Month: August 2022

GLOBAL
Financial Express. Delhi High Court directs NCTE to open portal for recognising new teachers’ education courses   The high court said that NCTE which is obligated to maintain high standards of teacher education institutions sought to impose a total ban on prospective entrants which would lead to a greater shortage of trained teachers and worsen an already existing crisis.

Kashmir Patriot. President to confer National Teachers Award to Javaid Rather from J&K   Renowned educationist and lecturer of Chemistry, Javaid Ahmad Rather, of Wagoora area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla has been selected for this year’s national teachers award… In 1988, he completed his M.Sc in Chemistry from the University of Kashmir and was appointed as a lecturer in the secondary school education department.

Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). The International Conference in Innovation and Education for Sustainable Human Resource Development  [15-16, November 2022 Online Conference via MS Teams]

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Paraprofessionals Awarded Full-Tuition Scholarships to Become Certified Teachers   More than 35 paraprofessionals working in the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 are set to receive full-tuition scholarships awarded by the Idaho State University College of Education to earn a college degree and teacher certification through the Paraprofessional to Certified Teacher (PaCT) program.

ABC News. President Biden announces student loan forgiveness   Easing the student debt crisis… could also aid a crippling teacher shortage that has caused thousands of staff vacancies at the start of the latest school year… Pinched salaries and rising inflation have had many teachers on edge with the loan forgiveness deadline approaching.

Chalkbeat.
1) Are Colorado teachers the nation’s most underpaid?   Colorado teachers earn almost 36% less than other workers with college degrees… That finding comes from the Economic Policy Institute…that for years has studied the teacher wage penalty, meaning the earnings that teachers forego by not going into another profession that requires similar training and education.
2) I set out to show that men could teach elementary school. Then I changed course.   Two years ago, when I was accepted into the teacher education program at Montclair State University, I decided to work toward a certification to teach kindergarten to sixth grade.
3) Staffing, attendance, behavior: 7 big issues facing schools this year   High-poverty schools have long had trouble recruiting and retaining teachers, and the supply of new educators has dwindled over the past decade as fewer people enroll in teacher-prep programs.

Education Week.
1) Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness: How Much Will It Help Teachers?   K-12 educators are among those who stand to benefit from the cancellation. Like many other professionals, teachers have taken out loans in order to afford the cost of their training. (The majority of teachers are trained in university-based programs that charge by the credit hour.)
2) The Gap Between Teacher Pay and Other Professions Hits a New High. How Bad Is It?   One new analysis conservatively estimates that there are more than 36,500 teacher vacancies across the United States, and the majority of states are experiencing teacher shortages. Yet teacher-preparation enrollment has been declining steadily by about a third in the past decade, which some experts attribute to the low pay and perceived lack of respect.
3) U.S. Education Secretary Cardona: How to Fix Teacher Shortages, Create Safe Schools   What are we doing to tap those students on the shoulder and say, “Here’s a program in your high school that could get you interested in teaching, that could get you some college credits, could get you some scholarship money and we can guarantee you an interview in this district in four years?” Those programs exist, and we’re strongly encouraging the use of American Rescue Plan dollars for this.

Learning Policy Institute. Webinar: The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning   The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning, a brief based off a forthcoming book to be published by Teachers College Press… To gain the skills necessary for creating these classroom environments, teachers must be well prepared, qualified, and supported.  [Tuesday, September 20, 2022 1–2 p.m. PT]

NEA News. ‘Grow Your Own’ Program Helps Build New Teacher Pipeline   A teacher cadet program in North Carolina that offers high school students the opportunity to learn more about teaching as a profession is seeing results.

New York Times.
1) How to Use The Learning Network   Since 1998, The Learning Network has been helping people teach and learn with The New York Times. Here’s how to use our features.
2) White House Pushes Journals to Drop Paywalls on Publicly Funded Research   The policy, hailed by researchers as “transformational,” will be fully in place by 2026 and make publicly financed research available immediately at no cost.

The Hill. Education Department to fund colleges that train more teachers of color   The Department of Education wants to award colleges and universities that train teachers of color more money to grow the nation’s teaching staff and more accurately reflect the demographics of public school classrooms. 

Pi Delta Kappan. The 54th Annual PDK Poll: Local Public School Ratings Rise, Even as the Teaching Profession Loses Ground    The multifaceted nature of the problem requires multifaceted solutions. PDK International, through our Educators Rising program, seeks to spark interest in an education career among students. 

U.S. Dept. of Education. Webinar: Helping Teachers Afford Comprehensive Pathways into the Profession and Achieve Loan Forgiveness   The purpose of this webinar is to discuss how educators can benefit from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, specifically the temporary waiver … set to expires on October 31, 2022. The webinar will also highlight recent improvements to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program and best practices for implementation. [Wed, August 31, 2022 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) ACTION: Final rule.  After a careful review of the public comments received, DHS is now issuing a final rule that implements the proposed rule, with some amendments… a university commented that expanding pathways to DACA would have an immediate positive impact on the number of teachers its teacher preparation program could produce, addressing needs in their State to increase the number of teachers who reflect the State’s diverse demographics.

Vox. The chaotic teacher shortage debate, explained   “There is definitely a crisis of morale and confidence. The belief that one can do good work and do good for young people and have a rewarding, satisfying career in teaching has gone down the tubes,” said Dirck Roosevelt, the director of doctoral specialization in teacher education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. 

Wall Street Journal [D. Buck Opinion] Education Schools Have Long Been Mediocre. Now They’re Woke Too   The Teachers College at Columbia University has more than 90,000 alumni. These institutions are producing a teaching workforce imbued with a radical ideology but lacking instructional skills. Their influence over thought, policy, instructional practice and curricula is far-reaching.

Washington Post. 10 other ways to get your student loans forgiven   1. Public Service Loan Forgiveness program This federal program is designed to entice college graduates to go into teaching, law enforcement and other public sector jobs with the promise of debt forgiveness after years of service. 2. Teacher Loan Forgiveness program Educators have a few options to alleviate the burden of student debt. In addition to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), elementary and secondary school teachers are eligible for the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. 3. Perkins loan forgiveness Perkins loans are ineligible for PSLF and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. But teachers, nurses, firefighters, speech pathologists and other public servants can still have those loans canceled…

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Gov. Hochul says she supports bill to cap NYC school class sizes

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU).  CICU EPPs Quarterly Meeting with NYSED [Sep 22, 2022 01:00 PM]

NYSED Office of College and University Evaluation. Ed Law 2-d Guidance for Clinical Experiences in Educator Preparation   … the placement of a candidate in an educational agency (school, school district, and BOCES) for clinical experience does not require an Education Law section 2-D agreement.

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. 5 Must-Read Books on Race & Inclusion for Teachers   “This book will open your mind to trust in the power of our resilience and the tenacity of our spirit to remember and live our practice from positions of power and strength,” says Mensah, whose scholarship often bridges science teacher education and multicultural inclusion.

GLOBAL
New York Times.
1) Clean Toilets, Inspired Teachers: How India’s Capital Is Fixing Its Schools   In the summer of 2016, the government held training sessions with over 25,000 teachers. In addition to the usual subject-matter training, it selected teachers from within the public school system to offer training on the basics of teaching. Those sessions focused on building a personal connection with students.
2) Mexico Says Disappearance of 43 Students Was a ‘Crime of the State’: The authorities said for the first time that the state had been a key player in the likely massacre of students from a teachers’ college in 2014.   The violent abduction and disappearance of the students, young men from a teachers’ college in the rural town of Ayotzinapa, and a subsequent cover-up that the commission confirmed extended to some of the highest national offices, have long been sources of national outrage, underscoring the cartel-fueled carnage and insidious state corruption that continue to wrack the country.

The Guardian.
1) No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: Australian media must change conversation about the profession   If all people hear is that teachers are to “blame” for poor standards and they should be finding their demanding, complex jobs easy, this is hardly likely to encourage people into the profession. Nor does it give those already there the support and respect they need to stay.
2) ‘She asked me, will they kill you if they discover you?’: Afghan girls defy education ban at secret schools   …many Afghans remember last time the group controlled Afghanistan, when a “temporary” closure of girls’ schools endured for their entire six-year rule. So as girls slid into depression, robbed of their dreams of becoming doctors, pilots, engineers, teachers, women and men around Afghanistan began fighting back.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Butler University’s Program Provides Training for Teachers with Alternative Credentials   Butler University is addressing Indiana’s teacher shortage through a new program designed to support new teachers, alternatively credentialed teachers, emergency-permitted teachers, or long-term substitute teachers with the training they need to succeed in the classroom. Butler’s first cohort of teachers will begin the first module of training in its “Teacher-Led, Teacher Education” program at the end of August.

Chalkbeat. Michigan programs provide route for second-career teachers. Are they rigorous enough?   The new pathway serves prospective teachers from all areas of the state. It’s one of a growing number of programs in Michigan to help people with bachelor’s degrees in other fields quickly become certified educators… In the Michigan Alternative Route to Certification, known as M-ARC, candidates spend five months in online courses and two weeks student teaching under the watch of field instructors, who provide daily feedback. That’s a fraction of the time required to complete a four-year education degree. At $9,000, it’s also a fraction of the cost.

Education Week.
1) A Dallas Principal Lost a Fifth of Her Teachers. Can She Hire Enough by the First Day?   DISD trustees approved a waiver in June that allows elementary schools to hire recruits without a teaching certification, as long as they do training during the school year and hit certain academic benchmarks, such as having a college degree.
2) When It Comes to the Teacher Shortage, Who’s Abandoning Whom?   A just released study from Australia analyzed 65,000 news articles about teachers covering the last 25 years. The headline: “No wonder no one wants to be a teacher.” The author drew three conclusions: “We are fixated on teacher quality,” “teacher work is made out to be simple (it’s not),” and “teacher bashing is the norm.” [See The Guardian link above]

edTPA.org. Community Newsletter August 2022

NEA News. Cancel Your Student Debt   NEA’s student debt experts have created tools designed to help educators through the complicated student debt system.

NBC News. Teachers say in new survey they’re being told not to talk about racism and race   “Teachers are disheartened by these things because they know how important it is for students of color and queer students and Muslim students to see themselves represented…“How do you recruit teachers in this climate?” said Bettina Love, co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and an education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Reuters. Fact Check-New Florida scheme allows veterans – not their spouses – to a temporary teaching certificate without having completed a college degree    A story online about the wife of a veteran who was able to get a teaching certificate just by observing teachers for 12 hours misrepresents the state’s requirements; spouses of veterans must meet all the normal requirements for a teaching certificate, including a college degree… A separate scheme called the Military Veteran Certification Pathway allows veterans, but not their spouses, with at least 60 college credits to apply for a temporary teaching certificate… 

NJ.com. Is this test required? New teachers await governor’s answer before school starts.   The state Assembly and Senate unanimously passed a bill eliminating a time-consuming, unpopular test as a requirement for new teachers in New Jersey on June 29…But more than six weeks later, the bill remains unsigned by Gov. Phil Murphy…The test, known as edTPA, administered by Pearson Education Inc., became a requirement in 2014 to raise the standards for teaching candidates. But many newly-trained teachers consider the $300 test redundant, as teacher preparation programs require them to show similar skills. 

Wall Street Journal. Schools Are Looking in Unusual Places to Deal with Teacher Shortage   Districts turn to virtual teachers, military veterans and college students during tough hiring season

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC wants to change the way students learn to read. Here’s how.   Katie Pace Miles, an associate professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY, offered a possible solution:  scaling up tutoring programs with teachers-in-training. This past year CUNY trained 650 students from the university system’s education schools in “evidence- and research-based programs” and placed them in schools where they worked one-on-one with first and second graders..

City & State. NYC schools chancellor talks about preparing students for the real world: At City & State’s Education Summit, David Banks laid out the legacy he hopes to leave behind in the country’s largest school system.   Now, all elementary schools are now required to adopt a phonics-based reading program for the coming school year…Officials will also train educators across the city to identify students with dyslexia and learn how to better teach them

New York Public Library. Culturally Responsive Back-to-School Titles for Students and Educators   The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools is celebrating back to school with teachers, students, and families across New York City with engaging titles for every age.