Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 26 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
GhanaWeb. Quality teacher education holds the key to national development – MinisterThe Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, says the Ghanaian Child will be competitive globally by acquiring well-researched knowledge and skills for national development on the foundation of quality teacher education.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)  Online Teacher Preparation Clinical Experiences Amid the COVID-19 PandemicTeacher candidates’ clinical experiences and methods of instruction and student engagement are shaped by the PK–12 schools and districts where new graduates teach. Yet, many schools and districts around the country will not place student teachers during the 2020-21 academic school year.

UNESCO.  Policy Paper: Inclusive Teaching: Preparing All Teachers To Teach All Students   Despite their differences in teacher standards and qualifications, education systems are increasingly moving away from identifying problems with learners and towards identifying barriers to learning. To complete this shift, education systems must design teacher education and professional learning opportunities that dispel entrenched views that some students are deficient, unable to learn or incapable.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Issue Briefs Examine Education Degrees Trends and Future Implications for Teacher Workforce. The reports examine education trends through an analysis of the number of institutions awarding degrees in education and the imminent threat of increased teacher shortages, particularly in high-demand areas. The findings raise significant concerns about the nation’s future capacity to produce new teachers and other education professionals to meet the diverse needs of students, families, and communities. 
2) Addressing the Teacher Shortage: Capacity and Degree Trends in Educator Preparation [Webinar 3pm Nov. 4]

AACTE/SCALE. August – October 2020 Newsletter: News From edTPA®

Business Insider. 10 popular online STEM, coding and gaming courses — all are taught by women   This class is specifically designed for teachers and educators to learn how to incorporate STEM and STEAM learning in K-12 classrooms… Ellen B. Meier is the Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Technology and School Change and a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at [Teachers College] Columbia University. 

Chalkbeat. Pandemic won’t silence the music in this Nashville teacher.  I grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, where we only had one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school… My teachers were amazing, and they’re the reason I decided to pursue a career in education.

Chicago Tribune. Is a 96% attendance rate a bright spot in a pandemic stricken school year? Not exactly, as remote learning skews annual report card.   In order to diversify the teaching force across the state, Roxanne F. Owens, chair of the teacher education department at DePaul University’s College of Education, said universities must support students studying to be educators. “We have to help high school students and career changers see the benefits of becoming teachers. Right now, teaching is a tough sell for anyone,” she said.

InsideHigherEd. ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’: Teacher education programs were facing major problems even before the pandemic, but are they dying of natural causes or being killed off? Either way, what’s lost when they go away for good?  Nationally, enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs in education is declining, but not as precipitously. Some 82,621 students graduated with four-year degrees in education in 2018, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared to 102,849 in 2008.

Lexington Herald Leader. The best teacher in Kentucky and the top high school teacher are from Lexington   In addition to being named the state’s overall best teacher, Donnie Piercey, a Stonewall fifth grade teacher was also Kentucky’s elementary teacher of the year… He graduated from Asbury College and earned his master’s from Auburn University. He has taught in Kentucky since 2007. 

New York Times: Those We’ve Lost
1) Choua Yang, Hmong Refugee and Educator, Dies at 53   The family landed in New York City and settled in Syracuse, N.Y… Ms. Yang graduated from Henninger High School in Syracuse in 1985, earned her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1995, and in 1998 obtained her first of three master’s degrees, in K-12 curriculum. Her other master’s degrees were in bilingual education and educational administration.
2) Sharon Hunt, Teacher for a Quarter-Century, Dies at 65.  Sharon Hunt always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She solidified that notion while attending high school and, once she graduated, was totally smitten after substitute teaching in Georgia, where she was able to do so without a college degree. Finally, once her children were old enough that she didn’t need to care for them full-time, Ms. Hunt resumed her schooling. She earned two degrees in education, a bachelor’s at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights and a master’s at Wright State University in Ohio.

The Chronicle of Higher Education. Can These Degree Programs, Under Assault for a Decade, Survive a Pandemic?   Physical-education teaching programs, business-teacher education programs, and mathematics-teacher education programs saw the largest declines across the decade within the discipline. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education identified similar shifts in its own research, finding that the number of degrees conferred in science and math education — including bachelor’s, master’s, and post-baccalaureate certificates — declined by 27 percent from the 2009-10 to the 2018-19 academic years.

Washington Post. Two key questions teachers should ask students after the election   …teachers aren’t trained as social workers or therapists, and emotional processing shouldn’t be their ultimate goal. Emotionally charged moments can be at the foundation of powerful learning experiences. Teachers can use these moments to help their students develop their voices and direct them toward possible action, regardless of the students’ political views.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives.
1) edTPA Safety Net for Certain Candidates Who Are Impacted by the COVID-19 Crisis During the Spring 2020 through Summer 2021 Terms [updated Oct. 23]
2) October Newsletter
* Board of Regents October Items
* State Personnel Development Grant In Special Education
* Distance Education Guidance Update
* Coaching Course Internship Flexibility

 

NEW YORK CITY
NY Daily News. Budget cuts smaller than expected for NYC school support programs — they’ll lose $15 million, down from $50 million originally planned.  The Community Schools counseling program, Learning to Work initiative, and Affinity Schools teacher training network will lose a combined $15 million this year — less than the $50 million originally planned, Education Department officials said.

Teachers College. Teaching Residents at Teachers College. Induction and Beyond. November 2020: TR@TC Induction Newsletter

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 19 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
CBC. Ford government revokes seniority rule for Ontario teacher hiring   Some school boards have suggested the rule makes it harder for younger applicants straight out of their education degree to break into the system and constrains boards from diversifying the teaching workforce. 

Marino Institute of Education (Trinity College Dublin). Virtual International Winter School: Building your Professional Identity for the Classroom [2-13 November]

Teachers College. ‘A Crisis Within a Crisis’: TC’s Mary Mendenhall and Lena Verdeli address the pandemic’s impact on efforts to support refugee education and mental health   Mendenhall, Associate Professor of Practice in TC’s Department of International & Transcultural Studies, has spent years shaping new methods to prepare teachers who work with displaced populations. She lamented the pandemic’s impact on such efforts.

Voice of America News. Schools in Northern Cameroon Close as Boko Haram Steps Up Attacks  …some troops have also been deployed to teach displaced students in safer areas less susceptible to Boko Haram attacks.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1)  2020 Teacher Quality Partnership Grantees Announced   The Department of Education has awarded 23 grants administered as a of part of a pool of funding created to benefit programs including the Teaching Quality Partnership Program (TQP).  Of the 10 grants awarded under Teacher Quality Partnerships program—totaling $7.3 million—six of the grantees are AACTE members.
2) Issue Brief: How Do Education Students Pay for College?  There is a growing body of research suggesting that concerns about compensation generally—and about being able to repay student loans in particular—are dissuading college students from entering teaching. 

Education Week. Are Aspiring Teachers Learning Classroom Management? It Varies   the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based group that advocates for more rigorous teacher preparation, has found that just 14 percent of traditional teacher-preparation programs require candidates to demonstrate their ability in five research-based classroom management strategies… NCTQ scored 979 traditional teacher-prep programs and 40 alternative programs on their approaches to classroom management. The analysis found that a third of non-traditional programs required candidates to demonstrate their ability in all five strategies.

InsideHigherEd. Is It Time for All Students to Take Ethnic Studies?  With funding from the National Science Foundation, Goffney developed a rubric for assessing whether teachers are employing equitable teaching practices in their classrooms. She also developed a curriculum entitled Mathematical Knowledge for Equitable Teaching (MKET) that is used as the elementary mathematics methods course in the elementary teacher certification program focused on equity and justice.

Learning Policy Institute. Webinar—Closing California’s Opportunity Gap: Ensuring All Students Have Access to Fully-Prepared Teachers [10:30 am PT, Nov. 12]

NEA Today.
1) Local Union Steps Up Effort to Diversify Teaching Force: A grant from NEA’s EdSummer program supported a team of Connecticut educators working to recruit and retain more educators of colorCEA has a number of initiatives to help diversify the teaching profession, including awarding scholarships to students of color pursuing teaching careers and building upon the Future Educators of Diversity Clubs across the state that encourage high school students to examine teaching as a profession.
2) ‘Why is Our Expertise Not Treated the Same?’: Depending on the state, educators make between 2% and 33% less than other comparable college-educated workers.   The erosion of educator pay over the years coupled with the marginalization of the profession has led to an alarming teacher shortage, Pringle said. “Overall, fewer people are entering the profession and more are leaving”.

New York Times. After the Pandemic, a Revolution in Education and Work Awaits…the Industrial Revolution produced a world in which there were sharp distinctions between employers and employees, between educators and employers and between governments and employers and educators, “but now you’re going to see a blurring of all these lines.”.. The most critical role for K-12 educators, therefore, will be to equip young people with the curiosity and passion to be lifelong learners who feel ownership over their education.

U.S. Dept. of Education. 2020 Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Recipients.  To improve student achievement; improve the quality of new and prospective teachers by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities for new teachers; hold teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education (IHEs) accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers; and recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

Washington Post.
1) D.C. middle and high school employees asked to staff elementary classrooms in reopening plans   Seven thousand of these students would receive in-person instruction from teachers. The remaining 14,000 students would participate in virtual learning from their classrooms under the supervision of an adult who is not a teacher. The school system is calling these “CARE classrooms.”
2) Is it time to stop segregating kids by ability in middle school math?  In a report published in May, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended districts eliminate tracking in middle school math.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AACTE. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Teacher Residency Pilot at the College of Staten Island   In Summer 2019, CSI welcomed the first cohort of residents into a pilot Teacher Residency program hosted at PS 45 in Staten Island. The pilot program was the outgrowth of longstanding conversations between CSI and its P-12 partners about how to create deeper, more meaningful clinical experiences for aspiring teachers that could also serve real needs inside public schools…

NYSED Board of Regents. October meeting.
Board of Regents Acts on Sixth Series of Emergency Regulations to Ease Burdens on Educators, Students and Professionals in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 Emergency Regulations Part VI and Further Regulatory Flexibility for the Reopening of Schools

 

NEW YORK CITY
Education Week. Lucy Calkins Says Balanced Literacy Needs ‘Rebalancing’   Early reading teachers and researchers are reacting with surprise, frustration, and optimism after the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, the organization that designs one of the most popular reading programs in the country, outlined a new approach to teaching children how to read. 

Teachers College. Education for the Times: Alumnus Nick Stone Is Part of a Corps of Teachers Creating Nationwide Curricula   “The New York Times and Washington Post are basically my textbooks,” says Stone, a Social Studies teacher at Millennium High School in Lower Manhattan… Stone, who earned his TC degree in Social Studies Education, acknowledges that young people for the most part do not use the sources that sustained their parents and grandparents: newspapers, magazines and network news broadcasts.

 

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 12 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL

CNA [Singapore]. More support for early childhood educators, outdoor learning to be enhanced: ECDA   … organising peer sharing session for educators to share experiences in conducting outdoor learning, as well as advanced training courses for educators and trainers who attended training sessions in outdoor learning in 2019.

Education Business (UK). DfE cuts and cancels some teacher training bursaries. The government has cut some teacher training bursaries as well as scrapping others altogether, it has been revealed in new guidance on initial teacher training funding for the 2021-22 academic year.

Florida State University News. USAID-Florida State University partnership set to boost teacher training systems in ZambiaOver the five-year period, the “USAID Transforming Teacher Education Program” will give more than 60 Zambian teacher educators the skills to deliver effective instruction to 9,000 college and university students studying to become primary grade teachers.

GMA News Online. PRC exec: ‘Open enrollment’ behind low LET passing rate among teachers; CHED disagrees   The lack of strict admission rules for aspiring teachers is one of the reasons behind the low passing rate among education graduates who take the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) in the Philippines, an official from the Professional Regulation Commission on Monday. During a Senate committee on basic education hearing on quality of teacher education and training, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked why only an average of 30% and 48% of elementary and secondary education graduates who take the LET have passed in recent years.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Issue Brief Explores Financial Challenges Facing Future Teachers   The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) released today its latest issue brief, How Do Education Students Pay for College? The report provides colleges of education a closer look at the financial pressures impacting education students..
2) Registration open. 73rd Annual meeting: Resisting Hate, Restoring Hope: Engaging in Courageous Action [Virtual Conf. Feb. 24-26, 2021]
3) Strengthening Teacher Preparation: Transforming Clinical Practice   Back in 2015, a group of department chairs, administrative leadership, program directors and faculty at Jackson State University formed a task force to write a plan for transforming our teacher preparation program. In that plan, we identified areas of strength and areas we needed to improve.

Chalkbeat. How do you create a more diverse teacher force? Hire your own graduates, Chicago says.   The district is partnering with City Colleges of Chicago and Illinois State University to offer scholarships, financial and career counseling, and eventually preferential hiring to district graduates… The program will also encourage more men to become teachers. My Brother’s Keeper, created by former President Barack Obama to address racial disparities facing young men of color, also will partner with the district.

Education Week.
1) To Root Out Racism in Schools, Start With Who You HireBrooks-DeCosta’s [TC EdD ‘17] doctoral leadership program at Teachers College focused on anti-racist leadership, and part of it required her to write a racial autobiography identifying the first time she became racially aware or the first time she became aware of her race, who she is, and how she identified…
2) Yes, Teachers Are Still Being Evaluated. Many Say It’s Unfair   … the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers issued a joint statement along with state administrators’ associations warning that “teachers are not primarily trained to provide remote instruction and qualified evaluators are not trained to evaluate remote instruction.” Districts should focus on evaluations on “formative feedback and support” instead of summative ratings, the groups said. 

Hechinger Report.
1) Getting rid of gifted programs: Trying to teach students at all levels together in one class   “I have gone to a lot of conferences about educational diversity that were held during the weekday during the school year,” said Amy Stuart Wells, professor of education at Teachers College… “There were no teachers at these conferences. There was a lot of talk about moving kids around. There were a lot of recommendations thrown out there. But when it came to how they’d really work, the attitude was, ‘Let’s let the teachers worry about it.’ ”
2) Why decades of trying to end racial segregation in gifted education haven’t worked: Is it even possible to make a concept that has racist origins more equitable?   And testing only students whose teachers or parents are aware of the program and request it; few teachers get trained in gifted education, so their recommendations are often based on stereotypes… 
3) Why we need a new generation of special education teachers   To ameliorate shortages, districts and programs may depend on teachers who have been certified in alternative ways, via fast-tracked models, or rely on part-timers. This means that teachers step into the classroom with less preparation. 

InsideHigherEd. Graduate Enrollment Grew in 2019   Other fields with year-over-year increases in first-time graduate enrollment include engineering (+5 percent), health sciences (+3.5 percent)… and education (+0.4 percent).

Learning Policy Institute. Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand InequalityAnalysis of statewide teacher supply and demand factors indicates that there are three main factors driving shortages in California: the decline in teacher preparation enrollments, increased demand for teachers, and teacher attrition and turnover. However, the relative weight of supply and demand factors can vary from district to district.

New York Times. School Is (Whisper It) a Form of Child Care: And child care, at its best, fosters children’s development. So how did we come to treat them so differently?   In the 1800s, school was transformed state by state from a few weeks of instruction by a teenage girl in a one-room house into a system of formal classrooms with grades and professional teachers.

University Business. Navigating the COVID-19 mazeTeachers have needed to adapt their pedagogy for online instruction. States have been necessitated to implement flexible licensure requirements. And EPPs have been asked to provide innovative solutions that ensure teacher candidates are qualified to meet state licensure and certification requirements.

USNews. Amid Shortage, WVa College Students Can Substitute Teach   West Virginia education officials will let college seniors who are studying to become educators apply for immediate substitute teaching jobs in public schools due to a critical shortage.

Washington Post.
1) How ‘good’ parenting can make for ‘bad’ democracy   Resource availability for highly qualified teachers, engaging curriculums and suitable facilities are a function of the school-financing schemes states adopt… Administrators and teachers can be taught how to create school environments that minimize marginalizing student experiences on account of race.
2) In new memoir, the father of ‘multiple intelligences’ explains how he conceived his famous theory – and why he exhausted family and friends  The theory became highly popular with K-12 educators — though is now often misunderstood as wrongly equating “multiple intelligences” with the concept of different “learning styles.” Gardner never said that, though debunkers of his theory have claimed he did.
3) School reading classes still in a slump without more social studies   “Social studies has long been neglected in American primary school,” the authors say. “Elementary teachers are often taught that students should ‘first learn to read, so they can read to learn,’ even though youngsters can learn a lot about the world before they can decode.” 

 

NEW YORK STATE
LOHUD. For new teacher, 21, remote learning means connecting with students she hasn’t met   Zepeda, who grew up in New Rochelle and graduated from New Rochelle High School in 2016, was hired by the district last year for a one-year spot at Isaac Young Middle School… She stayed close to home for college, graduating from the College of New Rochelle in only three years… Maria Gomez, a guidance counselor at New Rochelle High School who was Zepeda’s counselor, said Zepeda was “laser focused” on math and later on becoming a teacher.

NYSATE/NYACTE. Discussion with NYSED Leaders. The New York State Association of Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education are pleased to host a discussion and question and answer session with New York State Education Department Leaders [Wed. Oct. 21 4pm]

 

NEW YORK CITY
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Urban Teacher Residency at the American Museum of Natural History   “We wanted to create a program that addressed the shortage of middle and high school Earth Science teachers and embodied AMNH’s mission of research, education, and the dissemination of knowledge about the natural world,” says Maritza MacDonald [TC EdD ‘95], senior director of education and policy emeritus… The result was the American Museum of Natural History Richard Gilder Graduate School’s Earth Science Residency Program—the only museum-based residency model for teacher preparation in the world.

Teachers College.
1) Beyond the Grid: The Untold Story of Harlem’s Fight for Quality Education   …the number of teachers of color in Harlem rose sharply from 1972 on — particularly in District 5 schools. White and Rogers attribute that increase to several factors, including the de facto segregating of black teachers to black neighborhoods, the emergence of alternate routes to teaching, the development of new models of school governance, and “curricular and pedagogical priorities tied to accountability and market-based competition charter schools.” There are positives and negatives to each of these trends, but, the authors conclude, “one outcome that has remained elusive through these years is the development of a stable, diverse, cadre of teachers who are well-prepared to teach District 5 students.”
2) Paul D. Coverdell Fellows 35th Anniversary Video  On January 20, 1985, the Peace Corps Director, Lorette Miller Ruppe signed an agreement establishing the first Paul D. Coverdell Fellows program at Teachers College, Columbia University. The TC Peace Corps Fellows Program was the first Fellows USA (now Coverdell Program).
3) The Roads Not Taken? There aren’t many for aspiring researcher, administrator and teacher Catherine Cheng Stahl   She volunteered as an aide teaching reading to third- and fourth-graders, and it felt so right that she stayed on at Wellesley for a fifth year, taking additional education classes before leaving to teach biology and chemistry at a rural Connecticut high school.

 

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 5 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
All Africa. Africa: Teachers Shoulder the Burden – Improving Support in Crisis Contexts  [co-authored by TC Assoc. Prof. M. Mendenhall]  To respond to teachers’ needs, our organizations, Education Cannot Wait and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) have forged a new partnership to build a toolkit that focuses on teacher well-being, particularly in emergency settings – a resource that will be developed in collaboration with teachers…Enable teachers to support all learners by continuously investing in and dramatically improving the nature and quality of teacher preparation, continuous professional development, and sustained support.

University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education. Academy for Leadership in Teacher Education (ALiTE) International Webinar Series for Exemplary Scholarship and Knowledge Exchange. Lecture by Prof. M. Cochran-Smith, Boston College: Global Trends and Challenges in Teacher Education and The Place of Teacher Inquiry [via Zoom, Oct. 15 6pm HK SAR]

 

UNITED STATES
AACTEPandemic May (Finally) Push Online Education Into Teacher Prep Programs   Even teacher prep programs that are offered via online courses don’t necessarily instruct teacher candidates how to educate students remotely, says Lynn Gangone, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Artesia Daily Press. New Mexico offers scholarships for advanced teacher training   New Mexico offers scholarships for advanced teacher training.  State officials say they’re making funds available to mid-level public school teachers to cover the cost of continuing education certifications that can lead to a significant salary increase.

Chalkbeat. Harper Lee’s love letter to teaching” Before ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Lee wrote about why people become educatorsShe never taught, but her first job when she moved to New York City from a small town in Alabama involved editing an education trade magazine… Lee was writing up a survey of some 57 people who all answered the question: “Why did you enter the teaching profession?” … Some were inspired by memories of teachers who had changed their lives, others by a love of children and young people. Some felt a patriotic calling to help educate good citizens, including a young veteran of World War II. In another sign of the times, some had taken aptitude and interests tests that suggested they would be good at teaching.

Colorado Sun. Colorado’s substitute teacher shortage, worsened by coronavirus, could force some schools to close. Again.: Districts are finding creative ways to fill the gap, leaning on their own teachers, administrators and even parents to sub   Subs who have a bachelor’s degree and are licensed teachers or have a substitute teaching license receive $100 per day, and subs who have a high school diploma and their substitute teaching license are paid $90 per day.

Council on the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).  Public Comment Page.   The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation is seeking public comment on proposed revisions to the CAEP Standards for Educator Preparation. The CAEP Board of Directors received recommendations from a task force charged with reviewing the standards and has approved a public comment period through November 2,2020.   

EdWeek.
1) Gates Foundation Unveils Grants to Make Algebra More Culturally Relevant   In Seattle last year, the school district created a new framework designed to “rehumanize” math… The move received acclaim from some educators and scholars of mathematics education, but also faced pushback from conservative commentators. 
2) How to Make Science Class Relevant During the Pandemic… fewer than half of all science teachers surveyed in Horizon Research’s “2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education” report responded that they feel “very well prepared” to encourage students’ interest in science and/or engineering. Among elementary teachers, that figure is just 26 percent.

National Education Association. How Did an NEA Member Get $103,000 in Student Debt Erased? With the help of NEA, music teacher Sean Ichiro Manes [TC MA, ’01 EdM ‘04] navigated federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that needs improving.

NYTimes.
1) Making Remote Schooling a Family Affair: Parents are more crucial then ever to their children’s education. Here are two programs, thousands of miles apart, that have helped get them involved. [OpEd by T. Rosenberg] When Covid-19 hit, Springboard ramped up. The group trained 3,000 incoming Teach for America members. Freed from geographical constraints, Springboard went from working in 62 schools to 667. 
2) Resources for Teachers.
3) What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 AmericaIn 2018, the starting salary for a public-school teacher averaged $38,000. In more than 1,000 districts, even the highest paid public-school teachers with advanced degrees and decades of experience earn less than $50,000. 

SFGate. Top teacher hopes more equitable system follows pandemic   John Arthur, Utah’s Teacher of the Year…credits his teachers for taking a personal interest in him and supporting him after his grandmother, who lived with his family, died…After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah, Arthur worked as a substitute teacher and discovered his passion for working with children. He returned to college to earn a masters degrees in elementary education and special education from Westminster College.

Washington Post.
1) Former D.C. Public Schools chancellor: Black cultural education ‘could change the entire calculus’ for children   Q: much of your prior work—DCPS, New Teacher Project, Teach for America, Chan Zuckerberg—focused on improving schools, education systems A: Well I think this is a systemic play I’m making now… the content we’re developing is as important for non-African Americans to learn as it is for African Americans. 
2) It’s been a week for Trump conspiracy theories. Here’s how to teach students to identify them — and more news literacy lessons.
3) Pandemic teaching, in their words   As crazy as this sounds, I feel like I can relate to my students more than I ever have in my entire career. I’m learning with them. I’m growing with them.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AACTE. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Early Childhood Urban Education Initiative at the Bank Street Graduate School of EducationOne of Bank Street’s newest programs—the Early Childhood Urban Education Initiative—helps uncredentialed early childhood educators in under-resourced New York City neighborhoods complete their certification and earn master’s degrees while remaining employed in their existing early childhood classrooms.

New York State Association of Teacher Educators (NYSATE). Sharing Educational Goals In These Challenging Times. [Oct. 7 4pm Via Zoom]

NYSED. Memo: Extension of Distance Education Flexibility for the Spring 2021 Semester NYS Education Department guidance for NYS Colleges and Universities related to distance education and the Spring 2021 semester.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching (PSPB). Meeting Minutes May 2020

 

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) A New Vision for American Education: A book co-authored by TC’s Sonya Douglass Horsford wins a Critics’ Choice Book Award. It analyzes policies long in the making and charts a new future for school leadershipThey trace how market-driven approaches to education reform have ensured that “teachers, administrators, and students will be more mobile, leading to less stability and a weakening of professional expertise and organizational capacity.” They demonstrate that “a new generation of teachers and administrators is being socialized into a very different workplace with a different conception of teaching and leading.” And they lament a diminished faith in public education and the government’s ability to administer it..
2) On World Teachers Day, A Call to Recognize and Support Those Working in Emergency ConditionsMendenhall has been one of the world’s driving forces in refugee education. During the past several years, as part of INEE’s Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaborative, she has spearheaded Teachers for Teachers, a research-based teacher professional development initiative operating in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, that delivers teacher training, coaching, and mobile mentoring. 
3) Teaching Residents @ Teachers College. October 2020 I TR@TC Induction Newsletter
4) Walking the Curriculum Walk: For Jacqueline Simmons, Online Course Design is a Standing Invitation to Rewrite the Script   I’m always interested in helping students expand upon the ways they view curricula — whether that’s in education, pop culture or public spaces. This course is designed to do so in a digital format, yet prepare students to teach these concepts in the classroom.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Sept. 28 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Education Reform Initiative of South Eastern Europe (ERI SEE).  Study on the Teacher Education and Training Needs Analysis Systems in SEE    The Study shows that the importance of the teacher education and training system is recognized by all of the economies as an important factor in the quality of teaching and learning as well as students’ achievements. 

ERR.EE. Government endorses 2021 state budget: Pensions, R&D funding to increase   A total of €4.7 million euros has been earmarked for moving on with the IT Academy program to develop IT curricula, facilitate the preparation of new IT teachers and support the sustainable development of said field as well as the success of the Estonian e-state. 

OECD. Advancing schooling beyond coronavirus – new insights from PISAPISA also shows the percentage of teachers fully certified by an appropriate authority as positively correlated with student performance, even after accounting for national income. Similarly, the percentage of full-time teachers in an education system is associated with greater equity in reading performance in that system, across all countries and economies.

UNESCO. World Teachers’ Day. Held annually on 5 October since 1994, World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. 

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 73rd Annual Meeting-Virtual in 2021. Feb. 24-28, 2021
2) Online Teaching Curricula in Ed PrepPrior to the pandemic, most teacher education programs prepared candidates to go into brick and mortar schools, so their emphasis on teaching online was minimal. Often, teacher candidates were taught to use technology in classrooms as a tool to convey information or allow students to seek answers. What was not being done was a wide scale effort to prepare future teachers to model and integrate online technology in their pedagogical approaches.
3)  Teaching in The Time of COViD-19: State Recommendations for Educator Preparation Programs and New Teachers,   Teaching in the time of COVID-19 has many challenges and has prompted states and EPPs to respond to urgent needs in the field. This report summarizes these changes and proposes recommendations to both manage the pandemic successfully and seek opportunities for innovative improvement.

EdWeek,
1) How to Use Digital Reading Programs During COVID-19. Teachers Still MatterThere’s a robust evidence base for how to teach children to read in person: Decades of research has shown that explicitly teaching students how letters correspond to spoken sounds—and teaching phonics—is the most effective way to help them learn to decode words. But there’s little evidence on how this best practice should be translated to the remote environment.
2) Special Report: Big Ideas For Confronting Racism In Education   …when EdWeek Research Center in August asked teachers if they had the training and resources they needed to teach an anti-racist curriculum, just 11 percent said they did. So, even as educators see the need to equalize and improve the educational experience for Black students, they might not have the tools or the support they need to address curriculum, practices, and policies that have long denied Black students the same opportunities to thrive as their white peers.

Hechinger Report.
1) Teachers need to talk about Breonna Taylor: Teaching a Shakespearean tragedy simply won’t do when you’re confronted with real ones every day  [OpEd by A. Perry] While teachers are told not to impose their political views on students, they have a moral obligation to protect students. Silence won’t protect kids; it encourages acceptance of the devaluation of life itself.
2) How can teachers help students grapple with the chaos surrounding us?” Too many aspiring teachers lack sufficient knowledge and preparation to guide students through these tough times [OpEd by K. Walsh]  A look at the courses required by teacher preparation programs reveals scant attention to the broad social studies knowledge aspiring elementary teachers need to provide essential context to world events. At most of these institutions, the deficiency is not about a lack of sufficient credit hours. 

LPI. Home-School Partnerships Key to Supporting Students With DisabilitiesIncreasing federal and state investments in preparing and supporting educators to work effectively with students with disabilities and their families is key to advancing the partnerships that are essential to students’ success.

MassLive. STRONG Act would authorize $600 million in funding to support teacher residencies, help fast-track prospective educators into workforce    Trahan, who represents Massachusetts’ third congressional district and is a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, joined with Congresswomen Jahana Hayes of Connecticut and Cheri Bustos of Illinois to introduce the Supporting Teachers with Residency Opportunities and New Grants (STRONG) Act. 

Rand Corp. Growing Teachers from Within: Implementation, Impact, and Cost of an Alternative Teacher Preparation Program in Three Urban School DistrictsThe TEACh program contributed substantially to the supply of teachers in participating districts, particularly in hard-to-staff roles. TEACh teachers were also more racially diverse. They remained teaching in the district at rates comparable to those of other new teachers.

Teacher Education Podcast. Hard-Earned Recognition for the Pre-K Classroom with Tabatha Rosproy.  Tabatha Rosproy, 2020 #NationalTeacheroftheYear, highlights the crucial role of early childhood education and the issues educators face in the pre-k classroom.

Washington Post. History educator: Let’s teach as if democracy depends on it — because it doesWhen I became a teacher, I made a commitment to create an inclusive classroom. The foundation of any teacher’s job is to stand up for their students. This makes teaching, especially in the Trump era, inherently political.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AACTE. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Syracuse City School District/SUNY Oswego Teacher Residency Partnership   Syracuse, New York is home to a longstanding residency partnership between SUNY Oswego and Syracuse City School District (SCSD). The district and university first developed the residency with resources obtained through New York State’s Clinically Rich Teacher Preparation Pilot in 2012.

Inside Higher Ed. Retirement Wave Hits Presidents Amid PandemicMary Beth Labate announced Sept. 10 that she would end her tenure as president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York. She’ll step down in December of this year… Labate recalled a difficult battle with the New York State Legislature over the state’s free college tuition program, called the Excelsior Scholarship, and reshaping how the Legislature understood financial aid. 

NYSED Office of Higher Education. Sept. Newsletter
BOARD OF REGENTS SEPTEMBER ITEMS
*Emergency COVID-19 certificate
*edTPA safety net.
*Accreditation.
*State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA).
CERTIFICATION UPDATES
*Student Developmental Level Coursework Requirement.
*Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Education, and Technology Education Content Core Coursework Requirement.
NEW YORK STATE TEACHER CERTIFICATION EXAMINATIONS (NYSTCE) TEST DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
*Safety Net for the Arts Content Specialty Tests.
*Content Specialty Test (CST) Practice Tests.
REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK ON TEACHER SUPPLY AND DEMAND PROJECT
EDTPA WEBINARS

NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives. Theory and Techniques of Coaching (Sport Specific) Course Internship Experience Flexibility Extended.  …the Department is extending the internship flexibility for the 2020-2021 academic year where course instructors may supplement the internship experience with alternative methods of instruction. However, the internship must include some virtual and/or in-person interaction with P-12 or college students.

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalbkeat. I’m an assistant principal trying to make this year work. A corps of recent NYC grads would help: During this emergency, let’s tap into the talent pool that is our former students.   The result would be the ability to add a significant entry to their resumes, and some would perhaps consider a career in teaching as a result, further benefiting the city… The young adults in this Graduate Corps could receive intensive training and on-site support much like I had as a NYC Teaching Fellow.

Gothamist. “Teachers Are Not Widgets”: Schools Try To Staff Up In A Mad Dash Against Time…  multiple teachers told Gothamist/WNYC they’re teaching subjects outside their certifications: An elementary school science teacher is teaching pre-K, a computer/technology teacher is teaching 4th grade, a math teacher is teaching Spanish. In a special education class that requires two teachers, a single teacher with dual certification said she’s being counted as two separate people. “It’s the Wild West, we’re totally [do-it-yourself-]ing this thing,” 

Teachers College. TC Will Honor a Distinguished Group of Alumni at Its 2020 Academic Festival.  The 2020 Early Career Award winners are: Benjamin Dickman (Ph.D. ’14), a K-12 New York City mathematics teacher who publishes his research on teacher education in peer-reviewed journals.

Wall Street Journal. New York City Mayor’s Advisory Council Warned of Teacher Shortage Four Months Ago : Members said schools needed more guidance in June to be ready on timeThey said district leaders had been aware of staffing concerns and will deploy substitute teachers and others.

Washington Post. A chaotic, down-to-the-wire start of school in New York serves as a harbinger for other cities.  But she still needs two additional teachers for in-person instruction. Until she can hire them, students who arrive at school are taking virtual classes from their classrooms under the supervision of a substitute teacher… The union that represents the city’s principals said the system needs at least 1,200 more elementary school teachers.