GLOBAL
The Guardian. New teachers caught in an ideological trap The Conservatives’ framework for teacher training ignores recent theories of learning and offers inadequate preparation, write education experts. The next government must hit rewind
International Literacy Association. Advocating for Children’s Rights to Read: A manual for enacting the rights in classrooms, communities, and the world 3. ENSURE teacher preparation and professional development (PD) program requirements meet rigorous literacy standards.
UNITED STATES
AACTE. New Board Members for 2020
AACTE/SCALE. October-December 2019 edTPA Community Newsletter
American Educational Research Journal. Assessing the Assessment: Evidence of Reliability and Validity in the edTPA We examined the technical documentation of edTPA and raise serious concerns about scoring design, the reliability of the assessments, and the consequential impact on decisions about edTPA candidates. In light of these findings, we argue that the proposed and actual uses of the edTPA are currently unwarranted on technical grounds.
Atlanta Journal Constitution. Low pay, underfunded schools and unrealistic expectations make teaching a tough sell: Education professor says teachers held accountable for factors out of their control During student teaching, which I personally recall as one of the most challenging periods of my long academic career, today’s students must pass the EdTPA, which is a highly challenging performance-based test. All of these tests are evaluated by third parties, not schools of education. The state periodically raises the cut score for passing (which is an odd assessment practice, usually determining proficiency means identifying a performance level and sticking with it).
Chalkbeat. 7 questions asked and answered about Chicago’s new teacher diversity committee A major and important shift is talking about the pipeline. Instead of thinking about recruitment and how we siphon off more folks in an existing pool of applicants, how can we target people who want to be teachers? How can we think about our students as future teachers, and what would that do to reimagine a pipeline?
Education Week.
1) 10 Ways the Teaching Profession Has Changed Over the Past 10 Years 7. Fewer people are enrolling in teacher-preparation programs. Across the country, enrollment in teacher-preparation programs has dropped by one-third over the past decade. Program completion has declined as well.
2) Will the Science of Reading Catch On in Teacher Prep? Teachers often leave preservice without clarity on cognitive science
InsideHigherEd. Required Pedagogy: Online conversation shines a spotlight on graduate programs that teach students how to teach — and those programs that don’t. Davidson, distinguished professor of English at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, recently asked her Twitter followers to share names of doctoral programs that actually require students to learn how to teach… The document includes dozens of programs thus far, and the ongoing Twitter conservation names scores more. Davidson says the next big step is to all ask programs that aren’t on the list why not.
Learning Policy Institute. Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce …many of the programs in which educators enroll do not focus specifically on preparing students for teaching, and many do not require supervised student teaching, despite broad acceptance of clinical practice as an element of high-quality teacher preparation. This report is designed for practitioners and policymakers and shares the practices of promising programs that recruit and prepare diverse cohorts of educators to teach in programs serving children birth to age 5…
Missoulian. Montana’s teacher shortage starting to affect bigger districts Democrat Rep. Tyson Runningwolf from Browning introduced a proposal for a state-funded grow-your-own program — a research-based strategy that focuses on training people who already have roots in a community as teachers. But it carried a $500,000 price tag, and didn’t advance out of committee.
NCTE. The Act of Reading: Instructional Foundations and Policy Guidelines NCTE and its constituent groups have developed position statements on a variety of education issues vital to the teaching and learning of English language arts.
NYTimes.
1) After 10 Years of Hopes and Setbacks, What Happened to the Common Core? Jack Schneider, a professor of education at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, said the idea of shared, national standards made sense, but that it was “naïve” to expect them to make a big impact on student achievement without broader investments in early childhood education, teacher training and school integration. Ultimately, he added, “I would say that poverty alleviation programs are a better investment than standardized tests.”
2) Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation? Joseph Bavazzano, the director of Montclair State University’s ADP Center for Learning Technologies, works with college students who will become teachers. His classes use smartphones for video projects and for FaceTime interviews with students from partner universities overseas.
Phi Delta Kappan. Children left behind: Turning education research into film [by TC Prof. A. Stuart Wells, et al] Over and over, we’ve seen policy makers design and implement school reform models that contradict the professional knowledge of our field. And at the same time, even as they ignore the research literature, they freely lend their ears to publishers, political advocacy groups, and other special interests who urge them to adopt teacher-proof curricula, create fast-track teacher-preparation programs, and disregard the empirical knowledge base about child development in favor of shiny new “data-driven” approaches to classroom management.
Reading Recovery Council of North America. Responding to the Reading Wars: Everyone’s Job …Reading Recovery teachers are taught how to document students’ knowledge of phonemic awareness and phonics so they can explicitly teach an awareness of the sounds of English and the relationship to letters. Every lesson clearly attends to phonics instruction.
The74. New Education Doctorate Focused on Social-Emotional Learning Is One of the First of Its Kind as Experts Call for Better Teacher Training on the Whole Child The program also fills a need in the social-emotional learning space: teacher training. A recent Aspen Institute report from researchers, educators, parents and students called for redesigned teacher preparation programs that focus on understanding trauma and teaching social, emotional and cognitive development skills.
Washington Post.
1) How good is your city’s pre-K program? Here’s a new report that grades 40 of them. The benchmarks … are:
*Comprehensive, aligned and supported early learning and development standards *Lead teacher has a bachelor’s degree *Lead teacher has specialized training in pre-K *Assistant teacher has a child development associate degree or equivalent…
2) Pete Buttigieg releases $1 trillion-plus plan for early-childhood and K-12 education Double the proportion of new teachers and school leaders who are people of color in the next 10 years by, in part, establishing new guidelines for the use of federal funds aimed at recruiting, training and supporting teachers.
3) When exciting education results are in the news, be skeptical If we could train teachers to be more effective at increasing student heights, we’d erase a lot of other inequities too… The paper is critiquing the idea that teacher quality can be measured by looking at their students’ test scores.
NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York policymakers request $2 billion boost in education funding. But don’t hold your breath that the money will come through. The Regents laid out other legislative requests including spending additional $8.1 million to improve early learning programs — mostly focused on better preparing teachers — and $15 million for school districts to “enhance” their curriculum and teaching supports for students learning English as a new language.
NYSED Board of Regents
Board of Regents Advances 2020 Budget and Legislative Priorities and State Aid Request for the 2020-21 School Year
Expand the Provision of Certification Examination Fee Waiver Vouchers to assist economically disadvantaged educator candidates in paying for the examinations required for certification ($1.2M);
Expand the Teacher Opportunity Corps II program to increase the number of certified educators of color and to enhance teacher diversity In New York State ($3M);…
Board of Regents Appoints Shannon Tahoe as Interim Commissioner William Murphy will serve as Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education. Dr. Murphy has served in various roles at the State Education Department over the past 15 years, most recently as the Director of Professional Education where he led teams responsible for evaluating higher education programs for professional licensure at public and private colleges and universities in New York State and internationally. In this role, Dr. Murphy has maintained relationships with academic accrediting bodies, federal and state education agencies and all sectors of higher education. Prior to joining the Department, Dr. Murphy held positions at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the Workforce Development Institute. He earned a Ph.D. from the University at Albany, a master’s degree from Baruch College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from LeMoyne College. Dr. Murphy starts his position Dec. 10.
December Meeting; Higher Education Committee.
Amendment of Subparts 30-2 and 30-3 of the Rules of the Board of Regents Relating to Annual Professional Performance Reviews (APPR) of Classroom Teachers and Building Principals to Implement Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2019
Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21…Relating to Professional Development Plans and Other Related Requirements for School Districts and BOCES
Appointments to the State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching
Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. September Meeting Minutes
NEW YORK CITY
Bklyner. For the Love of Calculus: Brooklyn Tech Teacher Raises the Bar Bodner went on to Barnard College, graduating in 2004 with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics. She briefly worked in vector marketing, before signing up as a fellow for Math for America— an organization committed to improving teacher retention nationally by building and supporting communities of outstanding STEM teachers. She received her Masters’ in Math Education at Columbia Teachers’ College and taught at Pace High School for four years.
Chalkbeat. NYC education officials exploring dual language programs for 3-year-olds While the biggest challenge is finding enough qualified teachers — a common roadblock for bilingual education— it’s still worthwhile, she said.
NYTimes. A School Empowers a Single Mother of a Girl With Autism Earlier this year, she spotted a flier for a free program at the education center that provided training to become a teaching assistant… These days, Ms. Terrero is studying for an exam to become a certified teaching assistant. After she takes it, she hopes to enroll in college and eventually become a special-education teacher.
Teachers College. Teaching Residents at Teachers College Induction | December-January I Holiday Edition Newsletter
