela, director of the University of Texas Center for Education Policy, who has studied the phenomenon.
3) State Chiefs Champion ‘Science of Reading’ at Literacy Summit   At a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., leaders advocated for states to play a stronger role in championing science-backed instruction and translating research into practice, focusing on levers like teacher training, certification, and system-wide professional learning.  
4) Teacher-Preparation Programs Make Gains in the ‘Science of Reading,’ Review Finds   The NCTQ experts found that comprehension was the component most covered by traditional teacher-preparation programs, and phonemic awareness was the least—just over half of traditional programs cover this skill, which is the ability to identify individual sounds in spoken words. 

InsideHigherEd. Teacher Prep Programs Embrace Science of Reading   A report out this week from the National Council on Teacher Quality says that teacher preparation programs are increasingly embracing what it calls the “science of reading instruction”… Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement regarding the findings, “We know how to teach kids how to read. We just need to equip teachers with the fact-based, proven science to do it.” 

School Library Journal. Games Can Teach About Climate Change and Motivate Ecofriendly Actions  [by J. Lee, Teachers College]  We have lesson plans for teachers, free printable editions and classroom kits available, as we look to partner with educators to continue development of this game.

The74.
1) At National Literacy Summit, State Education Chiefs Warn of Reading Stagnation   A few, calling early literacy the “civil rights issue of our time,” complained of the difficulty of mandating better practices, such as rigorous curricula and tighter teacher certification requirements, in states where most control over education is devolved to local school districts.
2) How Well Are Teachers Being Taught? New Report Finds Majority of Teacher Prep Programs Thoroughly Instructing Future Educators on the Science of Reading   The National Council on Teacher Quality, which has in the past butted heads with teacher groups, reviewed the reading coursework and practice opportunities of 1,000 elementary school teaching programs across a wide range of programs. Based on curriculum spanning from the undergraduate level to alternative providers, NCTQ developed an assessment of where the nation’s teacher preparation sector stands on educating future classroom leaders on how children learn to read.

Time. How Black Lives Matter Is Changing What Students Learn During Black History Month   Many people in the mostly-white U.S. teacher population haven’t taken a dedicated course in black history and are learning as they go…it’s crucial that educators become better equipped to teach the subject… to give students more perspective on black experiences worldwide, an Advanced Placement seminar on the African Diaspora, developed by Columbia University’s Teachers College, the University of Notre Dame and Tuskegee University, is being piloted in 11 schools in the 2019-2020 year

Washington Post. Read all about it: The ‘reading wars’ are back in America’s education salons   Lucy M. Calkins, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a much-revered expert on how to teach reading…told me she agrees that children should be taught decoding until they master it. She said in her essay: “There is merit to much of what the phonics people are saying,” but it would be a mistake to teach phonics “at the expense of reading and writing.” All the combatants appear to concur with her on that.

WKRN [TN]. School district works to cut teacher shortage through ‘Grow Your Own’ program.  The program provides 20 recent high school graduates and 20 teachers aides the opportunity to become full-time teachers in just three years for free.  You read that right. The program comes at no cost to the participant. Books, tuition, and tutoring are all free… Residents work in schools during the day as educational assistance and by night they are full-time college students at Austin Peay State University​.

 

 

NEW YORK STATE
LoHud. New York’s teacher diversity problem: 80% are white, when most students aren’tThey’ve often run into the same problem: Minority students who dealt with entrenched racism while attending school themselves aren’t willing to entertain a career in education, education officials said.

My Brother’s Keeper. TOC II Spotlight: Clarkson University’s KaiChe’ Roxborough

NYSED Office of Higher Education. January Newsletter
New York State Learning Standards for Computer Science and Digital Fluency.
Update on the Implementation of the edTPA.
Subject Area Certification Requirement For Special Education Teachers Who Teach A Special Class In Grades 7-12
Educator Diversity Report

NYSED Rule-Making Activities.
1) Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Standards Review  Public Comment Period Survey (open from Monday, December 16th through Saturday, February 1st).  
2) Time Extension of Initial, Transitional and Provisional Certificates  Public comment period opens Jan. 29. The Department is proposing to allow educators who hold an Initial certificate, Initial Reissuance, Provisional certificate, or Provisional Renewal to receive one Time Extension after the issuance of their first Initial or Provisional certificate. 
3) Addition of Subject Areas to the Limited Extension and SOCE for Certain Teachers of Students with Disabilities  Public comment period opens Jan. 29  Purpose: To enable more qualified teachers of students with disabilities to seek the limited extension and Statement Of Continued Eligibility.

NEW YORK CITY
Bank Street College of Education. Investing in the Birth-to-Three Work Force.  The Path Forward: Strengthening Systems. Building A System Of Residency Models

NY Daily News. How Can We Get More Men in Early Childhood Education?  Achieving gender balance in the early childhood workforce offers children the experience of having their growth and learning supported by women and men alike — and validates a healthy world view in which they can thrive.  

PIX11. Nearly 2K special needs children in NYC could be without preschool seats: report   While many preschoolers with disabilities receive services within general education classes, students with significant special needs have the right to be placed in a smaller class with a certified special education teacher… Compounding the issue is a teacher shortage as community-based providers struggle to compete with higher salaries offered in pre-K classrooms run by the city’s education department.

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. In Defense of Balanced Literacy: Understanding and Responding to Student Achievement Partners’ Critique of Units of Study

Wall Street Journal. Some Dog Walkers Earn More Than Caregivers for Babies. Educators Want to Change That.  A new Bank Street College report calls for more public and private investment in training and pay for teachers serving children from birth to age 3

Washington Post. NYC Community Schools, focused on child poverty, succeed in key metrics, study finds   Unlike other reform ideas, the program does not directly address teacher quality, curriculum or other core aspects of education.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of January 20 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Center For Innovation In Teacher Education And Development (CITED).   Performativity, Presentism and Practice: New Teacher Survival and Development, with Dr. Adam Unwin, UCL, Institute of Education, London, UK. [29 January, Teachers College, New York City]

Federation University. Teaching our next teachers – educator awarded Fulbright Scholarship.  Associate Professor Robyn Brandenburg, the Associate Dean of Research in the School of Education, will spend three months at Montclair State University in the United States to research the effectiveness of teacher education programs designed to meet Teacher Performance Assessment Standards (TPAs). She will look at the impact TPAs have on teacher educators, pre-service teachers and mentors in schools.

Rising Sun Overport. KZN teachers jet off to study in Columbia University   A group of 20 top academics (mostly teacher educators) from three South African universities, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban University of Technology and the University of Zululand are participants of an intensive four-year programme, Accelerated Academic Leadership Development Programme (AALDP)… Now, in their third year of study, the educators will be flying to the Teachers College, Columbia University for a five-month residency.

The Hindu. Playing with learning: On status of early childhood education   …surveys such as ASER call for a deeper look at how governments approach funding of institutions and teacher training for better outcomes. It is as important to let teachers feel invested in anganwadis as play-and-learn centres aiding children in acquiring cognitive skills, as it is to provide physical infrastructure. Building human resource capabilities would depend on teachers being recruited on the basis of aptitude, their training in credentialed colleges and assurance of tenure of service. 

The National UAE. Thousands of UAE teachers sit licence test   By the end of this year, any teacher wishing to work in the country will be required to have taken and passed the exam… To be awarded the licence, teachers need to two pass two examinations: one on ‘pedagogy’ or approaches to teaching and another specialist exam on the subject they teach.

UNESCO. International Day of Education  [24 January]

UNITED STATES
Education Dive. Teacher prep, equity top list of ‘hot’ literacy topics   According to the survey, teachers were slightly more likely to say they were trained to teach reading using a “literature-based” approach rather than a phonics approach — 69% compared to 63%. Fifty-nine percent said their program emphasized phonemic awareness. But regardless of the method, only about a third or fewer of the respondents said their pre-service programs did an “excellent” or “very good” job teaching them that method.

Education Week
1) An Exit Interview With John White, the Nation’s Longest-Serving State Schools Chief   White… distanced himself from the education reform activity of the last 10 to 15 years at the national level… That movement, he said, intentionally focused on policies concerning curriculum and teacher training and how to make sure schools could succeed in those areas at a large scale.
2) New Mexico switches to new licensing test for teachers   New Mexico has opted for a new teacher candidate exam system that will mean a higher price tag for those taking the test for the first time… But officials tell the Albuquerque Journal that the new system will provide more support to test takers and retakes will be free.
3) Preservice Teachers Are Getting Mixed Messages on How to Teach Reading   Yet an Education Week analysis of nationally representative survey results found that professors who teach early-reading courses are introducing the work of researchers and authors whose findings and theories often conflict with one another, including some that may not be aligned with the greater body of scientific research.
4) Teachers Are Divided on Whether Phonics Is Getting Too Much Attention, Survey Says   Sixty percent of all respondents think that teacher-preparation programs aren’t preparing teachers to deliver effective reading instruction. These concerns have also been reflected in Education Week’s reporting, which has found that teachers often leave their preservice programs without much clarity on evidence-based practices.
5) This Teacher Spent a Day as a 4th Grader. Now She’s Rethinking Her Career   It was a required assignment for a school leadership program I’m completing at Teachers College, Columbia University… Mindfulness and self-awareness training have been a big part of my principal-preparation program, and I believe these techniques could help teachers.

LPI/AACTE. Preparing Educators for Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Classrooms  [Webinar 3pm Jan. 30]

NCB Chicago. Pritzker Announces Continued Expansion of Early Childhood Programs   “Our teachers are properly trained,” said Karen Ross-Williams of the Christopher House, a group of schools in Chicago that helps children in low-income families get access to quality educational resources. “That’s the other key piece. We don’t just throw them in and say ‘swim.’” 

Regional Educational Laboratory Program. Study Provides a Clear Picture of Alaska’s Educator Turnover Challenge   … findings suggest policymakers may want to focus on increasing the supply of homegrown educators, as those who were prepared in Alaska were more likely to stay at their school.

UNC School of Education. School to develop ‘deeper learning’ pedagogies in two EdPrepLab-backed projects   School of Education faculty will collaborate with researchers at three other campuses to develop “deeper learning” pedagogies in educator-preparation programs in two projects backed by the Educator Preparation Laboratory, or EdPrepLab… The projects will build upon and extend efforts at the School of Education to incorporate experiential learning practices in the Master of Arts in Teaching program…

San Francisco Chronicle. Diversifying the teaching profession requires confronting history   … following the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville teacher strikes in New York City when white teachers clashed with black and Puerto Rican communities over control of the schools, city leaders identified the hiring of teachers of color as a salve, funding recruitment initiatives and easing certification rules. In this moment, a temporary pathway opened: Thousands of black and Latino adults entered New York City’s schools as paraprofessionals and teachers on temporary licenses. 

NEW YORK STATE
Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Hiring teachers of color is an investment in student success, group says   Educators for Excellence has since asked the State Education Department to double the funding for My Brother’s Keeper Teacher Opportunity Corps — a state grant program that partners with teacher preparation programs to recruit, train and support new teachers of color entering the profession – to $7 million.

North Country Now. SUNY Canton Early Childhood program lands SUNY TeachNY grant funding   SUNY Canton faculty members in the Early Childhood program are integrating video capture into student teaching experiences and internships, and have received a grant to aid the program… The video capture technology will allow students and a college supervisor to record, observe, critique and assess the student teaching experience virtually.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) NYC educators: With budget cuts looming, tell us what you think about teacher training   Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes to save money next fiscal year by slashing teacher training costs by $31 million.
2) Teaching the teachers: $13M grant to help NYC students learning English  While teacher preparation programs in the state require some credit hours in language acquisition, it’s not nearly as extensive as earning a certification in Teaching English to Students of Other Languages. Last year the state moved to require more credit

Teachers College. 37th Annual Winter Roundtable! Teaching To Transform [February 28th-29th]

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 13 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Courier Mail. Focusing on teacher OP requirements misses big picture   Almost every year, questions are raised about the quality of graduate teachers in Queensland as universities reveal their Overall Position cut-offs for teacher education courses.

Tes [UK]. Ofsted: Teachers taught to rate grades over knowledge  Some teacher training providers are encouraging trainees to plan the curriculum ‘backwards’ from Year 11, warns Ofsted

The Times of India. Bharathiar University’s physical education programme derecognized.   The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)… has withdrawn recognition to the Bharathiar University’s department of Physical Education for conducting Bachelor of Physical Education (B.P.Ed) course from the next academic session.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE 72nd Annual Meeting Atlanta Feb. 28-Mar. 1 (registration deadline Jan. 24)
2) FY2020 Appropriations Bills Released

Key Programs Important to Educator Preparation:

Teaching Quality Partnership Grant program $50.1m  (Increase of $7m)
Special Education Personnel Preparation $89.5m (Increase of $2.5m)

3) WMU enrollment is up in teacher preparation programs   Despite a national trend toward declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, Western Michigan University’s enrollment is up this year by about 9% in these majors…

AACTE/EdPrepLab. AACTE and partner, Educator Preparation Laboratory (EdPrepLab), an initiative of the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) and Bank Street College of Education, will host the second of a series of four webinars, Preparing educators for diverse, equitable, and inclusive classrooms, on January 30.

AACTE/SCALE. 2020 National TPA Implementation Conference: Keynotes and Presenters

Center for American Progress. Graduate School Debt: Ideas for Reducing the $37 Billion in Annual Student Loans That No One Is Talking About   Regarding teacher training, states must step up to the plate and ensure that programs at public colleges are both of high quality and affordable. The former should entail ensuring that teacher credentials impart the skills and knowledge that make teachers more effective in the classroom. This can include extended clinical practice, particularly for alternative certification master’s degrees, and increased emphasis on coaching or mentoring, content, and pedagogical knowledge.

Chalkbeat. In Illinois state board’s $9.64 billion budget ask: more money for teacher recruitment, testing   To address a dire teacher shortage, the board seeks $44 million for recruiting bilingual educators, mentoring new teachers and principals, offering a path for career and technical education teachers, and other investments into teachers. 

Education Week.
1) Here’s What Gen Z Teachers Around the World Want in Their Jobs  Early-career and preservice teachers also said they wanted to increase the focus on social and emotional learning and devote more teaching time to global issues like climate change. 
2) Louisiana Needs Literacy Coaches in Every School, Commission Urges   Teacher-preparation programs are a target of change in the report, too. It notes that at Louisiana colleges and universities, there are no common instructional materials for literacy methods. (This isn’t unusual in teacher-prep programs nationwide.) The commission urges the state to “invite” the faculty of its teacher- and administrator-preparation programs to literacy trainings. It also proposes reevaluating its K-5 teacher licensure procedures, presumably for possible revision that includes demonstrating mastery of research-based literacy instruction.

InsideHigherEd. Jury Awards Ex-Professor $800K   Newman University in Kansas discriminated against a former professor of elementary education because she is a woman and now owes her $800,000, a federal jury decided Monday.

Montclair Local. New Jersey Gets Low Grade On Sex Education, Group Says   Teachers needd better training and support to teach sex education with a comprehensive approach, Goldfarb said. Those topics need more emphasis in teacher training courses at colleges and universities, she said.

New York Times. The New York Times Teaching Project, 2020-21   Apply now for a new program that will bring together a select group of educators who teach with The Times. This opportunity begins with a three-day summer institute in New York City, travel and lodging included.

Trine University. Trine to launch state’s first Montessori teacher education program   Building on the strength and growth of its Franks School of Education, Trine University will launch Indiana’s first Montessori teacher education degree program to help meet the growing need for teachers with Montessori credentials.

Washington Monthly. Master’s of None   Teachers across the country earn grad degrees to get raises. Turns out those degrees don’t improve student learning—they just fatten universities’ bottom lines.

Washington Post. This is the student loan problem that no one talks about: Graduate school debt  Many social workers and teachers, for instance, must complete graduate coursework to keep their jobs or increase their pay, but their compensation falls short of what’s needed to pay off debt.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents January meetings
Higher Education Committee

NEW YORK CITY
New York University. NYU Teacher Residency Launches Part-Time Option, Continues to Expand   Now in its fourth year, New York University’s year-long teacher residency program is adding a part-time or “half-day” residency option to support more nontraditional students. The master’s program, which traditionally includes a full-time teaching requirement in concert with online coursework, will allow graduate students to choose the kind of program that best fits into their lives.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 6 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Citizen Digital. World’s most celebrated teacher Peter Tabichi meets Pope Francis at the Vatican   The Pope shook Peter’s hand, gave him a rosary, and they held a brief conversation about the importance of the teaching profession following the service.

New York Times. In China’s Crackdown on Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared    To carry out its campaign, the party needed not only new schools but also an army of teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum — and political discipline… “Teachers are the engineers of the human soul,” the education bureau of Urumqi recently wrote in an open letter, deploying a phrase first used by Stalin to describe writers and other cultural workers. The party launched an intensive effort to recruit teachers for Xinjiang from across China. Last year, nearly 90,000 were brought in, chosen partly for their political reliability… The influx amounted to about a fifth of Xinjiang’s teachers last year, according to government data.

tes (UK). Teacher training framework sets bar ‘worryingly low’  Eight specialists in teacher education have come together to voice their concerns about the initial teacher training (ITT) framework in a blog for the British Educational Research Association (BERA).

Teachers College. The Key to Improving Refugee Education? It’s supporting teachers, argues TC’s Mary Mendenhall at a Global Forum   The method and open-source materials developed by Mendenhall and her students to train and support refugees as teachers is now in use in 20 nations worldwide. Mendenhall is currently leading a four-year research study on teacher and student well-being in northern Uganda and South Sudan.

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) New report dings Denver’s preschool program quality, but there’s more to the story   Part of the reason the Denver Preschool Program has less stringent rules on class size and teacher credentials than what national researchers recommend is because it follows state licensing rules. Those rules don’t require lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree, assistant teachers to have an entry-level credential called a CDA, nor 4-year-old preschool classes to be limited to 20 children…
2) Why a local university is investing in a new teacher residency program to fill a pressing need in Detroit and Dearborn schools   The Wayne State program begins with an 18-month period in which the students will receive a $40,000 stipend, complete a master’s degree, and receive a teaching certificate. Following that, for two years teachers would receive mentoring and professional development while teaching.  

Cincinnati.com. More US schools teach in English and Spanish, but not enough to help Latino kids: Classes taught in both languages help students from various backgrounds, but many districts have fought to keep Spanish out of schools.   Would-be bilingual teachers often face challenges such as the cost of their education and the tests they have to take to become certified in bilingual education. “We know that there’s a greater need for bilingual education teachers than we can meet right now,” Schall says.

Education Week
1) Chief Justice Warns That ‘Civic Education Has Fallen By the Wayside’   He mentioned the work of the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who over the past two decades has “quietly volunteered as a tutor at a local elementary school, inspiring his court colleagues to join in the effort.” That judge is Merrick Garland, whose nomination for the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was blocked by Senate Republicans in 2016. Garland volunteers at J.O. Wilson Elementary School in the nation’s capital.
2) Finding New Ways to Engage With Language in New Mexico   Pauletta White, assistant superintendent for student support services in Gallup-McKinley County Schools, said the district has at least one Navajo language teacher at every elementary school… But White said teachers, who must be certified by both the Public Education Department and the Navajo Nation, are hard to find.
3) More States Say They’re Teaching Media Literacy, But What That Means Varies   Training teachers and surveying instruction is complicated in part because the media landscape itself is shifting so quickly, said McNeill. “That’s why it’s so hard,” she said. “The curriculum would have to constantly change to keep up.”
4) Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Teacher Recruitment?
5) Teachers, the Robots Are Coming. But That’s Not a Bad Thing.  If designed with educator input, these technologies could free up teachers to do what they do best: inspire students to learn and coach them along the way.
6) Teaching in 2020 vs. 2010: A Look Back at the Decade   And, perhaps as a consequence of some of these policy shifts, even getting teachers into classrooms is tough. Fewer people are enrolling in colleges of education, and states have reported persistent shortages, including in perennial areas such as special education. There’s been more of an emphasis on recruiting teachers of color into a predominately white profession, but the growth has been slow.
7) The 2020 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. TC Professors include Henry (Hank) Levin-37, Christopher Emdin-73, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn-103, Jeffrey R. Henig-108, Amy Stuart Wells-111, Aaron M. Pallas-113, Thomas Bailey-118, Michael A. Rebel-155, Judith Scott-Clayton-160, Sarah Cohodes-194, Henry (Hank) Levin-37, Christopher Emdin-73, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn-103, Jeffrey R. Henig-108, Amy Stuart Wells-111, Aaron M. Pallas-113, Thomas Bailey-118, Michael A. Rebel-155, Judith Scott-Clayton-160, Sarah Cohodes-194, Jordan Matsudaira-196

Hechinger Report. Black boys need the guidance and mentorship of black male teachers: Why do black men comprise just 2 percent of the U.S. teaching force?   A positive snowball effect of representation in classrooms will also increase the number of black boys who aspire to become teachers, aiding generations to come.

KRQE. State lawmaker introduces bill hoping to solve statewide teacher shortage   After 19 years of teaching, State Rep. Debbie Sarinana (D) says it’s time for some changes… That’s why the Manzano High School math teacher is sponsoring House Bill 92, in hopes of starting a Teacher Residency Program.

New York Times. Overlooked No More: Margaret McFarland, Mentor to Mister Rogers   … received her master’s degree from Columbia University in 1928 and later earned her Ph.D. from Teachers College at Columbia University… McFarland was also fond of teaching by parable, gently guiding her students toward clarity by telling stories and asking questions rather than providing critiques. Her methods made a lasting impression.

Star Press. Ball State announces new dean of Teachers College   Anand R. Marri will join the leadership team at Ball State University as dean of Teachers College, effective July 1, BSU announced on Tuesday… In 2003, after earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined Teachers College at Columbia University. At Columbia University, his research focused on economic literacy, multicultural and urban education, and teacher education…

Teaching Tolerance. Welcome to The Learning Plan Builder.  Based on the four domains of the Social Justice Standards (Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action), our Learning Plan Builder allows you to select meaningful student texts, choose how you’ll teach them and how you’ll assess student learning.

The Atlantic. What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism: Tracy Murray’s kindergarten classroom in New York City has a unique approach to supporting students on the spectrum.   When a student on the spectrum is present, majority-neurotypical classrooms typically have one certified teacher—many without special-education training—and one or more teacher’s aides, who help students with special needs follow teachers’ directions and complete academic tasks. ASD Nest, meanwhile, places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom. 

U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid. StudentAid.gov Now Offers Aid Resources All in One Place

Washington Post.
1) America’s schools are more diverse than ever. But the teachers are still mostly white.   People of color are less likely to go into teaching and less likely to stay in it. Education requirements, low pay, unhappy workplaces and lack of respect all can contribute. The result: At every step on the road from high school student to classroom teacher, people of color fall away. They are less likely to go to college, less likely to enroll in teacher preparation programs, less likely to graduate and less likely to be certified as teachers, the Education Department found in a 2016 report.
2) How to get kids to love to write   Some schools of education do a poor job of teaching students how to teach the subject, and some school districts do not provide teachers with a valid curriculum. There are, too, teachers saddled with as many as 200 students — “we feel like we’re drowning,” one teacher said — who can’t assign many writing assignments because they don’t have the time to grade them.
3)  Teach for America to Senate president: Ferguson to step into biggest role yet   In a recent interview, Ferguson considered what the Teach for America version of himself might have said about becoming Senate president at the same time Maryland was about undertake the largest effort in a generation to overhaul public school education. “At the end of the day, if we focus on the fundamental point that every child deserves true access to maximizing his or her potential, we will make the right choices,” he offered.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AM NewYork. Board of Regents proposes expanding TOC II and certificate programs to increase teacher diversity   In 2016, the state awarded $3 million from the My Brother’s Keeper initiative to fund TOC programs. Out of the 16 colleges and universities awarded, seven are in New York City; Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Medgar Evers College, Herbert Lehman College, Manhattan College, Queens College and the Teachers College at Columbia University. 

New York State Education Department. Board of Regents Meeting Agendas: January 13-14

NEW YORK CITY
Gothamist. Why Are NYC Parents So Upset At The Idea Of Scrapping ‘Gifted And Talented’ Programs?   “There is no consistent curriculum or standard of pedagogy that gifted teachers are required to invest in,” said Matt Gonzalez, the Integration and Innovation Initiative Director at NYU Metro and a member of the SDAG panel. One of the many problems, it seems, is that the general population has a misguided conception of what being “gifted and talented” means. “It’s not something that we discovered, it’s something we invented about a century ago,” said James Borland, a professor at Teachers College…

Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TRatTC). 2012-2020 production report: 18 peer-reviewed publications, 54 global conference presentations and counting!