Month: January 2023

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 23 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe [ATEE]. Annual Conference 2023 [Budapest, 27-30 August]

InsideHigherEd. Reviving the College Dreams of Afghan Women: A month after the Taliban abruptly banned women from colleges and universities in Afghanistan, U.S. institutions are trying to help them back into academe any way they can.   When she read about the Taliban’s decree, Maria Estela Brisk, professor emerita of Boston College’s School of Education and Human Development, knew she wanted to help however she could from a few continents away. Working with the Asian University for Women, she adapted a slate of graduate courses she’s taught in the past—on linguistics and how to teach writing—into one six-week virtual course.

International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. European Commission Regional Teachers’ Initiative for Africa launch event   The Regional Teachers’ Initiative for Africa is a European Commission flagship initiative that will invest EUR 100 million under the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package in accelerating the training of new teachers for Sub-Saharan Africa and responding to its estimated need for 15 million new qualified teachers by 2030.

Teachers College.
1) International Workshop on Environment, Sustainability, & Education Sustainability and the Environment in Early Childhood Education: A Portraiture of the Hollingworth Preschool [Wednesday, February 15, 9:00 – 10:30 AM]
2) Remembering Madame Ke-Ming Hao   TC Medal for Distinguished Service recipient Madame Ke-Ming Hao … passed away on January 13, 2023… She was recognized for her critical research and policy recommendations to the nation’s president and Minister of Education on curriculum standards, teacher education, and fund allocation…

The Jamaica Gleaner. UCC names US/Caribbean educator as new provost   Dr Sheilah Marion Paul, a US/Caribbean educator, has been named provost of the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC).   Dr Paul holds a master’s and a doctor of philosophy degrees from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, master of education (EdM 2001) and arts (MA 1999) from the Teachers College of Columbia University…

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
1) #AACTE23 Opening Session Features an Intergenerational Conversation with Renowned Scholars   Nationally renowned scholars Gloria Ladson-Billings and James D. Anderson will share their remarkable personal journeys and discuss advances in educator preparation during the upcoming Annual Meeting opening session. [Feb. 24-26, Indianapolis, IN]
2) AACTE Receives Longview Foundation Support to Create a Global Education Faculty Professional Learning Community   This PLC will provide a peer support network and professional development to faculty at comprehensive teacher preparation programs to effectively integrate global teaching competencies within their curriculum and practices.

Chalkbeat.
1) Illinois public school enrollment continues to drop, preliminary numbers show   “… said Vonderlack-Navarro. “We need to maintain and grow our commitment to quality bilingual education and grow the future teacher workforce.” She noted that the state has dedicated additional funding to increasing the number of bilingual teachers. 
2) Teach For America to cut a quarter of staff in latest shakeup   “Right at the moment where districts are facing considerable staffing challenges in a very tight labor market, you might think a recruitment and training organization that helps districts fill hard-to-fill spots would be particularly useful,” she said. “But instead of TFA coming in and helping districts with these staffing challenges, TFA is shrinking.”

Chronicle of Higher Education. Scott Sorvaag, chair of undergraduate teacher education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, has been named dean of the College of Education at Winona State University.

Education Week.
1) A Seat at the Table: Chronic Teacher Shortage: Where Do We Go From Here?  Live Online Talk Show [ Wednesday, Feb. 08, 2:00-3:00 PM EST]
2) Want to Take Learning Recovery Seriously? Support and Train Teachers   Training is vital to our craft when addressing learning gaps. If a student fails to master a specific concept, a different approach may be needed. The teacher with a vast repertoire of strategies—gained from proper training—will be more successful helping said student.
3) What’s Behind the Push for a $60K Base Teacher Salary   The bill would also set aside funds for the U.S. Department of Education to support a national campaign to raise awareness about the value of teachers, encourage high school and college students to consider teaching as a career, and diversify the teacher population.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Teaching How to Teach the Holocaust   University of Kentucky embarks on an initiative to train K-12 teachers to teach about the Holocaust. Rising antisemitism nationwide, as well as some recent incidents in the state and on the campus, have made the work feel especially pressing to its supporters.
2) The Integrity of History Education: Legislation targeting K-12 classrooms also threatens the integrity of history education in colleges and universities   K-12 teacher training programs in colleges of education are another area where supposedly K-12–focused divisive concepts provisions can reach into the college setting. It is not always clear whether a law with a K-12 scope would extend to direct censorship of the professional preparation of teachers in college classrooms.

NEA News. Climate Change Education in Every Subject: New Jersey is the first state in the nation to integrate climate change standards across grade levels and content areas.   New Jersey Education Association members have been working to develop lesson plans for teachers in New Jersey and across the country to teach students about climate change in innovative and exciting ways. 

New York Times.
1) At Rennie Harris’s Hip-Hop University, Teaching the Teachers: Rennie Harris University aims to give educators a working knowledge not only of hip-hop dance technique, but also of its origins and culture.   To earn their certificates, students are required to pass an extensive slate of assessments. These include teaching a mock class, taking a written test and participating in the cypher-end dance battle…
2) Lesson Plan: Teaching and Learning in the Era of ChatGPT   First students learn about and share their thoughts on the issues A.I. chatbots raise for schools. Then, we invite them to help design both ethical guidelines and curriculum projects that use the tool for learning.

Tennessee Dept. of Education. Grow Your Own Teacher Apprenticeship Opportunities Continue to Strengthen Tennessee’s Educator Pipeline   200+ Candidates in Pipeline, Two Additional EPPs Approved to Offer Teacher Apprenticeships 

USA Today. Teacher shortages are still hurting schools. Could unconventional programs help?   Programs in Arkansas and elsewhere, for example, are providing college graduates without teaching licenses an accelerated path to certification, allowing them to work and study simultaneously. Policymakers in a dozen or so states, meanwhile, are rolling out apprenticeships and similar models in which people without bachelor’s degrees get paid, on-the-job training to become teachers.  

Washington Post.
1) Students want new books. Thanks to restrictions, librarians can’t buy them.   Hurdles to book ordering have emerged across the country. Most systems replace setups that allowed librarians — who must obtain master’s degrees, teaching licenses or both in all but three states — far-reaching autonomy over text selection, so long as they consulted peer-reviewed journals to establish books’ literary merit and age-appropriateness.
2) The basic rights teachers don’t have  The number of new entrants into the profession has fallen by roughly one third over the last decade, and the proportion of college graduates that go into teaching is at a 50-year low.
3) What more education on racial issues taught me   We should figure out the best way to teach America’s racial history honestly — not rush to ban anything that offends conservatives.

NEW YORK STATE
Helen Bach Moss Memorial Better Beginnings Award   recognizes New York State-certified PreK-6 teachers who are gifted in finding and nurturing the strengths of each student and fostering trusting relationships among pupils, parents, teachers, and administrators.  Applications accepted until February 28, 2023

NYSED. 2024 New York State Teacher of the Year Nomination Form  Applications for 2024 NYS Teacher of the Year are due 02/01/23

NEW YORK CITY
CBS New York. State Department of Education orders NYC to complete investigation into failing yeshivas   Critics claim many of the city’s Hasidic children have been deprived of what they call educational justice. They say yeshivas only teach religious curriculum, and don’t teach basic skills like reading, writing and math. 

NYC Dept. of Education. This Year’s Big Apple Award Recipients  incl: Cindy Wang (TC TESOL MA ’16) Grade 11 / English As a Second Language, International High School at Lafayette (21K337), Brooklyn

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 16 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Forbes. 50 Over 50: Europe, Middle East And Africa 2023   Ursula Nold: In 2019, at 50, Nold was elected as chair of the board of Migros, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain… Up until last 2022, she served as a lecturer at the institute for further education and media education at the University of Teacher Education in Bern.

New York Times. Inside India’s Cram City: In Kota, students from across the country pay steep fees to be tutored for elite-college admissions exams — which most of them will fail.   Bansal’s teaching style was rooted in the Kumon method, which was invented by a Japanese high school teacher named Toru Kumon in the 1950s. It was predicated on mastering one topic before moving onto the next.… new coaching institutes … cropped up. They mimicked his teaching style in an attempt to capitalize on the growing demand. So many instructors were being poached or leaving to start their own centers that Bansal created a reserve of roughly 200 teachers and trainees. 

Teachers College. How the TC Tunisia Project Makes an Impact: The program, led by TC’s ZhaoHong Han, is training English language teachers critical to a developing economy   “Knowing English would give [Tunisians] better access to today’s global economy,” explains Han, noting that the demand for English teachers is part of a broader trend throughout the region. “We’re training teachers who are training the next workforce.”

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Biden-Harris Administration Proposes New Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Plan   The Biden-Harris Administration today announced a new proposal to reduce the cost of federal student loan payments, especially for low- and middle-income borrowers. While AACTE is generally supportive of the proposal, which according to a fact sheet will make college more affordable for perspective educators, additional steps must be taken to address the nationwide shortage of highly qualified, diverse teachers in our classrooms. 

AL.com. Alabama wants to launch teacher apprenticeships for college students   Alabama will be the latest state to add teaching to the list of registered apprenticeships, thanks to an executive order from Gov. Kay Ivey issued Wednesday. College students working on a bachelor’s degree to teach will be able to lead their own classroom during their final year of college, instead of student teaching under the guidance of a credentialed teacher.

Aljazeera. American schooling is broken if six-year-olds are now threats: That students and teachers must fear guns in first-grade classrooms reflects on a failed school system.   As a teacher educator for those pursuing their K-12 licenses, I’ve yet to figure out how to incorporate lessons on dodging bullets into my curriculum or how to view young children as potentially dangerous. The very idea that my work requires this shift in thinking is repulsive and maddening.

Chalkbeat.
1) Departing State Superintendent Carmen Ayala looks back at her tenure, COVID challenges   To help get more teachers in certain fields, we started the career and technical education pathways where you provide grants and give designation on students’ diplomas that they have completed a particular pathway. This program provides students with dual credit and early teaching experiences to help them move on towards getting a teacher license. We’re preparing for potentially more than 10,000 teachers across Illinois.  
2) I recruit future teachers. I’m not always sure I’m doing the right thing.   My conviction comes from piles of research showing that students are uniquely inspired when they see themselves in their teacher. But my conflict and concern come from other things we know are true about teaching. One is the sad reality that, for college students, there is greater potential for economic mobility in choosing a profession other than teaching.
3) Pa. high schools could start offering students K-12 education training next school year   Starting next school year, Pennsylvania schools will have a new career and technical education option to offer students: K-12 education… the goal of the program is to expose young people to careers in education… the state Department of Education is working with the state Department of Labor and Industry to make teaching a registered apprenticeship in Pennsylvania. 

ClickOrlando.com. Osceola school district hiring teachers abroad to help with teacher shortage: District is implementing certification program to help get more teachers in classrooms   Aside from using the international teacher program to help bridge the gap, the school district is hoping a new initiative will help them get more teachers. “We are looking toward alternative certification teachers now, so anybody that may have a journalist degree, language arts degree, something that’s not in education, we have a great program to help them to learn how to be a great teacher with us,” Otterson said.

Education Week.
1) 19 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Your Classroom
2) English Teachers Should Teach More Nonfiction, National Group Says. Here’s How   The NCTE statement posits that teachers are unaware of the vast body of nonfiction literature—which can encompass memoirs, essays, informational texts, literary or narrative journalism, and more—because many states don’t require prospective teachers to take courses in children’s and young adult literature in their teacher-preparation programs. 
3) How Does Writing Fit Into the ‘Science of Reading’?      …teaching writing is hard. Few studies document what preparation teachers receive to teach writing, but in surveys, many teachers say they received little training in their college education courses…
4) Teachers Are Not Meant to Be Martyrs: Why we need to give educators more power to shape policy   Nothing in my teacher-preparation program was geared toward engaging with policy. This, too, needs to change. Teachers should not have to leave the classroom to feel like they can interact with policy. It should be part and parcel of the work of teaching.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania. IUP Receives Funding from Pennsylvania Department of Education for Program to Address Teacher Shortage, Diversity in Teacher Workforce   Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been selected to receive $72,049 from the Pennsylvania Department of Education through its Teacher Prep 2 Practice grant program. IUP’s funding will be used to design a culturally relevant teaching academy to diversify the teacher workforce and address the national teacher shortage. This work will take place in partnership with the Gateway School District in Monroeville, Allegheny County.

InsideHigherEd. State Budgets Are Booming. How Will Higher Ed Fare?  Last year, the Iowa state Legislature considered a proposal to tie some higher education appropriations directly to workforce preparation and in-state retention… the new model would create a Workforce Grant and Incentive Program to dole out grant money to individual students on a path toward a career deemed “high-demand” by the state, like teaching, nursing or engineering.

Learning Policy Institute (LPI). Educator Preparation Laboratory Third Annual Policy Summit Building the Teacher Pipeline: Emerging Models for High-Quality Educator Preparation   [Tuesday, January 24 1:30–3:00 p.m. ET]

National Center for Grow Your Own (NCGYO). National Registered Apprenticeship in Teaching Network  …the National Center for Grow Your Own (NCGYO) announces the launch of the National Registered Apprenticeship in Teaching Network. This network consists of states from around the country innovating with registered apprenticeships in teaching to address educator shortages. The network will meet to discuss the design and implementation of registered apprenticeships in teaching, inform policy and practice on the national stage and provide feedback to the U.S. Department of Labor.

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K-12)   Perhaps these circumstances remain relatively unchanged because many states no longer require courses in children’s and young adult literature as part of their teacher preparation programs, denying teachers the opportunity to learn about this essential body of work

The 74.
1) A New Playbook to Recruit Tutors: Tap Teachers in Training   Amid labor shortages, hiring from teacher prep programs could ‘unlock’ up to a half million new tutor candidates nationwide, experts say
2) Inside the Incubator Using Apprenticeships to Redesign Teacher Preparation: Federally approved apprenticeships in teaching are less than a year old. These states are working together to roll out the nation’s first programs   Being an approved apprenticeship program unlocks both state and federal dollars… How to build financially sustainable models is a recurring conversation topic at the monthly meet ups, Donaldson said. 

WALB. Valdosta State University receives $750K to tackle teacher shortage   Valdosta State University has received $750,000 in federal funding to address the teacher shortage in rural areas… VSU started as a teacher-training college in 1913. So, they say the fact that they’re still able to provide and support that mission in 2023 is truly amazing for them and their students.

Washington Post. The geometry teacher is a recording. The chemistry students often teach themselves: Teacher shortages are getting renewed attention this year. But in Mississippi and other Southern states, this crisis dates back more than a decade.   Mississippi’s teacher shortage is long-standing, dating back to at least 1998, when state legislators passed a law that offered college scholarships for teachers-in-training in exchange for a commitment to teach in a community with a shortage. It has tried a number of initiatives to recruit teachers, including residencies where the state pays the tuition of a prospective teacher and a stipend for them to do long-term student teaching.

WDRB. Simmons College furthers resurgence, announces partnership with University of Kentucky   The agreement announced Tuesday morning creates a new pre-law and teacher education program at Simmons and gives opportunities for students and staff to visit for special events and speakers at the two schools.

WIBW. Western Governors launches scholarship in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.   Western Governors University has launched a scholarship in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in hopes of supporting those who have struggled to achieve educational goals… the “I Have a Dream” Scholarships are open to new and returning students in any of its 80+ undergraduate and graduate degree programs in information technology, business, K-12 teacher education and health professions.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York’s PE teacher of the year has a big YouTube following for kid fitness videos   How and when did you decide to become a teacher? I was studying exercise science at Manhattan College, playing soccer for their team, while working at a children’s gymnastics studio on the side, running classes and hosting parties… I spoke to my Manhattan College career counselor Dr. Shawn Ladda. We discussed my job at the time, and that is when the lightbulb went off, and Dr. Ladda said elementary physical education! You can combine your passion and your talent for your career! 

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). Call for Article Proposals for Educator’s Voice, Vol. XV Post-Pandemic Shifts: Learning and Growing through Change [proposal deadline Apr. 1]

NEW YORK CITY
Columbia University. Columbia University Names Minouche Shafik 20th President   For Shafik, teaching and research are synergistic. She believes that teaching at a top-tier university like Columbia “is informed by and imbued with research,” and that students should be thought of as “future scholars who themselves will have to develop the skills of creating knowledge and advancing their own arguments.” 

New York Times. Columbia Names Nemat Shafik as President, the First Woman to Lead the University: The economist, who runs the London School of Economics, takes over as higher education faces tumult — over free speech, costs and the likely end of affirmative action.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 9 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
BBC News. Rishi Sunak wants all pupils to study maths to age 18   Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson called on Mr Sunak to “show his working” on how greater participation in maths will be funded. “He cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers, yet the government has missed their target for new maths teachers year after year,” she said.

Indian Express. LG denies rejecting proposal for Delhi government teacher training programme in Finland   The Raj Niwas, the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, clarified on Friday, January 13 that the proposal for a Delhi government teachers’ training programme in Finland has not been rejected and that any statement to the contrary is “misleading and mischievously motivated”.

Sixth Tone. What Happened When China Expanded Its Higher Education System?   According to official records, the number of postsecondary institutions increased from 212 in 1957 to 1,289 in 1960. The number of comprehensive universities fell while the number of specialized colleges, including engineering institutes and teacher training colleges, grew.

The Guardian. Third of England’s teachers who qualified in last decade ‘have left profession’   Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “This dangerous exodus of new teaching recruits could result in even greater teacher vacancies in years to come and ultimately to lower standards in our schools… Labour believes excellence is for everyone: that is why we will end tax breaks for private schools and use the money to recruit 6,500 new teachers as part of our national excellence programme.”

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) Amid early educator shortage, Wayne County offers $2,400 signing bonus for preschool teachers   Statewide, associate teachers who held a certificate in early childhood made a median salary of about $20,000, roughly equivalent to the state’s 2019 minimum wage of $9.45 an hour. By comparison, a night shift job at an Amazon warehouse in Pontiac pays up to $19.15 an hour…
2) CSU’s teacher preparation program wins state approval, gets kudos for science of reading shift   Colorado State University’s teacher preparation program won the state’s seal of approval Wednesday and a nod to recent changes in how the university trains future educators to teach young students how to read. The State Board of Education voted unanimously to approve all 15 majors in the university’s traditional teacher prep program, including early childhood education — the only one that includes a focus on reading instruction. 
3) Here are first education bills Colorado lawmakers filed during the 2023 legislative session   House Bill 1001 — the very first bill filed — would expand eligibility for student teacher stipends and for educator student loan forgiveness. This bill would expand several programs to ease the path into the teaching profession… 
4) Porter-Leath teacher coaching program aims to professionalize early childhood education   The instructional coaches visit teachers at least weekly for around two hours at a time. They, too, must be highly qualified, Nichols said — Porter-Leath [Memphis] requires them to have a master’s degree, a minimum of six years of experience as an early childhood classroom teacher, and an ability to train adult learners. 

Christian Post. Minnesota to require teachers affirm transgender ideology, critical race theory for license, critics say   A parental rights group and Christian scholars are criticizing the new requirements for a teaching license in Minnesota, which include a mandate that teachers must address trans-identified students by their stated gender identity and embrace controversial ideologies on race. A new set of Permanent Rules Relating to Licensing and Academic Standards for teachers in the state are slated to go into effect on July 1, 2024…

Education Deans for Justice & Equity (EDJE). Navigating your calling in the time of Education Gag orders Designed especially for pre-service teachers across the US, session presenters will provide concrete examples and tools for providing affirming classroom spaces for our kids even when political and cultural barriers exist.  [Feb 7, 6:30pm EST]

EdWeek. Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff  [January 26 2:00 to 6:00 PM EST]

FoxNews. California public schools ‘saturated’ with teachers who learned critical race theory when training: report   ‘CRT is deeply embedded in teachers’ colleges,’ CriticalRace.org founder William A. Jacobson said

InsideHigherEd. Foxx Wins Chair of House Ed and Workforce Committee   Foxx has promised to oppose many of the Biden administration’s education policies, including student loan debt relief policy changes.

Washington Post.
1) Montgomery County teacher wins Milken Educator Award: Silver Spring elementary school educator Dion Jones is honored in ‘Oscars of teaching’    Jones had wanted to be teacher since he was a little boy in Elkton, Md., but he was especially inspired by one of his high school math teachers. As an educator, he strives to never give up on a child, he said. He has a bachelor’s from Coppin State University in Baltimore and a master’s from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
2) What’s in Biden’s new student loan repayment plan? Here’s what we know.   There are already four repayment plans that cap monthly bills to a percentage of a borrower’s earnings. Rather than create another, the Biden administration wants to amend an existing plan, known as Revised Pay As You Earn or REPAYE… The proposal will be subject to a 30-day public comment period, with plans to finalize the rule later this year…

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Hochul’s 2023 education agenda: high-dosage tutoring, college access, student mental health  One possible model in New York City is a CUNY-run tutoring program, where 800 of the school’s students studying to become teachers are working with struggling readers in first and second grade.

DemocracyReadyNY. DemocracyReady NY Coalition Announces New York Civic Learning Week   DemocracyReady NY will host a series of virtual events to celebrate New York Civic Learning Week, which will take place this year from March 6 – 10, 2023. All events will be accessible to the public, and participants will include students, parents, school and district leaders, educators, and youth-serving organizations. 

Education Trust-New York. Representation Matters   Despite bodies of research that show access to diverse teachers is important for all students and efforts to improve diversity across the state, this new analysis shows that between the 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 school years New York failed to move the needle in cultivating a more diverse teacher workforce. 

InsideHigherEd. An ‘Ax Falling’ at Manhattanville: College announces tenured faculty layoffs and program suspensions as part of an academic realignment.   Manhattanville hasn’t publicly announced which programs are frozen, but faculty sources say they are art history, world religions, philosophy, film studies, music, music education…

NYSED Board of Regents January meetings
*Higher Ed committee proposals.
Proposed Amendment… Relating to Educator Certification for Candidates from Another State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia   The Department proposes to streamline both the endorsement and comparable program pathways, providing additional flexibility and increasing the pool of candidates during this time of teacher shortages.
*Consent Agenda.
Proposed Amendment…Relating to the Degree and Experience Requirements for College Professors for the Transitional G Certificate and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC Mayor Adams reverses course on $80 million schools cut in preliminary budget   Budget officials said the education department will be expected to eliminate 390 vacant positions, none of which include teachers or administrators. 

The School at Columbia University. Introducing Dr. Sonya Somerville, TSC’s Next Head of School   Dr. Somerville has spent thirty years as an educator within New York City and Philadelphia public schools, beginning as a Special Education Teacher, then serving as Assistant Principal, Principal, and now Assistant Superintendent. Her background includes degrees from Spelman College (B.A.), Temple University (M.Ed.), and University of Pennsylvania (Ed.D.)…. partnerships she forged with the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University Teachers College, and others…

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Jan. 2 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Indian Express. Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University withholds M.Ed results over incomplete SWAYAM course    The university’s decision to make the course mandatory for MEd students in 2021 has sparked controversy; students claim the course was presented as optional rather than mandatory, leading to confusion

ProPakistani. HEC Announces New Equivalence for Old Associate, Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees   The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has issued letters to the heads of all public and private sectors universities and degree awarding institutes for the implementation of the revised Teacher Education Roadmap (TER) in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum Review Committee in the discipline of Education.

Simon Fraser University [CAN]. Plurilingual education: an exciting new perspective  Teachers need new kinds of knowledge and support, says Professor Lin: “In teacher education, we need systematically to raise critical, plurilingual and pluricultural awareness. We must also attend to teachers’ emotional, physical and cognitive well-being in plurilingual and pluricultural contexts.”  

The Times of India. Calcutta HC stays enrolment for Diploma in Elementary Education course.  The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday stayed enrolment for the two-year diploma in elementary education (D.El.Ed) course, the notification for which was issued by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education …

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Texas State Teacher Education Program Selected as Raising Texas Teachers Partner   The Raising Texas Teachers program was launched in 2017 by the foundation, which was started by Charles Butt… an $8,000 per year scholarship to help cover the cost of attending Texas State for up to four years. The scholarships are criteria-driven and there is no limit to the number of eligible Texas State students who can be awarded. 

Chalkbeat.
1) Colorado Gov. Jared Polis budget update: money for workforce development and math instruction   …access to free training for jobs in education, health care, construction trades, and other sectors that have more openings than qualified workers… The $70 million in new state money that would be spent over the next two years would provide free training in early childhood education, teaching, law enforcement, fire and forestry, construction trades, advanced manufacturing, and nursing fields
2) Gov. J. B. Pritzker vows to prioritize access to child care for Illinois families in second term   Pritzker said the state’s investments have funded programs such as the Carole Robertson Center’s Grow Your Own Program Workforce Initiative, which trains community members to be educators. At the press conference, Bela Moté, CEO of the Carole Robertson Center, said the center has hired more than 30 people through the program over the last 15 months.

EdWeek.
1) A New Program Will Train Teachers to Teach Climate Change, Without the ‘Doom and Gloom’   San Francisco State University … announced this fall that it is creating a Climate Justice Education Certificate for pre-K-12 teaching—part of a broader initiative to tackle the climate crisis in an equity-minded way. The four-course program will train current and future teachers to understand climate science and teach climate justice issues relevant to the communities they work with. The first full cohort of teachers is expected to start in summer 2024.
2) The 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings  [incl. TC Profs S. Cohodes, S. Douglass, J. Henig, H. Levin, B. Love, A. Pallas, J. Scott-Clayton, Y. Sealey-Ruiz]

Forbes. Policymakers Should Ring In The New Year With Action To End Teacher Shortages [by L. Darling-Hammond]   Create affordable pathways into the profession: … Improve teacher preparation programs and expand teacher residencies: … Provide mentors for early career teachers: …

Hechinger Report. OPINION: Why the national teacher shortage is really a distribution problem [by R. Lee, National U.]   Teacher preparation programs can help build the teacher pipeline by sparking an interest in a teaching career among high school students by offering dual-credit-bearing courses in education and supporting clubs that help students understand the value of becoming a teacher and what it means to be a mentor for young children and a role model in their own community.

NYTimes.
1) Lesson Plan: A House Without a Speaker
2) How Hasidic Schools Reaped a Windfall of Special Education Funding: New York has paid companies millions of dollars to help children with disabilities in religious schools. Records show those tutors both became certified through Testing and Training International, an online firm created to help Orthodox Jews who find it difficult to attend secular colleges because of language barriers or religious customs… Some master’s programs do not recognize the degrees conferred through Testing and Training International. But since 2003, it has worked with Daemen University, an upstate college, to provide special education certifications. Students take weekly online classes and can obtain a provisional license in a few months, records show… Elizabeth Heilman, who was chairwoman of the education department at Daemen in 2019, said she discovered the program awarded master’s degrees to students who were not qualified to be special education teachers.
3) In Memphis, the Phonics Movement Comes to High School: Literacy lessons are embedded in every academic class.   Tennessee has aggressively pushed for statewide change. Last year, the state’s Republican legislature and governor, Bill Lee, passed a law that required all elementary schoolteachers be trained in a phonics-based approach, with optional literacy training for middle and high school teachers. 
4) New Year, New (State) Rules: State laws take effect for bouncers in Tennessee, walkers in California, and governors in North Carolina. Here’s a roundup of several key changes across the nation.   To help address a shortage of substitute teachers in public school classrooms, Illinois is allowing college students in good standing in approved teacher training programs to obtain a substitute teaching license.

Washington Post.
1) Bachelor’s degree dreams get farther out of reach for one group of students: The proportion of community college students advancing dips even lower because of a lack of advising as well as lost credits and complicated processes   “We screw transfer students, and we especially screw the ones that don’t have access to the social and educational capital they need to navigate” the process, said John Fink, senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College… Bryanna Lyons, a first-year student majoring in human development and family studies, is one of them… plans to go to URI and ultimately become a teacher. “It’s really hard to figure out if someone doesn’t tell you how to do it.”
2) Why it’s time to reinvent selective colleges — and how to do it   Aware of these advantages for students and already heavily invested in online learning because of the pandemic, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where one of us works, launched a fully online degree option for full- and part-time students in the summer of 2020. In six weeks, this program attracted 50 percent more applicants, and considerably more experienced and diverse applicants…

WUSF. ‘It’s like Disney magic:’ A Rollins program turns paraprofessionals into teachers   A special Pathways to Teaching program offered at Rollins College in partnership with Orange County Public Schools is making it easier for paraprofessionals to become fully accredited teachers… Graduates of the program receive their Bachelor of Arts in elementary education or a Master of Arts in teaching from Rollins College.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Education issues to watch in Albany: School funding, mental health, future of mayoral control   Lawmakers have floated a tax incentive for school employees as one way to attract people to school districts, NY1 reported. Lowry pointed to “useful steps” that have already taken place, such as the state education department ending the controversial edTPA certification exam that was previously required of teaching candidates in New York. 

NYSED Office of Higher Education. December Educator Preparation Newsletter
* ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF FIELD EXPERIENCES  The Department is extending the alternative models of field experiences flexibility to teacher preparation programs during the 2022-2023 academic year with certain modifications, as described in a memo to Deans and Directors.
* NEW ARTS LEARNING STANDARDS RESOURCES RELEASED The Office of Standards and Instruction has released two new Arts Learning Standards resources…

NEW YORK CITY
CBS New York  Men of color find purpose, fulfillment teaching in New York City classrooms   The Teacher Opportunity Corp is a program at Teachers College at Columbia, also designed to increase the number of teachers from under-represented backgrounds. Jason Flowers is a recent graduate, teaching music. “I think when my students look at me, they see something that they can relate to, they see opportunity,” he said. Darius Phelps is pursuing a PhD in English Education at Teachers College. “For some of these kids, you’re more than just a teacher. You’re a dad, you’re their older brother, you’re their best friend. And for me, that’s the most fulfilling part, too,” he said.