GLOBAL
British Educational Research Association (BERA). Initial teacher education: Are we missing something? Initial teacher education (ITE) has increasingly come under public and political scrutiny in several countries due to a growing focus on competitive international rankings… Furthermore, good teacher preparation is considered essential to stem the rising tide of teacher attrition, a situation that has reached a crisis point in several countries.
Daily Post Nigeria. 40 per cent IGR policy: FG bows to pressure, suspends action The union lamented that the government was initiating a policy to turn Colleges of Education into revenue-generating centres when the critical stakeholders in the education sector were clamouring for increased funding of teacher education, provision of scholarships and bursaries for education students.
Edugraph (India). National Council for Teacher Education allows maternity and childcare leave to students The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has allowed students of its approved colleges to avail themselves of maternity and childcare leave during the course of their study… It has relaxed the duration under the norms and standard of all teacher education programmes.
Irish Times. Primary principals warn education system is on ‘verge of breaking’ as teacher supply issues bite: Move to deliver smaller classes may have ‘intensified’ staff shortage problem, Department of Education secretary general says …hundreds of additional places have been provided in teacher education programmes, while a bursary is being launched next year to ease the financial burden of graduates completing the two-year postgraduate qualification to teach.
UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat. New MSU Denver program aims to train more male educators of color …a program called Call Me MISTER, which stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models and helps train men of color, especially Black men, to become educators. The program began at several South Carolina colleges and universities in 2000, and its goal is to increase the pool of teachers from diverse backgrounds, which has long been a challenge for K-12 education — less than 2% of all teachers nationwide are Black men, for example.
EdWeek. The Surprising Benefits of Gratitude Everyone Should Know About
Hechinger Report. How a disgraced method of diagnosing learning disabilities persists in our nation’s schools: A ‘discrepancy model’ that relies on IQ tests to identify dyslexic students lingers on, despite decades of critique Many schools feel pressure, both covert and overt, to not identify children with dyslexia because there aren’t enough specialists or teachers trained to work with them.
Honolulu Civic Beat. Teaching Kids To Read In Hawaii Is Going Back To Basics: But some think Hawaii can be doing more to improve literacy at a young age. The DOE is “certainly concerned” about these results, said Petra Schatz, the comprehensive literacy state development program manager at the Department of Education… The National Council on Teacher Quality has also received backlash regarding its review methods of teacher preparation programs. In 2021, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education said NCTQ placed too much emphasis on colleges’ course catalogs and syllabuses and failed to take into account faculty feedback in its evaluation.
NYTimes.
1) By the Numbers: How Schools Struggled During the Pandemic In the 2020-21 year, more than a quarter of schools employed uncertified teachers and 24 percent had no counselors… The pandemic amplified the need for highly qualified teachers and health professionals in schools.
2) How Millions of Borrowers Got $127 Billion in Student Loans Canceled: The Biden administration may have been blocked from canceling debt for tens of millions of borrowers by the Supreme Court, but it has still managed to eliminate billions in education debt. Public Service Loan Forgiveness Debts canceled: $51 billion for 715,000 borrowers In 2007, Congress passed a law intended to entice more college graduates into public service careers: Those who worked for government agencies or nonprofit organizations would, after 10 years of monthly loan payments, have their remaining federal student loan balance eliminated.
Pearson. edTPA® Community Newsletter November 2023
Philadelphia Tribune. ‘Students need mirror images of themselves’: Philly conference to address Black male teacher shortage State Sen. Vincent Hughes… sponsored Senate Bill 300, the Educator Pipeline Support Grant Program…Under the proposal, aspiring teachers completing their student-teaching requirement would be awarded $10,000, plus an additional $5,000 for completing their student-teacher experience at a school with staffing shortages. Student mentors would receive a $1,000 stipend, if the legislation passes.
Shore News Network. NJEA Seeking to Eliminate Basic Skills Test for New Jersey Teacher Certification Prospective teachers in New Jersey must currently pass the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test in Reading, Writing, and Math or present SAT, ACT, or GRE scores in the top third percentile of the year taken. The NJEA argues that this requirement poses an unnecessary barrier to entering the teaching profession. The association urges the public to contact Governor Murphy’s office to support the passing of S1553, a bill aimed at abolishing this testing requirement.
US Dept. of Education.
1) Biden-Harris Administration Launches “Being Bilingual is a Superpower” to Promote Multilingual Education for a Diverse Workforce The new initiative under the Department’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) seeks to promote research-based bilingual educational opportunities and language instruction in early learning education settings and beyond… To underscore the need for bilingual and multilingual education, OELA announced last year nearly $120 million in investments to eligible institutions of higher education and public or private entities with relevant experience and capacity to support educators of English learner students.
2) Biden-Harris Administration Premiers Public Service Announcement Elevating the Teaching Profession The U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with TEACH.org and One Million Teachers of Color, has launched “Teachers: Leaders Shaping Lives,” a campaign to elevate the teaching profession and promote educator diversity by inspiring more talented people – especially those from underrepresented communities – to become teachers.
US Dept. of Labor. US Department of Labor Kicks Off 9th Annual National Apprenticeship Week …Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “This week, we commend our partners — in industry associations, labor organizations, education and academia, workforce development, community-based organizations and in federal, state and local governments — for committing to make the long-term investments needed to ensure a pipeline of talent for the good-paying, quality jobs being created across the nation.”
Washington Post. Top trending misinformation tactics everyone can learn to spot By teaching students how misinformation is made and why it spreads, and giving them a few basic fact-checking skills, a growing number of people will be able to critically examine viral claims in their feeds and prevent themselves and people they know from being misled.
NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Here’s how NY Regents exams, high school grad requirements could change Among its 12 recommendations is a move to further increase the number of assessment options beyond the Regents exams… and enshrining instruction in culturally responsive-sustaining education practices in teacher preparation programs.
Hechinger Report. To solve teacher shortages, let’s open pathways for immigrants so they can become educators and role models: We urgently need new bilingual teachers. Here are some ways to make it happen … UndocuEdu, produced a report in 2021 titled “The State of Undocumented Educators in New York” that outlines the challenges undocumented educators face navigating teacher education programs. One suggestion in the report is to eliminate testing fees for NYS certification exams for those in financial need. Another recommendation is for policymakers to create municipal or state exceptions so that our city’s schools can hire educators who have training and certification but lack a work permit.
State legislators and advocates in New York are already discussing the creation of municipal work permits for recently arrived asylum-seekers.
NYSED Board of Regents November meetings
Proposed Amendment: Proposed Amendment …Relating to Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Media Arts Course Flexibility for the Individual Arts Assessment Pathway (IAAP) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) Pathways to High School Graduation Media arts is the only arts discipline that does not have a classroom teacher certification title… The Department proposes to amend section 100.5 of the Commissioner’s regulations to provide local discretion on how to distribute credit for media arts courses within a CTE or IAAP sequence when these courses are taught by a visual arts certified teacher or an appropriately certified CTE teacher… The proposed rule also amends the CTE pathway provision in section 100.5(d)(6) of the Commissioner’s regulations to provide that faculty for approved CTE programs can also have state certification in “special” subjects in addition to appropriate academic and technical subjects. These amendments will permit students pursuing an IAAP or NYSED-approved CTE program to earn either arts or CTE credit for specific media arts courses regardless of whether the teacher is certified as a CTE teacher or a visual arts teacher
Consent Agenda:
1) Amendment… Relating to the Requirements for Certification as a School Counselor through Individual Evaluation amendment provides two additional options for candidates to satisfy the practicum and internship requirement. The first option would allow a candidate who completed a preparation program leading to Provisional and Permanent School Counselor certification … to be considered as having met the practicum and internship requirement for an Initial School Counselor certificate. The second option would consider the practicum and internship requirement as met for candidates who completed a master’s or higher degree program in school counseling accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) from an institution of higher education (IHE) that is accredited by an institutional accrediting agency…
2) Amendment… Relating to Flexibilities for the Supplementary Certificate and Supplementary Bilingual Education Extension Requirements in Response to the Influx of Recently Arrived and Asylum Seeking Students the Department proposes to amend the Supplementary certificate requirements to provide flexibility for certified teachers who apply for the Supplementary English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) certificate, and for teachers who hold a valid Initial, Professional, or Permanent ESOL certificate and apply for a Supplementary certificate in another area, between September 12, 2023, and August 31, 2024… also proposes to amend the Supplementary Bilingual Education extension requirements to create flexibility for certified teachers and certified pupil personnel services professionals who apply for such extension between September 12, 2023, and August 31, 2024…
NYSED News.
1) Jeffrey Matteson Appointed State Education Department Senior Deputy Commissioner for Education Policy Dr. Matteson’s career spans 35 years as an educator, beginning as a social studies teacher and assuming roles as a principal, superintendent, and most recently as District Superintendent of the Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES)… Dr. Matteson holds a… B.A. in Social Studies from SUNY Cortland, and an A.A. in Liberal Arts from SUNY Morrisville.
2) New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures Presents Recommendations The Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations are: 10. Require all New York State teacher preparation programs to provide instruction in culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) practices and pedagogy. 11. Require that professional development plans include culturally responsive-sustaining education practices and pedagogy…
NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC’s new algebra curriculum mandate divides educators Traditionally, high schools and secondary math educators have had wide latitude to select or create their curriculum. For some teachers, especially experienced ones, that freedom can be helpful and spark innovation. Banks, however, argues that as a citywide policy, curricular autonomy has produced mediocre and inequitable results.
City & State NY. ‘Of course’ NYC schools Chancellor David Banks is concerned about the challenge of educating asylum-seeking children Is there a plan to hire more bilingual or English language learning staff? … let’s say if you’re a teacher, you’re social studies, but you have an ENL license, in the past, there were no incentives for you to shift your license, because you were starting all over again. Now, the state has essentially said, you can shift your license, not lose your tenure or anything like that. So we’re watching that and seeing how many people are shifting.
Teachers College.
1) Environmental Justice Needs Inclusive Science Education: Recognizing the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities, experts at TC chart a path toward justice through education research and practice “We are in a really powerful position to make a difference,” says Mahfood, who focuses on curriculum and teacher education. For the scholars who are preparing STEM educators, TC is fostering a generation of teachers who combat their internal biases… Mensah also sees TC as a place to prepare teachers to think about science differently by offering them “a critical lens about the world and about how we teach science” …
2) Here’s How Indigenous Curriculum Can Help Students Thrive Through her research of urban, Indigenous youth, postdoctoral fellow Rachel Talbert offers insight for educators to facilitate more honest, inclusive social studies curriculum
3) Majority of U.S. Voters Support Inclusive Education and Teacher Agency, TC Poll Shows: Conducted on behalf of the Black Education Research Center, the poll suggests that attacks against education lack broad support. As the U.S. grapples with waves of book bans and anti-inclusive education policies, a representative poll of 1,000 U.S. voters, conducted by Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies on behalf of the Black Education Research Center (BERC), revealed that an overwhelming majority support teacher agency and inclusive curriculum.
