Month: April 2021

GLOBAL
Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report. CFP Spotlight Report Series on Africa [deadline 17 May]

Punch. Provost canvasses investment in teacher education   The Provost of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Oto/Ijanikin, Lagos State, Prof. Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye, has advocated urgent investment in teacher education in the country.

Sydney Morning Herald. New curriculum teaches cultural diversity, dumps ‘Christian heritage’   Victorian maths teacher Greg Ashman, a PhD candidate who researches the tension between progressive and traditional teaching methods, said the proposed changes overstepped the role of the curriculum to prescribe content, but not teaching styles.

Washington Post. Court rules Quebec can bar government workers from wearing hijabs, turbans, other religious items   In 2019, Kaur, a Sikh woman from Quebec, told The Washington Post that she graduated from teachers college on the day Bill 21 passed. Rather than remove her turban to work in her home province, she moved across the country to take a job in British Columbia. “I am very pleased that today’s decision allows teachers like myself to work in the Quebec English educational system,” Kaur said Tuesday in a statement. “However, this victory is bittersweet since teachers in French schools, police officers and lawyers still cannot work with their articles of faith.

UNITED STATES
Association of Teacher Educators. CFP 2021 Summer Conference Columbus, OH July 29 – August 3, 2021 [deadline May 15]

Chalkbeat.
1) 4 ways Biden’s American Families Plan would matter for schools and children.  4. It would try to encourage more people to become teachers. Biden also wants to invest $9 billion “to train, equip and diversify American teachers.” The plan would double federal TEACH scholarships for prospective teachers from $4,000 to $8,000; invest $2.8 billion “grow your own” and teacher residency programs; pour $1.6 billion into helping teachers obtain additional certifications in areas like special education and bilingual education…
2) Indiana lawmakers passed measures that will reshape education. Here’s what you should know.   Teacher licensure: The legislature approved a new route for teachers to earn their license in Indiana, intended to reduce the state’s teacher shortage. Under the new law (SB 205), people who are 26 or older and hold a bachelor’s degree may receive a license by completing an alternative training program — including an online program — and passing a state licensing exam. Educators with alternative licenses, however, may not teach special education.

Clemson News. Clemson Virtual Tutoring Corps lifts weight from faculty and staff caregivers during pandemic lockdown   Ptacek said she received 75 applications and hired 28 federal work-study students to be tutors. Also, five graduate students from Clemson’s Black Graduate Student Association and five faculty from the Emeritus College donated their services, giving her 38 tutors to offer to the children of faculty and staff. A total of 72 children received tutoring.

EducationWeek.
1) Biden Pitches Plan to Expand Universal Pre-K, Free School Meal Programs, Teacher Training   *Provide $9 billion to “train, equip and diversify American teachers” through expanded federal scholarships for would-be educators, “grow-your-own” programs that help paraprofessionals become full-time teachers, and teacher residency and leadership programs. 
2) New Teaching Jobs May Emerge With Continued Demand for Virtual Learning   Of the district administrators interviewed for this article, none say they plan to require virtual teachers to obtain specific certification or licensing requirements related to virtual learning… Hiller Spires, associate dean of North Carolina State University’s College of Education… prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of discussion within colleges of education regarding how to support teacher preparation during the digital revolution. “The changes just weren’t happening. They never came to fruition,” she said.

Hechinger Report.
1) Rural schools have a teacher shortage. Why don’t people who live there, teach there? Out-of-towners don’t stay long in rural schools, but convincing qualified locals to stick around and teach is harder than it sounds.  Principals in small towns across the West regularly import teachers from afar, even from abroad. They hire unlicensed teachers and stop offering specific courses… Montana has the highest share of rural schools of any state… Montana principals reported hiring nearly 400 people without full credentials over the past three years to lead classrooms, according to a Hechinger Report analysis of data
2) From admissions to teaching to grading, AI is infiltrating higher education.  …applications that answer academic questions, grade assignments, recommend classes and even teach… AI teaching assistants, ready to answer student questions about course material… studies found that some students couldn’t tell they were engaging with AI and not a human teaching assistant.

InsideHigherEd. Biden Proposes Free Community College, Pell Expansion   *Double scholarships for future teachers from $4,000 to $8,000 per year. The Biden plan also targets $400 million for teacher preparation at minority-serving institutions and $900 million for the development of special education teachers.

KRWG/NPR. Early Childhood, Higher Education Departments Aim to Recruit Bilingual and Multicultural Educators   The new state budget includes $7 million to build capacity at New Mexico public colleges and universities to train, recruit, and support early childhood educators from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds

New York Times. Biden Details $1.8 Trillion Plan for Workers, Students and Families   The administration is closely tied to teachers’ unions, and while many early childhood educators are not unionized, the proposal also calls for investments in K-12 teacher education, training and pay, which are all union priorities. One goal is to bring more teachers of color into a public education system where a majority of students are nonwhite.

Washington Post. Robert Slavin, whose reading program is used in schools nationwide, dies at 70   Dr. Slavin was a distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education… developing research-backed educational programs and teaching techniques… studied psychology at Reed College in Portland, Ore., where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1972. One of his professors, Carol Creedon, taught him that schools could not only teach but transform children, inspiring him to go into education. 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. Office of Higher Education April Educator Preparation Program Newsletter
*Board of Regents April Items: edTPA Safety Net, Computer Science Teacher Preparation Program Content Core Requirement
*My Brother’s Keeper Teacher Opportunity Corps II Grant Proposal
*New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTE) Test Development Activities
*Teaching In Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments

NYS Register. 60-day public comment period regarding the proposed amendment “Extending the edTPA Safety Net in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis” “…the Department is proposing to extend the edTPA safety net to candidates who complete a student teaching or similar clinical experience during the 2021-2022 academic year while enrolled in a New York State registered teacher preparation program…These candidates are able to take and pass either the Assessment of Teaching Skills-Written (ATS-W) or edTPA to satisfy the teacher performance assessment requirement for certification.” 
Data, views or arguments may be submitted to: Petra Maxwell, NYS Education Department, Office of Counsel, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 112EB, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-6400, email:[email protected]

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. To help NYC students catch up, de Blasio’s budget would earmark $500M for testing and tutoring   The Council has also called for spending $250 million on 2,500 additional teachers to reduce class sizes 

NYDailyNews. Invest education windfall in smaller classes [by K. Cashin, NYSED Board of Regents]  We have a crisis in teaching, with high teacher attrition rates, particularly in those schools with the most disadvantaged students. This emanates in part from these teachers having class sizes too large. Educators are not being provided with the opportunity they need to succeed in their jobs.

Teachers College.
2021 Convocation. From Determination to Joy: TC’s 2021 graduates are celebrated for their perseverance, excellence and leadership, and implored to believe in those they serve. Stacey Abrams, recipient of the Teachers College President’s Medal of Excellence  “I’m here today because of education.. My father’s challenge was a learning difference. His thoughtful, compassionate teachers realized that if he could hear their lessons he could learn. They accommodated his style of learning..”

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE).  2021 ATEE General Assembly – 20 May

Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). The 2021 CIES conference will take place virtually April 25 – May 2 Theme: Social Responsibility within Changing Contexts

Men’sHealth (UK). Generation Gains: Today’s young men are at a disadvantage – socially, mentally, professionally and financially   … having more funding for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services [CAMHS], which is what’s supposed to help. But it can’t meet the demand. The other way is teacher training, so that teachers are trained to recognise a problem and know how to help.

The Guardian. ‘Let children play’: the educational message from across Europe Play was “something that’s missing from the first stage of primary school”, Martín said. “It’s very difficult to find teachers who deliberately build it into their timetables for eight-year-olds”. Forthcoming reforms were meant to put more emphasis on investigation and flexibility, she said, but “much will depend on teacher training”.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Building and Sustaining Recruitment Pathways for Black and Latino Male Teachers. In 2014, our College of Education at William Paterson University, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority Serving Institution (MSI), located in the greater New York City area, was selected as one of ten universities to participate in the AACTE Network Improvement Community (NIC), aimed at increasing the number of Black and Latino/Hispanic male teachers (BLMs). Since that time, we have been engaged in iterative cycles of plan-do-study-act (PDSA).
2) Call for Applications: A Conference to Design Simulations for Clinical Preparation of Secondary Science Teachers [deadline April 30]   Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Discovery Research PreK-12 convening grant, the purpose of this conference is to convene experts across the country to (1) identify significant gaps in the clinical preparation of science educators (2) ideate on virtual environments that help address those gaps, and (3) develop scenarios through design thinking for EPPs to implement within their programs.
3) Prepared To Teach Releases ‘3 Rs’ Reports on Sustainably Funded Teacher Preparation   With over five years of work with universities, districts, and schools across the country, Prepared To Teach has developed a framework for thinking about how the field might make strong teacher preparation more affordable.  Our “3 Rs” of Sustainably Funded Teacher Preparation—Reduction, Reallocation, and (Re)Investment—can help local partnerships bring high quality preparation programs within reach for more aspiring teachers.

Chalkbeat. MSU Denver wins full state approval for two majors after reading revamp   Eight months after getting dinged by the State Board of Education for its approach to covering reading instruction, Metropolitan State University of Denver earned glowing praise for changes to two majors within its teacher preparation program.

Hechinger Report. Gifted programs provide little to no academic boost, new study says: National study finds Black students and low-income children don’t reap the small gains achieved by white, Asian and high-income children   Virginia Roach, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, which operates programs for high achieving students, commended the study in an email.  She said the disappointing results are a sign that teachers need better training to teach gifted students differently. She added that pressures to increase the number of students who pass annual state tests discourage teachers from focusing on advanced students and giving them an “optimal” challenge. 

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Racial Literacy: A Policy Research Brief produced by the James R. Squire Office of the National Council of Teachers of English [by TC Prof. Y. Sealey-Ruiz]. Developing the racial literacy of all teachers, but specifically preservice teachers who will teach Black and Brown youth, is significant. Preservice teacher education programs are critical sites for foregrounding the discussion of race and problematizing the ways in which the social and academic behaviors of Black and Brown students are misread.

National Review. To Combat Woke Classrooms, Go to the Source: University Education Programs   [D. Buck Op-Ed] At its most egregious, schools of education push ideas such as “activist pedagogy,” which, as the name implies, would see students who will grow up to be activists deconstructing the society in which they live. In the ’90s, far before Critical Race Theory entered the common lexicon, Gloria Ladson-Billings advanced the need for “Critical Race Theory” in schools. 

Seattle Times. Lawmakers divided on Washington education bill that eliminates state testing requirement for some student teachers.  If the House approves the changes and Gov. Jay Inslee signs it into law, all students who graduate between 2019 and 2022 will be exempt from the edTPA requirement because of logistical challenges the pandemic created… The new amendment, however, means students who graduate after 2022 will still be required to take the test. 

Washington Post.  John B. King, former Obama education secretary, running for Maryland governor   He earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, a law degree from Yale and a doctorate in education administration from Columbia. King worked as a high school social studies teacher and a middle school principal, launched a charter school in Boston, and spent three contentious years as the top education official in New York state.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. edTPA Safety Net for Certain Candidates Who Are Impacted by the COVID-19 Crisis During the Spring 2020 through Summer 2022 Terms.  Candidates who meet the eligibility requirements below for the edTPA safety net may pass the Assessment of Teaching Skills – Written (ATS-W) exam in lieu of passing the edTPA. Either version of the ATS-W exam (Elementary or Secondary) is acceptable; it is the candidate’s choice which version they want to take. To qualify, the candidate must take the ATS-W exam by September 1, 2024.

NYS Senate. Senate Bill S5666: Relates to the maximum percentage of students that can be exempted from the admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs   Increases the percentage of students from any incoming class who can be exempted from the admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs from no more than fifteen percent to fifty percent.

NEW YORK CITY
New York City Council. The New York City Council’s Response to the Fiscal 2022 Preliminary Budget and Fiscal 2021 Preliminary Mayor’s  Management Report  Targeted Class Size Reduction–$250 million: The Fiscal 2022 Executive Budget should introduce a targeted class size reduction initiative to add 2,500 teachers and provide support to schools to reallocate school resources to lower class sizes.

NYTimes. Teachers’ Union Backs Stringer for N.Y.C. Mayor, Giving Him a Boost.  Mr. Stringer’s promise to put two teachers in every elementary school classroom… also appealed to education experts who have said adding more teachers could make traditional public schools more attractive to parents..”

GLOBAL
Daily Mail. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says investing in teacher training is ‘crucial’ to Covid recovery plans and closing attainment gap between children   ‘After all the disruption to our schools, including to teacher training, over the past year, investing in our next generation of teachers, and enabling them to deliver high-quality teaching to inspire and motivate a new generation, is more important than ever and crucial to our long-term recovery plans.’

International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 [Teacher Task Force-TTF].
1) First KIX LAC International Conference – Teaching professional development in times of COVID: opportunities from innovation [21 April]
2) Futures of Teaching – Conversation between teachers and experts from the Arab States and the International Commission on the Futures of Education [20 April]
3) Global Teaching Insights during Covid-19 – A joint OECD – UNESCO – TTF initiative:  Conversations on Teaching during COVID-19 Webinar Series [8, 15, 22 & 28 April 2021]

The Hindu. DIETs face manpower crunch following new G.O. on transfer   District Institutes of Education and Traininng (DIET) are facing manpower shortage in the wake of the State government issuing an order to shift senior faculty members to Government Colleges of Education.

The Standard. Proof that pupils are only coached to pass exams and no actual learning goes on in schools   It has emerged that in Uganda, the (college) teachers who teach the (school) teachers who teach the children don’t teach the teachers to teach the children well! Quite a tongue twister… Oh yes, the tongue twister is official! It was unveiled officially to the nation, complete with appalling statistics, by the Executive Director of the national exams body last week. 

UNITED STATES
AACTE/SCALE. February – March 2020-21 Newsletter, edTPA® Announcements 

American Educational Research Association (AERA).
1) 2021 AERA Virtual Annual Meeting | April 8 – 12, 2021 [member sign-in required]
2) Rich Milner Voted AERA President-Elect; Key Members Elected to AERA Council   Four education researchers were voted as division vice presidents-elect and will join AERA’s 2022–2023 Council after the 2022 Annual Meeting. They will serve three-year terms…. Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University

Chalkbeat.
1) Despite pandemic, there’s little evidence of rising teacher turnover — yet.  Some people have also raised concerns about fewer students training to become teachers, but there’s little clear data on this either way. But if the economic downturn helped keep teachers in the classroom, an improved economy could lure some of them out or deter others from entering.
2) Q&A with MSU’s Katharine Strunk: Teacher retention starts with compensation, school leadership    A third piece that I think is critically important that we don’t think about enough is the teacher preparation pipeline. We know from the literature that teachers tend to stay close to home — where they grew up — or where they trained to be a teacher. In rural areas, and in some of the urban centers, we don’t have enough of a teacher prep pipeline to bring teachers in to stay in those districts. 

Education Week.
1) A Pro-Trump Student Group Will Launch a History Curriculum. It Could Get a COVID-19 Boost   Turning Point USA says its new “Turning Point Academy” initiative will “train thousands of educators nationwide” to use its upcoming curriculum and “help transform the way our young people perceive freedom, government, and free enterprise.”
2) Far Too Many Educators Aren’t Prepared to Teach Black and Brown Students: Teacher-prep programs can help change that   The solution is threefold for our teacher-preparation programs: 1. Engender cultural fluency and understanding; 2. Equip teachers with the skills and knowledge to help Black and brown students actually learn, not just “speak woke;” 3. Commit to diversifying faculty, student bodies, and syllabi. 
3) ‘Keep It Simple’ & Other ‘Best’ Teaching Advice From Educators   Sarah Brown has been teaching 6th grade language arts and social studies at The Windward School for four years… graduate school at Columbia University, Teachers College… Tomorrow is a new day, a blank slate for you and for them. Show up, try again, and know that what you do is unbelievably hard but undeniably meaningful.

Forbes. Accelerating Learning As We Build Back Better   If we really want to support learning, the return to school should not include these staple features of an outdated approach to learning that research has found actually undermine achievement:… Placing the neediest students in remedial classes with the least trained and experienced teachers who are least likely to know how to create productive learning environments.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Tutoring corps could help kids with COVID learning slide — and train new teachers, too   Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, and Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, have introduced a measure to create the program, which would incentivize educator-preparation programs, school districts and community partners to recruit and train teacher candidates (among others) to deliver tutoring to students in high-need schools. It would disburse federal stimulus funds to local decision makers.

New York Times. As Pandemic Upends Teaching, Fewer Students Want to Pursue It: Disruptions to education during the pandemic are turning people away from a profession that was already struggling to attract new recruits.   Not all teacher preparation programs are experiencing a decrease in interest. California State University in Long Beach saw enrollment climb 15 percent this year… Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City also saw an increase in applications this year, according to a spokesman, who noted that teaching has historically been a “recession-proof profession” that sometimes attracts more young people in times of crisis.

NEW YORK STATE
Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE). New York State Profile.   New York early educators with a bachelor’s degree are paid 32.6 percent less than their colleagues in the K-8 system. The poverty rate for early educators in New York is 19.3 percent, much higher than for New York workers in general (8.6 percent) and 7.8 times as high as for K-8 teachers (2.5 percent)

New York State Education Department.
1) Office of Higher Education, March Educator Preparation Newsletter
*Board of Regents March Items
*Extension 0f Distance Education Flexibility
*NYSTCE Test Development Activities
*Teaching in Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments
2) Statement from Board of Regents Chancellor Young and State Education Department Commissioner Rosa on the Enacted State Budget   It has long been a priority of the Board to help recruit and retain a statewide corps of teachers who reflect our diverse and vibrant student population. We are happy to see critical support in the Budget for future and current educators, including through an increase to the Albert Shanker Grant program.

Spectrum News. CFE Attorney Rebell Feels Vindicated, But Show Him a Court Order.  After 28 years of fighting for a sound, basic education for every student in New York, activists like attorney Michael Rebell of the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, are celebrating a victory that has been delayed multiple times: a commitment by the state legislature to fully fund the state’s primary education formula, Foundation Aid.

NEW YORK CITY
New York Times. My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law: Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.  The teachers are coming from the same system. And then they go and teach. These are the teachers they’re looking for.

Teachers College.
1) Show Him the Money: Michael Rebell is glad the state will begin paying New York City long-owed school funding, but he’s not celebrating yet   But looking beyond this year, when the state will deliver a first installment of roughly $1.4 billion, Rebell, Professor of Law & Educational Practice and Executive Director of Teachers College’s Center for Educational Equity, simply says, “I’ll believe it when I see it… After all, it took Rebell, then serving as lead attorney for the plaintiffs in CFE vs. State of New York, 13 years to win a ruling that — as vouchsafed in the state’s constitution — all children are entitled to a sound, basic education. 
2) Teaching Residents @ Teachers College. Induction and Beyond: April 2021 Monthly Educator Resources