Tag: Teacher Education

GLOBAL
EduInternational. Uganda: unlicensed schools continue to operate, defying Government’s decision   … the for-profit education provider Bridge, who refuses to comply with the authorities’ request to meet national minimum standards on infrastructure, curriculum and teacher qualifications.

Hindi News. हिमाचल सरकार ने लांच किया टीचर ऐप, शिक्षक सीखेंगे पढ़ाने के नए तरीके

NLTimes. Dutch to cut university tuition in half for first-time students. Those wanting to become teachers can get the discounted price for two years, which the government hopes will address the current teacher shortage in the Netherlands.

TES (UK).
1) DfE allows unlimited resits for teacher entry tests.  Ministers have sought to ease the teacher recruitment crisis by allowing unlimited resits of the professional skills tests that must be passed before anyone can enter initial teacher training.
2) ‘If Damian Hinds doesn’t prioritise the recruitment and retention of teachers our economy will suffer’  Figures released before the end of 2017 show the number of applications to initial teacher-training has dropped by a third compared with the previous year.

The Sydney Morning Herald. From tradies to teachers: The plan to ‘shake up Australia’s schools’  A national review of teacher registration … will look to streamline the process for becoming a teacher around Australia, with a view to making it easier for people in trades and other professions to switch careers.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Annual Meeting [March 1-3, Baltimore] February 20 Last day to register online (thereafter, registration is on site only)
2) New Partnership Pilots Inclusion of Community Colleges in AACTE Membership   About 800 community colleges nationwide offer some type of teacher preparation, including many programs that lead to bachelor’s degrees and licensure as well as others that prepare candidates to move on to 4-year institutions.

Chalkbeat.
1) Last-minute proposal would let up to 10 percent of teachers in Indiana district schools be unlicensed  Under this proposal, districts could hire teachers who hold alternative licenses that require little more than bachelor degrees, like the license allowed for charter schools, or no licenses at all
2) Trump’s proposed education budget: more for school choice, less for teacher training. Teacher training advocates in particular have bristled at proposed cuts to Title II.
3) What a $10,000 fellowship for rural teachers will and won’t do to address teacher shortages  In addition to making up to 60 $6,000 stipends available each year, it would also allow people pursuing alternative licensure to apply for the benefit in exchange for a commitment to teach in a rural school for at least three years.

Edutopia. Teacher Recruitment Starting in High School  From Mississippi to Hawaii, new programs recruit high school students to become teachers.

EdWeek.
1) Here’s How States Are Using Title II Funds to Strengthen the Teaching Profession  3. Making Teacher Licensure and Certification More Useful Too often, licensure tests are not meaningful measures of teaching abilities, but rather “bureaucratic hurdles,”…
2) In Wake of Parkland Shooting, Proposals for Arming Teachers Likely to Resurface  While districts generally require extensive training for educators who would be armed at school, this type of legislation generates a lot of outrage and concern from educators.
3) Latino Teachers Face Stereotypes, Are Asked to ‘Prove Their Worth,’ Report Says  The report points to grow-your-own programs as a way to recruit and retain more Latino teachers
4) Teachers say curriculum update to include more black history  The fact that many schools don’t spend enough time on the subject, he said, can be blamed on other factors as well, chiefly a lack of training for teachers.
5) Trump Seeks to Cut Education Budget by 5 Percent, Expand School Choice Push.  In order to achieve those proposed spending cuts, the president copied two major education cuts he proposed last year: the elimination of Title II teacher grants …
6) When Students Assault Teachers, Effects Can Be Lasting  “Mainstream teachers rarely get training on how to de-escalate violence in the classroom,” said Espelage, the University of Florida professor. “Some of the training we give to special ed. teachers, I think we need to give to all teachers.”

Hechinger Report. Teachers, how does it feel to be oppressors?   Colleges of education and teacher certification programs must do more to address the psychological bases of racism, patriarchy and white privilege.

Houston Chronicle. Programs, workshops, even graduate degrees help K-12 teachers get fluent in STEM.  Patricia Reiff directs the [Rice] university’s Master of Science Teaching Program, which allows K-12 teachers to take courses or even earn a graduate degree.

Language Magazine. Bill in Congress Aims to Help ELL Teacher Shortage.  The Reaching English Learners Act has been introduced in Congress in hopes of creating a solution to the national shortage of ELL teachers.

Medium.  Marquette University’s College of Education is paving the way to address the teacher supply challenge.   Eckman, associate professor and chair of educational policy and leadership, says the team wanted to develop a streamlined, efficient graduate program for non-education majors who realize they want to become teachers later in their college years or after starting other careers.

Monmouth University. Monmouth Dean is Revolutionizing Teacher Training Programs   The program that he has created at Monmouth begins placing prospective teachers into schools as early as possible as undergraduates. And he wants his education majors to embrace substitute teaching.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York education officials move to block rules allowing some charter schools to certify their own teachers  The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, seeks to overturn regulations approved by the State University of New York in October allowing charter schools it oversees to design their own teacher-certification programs.

InsideHigherEd. Putting Money Where His Mouth Is? New York governor Andrew Cuomo has made huge claims and drawn sharp criticism with his higher ed policies.  “I definitely think there’s a fair question of whether the dollars behind these proposals match the scale of what people imagine,” said Judith Scott-Clayton, an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

NPR Ed. The Gap Between The Science On Kids And Reading, And How It Is Taught  …skilled reading is associated with children’s spoken language, grammar and the vocabulary they already know. It’s about teaching kids the correspondence between the letters on a page and the sounds of words. This basic science does not go into the preparation of teachers.

NYPost. Regents putting vested interests ahead of New York’s kids  The new rules, OK’d by SUNY’s Charter Schools Committee in October, only apply to SUNY-governed public schools. But they’re still a threat to the players (education schools and teachers unions) who win under the old rules.

NYSED.
1) Clinical Practice Work Group Recommendations and request for input.    
2) Creation of New Certification Area in the Classroom Teaching Service for Computer Science– Comment period ends Feb. 26
Send comments to: Kelly Grace, NYS Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, 975 EBA, Albany, NY 12234 <[email protected]>

Politico New York. Education Department, Regents file complaint over SUNY charter teacher certification  The state Education Department and Board of Regents on Thursday filed a complaint in Albany County Supreme Court challenging controversial teacher certification changes made by SUNY’s Charter Schools Committee.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. November 2017 meeting minutes.  December 2017 meeting minutes

Wall Street Journal. New York Education Officials Challenge Charter Schools’ Right to Certify Teachers.  The SUNY board’s Charter Schools Committee voted in October to let high-achieving charters certify their own staff, if candidates got 160 hours of instruction in behavior management and other skills; had 40 hours of experience in the field under a supervisor’s eye; and passed one exam.

NEW YORK CITY
NY1. Daisy Zheng: Volunteer tutor helps city students break through  Breakthrough New York is a non-profit organization that’s been around for nearly 20 years in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan… And for Zheng, that goal is to one day become a teacher.

NYTimes. ‘Smart Is Something You Get’: How a Bronx School Succeeds  Ms. Sorden … is augmenting her master’s from Columbia University’s Teachers College with a doctorate in education from St. John’s University. 

GLOBAL
Deutsch Welle [DW]. German elementary schools ‘rent’ male teachers  The Rent a Teacherman program aims to put more men in elementary schools…Christoph Fantini, head of the teaching program at the University of Bremen, told DW. “They have simply never seen a man in this position, so they don’t know how to address him properly.”

DutchNews.NL. Two in five workers would consider becoming teachers  Around 40 per cent of working people interviewed said they were interested in teaching…

TES.
1) Exclusive: Teacher trainers ordered to rethink entry standards to ‘maximise recruitment’  Teacher trainer providers have been told they will be checked to see if they are rejecting suitable candidates – after a drastic drop in applications.
2) The Nobel Peace Prize winner and the Canadian prime minister talk about the impact of education on girls around the world at the World Economic Forum  “We’re empowering women so that they can bring change in their local communities, whether it’s through teacher training [or] giving e-learning…”

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Awards to Recognize Excellence in Educator Preparation
2) AACTE Board Reaffirms Importance of National Accreditation for Educator Preparation
3) AACTE’s Evolving Relationship With Accreditation

Education Week.
1) 10 (More) Reasons Why the U.S. Education System Is Failing  10. Teacher-preparation programs don’t teach neuroscience.
2) N.M. Teacher of the Year, a Dreamer, Attended Trump’s State of the Union. Here’s Her Story   I’m getting my master’s in education [UNM] with a focus on reflective practice. I’m just there to become a better teacher.

InsideHigherEd.
1) More Evidence of a Drop in International Grad School Enrollment  Breaking down the data by discipline, the fields of study reporting the greatest percentage declines in new international graduate students this year were education (-16 percent), arts and humanities (-12 percent)…
2) Senator Wants Quick Progress on Higher Ed Law  Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, said Tuesday that work drafting a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act would begin “within the next few weeks.”

NYTimes.
1) With DACA in Limbo, Teachers Protected by the Program Gird for the Worst  …with teachers’ help, she secured private scholarships for a graduate school program for special education teachers who wanted to teach the hearing-impaired.
2) School Shooting Simulation Trains Teachers for the Worst  Teachers across the country will soon be able to train for an active shooter on school grounds using a computer simulation that includes realistic details like gunfire, shattered glass and the screams of children.

Southern Poverty Law Center. Teaching Hard History  The nation needs an intervention in the ways that we teach and learn about the history of American slavery. While that intervention will require some work by state educational departments, teacher preparation programs, school boards, textbooks publishers, museums, professional organizations and thought leaders, we are confident that change can come.

WBOI 89.1.  [Indiana] Lawmakers Move Bill To Get More Teachers Into Schools  With a teacher shortage in the state lawmakers want to help license more teachers by waiving some testing requirements some educators see as a barrier to getting into the classroom.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED News and Notes. NYSED Proposes More Flexibility in Meeting Safety Net Requirements for Teacher Certification

NYSED Office of Higher Education. January Newsletter

• Continuous Accreditation Requirement for Educator Preparation Provider
• Graduate Admission Examination Requirement
• Certification Exam Safety Nets
• Clinical Practice Work Group
• DASA (Dignity for All Students Act) Task Force
• Recruitment for the Multi-Subject: Secondary Teachers (Grade 7-12) Mathematics Content Specialty Test (CST) Item Review Committees
• Continued Recruitment for the Content Specialty Tests (CSTs) in the Arts

New Rochelle Patch. Cuomo Proposes Free College Education For NY Dreamers

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) This NYC teacher was skeptical of training programs like Teach for America — so she completed a teaching residency instead  So when she heard about a new teacher residency program at New York University based on the medical model where doctors-in-training begin practicing medicine under supervision of an experienced mentor, she jumped at the chance.
2) Who’s who on New York City’s School Diversity Advisory Group  Members [incl.]: Amy Stuart Wells, Teachers College, Columbia University

 

 

 

GLOBAL
Education Matters. Student teachers’ attitudes towards teaching Religion  The School of Education at NUI Galway has carried out the first ever study in Ireland exploring the attitudes of applicants and entrants to primary teacher education programmes towards teaching religion…

TES.
1) Dramatic drop in new teacher recruitment coincides with 150% boost to DfE advertising spend  The fall comes despite a significant increase in Department for Education’s spending on advertising and PR in an effort to recruit new teachers – £14 million last year, up from £5.6 million in 2014-15: a 150 per cent increase.
2) How to train a teacher – Professor Sam Twiselton talks to Tes Podagogy  The director of the Sheffield Institute of Education talks about behaviour training, how to be a good mentor and criticisms of ideological bias

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 70th Annual Meeting. March 1-3, Baltimore [registration discount ends Feb. 1]
2) Advocacy Action Alerts
3) January Federal Update Webinar [login required]

Chalkbeat. Here are the initiatives Memphis’ education philanthropists will focus on in 2018  Rather than recruiting teachers from outside of Memphis, Teacher Town’s original focus, Robinson said the fund is strengthening partnerships with local universities and teacher preparation programs

EdWeek.
1) Need a STEM Teacher? This District Trains Its Own  …the Guilford County school system in Greensboro, N.C. The 72,000-student district became the first in the state to open an in-house licensure program in 2008—and it’s still one of only a handful of districts across the country with such a program.
2) Latino Male Teachers: Building the Pipeline  Teacher residency programs, like NxtGEN, have emerged as a particularly effective way to recruit diverse teaching candidates, including first-generation college students, students of color, and mid-career changers.
3) Often, Teachers Are Hired Based on Word of Mouth. Here’s What That Means  A recent study by the Frontline Research and Learning Institute…  “Hiring should be focused more on credentials and experience, and less on word of mouth,” they wrote.
4) Staffing Schools in No-Stoplight Towns  All that makes finding top talent tough, especially considering that most of the state’s teacher-preparation programs are located in urban areas… some success with alternative-certification programs that help adults with bachelor’s degrees—sometimes farmers or bankers—become teachers
5) Teacher Recruitment and Retention: It’s Complicated
6) Would Giving STEM Teachers More Leeway to Experiment Keep Them in Schools?  This week, the national network 100Kin10, which has pledged to train and retain 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021, announced $1 million in funding to five groups…

Hechinger Report. TEACHER VOICE: It’s time to shatter the silence about race  [by S. Cherry-Paul, TC doctoral student] Teachers need sufficient training in this specific area of education to feel confident and prepared when delivering these lessons.

NEAToday. Preparing the Next Generation of Educators for Leadership  Teachers with little or no preparation are more than twice as likely to leave teaching as those who are fully prepared.

The Atlantic. A Root Cause of the Teacher-Diversity Problem  The indication “that qualified black teachers are not hired today just because of the color of their skin is crazy, and we should be having a conversation about that—not just about getting more African Americans to major in [education] and get a teaching certificate, but about our understanding of implicit bias in hiring,” she said.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYS Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. Annual Report presented to NYSED Board of Regents.

NYSED. State Education Department Now Accepting Applications for Two New My Brother’s Keeper Grant Programs

NYSED Board of Regents January Meeting, Higher Education Committee. Following the 60-day public comment period required under the State Administrative Procedure Act, it is anticipated that the proposed amendments will come back to the Board of Regents at its May 2018 meeting. If adopted at the May 2018 meeting, the proposed amendments will become effective in May, 2018.
1) Proposed Amendment to Section 52.21 of the Commissioner’s Regulations Related to Accreditation – This amendment will allow institutions that are currently accredited by NCATE, TEAC, or CAEP to apply for accreditation through an accrediting association that is seeking recognition from CHEA or USDE, but has not yet achieved recognition status, and still meet the “continuous accreditation requirement” set forth in Section 52.21
2) Proposed Amendment for Emergency Action to Section 52.21 of the Commissioner’s Regulations Related to Graduate Admission Examination Requirements – The proposed emergency amendment implements Chapter 454 of the Laws of 2017 which was signed into Law by the Governor on December 13, 2017. The amendment removes the requirement from the Commissioner’s Regulations for 1) certified teachers and school administrators who 2) already hold a graduate degree to take either the GRE or a substantially equivalent admission examination
3) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-1.5 of the Commissioner’s Regulations Related to Certification Exam Safety Nets – The amendment will eliminate the requirement that candidates must complete all other certification requirements on or before June 30, 2018 to be eligible to use one or more of the safety nets. The amendment also extends the safety net for Part Two: Mathematics of the Multi-Subject Grade 7-12 Content Specialty Test until such time that a revised Part Two becomes operational.

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. Learn About the New Teaching Innovation Center  CITED was collaboratively imagined and set in motion by A. Lin Goodwin, TC Vice Dean and Evenden Professor of Education… The Center is co-directed by Souto-Manning and Ellis.

GLOBAL
ATEE. 2018 ATEE Spring Conference ‘Designing Teacher Education and Professional Development for the 21st Century: Current Trends, Challenges and Directions for the Future’ [BIALYSTOK: 7-9 June]

NIE News [Singapore]. Empowering Change in Nepal through Education  Alumna Reshu Aryal Dhungana … completed her Master of Arts in Leadership and Educational Change—a joint masters programme by NIE, NTU, and Teachers College, Columbia University… Another distinguished alumnus of the Master of Arts in Leadership and Educational Change programme, Alan Lim…

TES. Uni launches £100k scholarship scheme to help local schools train teachers  The University of Buckingham has launched a £100,000 scholarship scheme giving local schools the chance to train teachers and school leaders.

The Sydney Morning Herald. Fewer students make the grade for teaching courses as new standards take effect  Victorian students are abandoning teaching courses as tough new entry standards come into force.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Commission Issues Proclamations for Effective Clinical Educator Preparation  In the report, A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon, and the Renewal of Educator Preparation, the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission describes a “cacophony of perspectives” across today’s teacher preparation programs regarding what constitutes clinical practice.
2) Researchers Propose Theoretical Model to Embed Social Justice in Classroom Practices, Teacher Preparation

Chalkbeat. Tennessee’s mediocre teacher training programs prompt ‘interventions’ with university presidents  …Tennessee, state officials are holding meetings with top brass at universities where they say programs have grown out of touch with the needs of K-12 classrooms.

Education Week.
1) Betsy DeVos Approves 11 ESSA Plans, Including New York’s
2) How (and When) Researchers Should Speak Truth to Power: Four guidelines for academics who want to participate in heated education debates
3) Teacher Ed. Group Calls for More High-Quality Student Teaching  The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s Clinical Practice Commission released a report today with 10 proclamations on how to better incorporate evidence-based clinical practice in teacher preparation programs.
4) The 2018 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings  …identifying the university-based scholars in the U.S. who are doing the most to shape educational practice and policy. Simply being included in this list of 200 scholars is an accomplishment, given the tens of thousands who might qualify. (incl. 12 from 3rd-ranked TC: Bailey, Brooks-Gunn, Cohodes, Emdin, Fuhrman, Henig, Kagan, Levin, Pallas, Scott-Clayton, Wells, Wohlstetter)
5) TFA Alumni Principals are the Harshest Critics of TFA Teachers

Hechinger Report.
1) Diversity at the front of the classroom could mean more diversity among future scientists  Robert Goodman, executive director of the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning, is particularly proud of his program’s track record with diversity. About one-third of the physics and chemistry teachers the program trains are black or Latino, “which compares to close to zero percent for conventional teacher prep programs,” he said.
2) Eclipsed by urban counterparts, rural nonwhites go to college at equally low rates  “If you need future bilingual teachers, guess where they are,” Winchester said. “They’re sitting in your high school seats. You’ve got to get students of color through college in order for them to become teachers.”

InsideHigherEd. Profanity, Not Pedagogy  Court rejects terminated professor’s First Amendment suit against LSU, saying there’s no meaningful connection between her vulgar language and training teachers.

KQED. Transforming Physicists, Engineers into Teachers at New MIT Program

Tennesseean. Tennessee education officials vow to better the state’s teacher preparation programs  Much of the attention being paid to Tennessee’s teacher preparation programs is thanks to the Tennessee State Board of Education launch of a database that rates how well educator programs prepare future teachers. 

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Facing a state budget crunch, Gov. Cuomo proposes modest 3 percent education boost  Cuomo put forward a $769 million increase in school aid during his executive budget address on Tuesday, less than half of the $1.6 billion sought by the state’s Board of Regents.

Gov. Cuomo Executive Budget FY 2019 Proposal.
1) K-12 Education graphic
2) Higher Ed graphic

NYSED.
1) Board of Regents January meeting, Higher Education Committee agenda
2) Public comment period on proposed regulations.  Send comments to: Kelly Grace, NYS Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, 975 EBA, Albany, NY 12234, email:[email protected]

a) Alternative Teacher Certification Program Models (P)

b) Grade-Level Extensions for Certain Candidates Who Hold a Students with Disabilities Generalist Certificate (P)

c) Requires Teachers to Complete a Mentoring Program During Their First Year of Teaching (P)

d) Creation of New Certification Area and Tenure Area in the Classroom Teaching Service for Computer Science (P)

3) Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching January meeting agenda
4) Recruiting educators to participate in Item Review for the redeveloped New York State Certification Examination in Multi-Subject: Secondary Teachers (grade 7-Grade 12) Mathematics Content Specialty Test (CST) [March 6-7].
5) Updates on the NYSED Clinical Practice Workgroup’s Discussions and Next Steps. register for the January 25, 2018 Webinar

Politico New York. Cuomo’s budget trims school aid hike, overhauls transportation spending  “With a $4 billion deficit, you can’t possibly get anywhere near where you want to be on education and health care unless you raise revenues,” Cuomo said.

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) A Chalkbeat roundtable: The promise and perils of charter networks like Success Academy  Success Academy appears to welcome an increasing number of bright young people to learn and execute the scripts, and then watch as they move on to their real careers after they burn out in three years. The consequences of this trend are chilling to imagine.
2) New York City will add dual language options in pre-K to attract parents and encourage diversity  Among the greatest barriers to achieving that is finding qualified teachers…teachers who are native in a foreign language may only be certified in their home country, and it can be hard to transfer that certification to New York.

NYTimes. Some Bright Hopes for New York’s Schools  In fact, the city needs to move more urgently on three fronts: ending profound racial segregation; closing failing schools while opening better ones; and finding more effective ways to train good teachers, retain the best teachers…

Teachers College. Center for Innovation in Teacher Education and Development (CITED), a joint center between Teachers College, Columbia University and King’s College London, co-directed by Prof. Mariana Souto-Manning (Teachers College) and Prof. Viv Ellis (Kings College London). Email: [email protected]  Twitter: @CITeachED
Learn about opportunities to get involved in the work of CITED and about the pre-AERA symposium (April 12 and 13, 2018). Info sessions:

1. Wednesday, January 31st, 12:45-1:45pmin 305 Russell
2. Wednesday, January 31st, 7:15-8:15pmin 309 Russell
3. Friday, February 2nd, 2:00-3:00pmin 302 Russell

GLOBAL
Kyiv Post. Ukraine to prepare human rights education program for Ukrainian schoolchildren, students  …the program would cover five areas, in particular, the inclusion in the normative-legal acts of the state of relevant references to human rights, the implementation of programs with the priority of human rights, including in the sphere of education, the training of teachers, professors in the field of law, and technical maintenance of the education process.

New York Times. One Target in Beijing’s Migrant Crackdown: Schoolchildren  Teachers often lack formal credentials and rarely follow a standardized curriculum.

South China Morning Post. Teacher shortage hinders Xi Jinping’s dream to make China a great sporting nation  In Shandong province, middle and primary schools were short by the same number – 10,000 – the government revealed a year ago. It issued a directive in December 2016 aimed at improving sports education within three years, promising better benefits for physical education teachers and more training opportunities.

The Times UK. Crisis in teacher recruitment as applications fall by a third  The government has missed its teacher-recruitment targets for the past five years despite spending hundreds of millions of pounds on training new teachers.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Clinical Model Engages Teacher Candidates, University Faculty as Members of School Community

Chalkbeat. What we’ve learned: 5 lessons from education research to take into 2018     1. Teacher certification rules can have negative side effects.

EdWeek.
1) As End of DACA Looms, an ‘Anxious Time’ for Immigrant Educators and Students  Teach For America began hiring the so-called “DACA-mented” teachers in 2013, and nearly 200 undocumented corps members and alumni have taught in the nation’s K-12 schools, reaching tens of thousands of students.
2) Opening Gavel: Your Guide to States’ 2018 Legislative Sessions  Severe teacher shortages in many states have led to calls from both teachers unions and school accountability hawks for legislators to rethink their approaches to teacher certification, evaluations, and pay.
3) Trump, Congress, and Education in 2018: Eight Big Questions  And the higher education legislation governs teacher preparation and college access. For instance, a bill pending in the House would end a teacher loan-forgiveness program. 
4) You’re Teaching Subject Matter Wrong: An open letter to educators from the material they teach  As a human being, you already possess the ability to reason critically. You were born with it. It is time for you to open that gift and use it in teacher-preparation programs, professional-development efforts, classrooms, and instructional materials.

Hechinger Report. Can putting the least-experienced teachers in the highest-risk schools ever result in success?  Teachers in remote rural settings are routinely called on to do things not taught in teacher preparation programs, according to Catharine Biddle, a professor at the University of Maine who specializes in the study of rural schools and communities. 

Inside Higher Ed. Why Don’t Educators in Higher Ed Take Education Classes?

NCTQ. Learning About Learning: What Every New Teacher Needs to Know

The Nation. Charter Schools Are Reshaping America’s Education System for the Worse  According to Carol Burris of NPE, charter schools “want the funding and the privilege of public schools but they don’t want the rules that go along with them.” She cites charter initiatives’ having developed their own certification policies, as well as disciplinary codes and academic standards…

Washington Post. Efforts grow to help students evaluate what they see online  Advocates say the laws are a good first step that must be paired with updates to teacher education programs, funding for professional development and other changes throughout the education system.

 

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Cuomo offers few new education plans for 2018, but says poor schools need more funding  Train teachers in computer science: A new $6 million grant program would pay for teacher training in computer science and engineering.

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, Upcoming Webinars.
1) Updates on the NYSED Clinical Practice Workgroup’s Discussions and Next Steps [Register for Jan. 25]
2) A New Quality Assurance Framework for Educator Preparation [Register for Feb. 1] [Register for Feb. 7]

NY Governor Cuomo. State of the State 2018. Under the Governor’s leadership, New York has modernized teacher preparation programs and teacher licensing requirements and required 100 hours of high quality professional development to prepare all new teachers to succeed.

 

NEW YORK CITY
City Limits. CityViews: How NYS Decided to Lower Teacher Standards for Some Charter Schools  In short, SUNY schools can now hire anyone, regardless of qualification, into a school with good Math and ELA scores. Administrators from schools “in good standing” will be the arbiters of who gets permanent SUNY-only licenses—even if those administrators have no certifications, degrees or training in Education themselves.

NY Daily News. CUNY sees record number of prospective students with 11% jump in applicants

NOTE: Teacher Ed News will resume the week of Jan. 1, 2018

GLOBAL
Education Week. A Novel Way to Improve Teacher Prep: Give Teachers Better Curriculum  …countries like Singapore and Finland tend to base all of their preparation around vetted, high-quality curriculum in a way that the United States and other countries, like Australia, do not.

Premier Pathways. Budget 2017: £100m National Centre for Computing to train 8,000 new teachers

RNZ. National standards ditched by government  It said the government was also stopping the transfer of responsibility for teachers’ professional development courses and training to the Education Council. The paper said the Education Minister wanted to consider instead the development of a national advisory service to oversee all centrally-funded training.

Study International. Why AI could be the ultimate education enhancer  No longer will teacher numbers rely on people choosing to train for years, no longer will poor training programmes lead to sub-par education, and education quality will not depend on individual teachers’ abilities.

Viv Ellis. The avatars are coming! But is it innovation in teacher education?  The spark that lit my interest was a discussion at Teachers College during the Educating the Teacher Educators research project in which colleagues left me dumbfounded when they showed me some of the US programmes exploiting…avatars and simulation technologies in pre-service teacher education… it was only a matter of time before one turned up here in England… 

 

UNTED STATES
AACTE. December Federal Update Webinar [login required]

Chalkbeat. Four takeaways from Betsy DeVos’s summit on innovation in K-12 education  …concerns raised about state testing requirements and teacher certification rules.

Education Post. Teacher Shortages Demand More Rigorous Teacher Prep, Not Less  Many states have found solutions other than abbreviated or diluted undergraduate degrees to help prepare teachers fully and more quickly.

Education Week.
1) DeVos’ Team Tells N.Y., Florida, Other States They Have Work to Do on ESSA
2) Education Department’s Budget Includes Some Words Barred at the CDC  The budget asks for “$2 million for Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) to provide evidence-based professional development activities and prepare teachers and principals from nontraditional preparation and certification routes to serve in high-need [districts].”
3) Listen Up! State Teachers of the Year Share ‘Education Epiphanies’ in Podcasts  Indiana Teacher of the Year Jitka Nelson … is taking a sabbatical from the classroom to share expertise on teaching English-language learners with colleges of education… Her podcast explains how teachers can better teach their own ELL students.
4) Math Doesn’t Have to Suck. Here Are Three Ways to Make It Better  I got better at teaching math, mostly because I had to. I paid way too much money out of pocket to take a course at Bank Street College of Education on teaching math conceptually.
5) The Teaching Profession in 2017 (in Charts)  Still, a researcher notes that the pace of inclusion has outpaced the number of teachers who are trained to teach students with special needs. 

Hechinger Report. Impatient with universities’ slow pace of change, employers go around them  In addition to long waits for programs to be approved by faculty and accrediting agencies, for example, many schools can’t find enough people qualified to teach computer science.

Inside Higher Ed. Enrollment Slide Continues, at Slower Rate College enrollments in the U.S. decline for a sixth straight year — although at a slower rate 

New York Times.
1) Graduate Students Escaped Tax Increases, but They Still Feel a Target on Their Backs
2) Teaching Activities for: ‘Uproar Over Purported Ban at C.D.C. of Words Like “Fetus”’

The Atlantic. The Changing Landscape of Student Protest in Higher Education  The tax-bill overhaul mobilized a broad coalition of activists, offering first glimpses of what Republicans may be up against when they tackle financial-aid reform next year.

 

NEW YORK STATE
My Brother’s Keeper. Changing the Narrative

NYSED News. Statement From State Education Department Commissioner MaryEllen Elia on Initial USDE ESSA Feedback

NYS Governor Cuomo. AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs for certified teachers already holding a graduate degree …SUCH GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATION OR SUBSTANTIALLY EQUIVALENT ADMISSION EXAMINATION REQUIREMENT SHALL IN NO CASE APPLY TO CERTIFIED TEACHERS OR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS WHO ALREADY HOLD A GRADUATE DEGREE.

 

NEW YORK CITY
ABC Eyewitness News. Overcoming the hurdles of PE education in NYC schools Through a new initiative called PE Works, Mayor De Blasio has committed $100 million dollars to expanding PE curriculum and ensuring certified teachers are at every public school.

Chalkbeat.
1) In new study of school-district effectiveness, New York City falls just below national average  “Growth is way better than achievement,” said Douglas Ready, an education and public policy professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. “We know low-income students start school behind — the question is what do school districts do with the kids they get?”
2) Plans to shutter schools will force more than 400 New York City teachers to search for new jobs  Both the education department and United Federation of Teachers say they will work to match teachers to open positions. Every year, the city hires about 6,000 new teachers.

NY1. City continues to seek men of color to teach in schools  The city says it’s almost reached the goal. Three hundred and fifty male teachers of color have been hired. Five hundred and fifty more are in the pipeline.

New York Times. Carmen Fariña, Head of New York City Schools, Is Retiring  Amy Stuart Wells, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College … a member of the city’s school diversity advisory group, said Ms. Fariña’s department has paid more attention to the issue than past administrations… Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, said that … “She does believe a lot in the wisdom of practice, the idea that experience imparts knowledge about how to do this kind of work of educating children that one really can’t get other ways,”

GLOBAL
AACTE. #AACTE18 Preconference Event to Bring Focus of ‘Global Lens’ to Educator Preparation

Education International.
1) Is teaching still a profession where you are?  …we now can’t assume to hold on to the gains of decades, or rely on the manifest evidence of better student outcomes arising from proper teacher preparation and moderated judgment.
2) UK: Workload driving teachers out of profession – union survey   However, “many do not feel confident of being able to remain in teaching in the longer term and would not recommend a career in teaching to others”…

NL Times. Gov’t halves tuition for teachers-in-training to fight teacher shortage

Queen’s University [CA]. Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program expands to full-time model

 

UNITED STATES
ACE/AACTE et al. Letter to the House Education and the Workforce Committee in Advance of the HEA Bill Markup

Bloomberg. Tentative Tax Deal Scraps Hit on Tuition for Graduate Students  A provision to treat graduate school tuition waivers as taxable income won’t be in the final House-Senate tax package

Chalkbeat.
1) America’s teachers don’t move out of state much. That could be bad for students.  The study finds that people in other professions, like medicine, are freer to move and have certifications that easily transfer between states. But the idea of a national “bar exam” for educators hasn’t ever gained traction.
2) ‘Low pay and low prestige’: How Colorado superintendents want to lift the teaching profession  Over the past five years, Colorado has seen a nearly 23 percent dip in the number of students completing education preparation programs in Colorado colleges and universities. Growth in non-traditional paths — such as teacher residencies — hasn’t made up the difference.

EdWeek.
1) Are States Tracking Teacher Shortages? Generally, No.  Teacher-preparation programs tend to overproduce graduates with elementary education degrees, and yet many secondary science and special education positions go unfilled. But college of education faculty often balk at the idea of telling students what they can and can’t study.
2) House Panel Backs Higher Ed. Rewrite Ending Teacher-Focused Grants  …the legislation repeals Title II in current law that governs teacher preparation. The PROSPER ACT also ends TEACH grants, which provides grants to undergraduate and graduate students who agree to teach subjects like math and science in high-needs schools for a certain number of years.
3) Proposed Higher-Ed Revamp Could Shake Up Student Aid, Teacher Prep   …the Teacher Quality Partnership grants, which are designed to improve teacher-prep programs and now receive $41.3 million, would lose their authorization under the legislation from Foxx and Guthrie. And the bill would end the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which allows teachers and others in government jobs to have their student-loan debt forgiven under certain circumstances.

Inside Higher Ed.
1) Apparent Relief for Grad Students  Lawmakers from the two chambers of Congress agreed to drop provisions that would treat graduate student tuition benefits as taxable income and repeal student loan interest deductions.
2) GOP Pushes Ahead on Higher Ed Act  One would have made recipients of the new single federal student loan proposed in the bill eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. That amendment failed 20 to 19…

NYTimes. Can Kindness Be Taught?  Since the curriculum was introduced in August, more than 15,000 educators, parents and others from around the world have signed up for it.

Washington Post.
1) Proposed tax for graduate students killed, student loan interest deduction saved in congressional bill
2) Never mind Trump’s visit. Mississippi’s new Civil Rights Museum is a game changer for education. An investigation by The Hechinger Report and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found a lack of training, instruction and resources available for teaching civil rights in Mississippi.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYS Assembly. Bill A3676A Signed into law  Relates to admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs for certified teachers already holding a graduate degree… Each program may exempt no more than fifteen percent of any incoming class of students from such selection criteria

NYSED Clinical Practice Work Group. Updates on group charge, membership, meetings

NYSED Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) Task Force. Updates on group charge, membership, meetings

NYSED Regents. [December 11-12 meetings]
1) NYS Board of Regents Early Childhood Workgroup’s Blue Ribbon Committee Final Budget Recommendations  Recommendations Total $37 Million…Provide $2.5M to adopt and implement a competency-based approach in pre-service teacher preparation programs and in-service professional development for new and existing educators and leaders
2) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-4.3 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Grade-Level Extensions for Certain Candidates Who Hold a Students with Disabilities Generalist Teaching Certificate
3)  Discussion of Whether Educator Preparation Programs Should be Considered Continuously Accredited if They Apply for Accreditation Through an Alternative Professional Association that is Seeking Recognition from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or the United States Department of Education
4) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-3.4 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Mentoring Requirement for Professional Certification
5) Proposed Amendment to Section 80-5.13 to the Regulations of the Commissioner to Allow for Greater Flexibility in Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs
6) Proposed Amendments to Part 30 of the Regents Rules and Section 52.21 and Part 80 the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to a New Certification Area and Tenure Area for Computer Science
7) Proposed Amendment to Add a New Section 80-5.26 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to Allow a Temporary Certificate for Teachers Displaced from Puerto Rico and/or Another U.S. Territory as a Result of Hurricane Maria to Teach in New York State
8) Proposed Amendment to Section 145-2.1 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Eligibility Criteria for the Tuition Assistance Program
9) Update on the edTPA Standard Setting Panel and Amendment to Section 80-1.5 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to Extend the edTPA Safety Net and Revise the Eligibility Criteria for the Multiple Measures Review Process

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe. Winter Conference 2018 [Feb. 15,16; Utrecht]

Brock University. [CA] Brock prof to lead International Society for Teacher Education  Susan Tilley, a professor in Brock’s Faculty of Education, has been elected the new Secretary-General of the International Society for Teacher Education (ISfTE).

The Australian. Teacher training must focus on school requirements  The 2014 Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group review established stricter quality assurance of teacher education programs and selection of entrants. The new literacy and numeracy test for teacher candidates puts pressure on universities to ensure their trainees have a basic level of knowledge.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) House HEA Bill Would Repeal Title II, End TEACH Grants
2) TQP Grantees Discuss Program Transformation on Radio Show

Center for American Progress. What You Need to Know About the House Higher Education Act Bill  The largest text change in the bill is the wholesale elimination of Title II, which currently addresses teacher preparation programs. In its place, the PROSPER Act inserts a new section on apprenticeships.

Chalkbeat. A ‘portfolio’ of schools? How a nationwide effort to disrupt urban school districts is gaining traction  … dramatic changes to schools; recruited outside advocacy, teacher training, and charter groups; and spent millions to help launch new charter and district schools… pushing for policies like common enrollment, and recruiting national education groups like Teach for America, Relay Graduate School of Education, TNTP, and Stand For Children.

Education Week.
1) Can We Better Define and Identify ‘STEM Deserts’? This Nonprofit Is Going to Try   NMSI also helps establish math and science teacher-preparation programs on the model of UTeach, developed at the University of Texas at Austin…
2) Higher Ed. Overhaul Would Change FAFSA, Along With Teacher-Prep Oversight  The PROSPER Act would end Title II of the current higher education law that deals with teacher preparation… educator-preparation programs would no longer have to submit data to the federal government… The Teacher Quality Partnership grants would also lose their authorization if Title II in the current law is repealed.
3) Making Teacher Recertification Meaningful [featured series of nine articles]
4) Teachers Would Lose Loan Forgiveness Programs in Higher Education Bill  The PROSPER Act would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that currently allows for the cancellation of higher education debt —under certain conditions—for teachers … In addition, the bill would end loan forgiveness for teachers under the Perkins Loan Program…

Inside Higher Education.
1) Senate Passes Tax Bill With Major Implications for Higher Ed
2) Who Changes Majors? (Not Who You Think)  … percent of bachelor’s degree pursuers who entered college in 2011-12… 37 percent in education…

National Skills Coalition. House Higher Education Act reauthorization bill introduced  The PROSPER Act repeals Title II of the HEA, which is the only federal initiative focused on strengthening higher education-based teacher preparation, and replaces it with a new apprenticeship grant program. This program authorizes the Secretary to issue grants on a competitive basis for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 4 years, to partnerships between businesses and educational institutions that are working to provide work-based learning opportunities for students. These grants, authorized at a funding level of $183,204,000, will require a 50% match from the grantee. 

New America. Holding the PROSPER Act Accountable  Title II of the PROSPER Act is certainly one of the greatest departures from the Higher Education Act, as postsecondary programs aimed at enhancing teacher quality are eliminated and replaced by a grant program to expand access to “in-demand apprenticeships.”

U. S. Committee on Education and the Workforce. PROSPER Act [Reauthorization of HEA, Introduced Dec. 1]. (a) REPEAL.—Title II (20 U.S.C. 1021 et seq.) is repealed… PART A TRANSITION.—Part A of title II (20 19 U.S.C. 1022 et seq.), as in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, may be carried out using funds that have been appropriated for such part until June 30, 2018.

Washington Post. GOP higher ed plan would end student loan forgiveness in repayment program, overhaul federal financial aid  It would also wind down the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant, a federal program that provides money to students willing to work in high-needs schools or teach subjects in desperate need of educators for four years. The bill calls for no new grants after June 20, 2018.

 

NEW YORK STATE
City and State New York. Bullying, the DREAM Act and ‘money money money’  And the battle over the charter school cap may end up on the back burner in lieu of a dispute about training requirements for charter school teachers.

Teacher Education and Special Education. I Failed the edTPA. [by A. Kuranishi, TC alumnus; C. Oyler, TC Prof.] …the authors examine possible explanations for why Adam (first author), a New York City public school special educator, failed the edTPA, a teacher performance assessment required by all candidates for state certification.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. How Eva Moskowitz is remaking public education as we know it, for better and — if we aren’t careful — much worse  While those who pursue the profession in other countries are provided with the infrastructure crucial to educating kids effectively — a clear sense of what students need to learn, the basic materials necessary to help them learn it (such as a curriculum), and a decent training system — teachers in the U.S. are left stranded.

New York Times. She Breaks Rules While Expecting Students to Follow Them  Every teacher is required to follow Success’s pedagogical formula and “not create chaos by marching to the beat of her own drum.” And yet this double standard — in which Moskowitz celebrates her own feisty disobedience while attributing the success of the students in her schools to their dutiful compliance — is never explored…

The New Yorker. Success Academy’s Radical Educational Experiment: Inside Eva Moskowitz’s quest to combine rigid discipline with a progressive curriculum.  Teachers do not develop their own lesson plans; rather, they teach precisely what the network demands… Success’s teachers operate within tightly defined boundaries, with high expectations and frequent assessment.

GLOBAL
Hechinger Report. What France can teach us about how to educate the most vulnerable 2-year-olds  “In preschool, there’s a pedagogy; the (teachers) have master’s degrees; there’s a language focus,” he adds. “It’s much better for low-income children.” (The teachers of 2-year-olds face the same requirements as all public school teachers in France

International Forum for Teaching Educator Development [InFoTED]. InFoTED blogs

New York Times. Beijing Kindergarten Is Accused of Abuse, and Internet Erupts in Fury  “Our professional and high-quality teachers and principals and, more important, our established system to effectively train, grow and retain teaching staff and management talents underpin our high-quality education services,” the company said in its prospectus.

UK Parliament House of Lords [Tuesday 28 November 2017]. Oral Question 1 Improving initial teacher education in order to ensure a high standard of teaching of art, craft and design subjects

The Open University, Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa [TESSA]. Impact of TESSA

 

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat. McCormick’s wishlist for the Indiana legislature: diploma fixes and mandatory kindergarten  Seek more flexibility in teacher licensing to allow current teachers to teach more subjects and prospective teachers to skirt red tape. Provide more training for teachers on the new ILEARN test and potential graduation pathways plans.

Education Week. TFA, Alternative Programs Marginally Better Than Traditional Teacher Prep, Study Finds. The new analysis, published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, looked at a dozen studies of teacher-preparation programs conducted between 1998 and 2015. (The researchers screened more than 700 studies on preparation programs from peer-reviewed journals and the federal What Works Clearinghouse for inclusion in the analysis…

Hechinger Report.
1) Could we improve America by treating 2-year-olds better?  Twenty-seven states allow fewer than five unrelated children to be watched in a home by a care provider with no license or training, according to Child Care Aware. Only 11 states require a license for anyone receiving compensation to watch even one child who is not their own.
2) That day you thought you had it all together, then everything fell apart? You weren’t wasting your time: A look at the learning process of teaching

Inside Higher Ed. A Call to Reform Undergraduate Education  University systems and individual campuses, academic departments and disciplinary associations all have roles to play in advancing teaching, according to the academy. Master’s and doctoral programs should integrate “meaningful and explicit” teacher training opportunities…

Louisiana Dept. of Education. Nearly 500 Louisiana Educators Train To Become Mentors To Future Teachers  Starting this week, nearly 500 expert educators across the state will begin training to become mentors to aspiring teachers completing their preparation in Louisiana. 

University Business. College teachers-in-training prep with virtual students  The University of Wyoming now uses an augmented reality platform with a simulated class as part of its teacher education program.

UW College of Education. Grant to build Washington’s bilingual educator capacity  A new $2.4 million grant to the University of Washington College of Education from the U.S. Department of Education will target that gap by recruiting approximately 60 elementary teacher candidates to earn their bilingual endorsement.

Washington Post. Why it’s a big problem that so many teachers quit — and what to do about it  If we did this with high-retention pathways into teaching — like teacher residencies that train teachers well and provide them mentoring — the demand would drop further each year as these teachers stay at high rates rather than cycling through teaching jobs.

 

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Is the Board of Regents hostile to charter schools? Depends upon whom you ask.  …[Chancellor Rosa’s] opposition to the teacher certification proposal had nothing to do with the source of the proposal — a charter authorizer — but because, she said, she believes the idea is an affront to the teaching profession and will allow unqualified teachers to enter classrooms.

NYS Assembly. Notice of Public Hearing: The Excelsior Scholarship and the Enhanced Tuition Awards Programs [Dec. 12, 10am, Albany]

 

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) Community Schools Policy Symposium [Dec. 14, 8-10am; incl. TC Pres. Fuhrman, Prof. C. Riehl] Join Teachers College and Children’s Aid to learn about the late‌st research on community schools and the implications of this research for education policy in New York City and New York State.
2) Teacher Diversity: Policy & Practice. [Friday Dec. 8, 4-6pm; incl. TC profs. Y. Sealey-Ruiz, D. Price-Dennis] Two panels bring together diverse voices from teachers, academics, advocacy organizations, and the government to discuss teacher diversity policies and thier implementation.

WNYC. Local Teen Sex Educators Lose Federal Support  …88 percent of middle and high schools do not have a teacher licensed to teach health education, and only about 65 percent of teens surveyed in 2016 said they knew where to go for reproductive health resources.