Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe. Annual Conference 2019 abstract submission deadline 31 March [Bath Spa University, 14-16 August]

Tes [UK]. New research to begin on boosting teacher retention: Includes study to test retention of different training routes including Teach First and Schools Direct

The National [UAE]. Finland seeks to share its education excellence with the world   A new licensing regime is being rolled out across the Emirates which require teachers to take training courses and pass tests to continue to teach in schools, while a new teacher training institute has also been recently launched. He cited the professionalism of teachers in Finland – it can take six years to train – as the single most important factor in the country’s success.

The New Indian Express. Students to address teacher shortage in Odisha schools   Around 200 volunteers, who are students of B Ed and M Ed of NOU, have come forward to teach at schools without salary under ‘Teach Mayurbhanj’, which was launched recently at the university.  

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Kentucky Chapter Collaborates with State Education Leaders to Advance Teacher Prep

Brookings Institute. The diversity gap for public school teachers is actually growing across generations  We know teachers of color enter the profession through non-traditional routes, mainly alternative certification programs. In addition, nonwhite demographic groups are more likely to graduate from college within five to six years, rather than four years, which could also have a role in delaying the entry of teachers of color into the profession. We checked the 2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey, which confirms that the average entry age among teachers of color is more than a year older (29.8) than that among white teachers (28.4).

Dallas Weekly. Third Annual Pi Day Math Festival Celebrates Importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM)  talkSTEM was founded by Dr. Koshi Dhingra. Dhingra has a doctorate in Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has years of experience teaching at the middle and high school levels, as well as at teacher education programs. Previously, she served as a director of the Science and Engineering Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas.

EdWeek.
1) How Teacher Strikes Are Changing  “As the teacher-activism movement spreads, it emphasizes the ‘point that teachers’ concerns are national and not simply a product of big-city unions,’ said Jeffrey Henig, the director of the politics and education program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
2) How to Teach the Story of Human Migration Without Bias   Many such students feel especially vulnerable because of threatening immigration enforcement activities in nearby neighborhoods and the recognition that many educators feel ill-prepared to meet their needs.
3) With Bug-in-Ear Coaching, Teachers Get Feedback on the Fly   “It just makes sense,” said Mary Catherine Scheeler, who spearheaded this line of research in education starting in 2002 and is an associate professor of special education at Penn State’s College of Education. “It’s more efficient because we’re correcting behaviors on the spot. I like to say practice makes permanent. If people are practicing things incorrectly, they become part of the repertoire.”
4) Response: “What Does It Mean to Be Young, Black, and Female in America?”  Response From Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz…an associate professor of English education at Teachers College, Columbia University (TC). She is the founder of the Racial Literacy Project at TC
5) Texas Republicans Eye Cash Rewards for Districts  While such an approach is highly popular among politicians, said Kevin Dougherty, a researcher at Columbia University’s Teachers College, it has yet to produce tangible outcomes in the higher education arena, according to several studies.

ELearningInside. Columbia Teachers College Study Casts Doubt On Personalized Learning   The study, Final Impact Results from the i3 Implementation of Teach to One, was carried out by Douglas D. Ready, Catherine Conn, Shani S. Bretas, and Iris Daruwala with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Forbes. Why the nation’s K-12 accountability and assessment system doesn’t make the grade   The first study was a rigorous, federally-funded evaluation by Doug Ready at Teachers College and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) that focused on the implementation of Teach to One: Math at five schools in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The study focused on comparing student performance on state tests each year of the program. Although it could not discern impact in the five schools that implemented the program, the study could not form any generalizable conclusions either.

Getting Smart. Reinventing Educator Preparation  A decade after the report was published, the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning hired its first faculty mentors and opened an office on the MIT campus. Ten design fellows joined the Academy in 2017 to co-construct the innovative teacher preparation program.

Hechinger Report.
1) A cheaper, quicker approach to social-emotional learning?   Programs to boost these skills have proliferated at schools. Some are sold by curriculum publishers and cost many thousands of dollars. Others are free but can still involve hundreds of hours of teacher training.
2) OPINION: From one white parent to another: Don’t pick schools because they’re selective and mostly white [by TC Prof. A. S. Wells]

Inside Higher Ed. The Mood Brightens: A Survey of Presidents “The fact that college and university presidents believe that American public does not know the truth about institutions of higher education is not surprising,” said Noah Drezner, an associate professor at Teachers College of Columbia University, who has written about public attitudes and higher ed finance.

Kansas City Star. Pre-K education versus plain old day care: Does it really matter for Kansas City?   “High quality,” according to the mayor’s plan, means at least 50 percent of the lead teachers have bachelor’s degrees in education or childhood development. Those centers follow an approved curriculum and have at least one staff member for every 10 students.

MinnPost. What training should a Minnesota teacher have? New licensure proposal ignites old debate   An attempt to tweak Minnesota’s new teacher licensure system ignited an old debate this week over how much value to place on formal teacher preparation programs over alternative routes to becoming a teacher.

NBC News. Elementary school books rarely profile subjects and authors of color, NYC study found: Though 85 percent of the city’s public school students are Latino, black and Asian, “the authors of books in commonly-used elementary school curricula are 84 percent wh   CEJ is recommending the Department of Education use curriculum and book companies whose material is reflective of student demographics in their content and authorship and to create in-house English Language Arts curriculum.

NEPC.
1) A Consumer’s Guide to Testing under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): What Can the Common Core and Other ESSA Assessments Tell Us?[by TC Prof. M. Chatterji]
2) Answer Sheet: A ’Staggering’ 30,000 Teachers in Oklahoma Have Left the Profession in the Past 6 Years. Here’s Why.   The report makes six stark “action” recommendations for policymakers, all of which reveal significant inadequacies in the way these issues have been addressed: *Understand the career pathways of teacher preparation program graduates (suggesting they now don’t understand this)

Time. There Is a Better Way to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities   A number of different studies have shown that when students are given the freedom to think in ways that make sense to them, learning disabilities are no longer a barrier to mathematical achievement. Yet many teachers have not been trained to teach in this way.

NEW YORK STATE
NYS Education Dept. Office of College and University Evaluation new website

NYSED Board of Regents.
1) Agenda for March 11 & 12 Retreat
2) Statement from Chancellor Betty A. Rosa and Commissioner MaryEllen Elia on Board of Regents Appointments

NEW YORK CITY
New York Times. 10 Students Who Beat the Odds to Win a New York Times Scholarship   Nefertari Elshiekh, 18, worked several jobs to support her family and still became an honor student. She was so grateful for the education she received that she is determined to become an elementary schoolteacher — and to fight for fair educational policies.

Teaching Residents at Teachers College.TR@TC2 | March, 2019 | Winter Edition Newsletter

GLOBAL
Australian Teacher Education Association. Conference 2019 Call for Abstracts [deadline 8 March 2019]

Education HQ. Labor to offer bursaries for best teachers A Labor federal government would offer Australia’s “best and brightest” tax-free bursaries of $40,000 to become teachers.

EducationNext. Do Smarter Teachers Make Smarter Students? We consider data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an association of 36 largely developed countries…research conducted within the U.S. and in other settings has shown that common measures of teacher qualifications such as advanced degrees, experience levels, and professional preparation are not consistently related to classroom effectiveness.

South China Morning Post. Just 24 teachers in four years finish course and collect Education Bureau grant to improve their skills teaching Chinese as a second language in Hong Kong, watchdog finds   Cheung agreed that those qualified to teach non-Chinese students the language were few and far between and that there should be a mandated percentage of how many teachers should be trained in the specific area, similar to that of special education needs.

Teachers College. Talking Out of School: TESOL authority John Fanselow on how to disobey the rules   “Since I first was asked to supervise teachers practice teaching in a teacher training college in Nigeria 57 years ago, I have seen teacher preparation and ways to improve teaching and learning as a joint enterprise of exploration rather than a series of directives from ministries, school districts and politicians to implement,” writes Fanselow, who worked for the Peace Corps in Africa throughout the 1960s, in his introduction to Small Changes.  

UNITED STATES
AACTE 71^st Annual Meeting. Award and research presentations, keynote speeches by Marilyn Cochran Smith, Mary Dilworth, Leslie Fenwick… [Feb. 22-24, Louisville, KY]

EdSource. Support, strengthen education reforms in California, new report urges: Learning Policy Institute cites signs of progress, much work to be done   And to build a “strong stable” workforce of teachers, the state should consider forgivable loans and scholarships, teacher residencies and adequate mentoring for beginning teachers, the report urged.

EdWeek.
1) Are Teach For America Members Allowed to Go on Strike?
2) ‘Teach to One’ Personalized-Learning Model Has No Effect on Students’ Math Scores, Federal Evaluation Finds “There is no causal evidence that Teach to One has either positive or negative effects on student outcomes,” said Douglas D. Ready, the director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, in an interview.

Hechinger Report.
1) How grassroots efforts are trying to solve the teacher shortage crisis: One teacher at a time, nonprofit groups try to address the lack of teachers in the Mississippi Delta.   To become certified in Mississippi, teachers must meet three requirements: Earn a bachelor’s degree; complete a traditional or alternate teacher training program; and pass the Praxis.
2) Teacher shortages force districts to use online education programs   One basic marker of quality is certification, meaning teachers have been trained in the subjects or grade level they’re teaching. Generally, schools with a higher population of at-risk students — those who are low-income, English language learners, or students of color — tend to have more teachers who lack full state certification.

Learning Policy Institute. Why Our Education Funding Systems Are Derailing the American Dream   In New Jersey, for example, the state responded to a school finance lawsuit by funding high-quality, full-day pre-k programs for 3- and 4-year-olds in the state’s highest poverty districts and investing in certification and training for all preschool teachers.

National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. Puerto Rico Charter Sector to Take Off   Teachers in Puerto Rico retained their jobs after María, and the presence of their union remained strong, constituting a significant obstacle to plans for a transformation of the island’s school system akin to the overhaul in New Orleans.

The Atlantic. The U.S. Teaching Population Is Getting Bigger, and More Female …research shows that fewer female college students are seeking teaching degrees: In the late 1970s, roughly a third of the women enrolled in U.S. colleges were majoring in education; today the share has dropped to 11 percent.

NEW YORK STATE
Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching
1) November 2018 meeting minutes
2) December 2018 meeting minutes

WKTV. Utica College Offers Program To Ease Teacher Shortage, Helping Local Districts In Need   “New York State is now an extremely high demand low supply so the Transition B Program is helping to fill that gap,” said Richard Moon, P-12 liasion and coordinator of student teaching at Utica College. The Teacher Certification Program allows aspiring teachers to secure full-time employment in local schools via an alternative pathway to certification…

NEW YORK CITY
Gotham Gazette. A Fairer New York City Requires Salary Parity for the Early Childhood Workforce   CBO early educators that hold a bachelor’s degree earn a starting salary of just over $42,000 and those with a master’s degree earn a starting salary of nearly $48,000; compared to starting salaries of nearly $58,000 and just over $65,000 for prekindergarten teachers with bachelor’s or master’s degrees, respectively, at DOE schools…

Teachers College Peace Corps Fellows Program. PeaceMakers Speakers Series: Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams [March 1, 6pm]

GLOBAL
Skill Reporter. Punjab Government to appoint ‘Teacher Educators’ for imparting skill development to teachers

Teachers College. Broadening a Fruitful Partnership: A generous new gift from the Lemann Foundation brings TC researchers to Brazil   Professor of Early Childhood Education Mariana Souto-Manning is leading a three-year project titled Transforming Teacher Education Research in Brazil: An Equity Imperative…

Tes. [UK]
1) Need to know: Hinds’ teacher recruitment and retention strategy   And it adds that the initial teacher training (ITT) market is overly complex.
2) New teachers suffered from mental health cuts as pupils   The pupil-wellbeing crisis in UK schools is filtering through to teachers, as growing numbers of trainees turn up with “severe” mental health problems, it was revealed today.

Queens University Journal. Education production aims to Get Schooled   Musical brings student teacher experience on stage

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Online Event Planner 71st Annual Meeting [Louisville, Feb. 22-24]

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation(CAEP). 2019 Spring CAEP Conference[Denver, Mar. 19-20]

Ed-Fi Alliance. Ed-Fi Alliance Extends Technology Model to Bring Benefits of Data Interoperability to Higher Education: New Community-Led Effort Focuses on Bringing Comprehensive Data to Teacher Preparation Programs Across the Country

EdSource. Gov. Newsom names new head of State Board of Education in California   Darling-Hammond, who currently chairs the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, will succeed another Stanford professor emeritus, Michael Kirst…

EdWeek.
1) Denver Teacher Strike Continues as District and Union Inch Closer to a Resolution   The lawsuit is seeking a court order to ensure the district provide the necessary special education services to students with disabilities—by having properly trained staff members care for those students instead of substitutes…
2) Public School Strikes Revive Clash With Teach for America   …hundreds of Teach for America alumni criticized the educator placement program for suggesting corps members who strike in Oakland would lose thousands of dollars promised to them at the end of their two-year service commitment… losing their ties to AmeriCorps, which offers award money at the end of their service and bans striking.
3) What Kind of Programs Can Help Teacher Diversity?   Teachers of color are more likely to enter the classroom via alternative route programs as compared to white teachers. However, little is known about how and why these programs can produce diverse teacher candidates. 

InsideHigherEd. More Time to Comment on Title IX Rule   …because of technical issues on the regulations.gov site that may have prevented some from submitting comments on the day of the deadline, Jan. 30. This is the second time the department has extended the public comment process for the rule because of technical issues.

NEPC. Radical Eyes for Equity: Evidence v. Advocacy in Teaching Reading: “We Should Not Mistake Zeal for Warrant”   During the current media blitz once again hand-wringing that children are not being taught to read because teachers are not prepared properly in teacher education and students are not receiving intensive phonics instruction, Willingham held forth on his blog to answer: Just how polarized are we about reading instruction?

NYTimes. Denver Teachers Once Hailed Performance-Based Pay. Now They’re on Strike Over It.  … teachers say they are struggling to pay off student loans and cannot afford rent, much less buy a home.

Scientific American. Black Mathematical Excellence: A Q&A with Erica Walker  [TC Clifford Brewster Upton Professor of Mathematical Education] As a mathematics educator, I also really wanted to shed some light on the mathematics education of these amazing people—and how their rich and varied stories about doing math in and out of school could positively influence how we help young people engage in mathematics today.

Southern Regional Education Board. STATE POLICIES TO IMPROVE TEACHER PREPARATION: Report of the SREB Teacher Preparation Commission

The74.
1) Analysis — The Uncertain Future of Teaching: How Personalization, Specialization, Soft Skills, and a Talent Shortage Could Reshape the Profession   …advocates of teacher preparation reform have long called for new teachers to get more clinical practice and “learn by doing.” Building from that spirit, training institutions might develop new expertise and roles by partnering with innovative schools on residency-based training experiences.
2) Presidential Candidate Cory Booker Reflects on the School Reforms He Brought to Newark as Mayor and the Education Legacy He’s Left Behind   We’re going to get the charters to help with the districts [on teacher training], so create one melded system. 

USA Today. The internet is sowing mass confusion. We must rethink how we teach kids every subject.   We will need to develop new approaches to professional development for teachers, who sometimes are as confused as their students. And we’ll have to overhaul teacher education, so that new teachers feel prepared when they tell kids to open their Chromebooks.

US News & World Report. Report Shows 30,000 Oklahoma Teachers Have Left Profession   The report highlights several effects of the state’s ongoing teacher shortage, including teacher-student ratios and an increasing number of emergency-certified educators who are teaching subjects in which they lack expertise.

WDJT-Milwaukee. Wisconsin educators look to retain teachers amid shortage   Wisconsin’s teacher shortage led to the loosening of restrictions in 2016 to allow educators to teach subjects that they might not have credentials in, and to expand pathways to the classroom for applicants who went through an alternative certification program.

WHYY. What’s the best way to teach math?   Caroline Ebby teaches aspiring math teachers at the University of Pennsylvania. She said the issue is that, in the U.S. people learn math as a set of rules to follow.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Regents February Meeting. Consent Agenda.
1) Appointments to the State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching (PSPB)
2) Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21 and 80-4.3 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Creation of an Extension for Holders of the Career and Technical Education Certificate to Teach Grades 5 and 6
3)  Proposed Amendments to Sections 80-3.15 and 80-4.3 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Addition of Certificate Titles Eligible for Grade Level Extensions, Limited Extensions, and a Statement of Continued Eligibility for Cer

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. New raises continue to leave some New York City pre-K teachers behind   Over the four-year term of that agreement, salaries will increase from $40,000 to $50,000 for certified teachers with a master’s degree. Teachers with lower degrees will still earn far more under the new UFT contract…

CUNY. Queens College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez Named Chancellor Of City University Of New York

Gothamist. NYC Student Activists Demand More Teachers Of Color, Fewer Police Officers In Schools   A DOE spokesperson said many of the improvements students want were underway. For example, the NYC Men Teach initiative is working to bring 1,000 teachers of color into city schools. 

NYTimes. Saturdays in the Bronx With Bach   Nearly every weekend for the past 28 years, local children have flocked to the Bronx Conservatory of Music for very low-cost instruction in classical music… The teachers at the conservatory are mostly young graduates or postgraduates from schools in and around New York: Juilliard, Mannes, the Manhattan School of Music. 

GLOBAL
Association of Teacher Educators (ATE). Annual Meeting 2019, Robert J. Stevenson Memorial Lecture to be delivered by Dean A. Lin Goodwin of Hong Kong Univ. [Atlanta Feb. 16-20]

Brisbane Times. Queensland minister calls for mature-age teachers amid nationwide shortage“Hence my urging to students and mature-aged people who want to enter an excellent profession: teaching is a great job.”

EdSurge. How Much Artificial Intelligence Should There Be in the Classroom?    China is also facing a shortage of qualified teachers in many rural areas, and there’s a huge demand for high-quality language teachers and tutors throughout the country… Li painted AI as not just some pale substitute, but as ultimately superior to humans when it comes to some aspects of teaching

NZHerald. Teacher shortage: One in six Auckland schools starting year with vacancies   Teaching Council data shows that 858 overseas-trained teachers were registered in New Zealand for the first time last year, a record in the period since 2011 for which the data were available.

TES. ‘The inherent flaw in testing 5-year-olds’   In 2016 the UK government Department for Education’s white paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, misrepresented the views of Ian Menter, an emeritus professor of teacher education at the University of Oxford. In a delicious irony, an aim of the paper was to “ensure discredited ideas unsupported by firm evidence are not promoted to new teachers”. 

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat. Memphis board votes to close Gateway; embattled charter school will shutter in May, unless state board steps in  Several of those allegations, including that the school falsified a geometry class and relied on uncertified teachers, were substantiated in the district investigation.

Clarion-Ledger. Licensure requirements could change to combat teacher shortage   Five years ago, Mississippi enacted a law mandating entrants to the state’s teacher colleges make a 21 on the ACT … Under Senate Bill 2482, aspiring educators can gain admission to a teacher preparation program by making a 3.0 GPA on pre-major coursework. The state Department of Education estimates some 300 educators could be added to the state’s teacher workforce if the new measure becomes law.

EducationDive. Ed Dept. ‘not wedded’ to its proposed accreditation rules  Jones said the department is not committed to the definition it proposed but rather was exploring whether accreditors would be better defined by mission as opposed to geography, as they are currently. 

EdWeek.
1) TEACH Grant Recipients With Loan Debt May Soon Hear From the Ed. Department  The U.S. Department of Education announced on Thursday that it would be reaching out to some educators who saw their grant aid turned into loans under a federal financial aid program for teachers, beginning a reconsideration process that could result in these debts being forgiven.
2) What Is Social Justice Education Anyway?[by C. Belle, TC PhD ‘15]  As the director of a teacher-education program, one of my primary goals upon stepping into this role was building a vision that honors social justice teaching and learning practices. 

Getting Smart. Creating a More Inclusive School Community Starts With Intentional Support for Teachers  In our work preparing teachers through residencies, we find it most successful to partner with districts, like Passaic Public Schools where we have provided programs for veteran teachers to support their continued professional growth.

Hechinger Report.
1) Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out  In 2015, Jennifer Vetter decided to change careers and become a teacher… quit her well-paying management job… to go back to college full-time and become a special-education teacher. She received a scholarship to earn her master’s in education… Vetter did the math… Weekly, she made about $300.
2) Online prekindergarten access and funds for school counselors among bills proposed in Mississippi this year  House Bill 89 would establish a scholarship program to recruit and educate individuals to teach English language learners, with a specific focus on enlisting as teachers Hispanic or Latino students currently enrolled in higher education programs.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Alexander Wants New Higher Ed Law by End of Year A top staffer for Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate education committee, said Monday that the senator wants to pass a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act before Christmas.
2) Free College Idea Hinges on Merger With K-12 Davis Jenkins, a senior research associate with the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said he couldn’t imagine the benefits of such a merger.

Seattle Times.
1) Be a part of the solution to Washington state’s teacher shortage   Many people probably think that if they didn’t study education in undergrad or get certified to teach right after college that they’ve already missed the boat. But with a teacher shortage in Washington state, there are actually many degree and certification options that you can look into.
2) ‘Students need to see themselves’: What some teachers had to say about our teacher diversity project

WRAL. WRAL anchor Lena Tillett investigates diversity in NC’s colleges of education  In North Carolina, nearly 50 colleges – both public and private – offer teacher preparation programs. They serve as the major supplier of teachers for this state.

NEW YORK STATE
NY Daily News. NYS set to ban teachers from carrying guns in school under sweeping gun control measures   Tom King, an NRA board member from New York and president of the state Rifle and Pistol Association…said teachers should be allowed to carry guns as long as they are trained, though he prefers schools hire armed security “just like the legislators have in the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building.”

NYSED Commissioner Elia. 2019 Higher Education Budget Testimony  Increase Access to Higher Education – Teacher Opportunity Corps II

NYSED Office of Higher Education. January Newsletter
1) CST Safety Nets Expiring June 30, 2019
2) Director of Certification Position Posted.
3) Fingerprinting Feel Increase.
4) Initial Certification for Individuals Who Have At Least Two Years of Postsecondary Teaching.
5) Institutional Recommendations in TEACH
6) New Office of College and University Evaluation (OCUE) website

New York Times. New York Joins Movement to Abandon Use of Student Tests in Teacher Evaluations  “Most parents believe their local school and teachers are good. To have evaluations that contradict that creates some dissonance,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “The state tests seem so far removed from day-to-day classroom practice.”

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Amazon to offer computer science at 100-plus NYC schools, but most are already part of the mayor’s computer science program  None of the Edhesive courses listed on its website require teachers to have any previous computer science training, and much of the instruction is conducted digitally.

Dayone Amazon Blog. Amazon to fund computer science classes in more than 130 NYC high schoolsAmazon’s funding provides preparatory lessons, tutorials, and professional development for teachers; fully sequenced and paced digital curriculum for students; and live online support every day of the week for both teachers and students. 

Medium. I teach them Creative Tech; they teach me a whole new world [By M. Chan, TC EdD student]  At Teachers College, I was fortunate to be selected for the Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship 2018–19, which provided me an opportunity to teach an after-school program in Creative Technologies at a public elementary school in Harlem.

GLOBAL
Education International.  Today’s Priority – The future of Finland’s education policy  Despite a tight budget, some positive reforms have been achieved in the country. For instance, the personnel’s structure in early childhood education was reformed to ensure that more university-educated teachers will be working at day-care centres.

Gov.UK. Secretary of State opens Education World Forum 2019.  Every year, my Department receives in the region of 100 visits from overseas governments and organisations. Last year this included teachers from Hungary and Japan interested in our policy reforms to improve initial teacher training and continuing professional development.

Uudistuva opettajankoulutus.  Con­fe­rence 7.2.2019 for teacher education development: Towards Sustainable Research and Pedagogies in Teacher Education [University of Helsinki]

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. AACTE 71st Annual Meeting schedule [Louisville, KY Feb. 22-24]

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. CAEP Names Three New Members to Board of Directors These new members, including Dr. Christopher Brown II, Dr. Paul Katnik, and Dr. Judy Hackett, assumed their duties on January 1.

EdSource. Required tests roadblock for many aspiring California teachers  Commission on teacher credentialing could eliminate some tests, offer alternatives to others.

EducationDive. Creative approaches needed to desegregate schools  In a 2016 study, authors Amy Stuart Wells, Lauren Fox, and Diana Cordova-Cobo of Teachers College Columbia noted that “the benefits of school diversity run in all directions… researchers have documented that students’ exposure to other students who are different from themselves and the novel ideas and challenges that such exposure brings leads to improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.”

EdWeek.
1) 4 Reasons Educators Use Research and 4 Reasons They Don’t
2) Many Large City Pre-K Programs Fail to Meet Quality Benchmarks, Study Finds   When it comes to teacher pay and training, the study found that city programs still have a ways to go to meet NIEER benchmarks. Only 63 percent require lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree with specialized training in teaching young children, and only 15 percent require that all teaching staff receive ongoing professional development.
3) Is Geography Destiny? The Debate Over Boosting K-12 Quality   In states like New Jersey and Massachusetts, policymakers… have worked to see that the additional money is equitable and goes toward important classroom resources, such as a strong curriculum and a well-trained teacher, said Linda Darling-Hammond, the president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group that focuses on teacher quality and early learning.

Hechinger Report. How to build an engineer: Start young  There are also several single-city pilot programs offered by colleges. One, from Purdue University in Indiana, trains elementary school teachers to teach science using engineering design principles. American University and Johns Hopkins University work together on another to offer a program at nine high-poverty schools…

Inside Higher Education.
1) Reducing Implicit Bias in Teaching   Implicit bias is also a problem in schools and universities. It impacts even the most thoughtful teachers, influencing which of their students get to participate and how.
2) Rethinking State Authorization, Again: The U.S. Department of Education is contemplating going back to the drawing board on complex rules governing authority to operate online programs in multiple states.  The institutions must also … disclose to students studying professions that require state licensure, such as nursing or teaching, whether an online program qualifies them to practice their chosen profession where they live.

National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR). The National Center for Teacher Residencies announced today that it has received $750,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch and expand four teacher residencies in California.

NEA Today. What Happens When Teachers Leave Mid-Year?   Redding and Henry also found that preparation through an alternative pathway also made teachers much more likely to leave the profession during and after the school year. Those educators who attended traditional, in-state teacher preparation programs, on the other hand, were more likely to transfer to another school but less likely to leave the classroom altogether.

NYT. Empathy and Resilience, Responsibility and Self-Care: Resources for Social and Emotional Learning From The New York Times

San Francisco Chronicle.  Teachers striking to end policies that gut public institutions A new dynamic is unfolding. As fewer young people enroll in teacher-training programs, the ones who do understand what they are getting into: a commitment not only to the traditional ideals of public education, but to the activist political work necessary in these times to make it happen.

The D.C. Line. By 2023 all DC early childhood teachers will need a degree But will they actually learn anything?   We know almost nothing about the quality of teacher preparation programs where child care teachers actually earn degrees. In fact, not only is research largely silent on the quality of early childhood teacher preparation, but there is very little data on what early educators even learn in these programs. 

University of New Hampshire. Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) TRRE is an innovative teacher preparation program including graduate coursework, a community internship, and a full year residency in a rural school with a mentor teacher. 

NEW YORK STATE
Board of Regents and Clinical Practice Work Group. Student Teaching Requirements for Teacher Certification and the Registration of Teacher Preparation Programs Public comment period open until Feb. 24.  Comments should be sent to: Allison Armour-Garb, NYS Education Department, Office of Higher Education, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 975 EBA, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-1385, email:[email protected]

New York Daily News. N.Y.’s new teacher evaluation legislation runs a risk: It could take us right back into high-stakes testing territory [OpEd by TC Prof. A. Pallas]  Most existing SLOs approved by the State Education Department are based on third-party standardized assessments. If the only assessments approved by the Commissioner are just different standardized tests, they argue, the law simply substitutes one evil for another.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) MBAs wanted: Success Academy looks to woo business leaders for a fast-track principal program   … fellows will also participate in a “specialized track” of Success Academy’s own teacher training program to learn about instruction and teacher preparation… Eric Nadelstern said hiring leaders from other industries can work, but isn’t always the best strategy. “It’s useful for somebody to have spent time in a school to be a good principal,” he said, noting the Teachers College program required three years of classroom experience…
2)New York City gets a gold medal for pre-K quality and access, new report finds   New York fell short on two measures: teacher training and education requirements for classroom assistants

Gotham Gazette. A Strategy That’s Working in New York School Turnaround[by TC Prof. P. Wohlstetter]  Our research team from Teachers College at Columbia University examined the implementation of a train-the-trainer model called Strategic Inquiry that was introduced in Renewal Schools…

GLOBAL
Center for Innovation in Teacher Education & Development (CITED). An Introduction to Design-Based Implementation Research: A CITED Workshop [29 May, Kings College, London]

East Anglian Daily Times. “It was my dream to teach, but the reality was a nightmare”   In the past year, SCITT had 70 trainees for secondary education… every teacher who is trained by SCITT gets a job, 100%, which must count for something. It is a commendation of their training – as well as an indication that teachers are sorely needed. We also know that most train in the area where they live and so local recruitment often means more teachers in local schools.

New York Times. Yalitza Aparicio of ‘Roma’ and the Politics of Stardom in Mexico: The film’s star was on her way to being a teacher when she landed the role.  To prepare for filming, Cuarón asked Aparicio and García to improvise scenes. He was amazed at how quickly they began playing Cleo and Adela — not replicating a conversation they might have had after class at teachers college.

UNITED STATES
5 Eyewitness News. St. Paul Public Schools program meant to get more teachers, more diversity in classrooms   Residents in the program co-teach in a district school for a year – all while working on their master’s degree and obtaining their teaching license over 15 months. The program has incentives. It pays for books, it pays a $21,000 stipend and it offers a reduced tuition rate at the University of St. Thomas. 

ABC 7 News. Bay Area schools facing teacher crisis as LA teachers go on strike   Silicon Valley companies are recruiting teachers with degrees in math and science, taking them out of the classroom. “Anyone with a degree is valuable and most teachers have multiple degrees,” said VP of the Jefferson Union High School District Board Kalimah Salahuddin.

Association of Teacher Educators.   Registration – Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA [Feb. 16-20]

Chalkbeat. Tennesseans hope their new education commissioner can get testing right   Huffman and Schwinn share a Teach for America background – much to the chagrin of some. Schwinn launched her education career through the alternative teacher training programs in Baltimore. Huffman was a frequently divisive leader who left after three years of clashing with teacher groups, superintendents, and state lawmakers over policies ranging from teacher licensing and evaluations to charter schools and academic standards.

Education Week. 1) How to Redefine ‘Good’ in Education [by Prof. A. S. Wells] In our research and the professional development at Teachers College, Columbia University, we are learning about the process by which racial, ethnic, and economic segregation is reproduced and legitimized by a hierarchical understanding of different races and cultures in our society. This racial hierarchy, which is often vehemently denied by many who perpetuate it, fosters implicit racial biases that shape the choices of educators, parents, and home buyers. 2) Is It Time to Kill Annual Testing?  Educators must be equipped to recognize the features of high-quality classroom assignments, whether garnered from highly rated instructional programs, district curriculum, or teacher-created tasks. When such assignments are the norm, educators will also have the kind of meaningful formative assessments our students deserve. 3) National Teacher of the Year Set to Join House Education Committee   Among other things, she campaigned on providing teachers with more resources, more career training, and making college more affordable. 

Forbes. These 5 Trends Will Dominate STEM + Education In 2019   We are heartened by supports for emergency-credentialed teachers to become fully certified and customized tools to help teacher-prep programs and school districts deal with STEM teacher deficits. It is noteworthy that California and Pennsylvania are doubling down on teacher residencies, intensive programs where aspiring teachers prioritize hands-on, practical learning in K-12 classrooms, guided by master teachers.

Inside Higher Ed. Takedown of Online Education   The paper indiscriminately trashes online education, said Fiona Hollands, associate director and senior researcher at the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

New York Times. ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way.’ Why Some Boys Can Keep Up With Girls in School.   A study shows the Asian-American gender academic gap starts later, giving educators insight into how to help boys of all races and pointing to the influence of social pressures.

The Atlantic. The Unique Racial Dynamics of the L.A. Teachers’ Strike: The city’s public-school teachers are predominantly people of color—and a plurality of them are Latino, like most of the students they serve.   …both the state and district are actively engaged in diversity-focused teacher-recruitment initiatives—and LAUSD even offers its own accredited teacher-preparation program targeted at people who already live in the community in which they’d teach.

The Post and Courier. South Carolina’s deep teacher shortage got even worse in 2018, school survey shows   The number of new teachers is dwindling — fewer college students are enrolling in South Carolina’s education schools — and the state is struggling to keep new teachers on the job… schools often turn to stopgap measures like hiring foreign teachers on three-year visas.

Valdosta State Univ. [GA]. VSU Ranked Among the Nation’s Best by U.S. News and World Report   Valdosta State University is one of the best colleges and universities in the nation when it comes to distance education… a Master of Arts in Teaching in English to speakers of other languages, foreign language education, health and physical education, special education deaf and hard of hearing education, special education adapted curriculum, or special education general curriculum…

NEW YORK STATE
New York State Education Department. January Regents Meetings 1) Consent Agenda: Amendments to Section 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Initial Certificate Requirements for Individuals Who Have a Graduate Degree and Two Years of Postsecondary Teaching Experience in the Area of the Cer 2) Proposals: a) Proposed Amendments to Section 80-5.4 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Employment of Substitute Teachers Who Do Not Hold a Valid Teaching Certificate b) Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21, 57-2, 75.8, 80-1, 80-2, 80-3, 80-5, 80-6, 90.18, 100.2, 100.13, 100.15, 100.17, 100.19, 151-1, 154-2, and 200.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education and 30-1, 30-2, and 30-3 of the Rules of the Board o

• Third, the Department proposes changing the number of CTLE hours that can be claimed for serving as a mentor to a student teacher from 15 hours to 25 hours in each five-year registration period.
• Fourth, the Department proposes changing the number of CTLE hours that can be claimed for serving as a mentor to a first-year teacher from 25 hours to 30 hours in each five-year registration period.
• Fifth, the Department proposes to remove the restriction on claiming CTLE hours for serving as a mentor to a student teacher in instances where the teacher preparation program provides remuneration to the mentor teacher.

3) Presentation: Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education in New York State [Expert committee incl. TC Profs. M. Souto-Manning; A. S. Wells]

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. January Meeting Agenda

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. With a Golden Ticket, Doing What He Was Meant to Do   Buckingham and seven other 2018-19 O’Neill Fellows have each received $40,000 in tuition assistance to fund their elementary or secondary teacher education master’s degree programs, leading to initial certification. [Video clip: Celia Oyler, Professor of Education, discussing the impact of TC’s new Abby M. O’Neill Teaching Fellows program]

GLOBAL
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). CFP [Sep. 3-6, Hamburg]

Hechinger Report (Kakuma, Kenya). Refugee Girls Want to Change the World. Will We Let Them?  About 85 percent of teachers are refugees themselves, most of whom have gone to school at the camp and many of whom begin teaching without any formal training. The only qualification necessary is a high school degree… Teachers for Teachers… The program, which has now reached an estimated 90 percent of primary school teachers in Kakuma…

New York Times. France Debates Where to Teach Arabic: Public School or Local Mosque?   …the public school classes would be of higher quality than religious ones. The Quran-based courses at the mosque, he said, can rely too heavily on memorization rather than allowing students to express themselves. “Our professors have a lot of passion and good will, but they are not trained teachers,” Mr. Benjemaa said. “They didn’t pass national exams.”

Sydney Morning Herald. More Low-performing Australian Students Enter Teaching Programs   A report from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) finds that far more students with Australian Tertiary Admission Rankings (ATAR) in the lowest bands are being admitted into teaching degrees than other fields. Nearly 40 percent of teaching undergraduates scored below 70 on the ATAR, compared to just 25 percent of undergraduates across all university degrees in 2016.

World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS). CFP [Sep. 3-6, Amsterdam]

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE at the Table for Higher Education Negotiated Rulemaking   The full committee will cover issues around accreditation and innovation, and the subcommittees will advise the full committee on the following issues: faith-based entities, distance learning, and TEACH grants.
2) AACTE Response to the Federal School Safety Commission Report   … AACTE is deeply concerned about the Commission’s recommendation that states should reduce barriers to certification for becoming teachers. While the profession develops competency-based preparation programs to support career changers to enter the classroom, there is a necessity to ensure that expeditious programs maintain a high level of quality preparation for its candidates.

Chalkbeat. I’m a Chicago teacher who has watched many Javions fall through the cracks. Here’s what would help.   When I started teaching, I experienced the benefits of a reading specialist myself. I was not prepared to teach reading, as much of my teacher education taught me to become a teacher like the ones I had in high school — ones that assigned texts, held discussions, and gave feedback on essays.

Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). A Vision and Guidance for a Diverse and Learner-Ready Teacher Workforce   This report is a call to action by state chiefs, and leaders from educator preparation providers (EPPs), local education agencies (LEAs), legislatures, unions, and civic and community groups.

Education Week.
1) 10 Big Ideas: Special Education is Broken  States need to support teacher-preparation colleges that offer dual-licensure, that are taught by faculty who have successfully worked in inclusive classrooms, and offer meaningful clinical programs. Future educators should learn principles of universal design for learning, differentiated instruction, and co-teaching.
2) A Conversation With U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, an Award-Winning Teacher  “This is a profession and it needs to be treated as such… You have people who have multiple degrees who have gone to college and really prepared and trained to enter teaching as a profession and can’t even afford to take care of their families. And I think that’s unreasonable…”
3) Gates Giving Millions to Train Teachers on ‘High Quality’ Curricula   All grantees, for instance, would have to orient their teacher training around a curriculum with a high rating from EdReports.org, a nonprofit that issues Consumer Reports-style reviews, or on similar tools developed by nonprofit groups like Student Achievement Partners and Achieve.
4) Here’s a look at the first education bills to hit the floor in Colorado   Among the first five bills filed by Senate Democrats, this bill from state Sen. Zenzinger would provide up to $5,000 in loan forgiveness for teachers who take hard-to-fill positions, defined by either geography or content area. As many as 100 teachers a year could benefit from the program.
5) The 2019 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings … ranking the university-based scholars in the U.S. who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy.  [Incl. 10 TC Profs. H. Levin, J. Henig, C. Emdin, J. Brooks-Gunn, T. Bailey, M. Rebell, A. S. Wells, A. Pallas, J. Scott-Clayton, S. Cohodes]

Inside Higher Ed.
1) ‘Neuromyth’ or Helpful Model?   UVA’s Willingham said more needs to be done to “inoculate future teachers against this idea when they are in teacher preparation programs.” While education psychology textbooks don’t propagate the idea of learning styles, he said, “I would also argue that they’re not doing enough to say, ‘There’s nothing to support this idea.’
2) Overhauling Rules for Higher Ed  The upcoming rule-making process is so expansive that the department has added multiple subcommittees addressing distance learning, TEACH Grants and the role of faith-based institutions. Negotiated rule-making rarely includes more than one subcommittee requiring that kind of narrow expertise.

Mother Jones. This Deep-Red State Decided to Make a Serious Investment in Preschools. It’s Paying Off Big-Time.   And while many states don’t require preschool teachers to have a degree and don’t pay them as much as elementary school teachers get, Alabama hires only credentialed preschool teachers and gives them elementary school salaries.

New York Times. Deconstructing the Wall: Teaching About the Symbolism, Politics and Reality of the U.S.-Mexico Border

WVNews. Superintendent backs possible bonus to boost teacher skills   Paine says there’s an immediate need for certified math teachers. A state Department of Education report found that “non-fully certified” teachers taught 38 percent of public school math courses for grades seven through 11.
NEW YORK STATE
New York State Education Department. Public comment periods:
1) proposed regulatory amendments to student teaching requirements in teacher preparation programs will be open through February 25.
2) proposed regulations to implement New York State’s ESSA plan will run through January 25

NEW YORK CITY
Inside Higher Ed. Candidate Withdraws, but CUNY Chancellor Search ‘Nearly Concluded’

New York Times. The Community School Comes of Age [OpEd by D. Kirp]   In a 2018 survey of 3,000 adults, conducted by Columbia University Teachers College, two-thirds agreed that “students cannot develop basic academic skills without community resources, health and community services to students and families.” This isn’t a partisan issue — more than half of self-described conservatives concurred.

Teaching Residents at Teachers College. TR@TC Induction | January, 2019 | New Year Edition