GLOBAL
Monash University. Study reveals: High teacher satisfaction with Initial Teacher Education programs in Australia A Monash University study into the future of teaching has found almost three-quarters of Australian teachers’ surveyed report high levels of satisfaction with their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program… Seventy-three per cent of the surveyed Australian teachers deemed their ITE program as positive with 23 per cent rating it as excellent and 50 per cent as good. Twenty-two per cent rated it as satisfactory and just 5 per cent poor.
NYTimes. The One Million Tibetan Children in China’s Boarding Schools Dormitories, playgrounds and teachers’ offices were heavily surveilled. I saw security cameras installed in classrooms, no doubt to make sure teachers — many of whom were young Chinese undergraduates with little to no background in Tibetan language and culture — only used C.C.P.-approved textbooks.
Radio New Zealand (RNZ). Who teaches our teachers? A new report by the think tank The New Zealand Initiative says the current university model of teacher education has major flaws. These include an insufficient focus on the science of learning; too little practical classroom experience for trainee teachers; inconsistent mentoring of trainees and poor preparation of primary teachers to teach across the curriculum, especially in mathematics and science.
UN News. UNESCO: 250 million children now out of school One year ago, 141 countries committed at the UN Transforming Education Summit to accelerate progress towards SDG 4. Four out of five countries aimed to advance teacher training and professional development, seven out of 10 committed to increasing or improving their investment in education, and one in four committed to increase financial support and school meal provision.
UNITED STATES
AACTE. AACTE Invites You to ‘Lunch with Lynn’ For the first session, AACTE’s Dean in Residence, Leslie T. Fenwick, will join Lynn to discuss the editorial “75 Years of Transforming Teacher Education,” which they coauthored earlier this year for the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE). [Wednesday, September 27, 1:00. pm E.T.]
Boston College. Teacher Preparation at New Graduate Schools of Education Since 2005, eleven new graduate schools of education (nGSEs) have emerged. nGSEs are state-authorized to grant master’s degrees and endorse teachers for initial certification but are not connected to universities. This study takes an in-depth look at how candidates learn to teach at nGSEs and how these new organizations have challenged the field of teacher preparation.
Dr. Laurie Santos. Teaching Happiness with Dr. Laurie Santos A free happiness curriculum from Yale University. Now for any high school teacher, anywhere. Free. Adaptable. Evidence-based.
EdWeek.
1) Reading Instruction and AI: New Strategies for the Big Education Challenges of Our Time Seventy-seven percent of educators say they are either poorly prepared or not prepared at all to teach students how to be successful in an AI-powered world, according to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey. [FREE WEBINAR: Oct 12, 2023 02:00 PM EST]
2) Recruiting More Bilingual Teachers: The Challenges and Solutions A new report from The Century Foundation examines the common challenges that make it hard to build a pipeline of bilingual educators, as well as potential policy solutions… three major challenges stood in the way of helping more multilingual individuals become certified teachers… Financial hurdles; Logistical complications; Linguistic barriers
3) Students Need Better/More Data-Science Skills. Here Are 5 Ways Schools Can Help Many teachers—sometimes even those who focus on math—are uncomfortable teaching data-science concepts because they don’t have the background for it and weren’t properly prepared in college… Colleges of education and other teacher-preparation programs also need to better prepare future educators to teach data-science skills, experts say.
4) There’s Still No Consensus on Accountability for Teacher Prep But the field is once again split between two approaches to accreditation: CAEP requires multiple measures of data to prove programs’ selectivity and effectiveness. AAQEP doesn’t set specific benchmarks in its standards and favors a more inquiry-based approach. The differing philosophies echo back to those of the two groups that birthed CAEP. (AAQEP’s president formerly served as the president of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, one of the groups that merged to create CAEP.)
Forbes. Are Teacher Shortages Turning Around? The Surprising Answer Is Yes …without much fanfare, a report by the U.S. Department of Education uncovered that the number of people enrolled in teacher preparation programs actually rose 6% from 2019 to 2021. Teacher preparation enrollment is up in 37 states and the District of Columbia since 2019.
InsideHigherEd. A Tenure Critic May Cut Faculty—by Ending Their Program: Dickinson State University in North Dakota could lose its undergraduate degree offerings in English, math, music and other areas. Easton provided enrollment numbers for the other programs up for elimination: 21 undergraduates majoring in English/English education, 17 in music/music education, 15 in math/math education, nine in chemistry/chemistry education…
Learning Policy Institute (LPI).
1) From Shortages to Solutions: Unpacking Texas’s Teacher Workforce Challenges and Opportunities Texas teachers have left the field at a rate that is 25 percent greater than the national average… Join the Charles Butt Foundation and the Learning Policy Institute for a webinar focused on finding solutions to strengthen the Texas teacher pipeline. [FREE WEBINAR Oct 5, 2023 04:00 PM EST]
2) Underpaid and Undersupplied: The Hidden Costs of Teaching in America Purchasing basic classroom supplies is another hidden cost of a career in teaching—a profession that, nationally, pays only 76% of the average salary earned by similarly educated professionals. Most of these teachers are also loaded down with student loan debt.
National Center for Teaching Residencies (NCTR). Requests for Proposals National Symposium for Educator Preparation, Policy, & Leadership April 17-19, 2024 at the Westin, Michigan Avenue, Chicago. [Due Monday, October 16, 2023 at 4 p.m. CT/5 p.m. ET]
National Education Policy Center. NEPC Review: Teacher PREP Review: Strengthening Elementary Reading Instruction (National Council on Teacher Quality NCTQ) …evaluates 693 out of the 1,146 elementary teacher preparation programs in the US. It claims to identify how well candidates are prepared to teach elementary reading… this report again relies on flawed research methodology grounded in selective use of evidence to promote NCTQ’s narrow education reform agenda. Policymakers as well as the media are strongly cautioned to view this report as narrowly constructed reform advocacy rather than a valid or scientific analysis of the quality of reading content in elementary teacher preparation
NEA Today. Historic Pay Increases Lead to Happier Teachers, Fewer Vacancies: In Baker City, Oregon, the starting salary for teachers increased by $21,000 this year. The district had not one unfilled vacancy nor one emergency-certified educator. Indeed, while districts across the nation continue to struggle with an educator shortage, Baker City seems to have solved the problem… tens of thousands of Florida students will be attempting to learn from a rotating cast of non-certified subs.
NYTimes. 8 Ways to Teach and Learn About Hip-Hop
The74. As Test Scores Crater, Debate Over Whether There’s a ‘Science’ To Math Recovery: ‘Science of math’ advocates say more explicit, orderly instruction is needed while critics see cherry-picked data and outdated, failed techniques. Nick Wasserman, associate professor of mathematics education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said there has been much back and forth around the teaching of mathematics through the decades, as evidenced by the math wars of the 1990s… research has shown students learn better when they are asked to reason and think mathematically — a core tenet of inquiry-oriented approaches…
University of Rhode Island. URI College of Education awarded $300,000 grant to diversify state’s teacher workforce The University of Rhode Island ‘s Feinstein College of Education has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to enhance its programs targeting students of color planning to become teachers, and develop a teacher-preparation program at Highlander Charter School that includes admissions testing assistance and promotes continuing education credits… The Urban Residency Initiative Pathways to Education program will run for two years through June 2025.
U.S. News & World Report. 2023-2024 Best Education Schools Teachers College, Columbia University #1 in Best Education Schools (tie). University of Michigan–Ann Arbor #1 in Best Education Schools (tie)…
US Prep. Texas Residency Webinar Series Explore our webinar series showcasing teacher residencies from across the Lone Star State. Discover the transformative impact residencies are having on candidates, schools, and PK-12 students alike.
NEW YORK STATE
Fox News. New York state university to cut teaching, computer science majors due to low enrollment, budget woes: SUNY Potsdam President Suzanne Smith said in a campus address on Tuesday the school must ‘realign’ with ‘market The majors poised to be removed were College Teaching, Computer Science Education, Geographic Information Science (GIS), and Speech Communication.
Times Union. SUNY Potsdam president announces cuts to keep college afloat: “There are no bailouts” coming from the state, Suzanne Smith said Tuesday as she explains the dire financial problems at the four-year college. SUNY Potsdam will focus on its biggest programs, which include musical education, mathematics and elementary education.
NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. In ‘State of our Schools’ speech, NYC schools chief emphasizes literacy and career readiness efforts Banks signaled that he’s interested in changes beyond elementary school literacy… early childhood centers are also moving to a uniform curriculum. More curriculum changes could be on the horizon across a range of subjects and grade levels… “Teachers need more support,” Banks told reporters after the speech. “They need a little bit more of a script of what we’re expecting from them.”
EdWeek. Behind the Podcast That’s Trying to Entice More People of Color Into Teaching The New York City public schools has nearly doubled its percentage of male educators of color over the past eight years… One of the most recent efforts is a podcast titled “Education in Color” hosted by Saad Kabir, who taught in New York City public schools and is now a senior recruitment and communications manager with NYC Men Teach. The podcast is now in its second 10-episode season. Since its debut in May, it has attracted a following of 250 to 500 regular listeners…
NYC Independent Budget Office (NYC IBO). Recent Trends in Teacher Retention & Hiring in New York City Public Schools When IBO disaggregated by teacher license, we found that special education teachers share the same turnover patterns as their general education peers. This was true in the years leading up to the pandemic, and remained true in the years since the pandemic began… as many other professions available to college graduates increasingly incorporate days of remote work, teaching—with its focus on in-person, face-to-face interactions five days a week—is often ranked lower in career choices of today’s youth… Over the last 10-15 years, interest in choosing teaching as a career has appreciably waned: nationally, 20 to 30 percent fewer young people are choosing to become teachers.
NYPost. Schools chancellor says NYC not affected by teacher shortage — as more migrants continue to enroll “We don’t have major shortages of teachers. We have had long-standing shortages in some critical areas like math and special education, bilingual education.” … He noted recent initiatives would allow some of the DOE’s teachers who have primary licenses in one subject to shift to their secondary license in bilingual teaching that could help instruct young migrants.
Teachers College. Reimagine Resilience Workshop: Prevent Hate In Our Schools 6 CTLEs or 0.6 CEUs FREE [At TC or virtually: Oct 3rd, 2023 4p-7p EST]
