Month: May 2023

GLOBAL
New York Times. On the Front Line of an Education Revolution   Quality of education remains a huge problem worldwide. The World Bank estimates that 70 percent of 10-year-olds in poor and middle-income countries can’t read a simple text. In Nigeria, three-quarters of children age 7 to 14 can’t read a simple sentence. Sierra Leone is trying to break out of that trap with investments in more and better teachers who earn more…

onmanorama. DU’s 3 colleges to opt for centre’s 4-year integrated teacher education programme   Three colleges of Delhi University will adopt the centre’s four-year integrated teacher education programme from 2023-24, a senior varsity official informed on Tuesday.

The Conversation. Working with kids, being passionate about a subject, making a difference: what makes people switch careers to teaching?   Mid-career or “career change” students are increasingly common in teacher education programs. The most recent Australian data shows as of 2017, one-third of new applicants were 25 or older. We also know there are plenty of people interested. A 2022 survey by the federal government’s Behavioural Economics Team found one in three mid-career individuals was open to the idea of teaching.

Washington Post. Pegasus spyware reaches into Mexican president’s inner circle   When López Obrador became president in 2018, he tasked Encinas with investigating one of Mexico’s most notorious scandals: the disappearance of 43 young men studying at a teachers college in Ayotzinapa in 2014. In a report last August, Encinas blamed the police, the armed forces and civilian officials, as well as drug traffickers, for the disappearances and what he called a subsequent coverup.

UNITED STATES
ABC News. Why there’s a special education and STEM teacher shortage and what can be done   Experts interviewed for this story suggested pipeline programs could be the key to preparing teachers to enter the field in the years to come.

Chalkbeat. Detroit charter school to offer $100,000 teacher salaries   A Detroit charter school is offering $100,000 annual salaries to certain teachers with five or more years of experience, in a bold bid to increase the number of certified teachers at the school.

EdWeek. Ron DeSantis Is Running for President. What Will That Mean for K-12 Schools?   Trump, who did not focus much on education in his 2016 or 2020 campaigns, has made education a central part of his 2024 run… The former president went on to propose a platform that would cut funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children,” prevent transgender girls from playing girls’ sports, create a credentialing body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic views,”… 

Ford County Chronicle. Bennett Passes Teacher Shortage Legislation through General Assembly   Both chambers of the Illinois General have now given their approval to a plan filed by Senator Bennett to reform teacher licensing requirements and provide some relief from the statewide teacher shortage… Senate Bill 1488, filed by Bennett, waives the edTPA requirement for prospective teachers through August 31, 2025. The legislation also creates the Teacher Performance Assessment Task Force, which will be tasked with studying various teacher evaluation systems and developing a new system to be implemented for Illinois teachers. 

InsideHigherEd. AFT Report Details Impact of Blocking Student Loan Forgiveness   The report says the student loans of more than 260,000 public servants would be reinstated under the Congressional Review Act resolution. Another two million workers would lose progress toward debt relief under Public Service Loan Forgiveness. House Republicans have said the resolution is not retroactive and wouldn’t reinstate payments or roll back credits toward relief in the PSLF program.

KTHV-TV Little Rock. UA Little Rock receives $3.5 million grant for teacher education   The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $3.5 million grant from the Windgate Foundation to help support the transformation of teacher education.

LPI. Educating Teachers in California: What Matters for Teacher Preparedness?   Summary of Findings *The pool of recently prepared graduates from California TPPs has increased in size and racial/ethnic diversity. *Teacher residencies, which provide a full academic year of subsidized clinical training while candidates complete credential coursework, now prepare about 10% of new teachers. *Completers who participated in residencies were the most likely to rate their programs as highly effective, closely followed by those who participated in student teaching. *Most multiple subject completers and education specialists (i.e., special education teachers) reported having substantial preparation for teaching reading, writing, and math, and this type of learning was associated with increased feelings of preparedness. *Teacher candidates have unequal access to highly rated preparation and clinical experiences, with Black and Native American completers as well as education specialists having less access than their peers…

NEA News. ‘Lose Your School, You Lose Your Town’: Educators in Rural States Mobilize Against School Vouchers   The political terrain has since shifted quite dramatically, says Samuel E. Abrams, director of the ‌National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. “Vouchers so far have had little impact in rural areas of the country,” he explains. “But there’s no question about their new momentum—and the impact on rural schools and their communities could be grim. As the mayor of Woodbine, Iowa, told me several years ago, ‘If you lose your school, you lose your town.’”  

NebraskaTV. Educators applaud end of teacher test, may have kept good teachers out of the classroom   …Gov. Jim Pillen has repealed a requirement that teachers take a professional exam known as the Praxis Core.

New York Times.
1) 10 Ideas for Reflecting at the End of the School Year  Inspired by Times articles and features from across sections, these exercises can help both students and teachers think about their growth.
2) The Surprising Obstacle to Overhauling How Children Learn to Read: New York is the latest large city to join a national push to change how children are taught to read. But principals and teachers may resist uprooting old practices.   Many colleges of education still teach flawed strategies like encouraging children to guess words using picture cues. And teachers often worry over the quality of training in the new approaches that outside organizations offer.

Washington Post.
1) House votes to overturn Biden’s student loan forgiveness program   The conservative nonprofit Mackinac Center for Public Policy also sued, saying the payment moratorium amounts to government overreach and undermines the power of the congressionally approved Public Service Loan Forgiveness as a recruiting tool.
2) On the latest obsession with phonics   As researchers and teacher educators, we, like many of our colleagues, shake our heads in resigned frustration. We believe phonics plays an important role in teaching children to read. But, we see no justifiable support for its overwhelming dominance within the current narrative, nor reason to regard phonics as a panacea for improving reading achievement… Most of all, we are concerned that ill-advised legislation will unnecessarily constrain teachers’ options for effective reading instruction.
3) Students need help catching up after covid. Are interventionists the solution?   Chicago Public Schools has turned to academic interventionists — a cadre of hundreds of mostly classroom teachers already on the district’s payroll, tapped this year to turbocharge the learning of struggling students one-on-one or in small groups… They have expanded after-school programs, started an in-house tutor corps, and poured millions in teacher training…

NEW YORK STATE
University at Albany. Virginia Goatley Named Dean of UAlbany’s School of Education   Goatley is a regular participant in national and statewide efforts for teacher education and preparation of literacy professionals. She is currently a board member of the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (treasurer), New York State Professional Standards and Practices for Teaching Board (co-chair), New York Association of College Teacher Educators, and the Literacy Research Association. She was a co-editor of the Journal of Literacy Research, a publication of the Literacy Research Association, from 2016 to 2019.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC drafts plan to shrink class sizes, but changes won’t start next school year    They estimate it will cost $1.3 billion a year for new teachers when the plan is fully implemented… There might be exemptions for schools where they have insufficient numbers of teachers in subjects that are hard to fill, like bilingual math; the teachers union can negotiate higher class sizes for electives and specialty classes if the majority of a school’s staff approves the increase. 

EdWeek. New York City Does About-Face on ChatGPT in Schools   Teachers at the school also used the tool for lesson planning. The district now plans to offer teachers support in helping their students explore ChatGPT and other AI tools, Banks wrote.

Teachers College. Teacher Preparation for Comprehensive Literacy Instruction  Faculty from eight teacher education programs explore how the tools from educational psychology, special education, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and responsive instruction inform our preparation of teachers and school leaders. [Wednesday, June 7 · 10am -3pm · EDT Milbank Chapel 525 W 120th Street Zankel Building 125 New York, NY 10027]

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).
1) Journal of Teacher Education Welcomes New Editor-in-Residence   A. Lin Goodwin (葛文林) is the Thomas More Brennan Chair of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Prior to joining Boston College, she was dean of the faculty (i.e., School) of Education at the University of Hong Kong (2017-2022) and vice dean at Teachers College, Columbia University (TCCU) in New York (2011-2017), where she also held the Evenden Foundation Chair in Education.  
2) EDUCATORS for America Act is Re-Introduced in Congress   Last week, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and U.S. Representative Alma Adams (D-NC) re-introduced the EDUCATORS for America Act. This legislation is essential for retaining, growing, and diversifying our educator workforce and pipeline.

American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE). AAEE 2022-2023 Supply and Demand Report  * Urban and rural districts are more likely than suburban districts to hire teachers without traditional preparation * The primary reason for districts to hire teachers without traditional preparation is the lack of traditional candidates who apply…

Chalkbeat. High-dosage tutoring is still hard. Here’s what schools have learned.    Even with training, tutors didn’t always use the tried-and-true strategies for helping students.

CT Mirror. CT to combat teacher shortage with $3M for recruitment, support   The state’s education and labor departments unveiled a plan to create a new teacher Registered Apprentice Program, and expand existing efforts in recruitment, including investing in paraeducator job fairs and expanding high schools’ “grow-your-own” programs which work to mold current students into future teachers.

EdSource. Proposed state budget could make becoming a teacher easier   California’s proposed state budget revision could make a dent in the state’s ongoing teacher shortage by reducing obstacles to earning teaching credentials, such as making it easier for members of the military and their spouses to earn teaching credentials, requiring that teacher residents are paid and preparing more bilingual teachers.

Education Week.
1) Student-Teachers Could Earn $20K in This State   Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed into law a measure that would provide $20,000 stipends to student teachers and take other steps to stem Maryland’s educator shortage and diversify its teacher pipeline. And advocates say the measure could be a model to other states struggling with the same challenges.
2) What’s Motivating These Teachers to Become Educators [Video] Education Week asked teachers and student teachers about why they decided to become educators.

Hechinger Report.
1) As science denial grows, science museums fight back by teaching scientific literacy  …programs like the one at AMNH are training teachers to help students navigate complicated scientific topics in their classrooms… Each year, the Manhattan-based museum trains roughly 4,000 teachers on subjects like the human body, evolution and climate change in a variety of professional development programs. The museum also offers a master of arts in Teaching Earth Sciences Residency…
2) Alabama doesn’t want early childhood teachers talking about bias. Researchers say they need to  “Basically, we need to make sure that we’re arming teachers to understand their own implicit and explicit biases that they’re bringing into the classroom,” said Terri Sabol, a professor at Northwestern…
3) Grandparents, neighbors and friends are propping up the child care industry. They need help.  Nationwide, aid for family and friend caregivers is rare. In 23 states, there are no known statewide supports for relatives and friends who provide child care. Many of these providers don’t view themselves as educators, but rather as caregivers who are simply helping their families. Few attend educational workshops or get help from a home visitor or coach.
4) Opinion: Palestinian American educators deserve support from their peers.  Although emotionally taxing, these instances of discrimination do not surprise the Palestinian American teachers in my network, because many of them know what it is like to grow up marginalized in American schools. It is what inspired them to pursue a career in education.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Federal Student Aid Funding Woes Complicate Resuming Student Loan Payments   The spokesman noted that restarting payments is an “an unprecedented and herculean task” and that the department has several efforts underway to accomplish that task. That includes the one-time debt-relief plan, offering borrowers in default a way out, a new income-driven repayment program and discharging the loans of borrowers who qualify through public service…
2) Injunction Sought to Force Restart of Student Loan Payments   The organization wrote that the pause undermines the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which discharges debt for borrowers who work in public service jobs for 10 years.
3) Public Service Loan Forgiveness Totals $42 Billion   “FSA is making the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program as easy as possible so all public servants can finally get the loan forgiveness they have earned,” Federal Student Aid chief operating officer Richard Cordray said in a news release.

New Jersey Monitor. N.J. lawmakers look for more solutions to teacher shortage   New Jersey lawmakers remain on the hunt for new solutions to the state’s longstanding teacher shortage, with Assembly Democrats introducing a package of 12 bills intended to recruit people to work in education… Some laws relaxing certification requirements have gone into effect, like doing away with the controversial edTPA testing requirement and a pilot program to allow teachers who don’t meet certain criteria to apply for certification.

Pearson Education. edTPA® Community Newsletter May 2023
The 74.
1) New Report: How Districts Can Protect Fair Access to Dual Language Programs   Local, state and federal policymakers should increase public investments in growing these programs. Above all, this means committing resources to train and license more of the bilingual teachers necessary to expand dual language instruction. 
2) Report: Training of Ohio Teachers in the ‘Science of Reading’ Earns Mixed Grades   In an evaluation of 26 public and private Ohio teacher training programs by the National Council on Teacher Quality released today, seven received A grades for instructing new educators in how to use the science of reading with young students, while six received Fs… The report graded each teacher training program in the science of reading instruction by reviewing course descriptions and syllabi to see what classes cover. They did not observe classes.

UNC Charlotte. Transformational Gift for Teacher Literacy Education   …$23 million from the North Carolina-based Mebane Foundation… Over the next five years, the transformative investment will allow the Cato College of Education to greatly expand its early literacy teacher development, community engagement and research. 

Washington Post.
1) For preschoolers after the pandemic, more states say: Learn outdoors   In northeast Baltimore, officials with Backyard Basecamp, which focuses on expanding access to nature among communities of color… is working on training naturalists of color who can become teachers to “reflect the people we are serving,” said Tatiana Mason, program director at Backyard Basecamp.
2) New look at benefits of quality preschool education   High-quality preschool programs provide much more than just the ABCs and counting. They support the development of the whole child — cognitive, social, emotional and physical. The programs we found to be effective had better-prepared, better-paid teachers and smaller classes than is typical. The strongest evidence is for programs in public schools with the best-educated, best-paid teachers. 
3) New York City requires reading instruction to be phonics-based   Under the new system, districts will choose one of three curriculums to use in all of their schools. The choices are Wit & Wisdom (which is not phonics-based and would be paired with a phonics program), Expeditionary Learning and Into Reading. The change will be implemented in about half the city this fall and the second half in 2024. Teacher trainings were beginning this week.
4) To fight teacher shortages, states send people to college for free: Apprenticeships are helping to expand and diversify the ranks of educators   …popularity of the apprenticeship programs suggests there is an untapped talent pool: people who have the desire and the heart — but not the financial means — to become a teacher. What schools have found is that many of the people who fall in to that category are already working for them in roles that do not require bachelor’s degrees…

NEW YORK STATE
AMNY. Here’s what the new proposed history and social studies curriculum on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander could look like.  Kong said that the coalition is especially proud of its advocacy efforts that ensured the bill language included Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, as well as a curriculum that teaches the history of solidarity between AANHPIs and other communities of color… Tapal said that the current curriculum teaching Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history is “missing a comprehensive discussion on cross-racial solidarity communities of color — especially between African American and Asian Americans. 

NYS Assembly.
1) Bill A04659 introduced. Requires the commissioner of education to establish and enforce rules and regulations to incorporate at least a three credit course devoted to the instructional techniques necessary for effective literacy instruction which shall include delivering structured, systematic, explicit, evidence-based instruction in reading, including but not limited to those incorporating multisensory instruction for current and prospective teachers.
2) Bill A07101 introduced. Establishes the “New York individuals with dyslexia education act”; implements a plan to identify and support students with characteristics of dyslexia; requires annual screening in grades K-5; directs intervention and notification; direct education department to develop a handbook providing guidance to parents and teachers… h. The dyslexia interventionist shall have successfully completed a certification training course or shall have completed training in the appropriate implementation of the evidence-based, dyslexia-specific intervention being provided, including but not limited to an Orton-Gillingham based approach or another multi-sensory  structured  literacy  approach  accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC).

NYSED Board of Regents. May 14-15 Meetings
Higher Education Committee Proposed Amendments
Proposed Amendment… Relating to Extending a Flexibility for Incidental Teaching   At its December 2020 meeting, the Board of Regents permanently adopted regulatory amendments to increase the amount of incidental teaching permitted in schools from up to five classroom hours a week to up to 10 classroom hours a week during the 2020-2021 school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.. The Department now proposes to extend the flexibility for incidental teaching again through the 2023-2024 school year.
Proposed Amendment… Relating to the Employment of Substitute Teachers   Thus, substitute teachers who do not hold a valid teaching certificate and are not working towards certification, but who hold a high school diploma or its equivalent, may be employed by a school district or BOCES beyond the 40-day limit during a school year under the conditions outlined above. By no longer having an end date, school districts and BOCES may continue to address persistent teacher shortages and plan for their staffing needs for the upcoming school year with certainty.

Higher Education Consent Agenda
Amendment… of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Student Teaching Requirements for Registered Teacher Preparation Programs and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification   The unit of measurement for length of the student teaching experience would be 70 school days, or its equivalent, instead of a full semester of at least 14 weeks, full-time… With the limited exemption, candidates complete at least 50 clock hours of student teaching or practica (unless otherwise prescribed in the specific program requirements) that includes a focus on the applicable program-specific pedagogical core requirements for the certificate title. VOTED: That sections 52.21 and 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education be amended, as submitted, effective May 31, 2023.
Amendment… of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Educator Certification for Candidates from Another State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia   The Department proposes to revise the certificate requirement in the endorsement pathway for teacher, educational leader, and Initial and Professional School Counselor certification such that certificates from another U.S. state or territory or the District of Columbia may be “comparable” instead of “equivalent” to the New York State certificate title and type sought… The proposed amendment also removes the time period during which candidates must complete their three years of experience for the endorsement pathway… VOTED: That sections 80-3.10, 80-5.8, 80-5.20, and 80-5.23 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education be amended, as submitted, effective May 31, 2023.

NYSED News. State Finalists Selected for 2023 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching 2023. PAEMST New York State Mathematics Finalists (7-12) incl. Dr. Elizabeth Brennan DeGraaf (Teachers College, Phd 2015)

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) Better pay and more hours: NYC Council leaders push for changes to 3-K, pre-K programs.  Four years ago, the city agreed to boost salaries for teachers at community organizations with a certified masters degree, to $69,000 a year by October 2021, matching the salary of a first-year teacher at the education department.
2) NYC forces elementary schools to use one of three reading programs in massive literacy push   But a new curriculum alone is unlikely to dramatically improve student learning. Much of the plan will hinge on how effective the city’s training is and whether educators buy in to the changes. Meanwhile, curriculum shifts often take years to execute, and there is little time to train thousands of teachers who will be expected to transition to new materials beginning in September.
3) NYC schools grasp for support as some migrant students miss out on mandated English instruction   …some teachers say their schools don’t have enough funding to hire more staff who are equipped to work with newcomer English learners. Some schools have the money, but have struggled to find teachers due to a long-standing shortage of bilingual teachers. 

CityLimits. At New York’s Other Selective Public Schools: Auditions for 9th Grade  While current figures are not available, a 2014 report by the city comptroller found more than 42 percent of all city public schools without any certified arts teachers were in the South Bronx or Central Brooklyn.

Columbia University Engineering Outreach. Summer Program for NYC STEM Teachers: 2023 NSF COSMOS-NewLAW-CS3 Research Experience and Mentoring for Teachers   …an intense summer program for teachers who learn the basics of wireless technology and how to enhance the teaching material for their students using the predesigned online lessons/labs… For 2023, the program will take place from July 10 to July 28. The teachers will be paid $4,000 for their time during the summer and for implementing their lessons during the school year.

Teachers College.
1) Graduates Gallery 2023.
* Hanyue Sha (M.A. ’23, Bilingual/Bicultural Education)   Sha hopes to help expand resources to support vocabulary growth, reading comprehension and overall literacy for more bilingual children, perhaps in German, another language she speaks.
* Carolina Snaider (Ed.D. ’23, Early Childhood Education)  Snaider has seen the positive impact of critical teacher education firsthand while at TC and it has inspired her to work with future teachers to encourage new perspectives on early childhood education.
2) Reimagine Resilience Workshop FREE 6 hours CEUs/CTLEs. 2 hours of pre-course work, 3 hours live [Thurs, May 18th 5pm -8pm EST OR Saturday, May 20th 1pm-4pm EST]
3) Teacher Preparation for Comprehensive Literacy Instruction  Faculty from eight teacher education programs explore how the tools from educational psychology, special education, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and responsive instruction inform our preparation of teachers and school leaders. [Wednesday, June 7 · 10am EDT Milbank Chapel 525 W 120th Street Zankel Building 125 New York, NY 10027]

The74. NYC Charter School Raises Teacher Starting Salary to $140,000   Compared to wealthy suburban New York districts where six figure salaries are more common TEP’s salary nearly doubles starting pay for teachers with master’s degrees… New teachers with master’s in Westchester County’s Scarsdale district earn $71,306. On Long Island, Syosset Central Schools pay new teachers with master’s $78,002.