Category: Teacher Education

GLOBAL
National Center for Education and the Economy. Preparing Teachers To Use Technology   While strategies vary, each of these jurisdictions trusts teachers to serve as experts and lead their peers in the rapidly evolving space of online teaching and learning… While strategies vary, each of these jurisdictions trusts teachers to serve as experts and lead their peers in the rapidly evolving space of online teaching and learning. 

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Minister Warr Recognizes Early Childhood Educators Week   Today, the Honourable Brian Warr, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development virtually joined the Association of Early Childhood Educators to proclaim Early Childhood Educators Week, May 24-30…. There are approximately 2,200 certified early childhood educators in communities throughout the province working in child care centres, family child care homes, family resource centres, educational institutions, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.

Standard Media. Teachers Back Calls to Suspend, Reset Exams. “Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) should reset national exams since the syllabus will not be covered adequately and promptly,” reads a joint report by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)… The findings came after the team unsuccessfully lobbied to be included in the government’s Education Response Committee led by Dr Sara Ruto that seeks to advise on the reopening of all basic learning institutions, teacher training colleges and adult education institutions.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 2020 Annual Meeting Opening Session: Robin DiAngelo, Keynote Speaker
2) Teaching Online: Moving from Emergency to Planned
3) Updates to AACTE’s COVID-19 Educator Preparation Policy Tracker Map   These changes include guidance analysis of 12 new states, specifically Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. We have also updated data for New Jersey, which recently issued new guidance waiving edTPA.

Baltimore Sun. Desks 6 feet apart? Elementary only? Temperatures taken at the door? Maryland schools plan for coronavirus contingencies   “It is not about cramming them back into the same old school so we can do six months of teaching in one month,” said Tom Hatch, a professor at Teachers College….Some teachers with pre-existing conditions or older teachers may not feel comfortable coming back into school buildings, and there’s already a teacher shortage in Maryland, where teacher colleges do not produce enough graduates each year to fill vacancies.

Chalkbeat. How the National Teacher of the Year connects preschoolers and senior citizens, even during the pandemic   How did you decide that you wanted to be a teacher? I always knew that I wanted to help people, but when I was a senior or a junior in high school, I was taking a dual-credit college Spanish course, and part of that was volunteering to teach Spanish to preschoolers. For the first time, I got to observe a teacher. I got to see teaching as an art form in that classroom. And I knew then that it was something that I wanted to be a part of.

EdSurge. Pandemic May (Finally) Push Online Education Into Teacher Prep Programs   Even teacher prep programs that are offered via online courses don’t necessarily instruct teacher candidates how to educate students remotely, says Lynn Gangone, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Education Writers Association. Teacher Prep, Interrupted: Licensing Educators During Coronavirus: Experts discuss emergency waivers and their potential impact [May 15 Webinar now available]

Hechinger Report.
1) Are we ready? How we are teaching – and not teaching – kids about climate change at all.   Mead teaches at a private school where he is given the freedom to explore climate change in depth. However, he mentors teachers around the state who say they’re fearful of broaching the issue. Some teachers tell him they don’t even feel well versed enough in climate science to pass on any expertise to students.
2) Schools call parents “co-teachers,” but we have no idea what we’re doing: Learning only happens with a high-quality teacher, but parents have been dropped into the role with no training and little support   Because even the most engaging, thoughtful remote learning programs will not be enough to close the educational divides that are opening wider by the day unless we can provide a serious amount of support and training not just for teachers, but also for parents — holding our hands as we hold our children’s hands through this stressful time.
3) The educational value of a black teacher: Coronavirus is offering a chance to ‘reimagine’ education, but if the new landscape doesn’t include efforts to recruit and retain more black teachers, reform will be a farce   For years, researchers such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Pedro Noguera, Lisa Delpit, Adrienne Dixson, Christopher Emdin, and James A. Banks — all people of color — validated the need for black teachers in New Orleans schools through their studies on teachers of color… If the purpose of education reform is to boost students’ academic outcomes, reduce suspensions, raise expectations, and even recruit (less racist) teachers into the profession, research suggests that increasing the number of black teachers should be part of any serious strategy.

InsideHigherEd. Can Active Learning Co-Exist With Physically Distanced Classrooms?   Ellen Maddin, co-director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and associate professor of teacher education at Northern Kentucky University, also suggested ways instructors could tap students’ own laptops, tablets or phones to stimulate active learning. “I use Padlet for many purposes — to capture ideas in small group work, as a backchannel if we watch a video clip, to brainstorm challenges and potential solutions, to analyze case studies, etc.” Padlet works well in a face-to-face setting, Maddin said, especially when the instructor pulls the whole group back together to discuss individual/group responses — shared on the large screen.

NEA. Remote Teaching and Learning Courses   Enroll in one of NEA’s virtual remote blended learning courses to learn the basic components of remote learning and successful instruction outside of the traditional classroom. [courses begin June 15]

NYTimes.
1) Remember the MOOCs? After Near-Death, They’re Booming   The pioneering online learning networks offer hard-earned lessons for what works and what doesn’t with online education.
2) The Future of College Is Online, and It’s Cheaper: The coronavirus forced a shift to virtual classes, but their continuation could be beneficial even after the pandemic ends.   Professors would need to undergo training on how to effectively teach to a blended classroom. Universities would also be well served to build competencies in content production. Today, almost all theory-based content, whether in chemistry, computer science or finance, can be produced in advance and effectively delivered asynchronously. By tapping their best-rated professors to be the stars of those productions, universities could actually raise the pedagogical standard.

U.S. Education Dept. FY 2020 Call For Peer Reviewers: Effective Educator Development Division … seeking peer reviewers for the upcoming grant competitions. Those grant programs are Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program (TSL) & Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP). 

Washington Post.
1) ‘The future of public education is at stake’: An open letter to Joe Biden from 215 school advocates
* Guarantee tuition-free public colleges, universities, HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions and trade-schools to all, not just those who qualify through means-testing.
* Cancel all student loan debt and place a cap on student loan interest rates moving forward.
2) How to recover from our school disaster: Top curriculums, training and resolve   Petrilli recommended against dumping the Common Core standards, since the likely alternatives would be old state standards “that were mediocre, unclear and targeted at basic literacy and numeracy.” The writers said that if states banned weak curriculums and overhauled teacher preparation, progress could be made. 

NEW YORK STATE
Gotham Gazette. New Yorkers Can Weigh In On Recommendations for New Student ‘Civic Readiness’ Standards   In a recent email, the chair of the task force, Michael Rebell of The Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College, wrote that “Despite the budgetary uncertainty stemming from the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Governor Cuomo and the New York State legislature approved a $1 million appropriation for ‘education in civics, diversity and religious freedoms.’ As a result of this appropriation, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is now seeking feedback on the policy recommendations developed by the Regents’ Civic Readiness Task Force.

LOHUD/USA Today. Regents to name task force on reopening schools, Rosa says    Rosa said the Regents have been working on its reopening project for about a month and have a “massive” plan to include teachers, administrators, parents and other stakeholders.

NYSATE/NYACTE. Award Nominations   Though the in-person Fall 2020 NYSATE/NYACTE Conference is cancelled, we still want to encourage you to consider nominating a colleague for NYSATE’s Appleby or NYACTE’s Mackey Award. 

NYSED.  New York Register Public Comment Period regarding the Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21, 60.6, 61.19, 80- 1.2, 80-3.7, 100.1, 100.2, 100.4, 100.5, 100.6, 100.7, 100.19 and 151-1.3 and addition of Section 80-5.27 to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Addressing the COVID-19 Crisis.  Data, views or arguments may be submitted to: Julia Patane, NYS Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 148EB, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-6400, email: [email protected] Public comment will be received until: 60 days after publication of this notice.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Carranza’s No. 2 at the education department is job hunting outside NYC   Cheryl Watson-Harris was briefly one of more than 20 candidates vying to become superintendent of Sarasota County schools…Aaron Pallas, department chair of education policy and analysis at Teachers College at Columbia University, said it’s likely that Watson-Harris is simply looking to take on her own leadership role.

GLOBAL
Education International. Guiding principles on the COVID-19 pandemic   Governments must also develop strategies to address the consequences of closing teacher training and other higher education institutions, bearing in mind the already existing high teacher shortages. 

Global Partnership for Education. Global Partnership for Education provides $68 million in grants for education response to COVID-19 (coronavirus)   The grant will also train teachers to provide psychosocial support to students, parents and communities. The World Bank is the grant agent in Ghana.

Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT).  Transforming Norwegian Teacher Education: The Final Report of the International Advisory Panel for Primary and Lower Secondary Teacher Education

UNESCO. Breaking educational language barriers in Mozambique   In 2019, CapED piloted the first year of the curriculum in five districts across four provinces (Gaza, Maputo, Nampula, and Sofala) and is currently training teacher-educators, teachers and adult educators to use the 2nd year of the curriculum.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Education Funding and Next COVID-19 Relief Bill: The HEROES Act   Educators across the board praised the bill and lauded its continued investment in education.  These numbers are likely the high-water mark for education spending in the next COVID-19 relief package; however, they do fall short of requests made by K-12 educators who were looking for $250 billion. 
2) How the Center for Urban Education in Denver is Reimagining Teacher Preparation Programs   Outreach efforts are paying off: last year, CUE enrolled 130 students, more than 70 % of whom identify as students of color and over 90 % of whom are first-generation college students. What’s more, 70 % of candidates were transfer students from local community colleges, according to data provided by CUE.

American University Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice. Uplifting Women & Girls of Color Through Antiracist Pedagogy, Practice & Policy [Virtual Conference June 22-24]

Cal Matters. We must invest in teachers now as students transition to distance learning    Every dollar put into teacher training today will yield multiples in a post-COVID-19 world… More than 300 teachers in our district use a reading and writing curriculum called Units of Study, developed by Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project…When COVID-19 hit, I turned to Teachers College to armor myself with tactics to support our teachers as they made the difficult transition to distance learning. I’ve attended daily Zoom calls with their professional development experts, as well as a three-day virtual institute on literacy. 

CCSSO. Tabatha Rosproy, Kansas 2020 National Teacher of The Year  … a 10-year veteran Kansas teacher, is the first early childhood educator to be named National Teacher of the Year…  holds a Bachelor of Arts in unified early childhood education, including special education and typically developing students, from Southwestern College and is near completion of her Master of Science in education (English as a Secondary or Other Language) at Fort Hays State University. 

Chalkbeat. Facing an uncertain summer, Teach for America and other prep programs will train teachers online   TFA is one of many non-traditional teacher preparation programs that rely on the summer months to give new teachers experience in front of students. Some programs are working to figure out how to capture some of that with virtual summer school, while others say they’ll focus on skills like lesson planning in the short term and double down on coaching in the fall.

Education Week. Kenneth S. Goodman, ‘Founding Father’ of Whole Language, Dead at 92   “His greater legacy is undeniable. I bet you that in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s there’s hardly a teacher who went through a teacher education program anywhere in the country who didn’t encounter Goodman’s work,” said P. David Pearson, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. One reason whole language became so popular among teachers was because it emphasized teachers’ knowledge and skill in responding to student needs, rather than scripted programs and curricula…

Forbes. A New “New Deal” For Education: Top 10 Policy Moves For States In The COVID 2.0 Era   States should make sure that providing these kinds of supports for students, families, and educators—as well as curriculum and professional development supports for educators to infuse these skills into all school experiences—is a priority throughout this pandemic and beyond.

Inside Higher Ed. Arkansas-Little Rock Lays Off 13 Professors   Affected are two associate professors and one instructor of theater arts and dance; an associate professor of world languages; seven professors of education; and one associate professor and professor of systems engineering. 

Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Island University Welcomes Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education this Fall   Starting this fall, Islanders who plan to teach at an elementary school can enroll in the Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education…

Washington Post. Expanding AmeriCorps could turn new grads into an army of contact tracers. It just needs funding.   Some of the most well-known programs under the AmeriCorps umbrella, such as Teach for America, have played important and controversial roles in the public sector. Critics have derided such national service programs as domestic “voluntourism,” a way station for well-off grads en route to law school.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED.
1) Distance Education Flexibility Fall 2020 Semester   Professional licensure and educator preparation program clinical experience courses must meet regulatory requirements, and students must complete adequate clinical hours to ensure competency. Updated clinical experience guidance and considerations may be forthcoming based upon the circumstances of the continuing emergency.
2) Emergency COVID-19 Certificate. The Emergency COVID-19 certificate type is now available in TEACH for applicable certificate titles. There were technical issues with the application on May 22 in the morning that have been fixed.
3) The NYS Board of Regents invites applications & nominations for Commissioner of Education & President of the University of the State of New York. [Applications & nominations should be received by June 8, 2020.]

NEW YORK CITY
Bank Street College. Making Teacher Preparation Policy Work: Lessons From And For New York

Chalkbeat. In response to coronavirus, this Harvard sophomore created a free tutoring service for low-income NYC students   Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College, said organizations like EduMate could help students navigate a particularly disruptive moment emotionally by connecting them with young adult tutors who may identify with them… The program’s limited training and time spent with students, at just an hour a week, would likely mean that its effects are modest, Pallas suggested. But at zero cost, he added, there isn’t much of a harm in trying.

New York Daily News. The reinvention schools really need: Four New York teachers of the year push back at Gov. Cuomo   But you don’t become a teacher, let alone state Teacher of the Year as each of us has, without dealing with the hard challenges that come with being an educator.

New York Times. Richard Gilder, Donor to Parks, Museum and History, Dies at 87   They incorporated the collection into the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which they established in 1994 to promote research, teacher training, exhibitions and classroom curriculums… Mr. Gilder’s philanthropy extended across West 77th Street to the American Museum of Natural History, to which he gave $50 million to establish the Richard Gilder Graduate School. 

Teachers College.
1) 2020 Convocation. “During times like these, our responsibility to ourselves & those around us is only magnified…Let us empower our communities…May we always use our positions as Teachers College, Columbia University grads to uplift & empower.” —Amann Syed Ahmad (MA Early Childhood Education ’20)
2) Mentors, Scholars, Editors and Authors: More honors for TC faculty, students and emeriti   Professor Emerita Frances Schoonmaker has received the Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery for her 2019 novel, The Last Crystal… Schoonmaker (Ed.D.’83) directed the College’s graduate elementary and middle school teacher education program — which drew heavily on children’s literature and storytelling — for nearly twenty years.
3) Teaching from Empathy: Dylan Kapit understands disability and difference from the inside   Following graduation, Kapit will head to the University of Pittsburgh to pursue a Ph.D. in Special Education, with a focus on teacher training and the development of a sexual education curriculum for people with autism.

GLOBAL
Global Partnership for Education. Releasing the potential of teachers in the COVID response in low-income countries   Teacher training is also needed to help teachers work with the new modalities required during the crisis… Uganda’s teacher training institutes are offering capacity building workshops to strengthen teachers’ ICT skills to use distance learning platforms during the pandemic. 

International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. Knowledge Hub  The portal will facilitate information sharing on teachers and teaching issues among members and non-members of the TTF.

UNESCO. Webinars on COVID-19 education response

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE and Mursion Present Virtual Reality Classrooms   This partnership, offered at a special rate for AACTE members, offers educators and students world-class experiential learning through simulations for long-term success. 
2) State Policy Tracking Map: State Actions to Support EPPs and Teacher Candidates
3) Due Dates Extended for Annual Meeting Reviewer and Proposal Submissions

Chalkbeat.
1) Solving Illinois’ teacher shortage is complicated. These five charts explain why  Research has shown that it matters where programs are located. Whalen noted that a majority of teacher candidates choose to teach near where they went to school or where they are from originally. In Illinois, nearly one in five districts is more than 30 miles from a teacher training program, hampering their ability to recruit student teachers and build pipelines to future educators.
2) Teaching reading was hard before a pandemic. Now Chicago teachers walk a tightrope of technology and attention   Chicago adopted a common but controversial approach known as balanced literacy. It uses individual and group reading, context clues, some phonics, and writing practice. Critics say that method, often used in teacher training programs throughout Illinois, is not supported by science on how children learn basic literacy skills.

Connecticut State Board of Education. Temporary Flexibilities – Educator Preparation Programs
–  The expectation remains that spring 2020 ‘Student Teacher’ candidates submit a completed edTPA portfolio where possible. However, the CSDE will waive the cut score for all candidates.
–  EPPs will be able to submit an edTPA Waiver Request for any ‘Student Teacher’ candidate who is unable to submit a completed edTPA portfolio as a result of COVID-19 related circumstances.

Education Week. [NOTE: Full, Premium Access to TC community]
1) Educators, This Is Our Moment to Defend the Teaching Profession [OpEd by TC Prof. Amy Stuart Wells]  As celebrities Tweet that teachers should be paid as much as CEOs, educators must tap into this newfound appreciation to demand policies that ensure educators are well-trained, well-supported, and well-paid for the work they do. Quick-fix, teacher-prep-lite programs—especially for those assigned to teach in the most disadvantaged schools—are not acceptable.
2) How to Teach Math to Students With Disabilities, English-Language Learners   Cathery Yeh, an assistant professor of teacher education at Chapman University in Orange, Calif… said, “Math teachers—we often see ourselves as content-area teachers. Like our job is to be knowledgeable about math and not necessarily responsible for promoting language development,” Yeh said. “But we have to support learning math through language and learning language through math.”

Learning Policy Institute. Webinar: A Deeper Dive into How Educator Preparation Programs are Adapting During COVID-19 [3pm May 21]

Mursion/American Institutes for Research. Findings from a Randomized Field Study of a Teacher Professional Development Program using Classroom Simulation to Develop Mathematics Instruction. [May 14 webinar recording]

NEAToday. Five Educators Share Advice for New Teachers  It’s still too early to tell what the next school year will look like post pandemic, but that doesn’t mean educators are in a holding pattern, especially those who will be newly minted teachers in the next year or so.

New Jersey Board of Education. Waiver of Performance Assessment Certification Requirements During COVID-19 Public Health Emergency  The following guidance provides a description of the New Jersey Department of Education’s (NJDOE) waiver of the teacher certification performance assessment (edTPA) requirement as necessitated by the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency and related limitations.  The NJDOE aims to ensure all candidates who are otherwise eligible for certification but cannot complete the edTPA due to temporary assessment disruptions caused by the pandemic can earn initial or permanent (standard) educator certification.

Washington Post. Michigan settles historic lawsuit after court rules students have a constitutional right to a ‘basic’ education, including literacy   The suit argued that students blamed “substandard performance on poor conditions within their classrooms, including missing or unqualified teachers, physically dangerous facilities, and inadequate books and materials.” Conditions in the schools, the students said, had deprived them “of a basic minimum education” that allows a chance at foundational literacy.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) NYS Colleges and Universities Impacted by the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
-Update on Certification Examination Guidance
-Moving to Pass/Fail Grades for Content and Pedagogy Courses
-Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Core
-Programs that Lead to Both Certification and Professional Licensure
-Summer 2020 EPP Clinical Experiences
-GRE Requirement for Admission to Graduate Teacher and Educational Leadership Programs

NEW YORK CITY
New York Post. NYC DOE slashes fellowship program cutting hundreds of teaching jobs   A total of 475 accepted NYC Teaching Fellows applicants were slated to begin training this summer for eventual placement in the fall.

GLOBAL
Education International. Cameroon: teachers must get more support in developing their skills to help them deliver quality distance education  Concerning the use of information and communication technologies in Cameroon to prepare teachers to give online classes, it is “marginal” according to Roger Kaffo, General Secretary of the Syndicat National Autonome de l’Enseignement Secondaire (SNAES) …

Google/UNESCO. Teach From Home.  A temporary hub of information and tools to help teachers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

Thomas Reuters Foundation News. Don’t let girls’ education be another casualty of the coronavirus   Educators should be trained about the threat of violence against girls and child marriage and refer at-risk girls to protective services.

UNESCO. Startling digital divides in distance learning emerge   Teachers also require training to deliver distance and online education effectively, but such support is particularly scarce in low-income countries. Across sub-Saharan Africa, just 64% of primary and 50% of secondary teachers have received minimum training, and this frequently does not include ICT skills.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Call for Peer Reviewers: 2021 Annual Meeting Proposals
2) Helping Teacher Educators Take a Stand Against Hate   …Deeper Dive presentation, “Combating Discrimination and Hatred Through Education,” at AACTE’s 72nd Annual Meeting in Atlanta

CBS Austin. Pandemic relaxes student teacher certification requirements in Texas. Shortly after many local governments issued some sort of ‘stay home, work safe’ order, the state issued a waiver changing student teacher certification requirements, in part to prevent a teacher shortage before the start of next school year.

Education Week. Here’s How Many Teaching Jobs Could Be Lost in Each State in a COVID-19 Recession   If states slash education budgets, Griffith said, school districts would likely lay off early-career teachers first. 

Learning Policy Institute.
1) The Impact of the COVID-19 Recession on Teaching Positions   Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers is essential for student learning. As a 2019 Learning Policy Institute analysis found, “Investments in instruction, especially high-quality teachers, appear to leverage the largest marginal gains in [student] performance.”
2) Webinar: How Educator Preparation Programs Are Adapting During COVID-19 [recording and slides of Apr. 23 webinar now available]

Mississippi Today. Suspension of teacher license test amid COVID-19 crisis likely to ‘open up some doors’ for potential educators   In late March, the Mississippi State Board of Education suspended multiple requirements for teacher candidates surrounding licensure. For the time being, the Praxis is no longer necessary to obtain a license.

NYTimes. ‘It Was Just Too Much’: How Remote Learning Is Breaking Parents: For the adults in the house, trying to do their own jobs while helping children with class work has become one of the most trying aspects of the pandemic.   Parental engagement has long been seen as critical to student achievement, as much as class size, curriculum and teacher quality… Ms. Landgreen, a teacher, said it can be easier to teach a room full of students than one’s own children.

The 74. Coronavirus Separates Student Teachers From Their K-12 and College Classrooms, Forcing Them to Scramble and States to Change License Rules   Around the country, student teachers face a uniquely challenging situation, physically disconnected from both their colleges and the schools where they expected to be student teaching this semester. Many are unable to finish up final tests for teacher licensure and, like most children, teachers and parents, experienced an abrupt transition to remote learning at both institutions. 

The Teacher Education Podcast. Navigating edTPA with Dr. Lisa Barron

Washington Post. Why history is hard — and dangerous — to teach and how to get kids to stop thinking it is ‘boring and useless’   This inquiry-based history has driven decades of research into the cognition of learning and shaped teacher education. Libraries, archives, and education companies have generated mountains of digitized primary sources for students to examine and analyze. The document-based model has shaped Advanced Placement courses, the Common Core, and policies supported by the National Council for Social Studies.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED.
1) Acceptance of “Pass” Grades, or its Equivalent, in the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification During the Spring, Summer, or Fall 2020 Terms  …the Department will allow any undergraduate or graduate level content core or pedagogical core course, completed during the Spring, Summer, or Fall 2020 terms with a “pass” grade, or its equivalent, to count towards the content core or pedagogical core semester hour requirements for certification through the Individual Evaluation pathway.
2) Statement From Chancellor Betty A. Rosa, the Board of Regents and Interim Commissioner Shannon Tahoe   “In the coming weeks we will form a statewide task force made up of educational leaders, including superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, school board members and other stakeholders, to guide the reopening of our schools…”
3) Vacancy Notice: Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York   The New York State Board of Regents invites applications and nominations for the position of Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York.

NYS Governor Cuomo. All K-12 schools and college facilities statewide will remain closed and continue to provide distance learning, meal delivery and childcare services for the remainder of the school year.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Many of NYC’s bilingual special education students don’t get the right services. Remote learning has made it even harder.  People who want to become certified in both bilingual and special education must pursue about 18 to 24 more credit hours of coursework than a general education teacher according to the city teachers union… Through a program with New York City Teaching Fellows, the city subsidizes tuition for special education teachers to get their bilingual certification. The city also helps recruit teachers and covers extra tuition costs at certain colleges for a state program called the Intensive Teacher Institute in Bilingual Special Education. The first cohort started this year with Hunter College, according to the city. 

New York Times. Tadashi Tsufura, Internment Survivor and New York Principal, Dies at 89: During World War II, he and his family were forcibly relocated to Arizona. He later became a beloved educator in New York City.   Unhappy as a chemical engineer, he left for New York City, where one of his brothers lived. Learning of a teacher shortage in the public schools in the early 1960s, he took education courses at Brooklyn College and started a new career. He taught math in two Manhattan schools and was named the principal of P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, where he stayed for eight years before becoming a deputy superintendent of District 3 on the Upper West Side. 

Washington Post. How a politician with no medical background came to be hyped as ‘the Anthony Fauci of the New York City Council’   He knows schooling from his days as a bilingual math and science teacher in the South Bronx and his time as Teach For America’s New York City director. [Mark Levine is on the NYC City Council representing District 7, including Teachers College and Columbia University.]

GLOBAL
China Daily. China postpones teacher certification exam to H2   China’s Ministry of Education Friday announced the postponement of the teacher certification examination to the second half of the year over coronavirus concerns… College graduates who are eligible to apply for the teacher certification examination and have professional competence can be employed as teachers before attending the exam, the circular said.

Education Nation. Estonia Offers Webinar Series On Distance Learning For International Audience

edsys. 10 Educational Movies Every Teacher Should See

Global Partnership for Education. Central African Republic: Promising progress in education despite many challenges   At the regional training center for teachers, I saw teachers attending a training on e-readers to compensate for the lack of other pedagogical materials. The center has a library, but shelves were empty. Instead, hundreds of digital learning files are stocked in digital memories and made available through e-readers.

Upali Newspapers. British Council Sri Lanka’s English Language Teacher Educator Conference showcases achievements and reflects on issues and challenges   The overall theme of the conference was ‘English language teacher education in the 21st century’ and explored challenges faced by teachers and the techniques, tools and methodologies that need to be deployed to support and assist the teachers.

UNITED STATES
Deans for Impact. COVID-19 Teacher Preparation Policy Database   As a public resource, we have developed the COVID-19 Teacher Preparation Policy Database, which covers changes to licensure, clinical requirements, entry and exit assessments, and program approval. We are currently monitoring changes across all 50 states and DC. We plan to add U.S. territories in subsequent analyses.

Education Week. Shifting Science Instruction to the Coronavirus: New Activities, Units   Working with researchers from two universities, nine teachers designed high school science activities they hope will accomplish two things at once. Students will get the chance to study a natural phenomenon that’s meaningful in their lives—a key aim of the NGSS—and they’ll also get to process the pandemic’s impact on their lives.

Go React. 6 Assignments For Online Instructors In Teacher Preparation   While the current pandemic is making life especially hard for teacher preparation professionals, there are solutions. With the right video tool and assignments, online instructors can provide candidates with the practice, feedback, and sense of community they need during this pandemic. 

Hechinger Report. Learning to teach from naughty avatars: Virginia study finds prospective teachers improve their handling of student misbehavior when training simulations are combined with human coaching    Running computerized simulations of classrooms isn’t cheap or a way to save time. No one has yet figured out how to create virtual characters that can talk and respond automatically through artificial intelligence. Simulations still require a live actor to operate the students behind the curtain and a human teaching coach to watch and give feedback to the teaching student.

Johnson City Press. ETSU sets up Homework Hotline to assist students learning from home   Future teachers studying in the East Tennessee State University Clemmer College of Education are now offering help to local public school students as they continue their courses remotely amid school closures.

New York Times.
1) Early Education Is More Demanding Than Ever, and Experts Have Concerns   To make room for test prep, they reduced time spent on child-led, curiosity-driven lessons. “It made the whole atmosphere of education become over-focused on learning certain facts and skills at certain ages,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed. D., a professor emerita and teacher educator at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.
2) What to Know About Montessori Preschools: They’re popular, but how do they differ from conventional nursery schools?   It’s also important, Green says, for Montessori teachers to have credentials from a program that has been accredited by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education.

The Chattanoogan. Dalton State Offers Teacher Certification Program For Non-Teachers   The University of North Georgia in partnership with Dalton State College will offer a one-year teacher certification program for individuals currently holding a bachelor’s degree or higher which will make them eligible to teach in their content area at the middle school or high school level.

Tulsa World. ‘Zoombombers’ taunt Oklahoma State Board of Education members with racial epithets, sexually explicit language   During the meeting, the state Board of Education approved a stopgap measure giving new teachers a temporary, one-year state certification until they can complete their final requirements made impossible by the statewide closure of schools and teacher certification testing centers.

Washington Post. Leading public education advocates write open letter to Joe Biden: Your ‘statements encourage us’   All children deserve a well-resourced public school filled with high-quality educational experiences… All children deserve schools that have counselors, social workers, librarians, and nurses. All children deserve a full curriculum, with science labs and arts programs.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSATE/NYACTE. Fall 2020 Conference  In place of holding a conference, we are planning to host a series of webinars related to the impact of the pandemic on the work we do. 

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. Who You Gonna Call: TC’s Center for Technology & School Change is a go-to resource for the new online era in K-12 education   “I don’t believe K-12 or higher education will ever be quite the same,” says Ellen Meier. “Education is going to include more technology, and the challenge is to prepare teachers to use it creatively to ensure that our students are creators who use tools for problem-solving. 

GLOBAL
Global Partnership for Education.
1) Emergency teaching online: 7 steps to get started   The first post focused on platforms and content, while this one focuses on preparing teachers and learners, instruction, and assessment.
2) How can Sierra Leone’s education response after Ebola help with the COVID-19 response?   WhatsApp groups are great for sharing messages and giving support. Great work has been done in Bangladesh on recording teacher training support on SIM cards, which teachers can then insert into their own phone to watch.

InsideHigherEd. China’s Limitations on Distance Education   Many popular online platforms — including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and some Google functions — are largely inaccessible to teachers and students on the Chinese mainland… Educators are scrambling to upload materials to whatever platforms they find handy and usable, and many lack experience dealing with Chinese internet restrictions, widely described as the great firewall of China.

PDK International. PDK2020 and Educators Rising National Conference will be cancelled for 2020   We are currently evaluating options for holding virtual competitions and will notify everyone of the status by the first week in May.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. AACTE and EdPrep Lab Presents Webinar: Preparing Educators for Deeper Learning and Equity during COVID-19  [Zoom Registration for April 23 Webinar]

AACTE/SCALE. News From edTPA®   Guidance for Candidates Impacted by School Closure; Announcements and Resources

Education Week.
1) The Coronavirus Just Might End School Privatization Nonsense [D. Ravitch OpEd]  In most parts of the nation, public schools are the center of community life. They provide free meals, a nurse (usually), and instruction by certified teachers (unlike some charters and many of the religious schools that accept vouchers). 
2) Still Mostly White and Female: New Federal Data on the Teaching Profession    Fewer than half of teachers took a course in teaching English-learners before their first year teaching. The survey asked teachers if they took a graduate or undergraduate course in selected subject areas before their first year in the classroom. Here are the results for public school teachers:
79 percent took a course in lesson planning
77 percent in learning assessment
74 percent in classroom management techniques
70 percent in serving students with special needs
65 percent in serving students from diverse economic backgrounds
56 percent in using student performance data to inform instruction
41 percent in teaching English-language learners 
3) Student-Teachers In Limbo During School Shutdowns. Here’s How States Can Help   Teacher-preparation programs are scrambling to figure out how to support teacher-candidates while still meeting state requirements, which are starting to be revised in some places. 
4) Teacher-Candidates Will Be Able to Take the Praxis Certification Test at Home   Passing the Praxis exam is a requirement to be a teacher in about half of states, and the test is administered in a strictly controlled and timed environment. Testing centers are now closed—but starting in mid-May, teacher-candidates will be able to take a Praxis exam at home or another secure location, ETS spokeswoman Alescia Dingle said in an email. 

Hechinger Report. Teachers need lots of training to do online learning well. Coronavirus closures gave many just days.   Some colleges ask teachers to complete nine credits to receive a certificate in online teaching. Experts in the area say planning, designing and implementing a high-quality online course can take more than a year; the best training is customized to meet teachers where they are and build on their knowledge.

Information Age Publishing. Call for Chapters: Preparing Quality Teachers: Advances in Clinical Practice   All inquiries and documents should be submitted via e-mail to Drew Polly at [email protected]. [deadline Mar. 15, 2021]

InsideHigherEd. The Higher Education Act and the Pandemic

NEA Today. Caught in Limbo, Aspiring Educators Ask for Flexibility   In cases where states won’t waive requirements around PPTA or EdTPA, NEA Aspiring Educators are advocating for provisional licenses, which would be based on the recommendations of their college or university programs, so that they can be hired and then complete the testing during their first year of work.

Pearson Education. Subject-Specific Considerations for Completing edTPA in a Virtual Learning Environment   As with all alternative arrangements, the teacher candidate must consult with their program faculty/instructor or building level administrator (for unaffiliated teacher candidates) and P–12 partners to determine if the VLE is an appropriate and a viable alternative for both the teacher candidate and P–12 learners.

Teacher Education Podcast. Equity in the Classroom with National Teacher of the Year, Rodney Robinson

Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Case for Escape Hatches from Higher Education Accreditation  Some accreditors have used their quasi-regulatory power to impose ideologically controversial viewpoints. For example, in 2006, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education received unexpected criticism of its standard requiring education schools to evaluate the “dispositions” of students toward vague concepts such as “social justice” and “diversity.”… “investing 18 months and hundreds of hours of faculty and staff time within the current flawed system is not useful”. Other fields have similar results. The “best teacher education programs tend not to pursue NCATE accreditation at all”

The74. Analysis: Keeping Teachers at the Center of the Classroom — Physical or Virtual — Is Key to Learning, Especially for Low-Income Kids  The availability of digital high-quality curricula, online teacher training supports and interactive learning tools are essential for online learning. And the key is to keep the teacher at the center of the classroom, whether physical or virtual. 

Washington Post.
1) Uncommon Schools are demanding for students and teachers. This teacher likes it that way.   When Mike Taubman was studying to be a teacher, he encountered little love for public charter schools. In his progressive graduate education school, at Stanford University, the highest-achieving, no-excuses charters were often seen as a right-wing plot that chewed up young teachers and treated children like automatons.
2) How covid-19 has laid bare the vast inequities in U.S. public education  …renowned teacher educator Gloria Ladson-Billings argued in a celebrated address to the educational research community, the “achievement gap” is a misnomer, implying an expectation that all children would perform equally at school. Instead, she suggested, we should train our collective gaze on the “education debt” — the damage done to particular communities by “the historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral decisions and policies that characterize our society.”

NEW YORK STATE
Univ. of Albany School of Education.  …in order to support a greater need for remote learning in K-12 education… launched the website Remote Education Resource Center, or RemoteEd.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC limits school spending to remote learning and other coronavirus expenses   Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed cutting the education department’s spending by over $221 million, including a reduction in next year’s school budgets and broader cuts to teacher training.

Teachers College. Online Learning Resources

GLOBAL
Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. Teaching in the times of coronavirus

International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030  Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak – Call for Action on Teachers   The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 calls on all governments, education providers and funders – public and private – to recognise the critical roles that teachers play in the COVID-19 response and recovery.

UNITED STATES
California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) and COVID-19 Guidelines & Frequently Asked Questions   1Q. Will candidates still be required to complete a TPA? 1A. Yes. Completion of any TPA is required by law (Education Code Section 44259) for all Multiple Subject and Single Subject teacher candidates…

Education Week.
1) Map: Coronavirus and School Closures
2) Student-Teachers Caught in Middle by Shutdowns: Worries about unfinished work, licensing tests   The widespread closures have caused a lot of uncertainty for student-teachers. Will they be able to finish their student-teaching assignments? If not, will they be able to meet the requirements for the performance-based licensing test edTPA?

Taos News. Early childhood documentary draws major crowd   Valdez went on to describe how the UNM-Taos campus … provides a fully equipped learning lab where students who want to become pre-K educators and child care workers can come and get the credentials they need. He assured attendees who wanted to pursue such a career that the college has many financial aid opportunities available for that purpose.

US News. 2021 Best Education Schools.  Teachers College: #2 in Elementary Teacher Education (tie), #2 in Educational Administration and Supervision (tie), #3 in Secondary Teacher Education, #3 in Curriculum and Instruction

Stanford Univ/edTPA. Request For edTPA Alternative Arrangements Virtual Learning Environment

Washington Post. In Chicago, schools closed during a 1937 polio epidemic and kids learned from home — over the radio   As one report stated, “with the advent of broadcasting some 15 years ago there were prognosticators who expected radio to supplant the textbook — and even the teacher.” Yet, as the polio crisis showed, it had “become increasingly more apparent that the most radio can do in the teaching role is to stimulate thinking and to inspire further study.”

NEW YORK STATE
Governor Cuomo: 2021 Executive Budget. Master Teacher Program  Those selected will pledge to engage in peer mentoring, participate in mental health professional learning communities, work closely with pre-service and early career teachers and counselors to foster a supportive environment for the next generation of educators…

New York State Education Department.
1) Guidance for Educator Preparation Programs on Clinical Experiences and Certification Impacted by the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency  •Clinical Experiences •edTPA •Certification Exams •Mentoring During the First Year of Employment •Frequently Asked Questions
2) Office of College and University Evaluations. Regulatory Relief for Temporary Closure of an Institution Due to a Disaster
Section 52.2 (c) (4) (iii) of Commissioner’s Regulations defines a process to allow an institution to grant a semester hour of credit for fewer hours of instruction and study than those specified in subdivision (o) of section 50.1 of the Regulations when the state or local government temporarily closes the institution due to a disaster. In the event of such a disaster (as defined in section 50.1(w) of Regulations), the Commissioner may approve the institution to maintain a statement of academic standards that defines the considerations that establish equivalency of instruction and study. Institutions that close temporarily due to a disaster may request a change in the statement of academic standards for equivalency of instruction and study.
3) Office of Higher Education Educator Preparation Newsletter March 2020

• Future guidance related to program requirements will be posted on the Office of College and University Evaluation website and certification requirements will be posted on the Office of Teaching Initiatives website.

• Certification Test Centers Closed U.S.- and Canada-based Pearson VUE-owned test centers are currently closed until April 16, 2020.
• DASA Training. All approved DASA training providers, and institutions of higher education that include the DASA training in their educator preparation program curricula, have approval to offer the DASA training entirely online during the time period of the state of emergency declared by the Governor for the COVID-19 crisis.