GLOBAL
Global Partnership for Education. A new toolkit for gender equality in Asia-Pacific There is a wide range of tools in the kit, covering all levels of the education system and key thematic areas including education in emergencies, gender-based violence, teacher education and strategic planning.
New York Times. CANADA LETTER: Will It Be Safe to Return to School? Jason Ellis, a professor of education at the University of British Columbia, said everyone in education has been focused on the return since March… “You can’t space out the kids dramatically in schools because you would need to hire thousands of teachers, and they don’t exist,”…
Washington Post. At least 463 million students around the world have no access to digital or broadcast lessons, UNICEF report says Among the recommendations in the report to ensure that students can continue to learn during and after the pandemic: *Support and train teachers and parents to effectively manage remote “virtual” classrooms and help children learn at home, at all levels of education including preprimary.
UNITED STATES
AACTE. Virtual 2020 Washington Week [events Sept. 2-23]
AACTE/SCALE. August 2020 Newsletter Correction edTPA Webinar Series: Completing edTPA in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
Chalkbeat. Virtual charter schools see spike in interest as families grapple with the pandemic’s disruption “Schools have hired new teachers and are providing rigorous start-of-school training and ongoing professional development in online teaching. Pearson has invested in providing schools with benchmark assessment tools that will allow them to identify learning gaps and put appropriate supports in place right away,”…
EdWeek.
1) Education a Key Issue in 2020 Race Even Before the Pandemic, Poll Finds “For many decades, teacher educators were divided into two camps: those who favored whole language, characterized by the idea that reading is a natural process gained through exposure to authentic texts, and those who believed in systematic phonics instruction, which is the explicit teaching of sound-letter relationships,”
2) There Is Nothing Fragile About Racism I called my mentor, Cynthia Dillard, a professor of teacher education and a colleague at the University of Georgia, to discuss her perspective on the idea of white fragility. She pointedly asked me: “Tina, what’s fragile about racism?” She was right. I have never known racism to be fragile… our current education system does not provide white students with anti-racist curriculum, language to call out racism, or teachers of color to learn from. After 13 years of schooling, many white students end their K-12 experience without ever having a teacher of color or being challenged to disrupt their learned racism.
Evolllution. Teacher Preparation and Licensure Requirements During COVID-19: Short-term Solutions with Long-term Effects. Teacher licensure executive orders and emergency regulations are reactions to a global pandemic. They highlight the need to examine teacher preparation across all states so that teacher licensure can move from a reactionary approach to one of preparedness.
Hechinger Report. How do you teach antiracism to the youngest students?: Educators are finding tools to teach young kids about America’s racist past and present in age-appropriate ways. Colleges are holding professional development online events for educators on how to reimagine education with racial justice in mind. And school districts are working to expand their curricula on race.
Learning Policy Institute. Restarting and Reinventing School: Learning in the Time of COVID and Beyond Priority 9: Prepare Educators for Reinventing School Everything described here requires knowledgeable, skilled, dedicated educators; there is no other way to get the kind of teaching we need…
NJInsider. Ruiz Introduces Bill Package to Increase Teacher Diversity The bills are:
*2825 would establish a loan redemption program for certain bilingual education teachers.
*2829 would establish the “Male Teachers of Color Mentorship Pilot Program” and appropriate $50,000 to fund the program.
*2830 would require educator preparation programs to report passing rates of students who complete certain tests and to disseminate information on test fee waiver programs. The bill would also permit the collection of a student fee for certain testing costs.
*2832 would allow students enrolled in an institution of higher education who have completed 30 semester-hour credits to serve as a substitute teacher.
*2833 would establish the teacher apprenticeship program.
*2834 would mandate training on culturally responsive teaching for all candidates for a teaching certification.
*2793 would require public institutions of higher education to take various actions to improve campus diversity. The bill also directs the Secretary of Higher Education to develop guidance regarding diversity in the faculty search and selection process.
NPR/WNYC. More Than 6,500 Teachers Have Had Unfair Student Debts Erased. … teachers have gotten a second chance to shed millions of dollars in unfair student debts, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education. The educators had enrolled in the department’s troubled TEACH Grant program, which provides grants to help aspiring teachers pay for college. In exchange, they agreed to teach a high-need subject for four years in a school that serves low-income families.
Observer-Reporter. Few Black teachers in county, but they make a difference in the classroom. Having a Black teacher is also an important way to battle systemic racism, said Dr. Kenith Britt, a Trinity High School graduate who attended Washington School District and now serves as vice president of Marian University’s Klipsch Educators College in Indianapolis, which aims to help talented students of color to become teachers. “Systemic racism in our country can and should end. One way that can have a dramatic long-term impact is ensuring that white students have Black teachers, counselors and school leaders.
NYTimes.
1) 80 Tips for Remote Learning From Seasoned Educators: Twenty-eight middle and high school teachers from The New York Times Teaching Project tell us how they’re navigating remote instruction this fall.
2) How White Progressives Undermine School Integration: A robust body of research shows the benefits of integration. Why, then, is it so hard to achieve? But there are all sorts of barriers, including regulatory barriers such as teacher licensing exams in many states that disproportionately exclude people of color, even though there is little or no evidence that your score on those exams impacts the quality of instruction.
3) Pearson Splashes Out to Secure Former Disney Exec Bird as CEO Although Bird does not have direct experience in education, he has been on Pearson’s board since May … He will be tasked with returning Pearson to growth after students in the United States stopped buying expensive text books…
4) Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S. Colleges and Universities
Teacher Education Podcast. Podcast #14. Dr. Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Educator Preparation and Public School Programs for Calif. State Univ.
Washington Post. A lesson on QAnon for teachers to use in class The following lesson on QAnon can be used by teachers and anybody else who wants to have a conversation with young people about this conspiracy and how it has entered U.S. politics.
NEW YORK STATE
InsideHigherEd. Cuomo Adviser Malatras Voted In as SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, president of SUNY Empire State College and longtime advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo, will take up the chancellorship Aug. 31. His appointment prompted the SUNY Faculty Senate to vote no confidence in the system’s board.
NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) Can ‘podding’ be made equitable? Yes, if parents work together: At our Brooklyn public school, parents are trying to create pandemic-safe child care options that everyone can access, but we need help. We also called after-school programs, tutoring companies and summer camps to see if any could step in and provide trained staff to watch over our kids. They have been enthusiastic about jumping in to help, but the process for getting approval to run these programs outside of schools and licensed child care facilities is opaque.
2) NYC says classroom teachers shouldn’t also have to teach remotely. Principals fear a staffing crunch. Linda Chen, the education department’s chief academic officer, said the city is “concerned” about staffing issues but noted that anyone with a teaching license but who doesn’t typically work in a classroom could be pressed into service.
Teachers College.
1) Amid COVID and Racial Injustice, Teachers Matter More than Ever: They anchor young people and create safe spaces in times of crisis [by A. Sabic-El-Rayess TC Assoc. Prof. of Practice] We need to invest more in our teachers to do this kind of work — in what we pay them, in their professional development, in how we mentor them to counter the racial, religious and ethnic stereotypes in our schools, in the resources we give them, and in how we esteem them for the courageous work they do. This also includes investing in and diversifying the teachers who teach teachers — meaning us — because we have the privilege of influencing teaching and education around the world through our own work…
2) The Public Good. COMING TOGETHER THROUGH STORIES The Public Good developed this unit in order to support teachers as they work to make their curriculum more culturally responsive and sustaining while engaging their students in timely discussions.
