Month: March 2021

GLOBAL
INEE. Transforming Girls’ Education through gender-responsive middle-grade books   The books went to press in December 2020 and are currently on their way to Sierra Leone for distribution to teacher training workshops at six teachers’ colleges and 260 schools where CODE’s Transforming Girls’ Education Program is being delivered – that’s 108,440 copies. 

KFM Radio (Kampala). Educationists blame inadequate teacher training for low e-learning uptake in Uganda.  Vice Chancellor of Nkumba University, Jude Lubega sited the lack of adequate training of teachers on adaption of new techniques of digital education… also calls for heavy investment in Information and Communication Technologies in all institutions of learning, especially in teachers colleges so that trainees graduate with hands on ICT skills.

TeleSur. Mexico To Approve Free Higher Education.  A place for all Mexican students will be guaranteed through a national system of higher education, which will be integrated by the university, technological, and teacher training subsystems.

University World News, Africa Edition. Higher education institutions reopen, exams proceed   Professor Fanuel Tagwira, the permanent secretary of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, directed all teachers’ colleges to reopen for the first term on 15 March and close on 4 June.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Video Case Studies Offer Promising Practices to Increase Male Teachers of Color.  … new video series featuring promising practices for recruiting and retaining male teachers of color. AACTE created the Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teacher Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC), which included a 5-year study by 10 AACTE member institutions
2) Case Study: One Program’s Process of Integrating Trauma-Informed Practices into Educator Preparation   The Metropolitan State University of Denver School of Education (SOE) in partnership with local non-profit Resilient Futures is integrating TIP into its entire curriculum. 

Chronicle. 4 Challenges That Threaten College Completion Now and Post-Pandemic   A child-care crisis that forced millions of Americans to drop out of the work force this year has ramifications for higher ed… aren’t colleges the institutions that train our teachers and early-childhood educators? Maybe it’s time to double down on that mission. The pandemic has been a wake-up call for national leaders about the vital role of child care in keeping the economy going. 

Education Week.
1) Most States Fail to Measure Teachers’ Knowledge of the ‘Science of Reading,’ Report Says   For many elementary school teachers, teaching students how to read is a central part of the job. But the majority of states don’t evaluate whether prospective teachers have the knowledge they’ll need to teach reading effectively before granting them certification, according to a new analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
2) The Coming Literacy Crisis: There’s No Going Back to School as We Knew It   Elementary and pre-K educators need the social-emotional skills and the necessary training in the science-backed explicit instruction every child needs through 3rd grade to read deeply… Structural inequities like underfunding education by ZIP code and institutional racism also demand action, but well-trained teachers themselves have a huge role to play in a just future.

NYTimes. Why Child Care Staff Had to Show Up While Teachers Worked Remotely   Many other child care workers around the country — the majority of whom are nonwhite — are in unions that do not have the same political clout as teachers’ unions, and many are not unionized at all. That dynamic, along with differences in teaching credentials, helps explain why child care workers tend to make significantly less money than public schoolteachers.

The74. Two Steps Forward, One Back: Teacher Diversity Bill May Push Hundreds of Minnesota Educators of Color from Classrooms   … the House bill would eliminate a key provision of a three-year-old reform to the state’s teacher licensing system, making it very difficult for anyone who does not train in a Minnesota teacher preparation program, and many who start their teaching career in another state, to get a permanent license.

UChicago News. Max S. Bell, prolific educator and author of definitive math curriculum, 1930–2021   Prof. Bell’s work, which included longitudinal studies of math pedagogy and teacher training, was an expansion of the educational philosophy of John Dewey—the founder of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools—who viewed education as an essential tool for strengthening democracy and helping students reach their full potential.

World Economic Forum. Learning through play represents the best long-term value for helping kids, regardless of background.  When children are engaged in play, they experience lower levels of exclusion. Interventions which include teacher training and follow-up, a greater engagement of parents in recognizing the benefits of play as well as the use of a wider range of materials and activities, are shown to close achievement gaps between students from advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

NEW YORK STATE
Niagara Frontier Publications. NYSUT announces new advancing racial justice in education agenda.  The union’s advancing racial justice in education agenda includes:…•Addressing the teacher shortage All students benefit from a diverse educator workforce. To help diversify the workforce, NYSUT is seeking: √ A restoration of funding for the state’s teacher-mentor and “Teachers of Tomorrow” programs…√ A request for $1 million in new funding to support locally driven “grow your own” programs that aim to foster aspiring teachers’ interest in an education career… √ A request to preserve $18 million in the executive budget for the state’s “My Brother’s Keeper” program. “MBK” supports grant programs that include the Teacher Opportunity Corps, which provide mentorship opportunities for educators in an effort to retain more teachers who come from communities of color that are historically underrepresented in education.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) NYC gave thousands of students iPads. For English learners, those devices have not been up to the task. [by co-author Becky Gould, Teachers College MA’17]   Here is a snapshot of what it is like to teach and learn for high school English language learners with an education-department iPad:…
2) What is the path forward for New York City schools? Mayoral hopefuls weigh in   Their ideas also included placing two teachers in every elementary school classroom, learning at museums, and developing a citywide tutoring corps.

Teachers College. ‘Hearing the Other Side of the Story’: A webinar on how to teach controversial topics emphasizes listening with respect.  Hearing “the other side of the story” is one of the central themes of “Mending the Fabric of Democracy: Teaching Civic Readiness,” a four-part webinar series offered throughout March by Teachers College’s Center for Educational Equity (CEE) and the statewide DemocracyReady NY Coalition to advance the implementation of a state constitutional measure to promote lessons on civic engagement in New York classrooms

GLOBAL
All Africa. Kenya: Thousands Locked Out of Teacher Training Colleges Over Grades   Thousands of applicants who had applied for diploma training in primary and early childhood development education did not meet the grade set last month while those who qualified will hardly fill the vacancies available in both public and private TTCs.

Association for Teacher Education in Europe. Online Annual Conference.  Theme: (Re)imagining & rethinking @teachereducation [Deadline call for proposals: 31 March]

New York Times. For Rohingya Survivors, Art Bears Witness.  The organization’s mission is to deploy the arts as a humanitarian tool. Its executive director and co-founder, Max Frieder, an intrepid 31-year-old dreadlocked artist and educator, trains refugees within the camps to become muralists and teachers, drawing on and augmenting their own flourishing craft traditions… Frieder.. with a doctorate in art and arts education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, arrived in the Rohingya camps shortly after the 2017 wave of refugees… The murals are an opportunity for those whose past has been erased to “leave a mark of your presence,” said Lena Verdeli, the director of the Global Mental Health Lab at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Teachers College Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program. Celebration of Teaching 2021. Our GLOCAL Imperative: Thinking Globally and Acting Locally [Webinar Monday March 29]

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1). Call for Proposals 2022 annual meeting “Rethink, Reshape, Reimagine, Revolutionize: Growing the Profession Post Pandemic”[New Orleans, March 4-6
2) College of Education Awarded $1.5M Houston Endowment Grant to Prepare And Produce More Qualified Teachers of Color   Houston Endowment has awarded Prairie View A&M University’s Whitlowe R. Green College of Education (WRGCOE) one of the college’s largest grants in its 141-year history. The foundation is investing $1.5 million in the College to support PVAMU’s Educator Preparation Program, increasing the number of qualified teachers of color and preparing the educators for long-term success. 
3) Revolutionizing Education for All Learners: A Road Map to the Future (2021)   … gain from this study is the building of relationships with prospective new partners and non-members who share AACTE’s commitment to high-quality educator preparation; promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; and advancing educator preparation, policy, and practice.

Forbes. LEGO Education Launches Teacher Training Initiative   Nothing is revolutionary about using hands-on, play-style lessons to do that. But LEGO Education’s foray into the space through teacher training is.

InsideHigherEd. Cabrini University Eliminates 46 Positions, Some Programs   Majors in religious studies, Black studies, philosophy, gender and body studies, human resources management, liberal studies, and nutrition will be cut, as will secondary education certifications in biology and chemistry. 

LPI. A Restorative Approach for Equitable Education  With the disruption of an already inequitable school system, we have the opportunity to rebuild in ways that create a long-lasting transformation of educational experiences, enabling all students to learn in safe, inclusive, and supportive environments. To achieve this, we must invest in culturally responsive teacher training, reduce discriminatory discipline policies, and provide tools and personnel to meet students’ diverse needs.

Markets Insider. McGraw Hill Forms New K-12 Equity Advisory Board to Guide the Company’s Focus on Educational Equity   McGraw Hill today announced the formation of an Equity Advisory Board for its K-12 business.  The new board comprises six leaders from different fields of work, including academia, law and school administration. The Board includes Dr. Mariana Souto-Manning, Professor of Early Childhood Education and Teacher Education, Teachers College at Columbia University, and Founding Co-Director, Center for Innovation in Teacher Education and Development (CITED).

Network for Public Education. Chartered For Profit: The Hidden World of Charter Schools Operated for Financial Gain   Savings can also accrue from hiring uncertified teachers or discouraging students who need the most services from enrolling. A 2019 investigation by Andrew Marra of The Palm Beach Post revealed that Renaissance Schools run by the for-profit giant Charter Schools USA hired large numbers of uncertified, inexperienced teachers. The chain was evading a state law requiring teachers to be certified by designating them as permanent substitutes.

The Journal. Academic Aptitude and Diversity in Teacher Training Programs Not Conflicting Aims.  A new study has found no basis to the idea that drawing top students into teacher education programs will damage program diversity. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), academic aptitude and diversity along ethnic and racial lines are not “conflicting goals,” even as 10 colleges and universities have dropped admissions tests for their teacher preparation programs in hopes of increasing the number of Black and Hispanic/Latinx teacher candidates.

UCLA. Christina Christie named Wasserman Dean of School of Education & Information Studies   Christie earned her doctorate from UCLA; her master of arts and master of education from Teachers College, Columbia University; and her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents.
1) Board of Regents Acts to Adopt Revisions to State Learning Standards for Languages Other Than English   The regulation changes proposed by the Department include to:… *Rename teaching certificate titles, as well as certification and teacher preparation program coursework requirements from “language(s) other than English” to “world language(s) other than English,” and the tenure title of “Foreign Languages” to “World Languages”…
2) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-5.9 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Internship Certificate – Your Committee heard Department staff present a regulatory amendment to Section 80-5.9 of the Commissioner’s regulations that…
3) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-1.5 Creating a Safety Net for the School Building Leader (SBL) Assessment – The Board of Regents voted to adopt the amendment to Section 80-1.5, which will become effective on March 31, 2021.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. This NYC bilingual educator shares what it means to teach for ‘equity, not equality’   Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher? When I found out about bilingual education, I was sold. I always knew how to speak Spanish but didn’t know how to read or write it until college. Realizing I could teach other children who grew up like me, that aspect of being bilingual was crucial to me.

NBC New York. NYC Public Schools Have Historic New Leader Exactly 1 Year Since COVID Shutdown   Porter graduated from Queens Vocational and Technical High School and went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in English concentrating in Cross Cultural Literature and Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. She later received her Master’s Degree in Administration and Supervision from Mercy College… and been a Teachers College, Columbia University Cahn fellow

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe. Virtual Open Day, 12 March, 2 pm CET Free Online Event – Open to All  Register your interest by 10 March to receive the programme and meeting link prior to the event.

National Post. Short-term anti-racist training is not enough to counter systemic racism in Canadian education   Before we can have anti-racist classrooms and a more equitable education system, teacher preparation programs need to face a reckoning. Canadian universities need to move beyond the comforting rhetoric of equity, diversity and inclusion and confront and change the values, structures and behaviours that perpetuate systemic racism within them.

Teachers College. Redefining Scholarship: With the new year under way, the Teachers College Record is amplifying a diverse new range of voices and topics.  The articles in the year’s opening issue included: “Invisible Shifts in the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China;” “White Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions when Teaching about Race”…

The Conversation. Teachers are expected to put on a brave face and ignore their emotions. We need to talk about it    “Australian universities enrol thousands of people to become teachers..Despite all the theory, training and practical experience research shows teachers’ professional lives can be highly demanding, pressured, stressful and at times, emotionally exhausting”

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Join Education Deans in Discussion: Leaning in and Leading Through Crisis.   Tune into the Leaning in and Leading Through Crisis discussion on March 18 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
2) New Partnership Gives AACTE Members Special Access to GoReact, a provider cloud-based video assessment software for educator preparation
3) New Volunteer Leaders Take the Helm of AACTE  AACTE Executive Committee; AACTE Board of Directors…

AARP. Grandmother Uses Teaching Experience to Fill Virtual School Void: After 35 years in the classroom, retired Atlanta woman is the ultimate pandemic instructor   Pre-pandemic, Atkins, who has a master’s degree in early childhood education, had been running what she calls “Nanny Camp,” a structured after-school education program for her grandchildren… Education runs in the Atkins family. Her parents were teachers. Her grandfather, Robert Clinton Hatch, earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Teachers College in the 1940s…

Bank Street College. Voices of Aspiring Teachers on Why Money Matters   Launched in the 2019-2020 academic year at 12 institutions across seven states, including public, private, large, small, urban and rural programs, the survey received 1,242 responses… The resulting dataset helps establish… a national picture of aspiring teacher-level information about the economic costs and associated burdens of entering the teaching profession.

Breakthrough Collaborative. How A Corps of College Students Closes Opportunity Gaps & Diversifies the Teacher Pipeline   This report, the second in a series, shares the Teaching Fellow Training Framework used to prepare young adults to teach Breakthrough’s middle and high school students. The report also reveals how Breakthrough successfully translated the training model to a completely virtual environment during the summer of 2020.

Chalkbeat.
1) Biden to states: Teachers should be able to get vaccine in March   President Biden said Tuesday that he wants every teacher, school staffer, and child care worker in the U.S. to get at least one shot in March — and he will pressure states and use federal resources to make it happen.
2) Philadelphia educator starts national project to find more Black teachers: Just 2% of teachers across U.S. are Black men; goal is to bring 21,000 Black students into the teaching pipeline   The Center for Black Educator Development, founded by veteran Philadelphia educator Sharif El-Mekki, is entering a new phase in its quest to dramatically change the face of the country’s teaching profession. In what it is calling a “national educational justice campaign,” the organization will use $3.1 million in new funding from several foundations and venture capitalists to launch two major initiatives to nurture future teachers of color across the country. 
3) We need school leaders who reflect the students they serve: Because seeing is believing ‘I can, too.’  … flexibility around teacher certification — a long, expensive process that research shows doesn’t lead to higher student achievement — would also help more educators of color enter the profession. This would remove the barriers that make it more difficult for people of color to become teachers. Take a look at Texas. Public charter schools here, along with traditional school districts that apply to be Districts of Innovation, are able to hire non-certified teachers in certain subjects and provide them with high-quality training throughout their careers.

Effingham Daily News. Rural locations, pandemic worsen educator shortages in east-central Illinois   Teacher shortages are not new to the state, but Thompson said matters began to worsen when the State Board of Education made EdTPA, a performance-based national assessment for licensure, a state requirement to become a teacher.

Hechinger Report. Substitute teacher crisis forces districts to turn to local businesses and recent grads: In Missouri, a barrel company’s employees serve as substitute teachers. In Connecticut, a superintendent turns to recent high school grads.  And not all substitute teachers are equally qualified; those with training and certifications are more effective than those with minimal credentials. At the start of this school year, the Missouri State Board of Education suspended its requirement that applicants have 60 college credits to be certified as a substitute teacher… anyone with a high school diploma or its equivalent can substitute if they complete a 20-hour on-line training session and pass the necessary background check.

National Education Policy Center. Caught in the Crosshairs: Emerging Bilinguals and the Reading Wars   More than a dozen states—including Florida, Texas and North Carolina—rushed to react, passing laws requiring pre-service and current teachers to place a greater emphasis on phonics… In addition to adding new reading standards to the evaluation of teacher preparation programs, Colorado lawmakers also, in 2019, passed legislation requiring the state education department to ensure that early reading curricula used in schools emphasizes phonemic awareness.

Teachers College. Tracing the Sources of Inspiration: Amoy Walker (M.A. ’06) is honored for teaching that “dives deep” and strengthens critical thinking   …she enrolled at TC, where she earned her degree in Social Studies Education… looking at the research of equity and inclusion and figuring out how to create a safe and respectable place for all children to grow and learn. TC showed me how to look at the resources that a child needs to live a full and dignified life. And I have taken that understanding with me for all these years since I left TC.”

The 74. Force of Habit: New Study Finds that Routines Could Be Blocking Teacher Improvement   New approaches to instructional coaching held the promise for initiating positive changes. Sims pointed especially to an exercise at the University of Virginia that places pre-service teachers in virtual classrooms, where they were asked to manage student-like avatars that loudly disrupted their teaching.

Washington Post. Denied a teaching job for being ‘too Black,’ she started her own school — and a movement   Burroughs was forward-thinking in her understanding of what women can or should learn. She taught vocational skills, but her school also emphasized subjects such as literature and Latin. To graduate, all students were required to take a Black history course.

NEW YORK STATE
New York State Education Department.
1) Seeking candidates for Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education Policy to serve as a member of the Commissioner’s Leadership Team  The incumbent will play a key role in implementing strategic plans relating to student assessment, the development and implementation of New York State learning standards, charter school management, teacher and school leader preparation requirements and certification…
2) Statement From Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr., the Board of Regents and State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on Appointments   “We are pleased to congratulate Regents Hakanson and Reyes on their re-elections to the Board of Regents… “We welcome Ruth Turner and Aramina Vega Ferrer who were elected to the Board of Regents today by the New York State Legislature.

NEW YORK CITY
Columbia University Education Law and Policy Society. Panel Discussion: “Special Education and COVID-19”    Zoom Webinar: Monday, March 8, 2021 6:00 pm

Gotham Gazette. Expanding Educational Opportunities for Our Youngest Learners   By expanding and reforming the bilingual certifications needed to teach younger children, we can offer scholarships and financial aid to student-teachers who can teach languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Polish at an introductory level, helping provide educational support for both our children and their instructors.

NYTimes. Susan Feingold Dies at 95; Helped Give New York Children a Head Start: Her Bloomingdale Family Program provided preschoolers with a haven where there hadn’t been one before.   With the aid of federal funding, Bloomingdale grew, with longtime volunteer parents joining its full-time staff. In the 1970s, Ms. Feingold introduced a “one to one” program, which focused on individual care for children with special needs, eventually offering bilingual speech therapy and occupational therapy. By the 1990s, Bloomingdale had three early childhood centers in Upper Manhattan, including its Columbus Avenue site.