Tag: teacher educator

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe. Virtual Open Day, 12 March, 2 pm CET Free Online Event – Open to All  Register your interest by 10 March to receive the programme and meeting link prior to the event.

National Post. Short-term anti-racist training is not enough to counter systemic racism in Canadian education   Before we can have anti-racist classrooms and a more equitable education system, teacher preparation programs need to face a reckoning. Canadian universities need to move beyond the comforting rhetoric of equity, diversity and inclusion and confront and change the values, structures and behaviours that perpetuate systemic racism within them.

Teachers College. Redefining Scholarship: With the new year under way, the Teachers College Record is amplifying a diverse new range of voices and topics.  The articles in the year’s opening issue included: “Invisible Shifts in the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China;” “White Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions when Teaching about Race”…

The Conversation. Teachers are expected to put on a brave face and ignore their emotions. We need to talk about it    “Australian universities enrol thousands of people to become teachers..Despite all the theory, training and practical experience research shows teachers’ professional lives can be highly demanding, pressured, stressful and at times, emotionally exhausting”

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Join Education Deans in Discussion: Leaning in and Leading Through Crisis.   Tune into the Leaning in and Leading Through Crisis discussion on March 18 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
2) New Partnership Gives AACTE Members Special Access to GoReact, a provider cloud-based video assessment software for educator preparation
3) New Volunteer Leaders Take the Helm of AACTE  AACTE Executive Committee; AACTE Board of Directors…

AARP. Grandmother Uses Teaching Experience to Fill Virtual School Void: After 35 years in the classroom, retired Atlanta woman is the ultimate pandemic instructor   Pre-pandemic, Atkins, who has a master’s degree in early childhood education, had been running what she calls “Nanny Camp,” a structured after-school education program for her grandchildren… Education runs in the Atkins family. Her parents were teachers. Her grandfather, Robert Clinton Hatch, earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Teachers College in the 1940s…

Bank Street College. Voices of Aspiring Teachers on Why Money Matters   Launched in the 2019-2020 academic year at 12 institutions across seven states, including public, private, large, small, urban and rural programs, the survey received 1,242 responses… The resulting dataset helps establish… a national picture of aspiring teacher-level information about the economic costs and associated burdens of entering the teaching profession.

Breakthrough Collaborative. How A Corps of College Students Closes Opportunity Gaps & Diversifies the Teacher Pipeline   This report, the second in a series, shares the Teaching Fellow Training Framework used to prepare young adults to teach Breakthrough’s middle and high school students. The report also reveals how Breakthrough successfully translated the training model to a completely virtual environment during the summer of 2020.

Chalkbeat.
1) Biden to states: Teachers should be able to get vaccine in March   President Biden said Tuesday that he wants every teacher, school staffer, and child care worker in the U.S. to get at least one shot in March — and he will pressure states and use federal resources to make it happen.
2) Philadelphia educator starts national project to find more Black teachers: Just 2% of teachers across U.S. are Black men; goal is to bring 21,000 Black students into the teaching pipeline   The Center for Black Educator Development, founded by veteran Philadelphia educator Sharif El-Mekki, is entering a new phase in its quest to dramatically change the face of the country’s teaching profession. In what it is calling a “national educational justice campaign,” the organization will use $3.1 million in new funding from several foundations and venture capitalists to launch two major initiatives to nurture future teachers of color across the country. 
3) We need school leaders who reflect the students they serve: Because seeing is believing ‘I can, too.’  … flexibility around teacher certification — a long, expensive process that research shows doesn’t lead to higher student achievement — would also help more educators of color enter the profession. This would remove the barriers that make it more difficult for people of color to become teachers. Take a look at Texas. Public charter schools here, along with traditional school districts that apply to be Districts of Innovation, are able to hire non-certified teachers in certain subjects and provide them with high-quality training throughout their careers.

Effingham Daily News. Rural locations, pandemic worsen educator shortages in east-central Illinois   Teacher shortages are not new to the state, but Thompson said matters began to worsen when the State Board of Education made EdTPA, a performance-based national assessment for licensure, a state requirement to become a teacher.

Hechinger Report. Substitute teacher crisis forces districts to turn to local businesses and recent grads: In Missouri, a barrel company’s employees serve as substitute teachers. In Connecticut, a superintendent turns to recent high school grads.  And not all substitute teachers are equally qualified; those with training and certifications are more effective than those with minimal credentials. At the start of this school year, the Missouri State Board of Education suspended its requirement that applicants have 60 college credits to be certified as a substitute teacher… anyone with a high school diploma or its equivalent can substitute if they complete a 20-hour on-line training session and pass the necessary background check.

National Education Policy Center. Caught in the Crosshairs: Emerging Bilinguals and the Reading Wars   More than a dozen states—including Florida, Texas and North Carolina—rushed to react, passing laws requiring pre-service and current teachers to place a greater emphasis on phonics… In addition to adding new reading standards to the evaluation of teacher preparation programs, Colorado lawmakers also, in 2019, passed legislation requiring the state education department to ensure that early reading curricula used in schools emphasizes phonemic awareness.

Teachers College. Tracing the Sources of Inspiration: Amoy Walker (M.A. ’06) is honored for teaching that “dives deep” and strengthens critical thinking   …she enrolled at TC, where she earned her degree in Social Studies Education… looking at the research of equity and inclusion and figuring out how to create a safe and respectable place for all children to grow and learn. TC showed me how to look at the resources that a child needs to live a full and dignified life. And I have taken that understanding with me for all these years since I left TC.”

The 74. Force of Habit: New Study Finds that Routines Could Be Blocking Teacher Improvement   New approaches to instructional coaching held the promise for initiating positive changes. Sims pointed especially to an exercise at the University of Virginia that places pre-service teachers in virtual classrooms, where they were asked to manage student-like avatars that loudly disrupted their teaching.

Washington Post. Denied a teaching job for being ‘too Black,’ she started her own school — and a movement   Burroughs was forward-thinking in her understanding of what women can or should learn. She taught vocational skills, but her school also emphasized subjects such as literature and Latin. To graduate, all students were required to take a Black history course.

NEW YORK STATE
New York State Education Department.
1) Seeking candidates for Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education Policy to serve as a member of the Commissioner’s Leadership Team  The incumbent will play a key role in implementing strategic plans relating to student assessment, the development and implementation of New York State learning standards, charter school management, teacher and school leader preparation requirements and certification…
2) Statement From Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr., the Board of Regents and State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on Appointments   “We are pleased to congratulate Regents Hakanson and Reyes on their re-elections to the Board of Regents… “We welcome Ruth Turner and Aramina Vega Ferrer who were elected to the Board of Regents today by the New York State Legislature.

NEW YORK CITY
Columbia University Education Law and Policy Society. Panel Discussion: “Special Education and COVID-19”    Zoom Webinar: Monday, March 8, 2021 6:00 pm

Gotham Gazette. Expanding Educational Opportunities for Our Youngest Learners   By expanding and reforming the bilingual certifications needed to teach younger children, we can offer scholarships and financial aid to student-teachers who can teach languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Polish at an introductory level, helping provide educational support for both our children and their instructors.

NYTimes. Susan Feingold Dies at 95; Helped Give New York Children a Head Start: Her Bloomingdale Family Program provided preschoolers with a haven where there hadn’t been one before.   With the aid of federal funding, Bloomingdale grew, with longtime volunteer parents joining its full-time staff. In the 1970s, Ms. Feingold introduced a “one to one” program, which focused on individual care for children with special needs, eventually offering bilingual speech therapy and occupational therapy. By the 1990s, Bloomingdale had three early childhood centers in Upper Manhattan, including its Columbus Avenue site. 

GLOBAL
Business Post Ireland. ‘Continued school closures could affect supply of new teachers’ : Senior academic warns that if classrooms are empty in the next academic year then students will not be able to gain practical experience   Professor Damian Murchan, head of the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin, said that the closure of schools last year and again this year had caused significant challenges for in-school placements for student teachers.

The National. Centre recognised as prep, primary teacher training institute   The 107-year-old missionary training centre at Heldsbach in Finschhafen, Morobe, was officially recognised as a training institute for early childhood and primary school teachers on Thursday… The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG) run institution will now be transformed into an early childhood and primary school teachers training institution.

The Standard. There’s need to radically change teacher training   Recently, the Ministry of Education launched the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) Taskforce report that provides the roadmap aligning education reform initiatives to the needs and expectations of the 21st century… We are looking to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to develop content or syllabus that meets the depth and breadth inherent in curricular that answers to the needs of educational excellence.

UNESCO. Global education monitoring report, 2021, Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia: inclusion and education: all means all   Countries must deploy a range of policies boosting inclusion. … Only one in two teachers in the region feels prepared to teach in mixed-ability settings and one in three in multicultural settings. The ageing of the teaching force makes this need more pressing…

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 73rd Annual Meeting February 24 – 26, 2021 Program Book
2) 2021 National Award Winners
3) Robert Floden at Michigan State University Becomes AACTE Board Chair

BET. Living the Dream: Dr. Ian Smith   The Danbury, Conn. native earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, received a master’s in science education from Teachers College of Columbia University, and completed his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Education Week.
1)  Building a Community for Black Male Teachers   In developing its recruitment and retention efforts, Richland Two is also relying on other organizations that are trying to rebuild the pipeline of Black male teachers. One is The Call Me MISTER initiative, founded at Clemson University in South Carolina. MISTER, which stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models, recruits Black men to be teachers, particularly in the elementary grades.
2) Where Can We Find Lots of Tutors? Bill in Congress Would Deploy Teachers-in-Training   That’s the thrust behind a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and John Cornyn, R-Texas. The $500 million proposal would give grants to school districts and teacher preparation programs to use aspiring teachers who are finishing up their teaching program to tutor students at high-needs schools.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Biden Announces More Education Department Appointees  Jordan Matsudaira, an associate professor of economics and education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, was named deputy under secretary. Matsudaira served as chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration.
2) U of Kansas Will Cut Humanities Department   The University of Kansas plans to eliminate its humanities program and undergraduate degrees in humanities and visual art education…

InsiderNJ. Booker, Cornyn, Murphy, Collins Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Expand Access to Tutoring for Underserved Students   The PATHS to Tutor Act establishes a $500 million competitive grant program for teacher-preparation programs to partner with K-12 schools to provide tutoring in underserved communities during the pandemic

Phi Delta Kappan. Who’s assessing the assessment? The cautionary tale of the edTPA    The edTPA technical reports released each year state that, “all analyses and results have been informed and reviewed by a technical advisory committee [TAC] of nationally recognized psychometricians” (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2018, p. 1)… A majority of these experts responded that they were not aware of being listed as members of such a committee.

Washington Post. At William & Mary, a school for free and enslaved Black children is rediscovered   … it’s noteworthy that the discovery of the original building might never have happened had it not been for Terry L. Meyers, an English professor at William & Mary who was interested in history… he said. “I also think, being a teacher myself, that almost all teaching, all education is to some degree subversive. It makes people start to think; it gives them a kind of independence.”

NEW YORK STATE
InsideHigherEd.  Not Going Quietly: These four professors aren’t giving up their tenured positions at Canisius College without a fight — in court.   Astiz, who has been with Canisius since 2002, is a professor of teacher education.

New York State Assembly. A9750 was reintroduced in the 2021 legislative session under a new print number: A5711.  Relates to the cumulative grade point average admission requirement for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs…

New York State Education Department. Office of Higher Education, Educator Preparation Newsletter, February 2021
*New Commissioner of Education
*Board of Regents February Items: Definition of University, Emergency Measures in Response to COVID-19, Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification, Accreditation, Computer Science
* New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) Test Development Activities
* edTPA Virtual Learning Environment Webinars
* Teaching in Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments

Times Union. New York Regents’ first Black chancellor has a vision for public education: In panel on teacher diversity, Lester Young Jr. stresses personal connection with students   To address the statewide shortage of teachers of color, Young proposes removing financial barriers and educating young people about the profession. “Lots of young people don’t see the school as a self-affirming, self-esteem-building place. So for many young people, the last place they want to be is in school, or to be a teacher … if we really want more young people to go into teaching, we need to give them good reasons,” he said.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) Growing up, I was ‘that kid.’ I became a teacher to help others like me.   … Mary Hebron, a professor in the “Art of Teaching” graduate program at Sarah Lawrence College…  taught us about the process of learning by doing as the heart of education. Hebron said that educators should teach children to be critical thinkers. She taught us that we were not only teachers but educational reformers. We resist the standardization and mechanization of public education, she said, and empower every one of our students to find their voices.
2) Stop calling this generation ‘lost.’ It’s hurtful — and it’s wrong: Despite what you’ve heard, my remote students are learning. [By Selena Carrión TC MA’12]   All this reminds me not to allow a deficit-oriented “lost generation” narrative to deny them their success. As educators, let’s think about their triumphs and how they are still finding joy and wonder amid chaos.

NBC New York. Who Is Meisha Porter, 1st Black Woman to Lead Nation’s Largest Public School System?   A product of the New York City public school system, Porter graduated from Queens Vocational and Technical High School and went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in English concentrating in Cross Cultural Literature and Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. She later received her Master’s Degree in Administration and Supervision from Mercy College… Porter has taught at CUNY as an adjunct professor and been a [Teachers College] Columbia University Cahn fellow…

New York Times. Richard Carranza Will Resign as Leader of N.Y.C. School System: His departure, planned for mid-March, comes after repeated clashes with Mayor Bill de Blasio over desegregating the city’s schools.

Teachers College.
1) Peace Corps Fellows Program. Peace Corps 60th Anniversary.  Join the New York City Peace Corps Association, National Peace Corps Association, and special guest Dr. Jeffrey Sachs for a 60th anniversary celebration honoring 60 years since President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. [March 1st, 7pm]
2) TC’s Jordan Matsudaira Is Named Deputy Under Secretary of Education   The Biden-Harris administration has named Jordan Matsudaira, Associate Professor of Economics & Education at Teachers College, to the position of Deputy Under Secretary of Education, with responsibility for higher education policy.

GLOBAL
Cision. New certificate helps province address COVID-19-related teacher shortage.  The Council of the Ontario College of Teachers endorsed the creation of a Temporary Certificate to enable faculty of education students to begin teaching earlier as a partial solution to Ontario’s teaching shortage… Students who are enrolled in an accredited Ontario teacher education program and are expected to complete their program in 2021 can apply. Teachers certified in other Canadian provinces can also apply.

Forum for World Education (WFE). The Future of Teacher Education [Webinar Feb. 23 RSVP]

New Zealand Herald. New on-the-job teacher training scheme delayed as staff shortage ends   The latest Ministry of Education projections, released at 11am, show that the supply of primary teachers is expected to fully meet the demand this year and out to 2023, both nationally and in Auckland. The shortfall of secondary teachers, which was expected to be 1750 by 2023 when the ministry’s first projections were published in 2018, is now expected to be only 100, as New Zealanders come home from a Covid-ravaged world to retrain in teaching.

7th International Forum on Teacher Education (IFTE). “Teacher Education: New Challenges and Goals” [Kazan Federal University, Russian Academy of Education May 26-28, 2021]

UNITED STATES
AACTE/SCALE. February 2021 Newsletter – News From edTPA®

Boston Globe. Dr. Miriam A. Marecek, 1940 – 2020. People like her brother’s sixth grade teacher in Atlantic City, Ms. Florence McHale, and her high school home economics teacher, Mrs. Willis had a profound impact on her life and they influenced her creative pursuits and educational ambitions, to teach and to educate teachers. Miriam graduated from Earlham college in Richmond, IN, and received her PHD from Columbia University, Teacher’s College [1978]. 

Center for Innovation in Teacher Education & Development (CITED). CITED Conversations 2021  [Zoom meeting registration]

Education Week.
1) How Can White Teachers Teach Black History? Six Things You Need to Know: Black historical consciousness requires more than just a pedagogical shift    We can use this Black historical consciousness to analyze and refine our teaching of Black history, not just in February but across the whole school year.
2) How School Districts Are Keeping Diverse Teacher Recruitment at the Top of Their Agenda   Like countless other school systems across the nation, Florida’s Palm Beach County school district is facing multiple challenges this year: budget cuts, accelerated teacher retirements, a shortage of substitute teachers … support a variety of efforts… and strengthening existing alternative certification and “grow our own” programs.
3) Nurturing Talent at Home to Revive a Struggling Region   Bridges created a “grow-your-own” program designed to nurture teaching talent in Edgecombe…With support from philanthropies, the district’s scholar-teacher program pays for dual high school-college enrollment and up to $30,000 in college scholarships for students who pledge to return to the district to teach for at least three years. Students who don’t return must repay the money.

FacultiNet. Assessing the Assessment.  Drew Gitomer discusses the technical documentation of and edTPA and score design, the reliability of the assessments, and the consequential impact on decisions about edTPA candidates.

Hechinger Report. How much will it take to reopen, catch up kids, and save public schooling long term?: Billions of stimulus dollars are flowing to public schools, but experts say it may not be enough without big changes to how states allocate funds   For instance, Arizona passed Proposition 208 in November …which would raise hundreds of millions to support K-12 education. That money is designated for teachers and classroom support staff, mentoring and retention programs, and the Arizona Teachers Academy, which gives financial support to people earning their teaching certificates in exchange for a commitment to teach in the state. 

InsideHigherEd. Setting the Bar Higher  A new report from the National Council for Teacher Quality argues that raising admissions standards for teacher training programs can also increase diversity in the field.

National Council on Teacher Quality. Teacher Prep Review: Program Diversity and Admissions 2021   To assess whether teacher preparation programs are meeting the urgent need to diversify the profession, we compared the diversity of their enrollment to the diversity of the current state teacher workforce (reported by the Institute for Education Sciences) as well as the local community in which the programs reside (reported by the Census Bureau). Combining the two measures allows for enrollment to be viewed in the context of where each program operates.

New York Post. Adding wokeness: Oregon promotes teacher program to subtract ‘racism in mathematics’   Attorney M.E. Hart, who has conducted these types of training sessions, told The Washington Post that the training helped people live up to “this nation’s promise – ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

New York Times.
1) A College Program for Disadvantaged Teens Could Shake Up Elite Admissions: An education program is immersing underprivileged students in Ivy League classes, and the students’ success has raised questions about how elite university gatekeepers determine co.   The early results, Ms. Cornfeld said, are clear: “Our nation’s talent is evenly distributed; opportunity is not.”… An analysis of the most recent federal civil rights data by the Community College Research Center, part of Columbia University’s Teachers College, shows white students enroll in traditional dual-enrollment courses at twice the rate of Black students. And Black and Native American students had the lowest participation rates in Advanced Placement courses, the most widely used proxy for college readiness.
2) Talking About Race and Racism in the Classroom Using The New York Times [Live Webinar Mar. 4]
3) The Influence of a Perfect Teacher: Perhaps because I had a teacher who made reading aloud into ceremony, ritual and compelling drama, I grew up to find my cause in pediatricians’ promoting reading aloud at checkups.  Actually, she became Dr. Miriam Marecek in the 1970s when she earned a doctorate in education [Teachers College PhD ‘78], but in my mind, she was always Miss Marecek… Miriam Marecek spent the rest of her life deeply engaged with children’s literature — teaching it to college students and graduate students in education, advising school districts on books and literacy..

New York Times Magazine. Amazon’s Great Labor Awakening: Covid-19 has cemented the e-commerce giant’s hold on the economy — but it has also spurred employees all around the country to organize.   Amazon Logistics and Business Management Pathway… Amazon partnered with the school as part of its five-year anniversary in the Inland Empire, donating $50,000 to start the pilot program… The plan, an Amazon spokeswoman told me, is to offer robotics-training mentorships, job-training externships, teacher-training programs and transferable college credits. 

InsideHigherEd. Vaccines for Educators — but Not All Educators   “The sooner that higher education employees are vaccinated, the sooner we can expand our students’ in-person learning experience,” Michelle Marks, the chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver, said… New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s office did not return a request for comment about the reason for prioritizing in-person college faculty and instructors over other college employees, a decision that has been criticized on equity grounds. 

VPM/NPR. Lawmakers Call for Volunteers to Fill Teacher Gap   …called on Gov. Ralph Northam to form a ‘Teachers Reserve Corps’ on Monday to address a statewide teacher shortage. Their proposal calls for largely unpaid volunteers to fill in for educators that can’t work in person during the COVID-19 pandemic… The corps would be made up of retired educators, military veterans, college students hoping to become teachers and people licensed to teach outside of Virginia’s K-12 public education system.

WAVY-TV. Black History Month: Hampton’s Little England Chapel stands as an inspiration for freedom   According to documents filed with the National Register of Historic Places, the chapel was first “built by students of Hampton Institute, the famous Black teacher-training college founded by Northern missionaries in 1868.” 

GLOBAL
New Indian Express. One teacher training institute for 1,057 schools in Odisha   Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has one teacher training institute for around 156 educational institutes at elementary, secondary and higher secondary level.

Sydney Morning Herald. How to help kids prepare to return to school after a topsy-turvy year   Separation anxiety, particularly for younger kids, may be an issue initially, says Dr Daniela Acquaro, director of initial teacher education at the University of Melbourne. “Kids really have spent a lot of 2020 with parents and carers.”

The Guardian. What job opportunities are there for young people in the UK?   The government is offering bursaries and scholarships for teacher training in certain subjects, including chemistry and computing. For 2021-22, up to £26,000 of financial help is available to individuals.

Vanguard. USAID launches new early grade learning book in local languages   USAID-NEI Plus has improved reading skills for more than 952,565 pupils, trained 9600 teachers, and distributed more than 6 million teaching and learning materials to schools… The Federal Ministry of Education under the leadership of the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu has recorded several strides in its efforts to improve the quality of education in Nigeria: school feeding program, teacher training, online learning…

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Launches New Online Community   AACTE is excited to introduce AACTE Connect360, an engaging and interactive online community that will link individual educators from its 700 member institutions to bring educator preparation full circle.
2) Senator Elizabeth Warren To Headline AACTE Opening Keynote Series   U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren will address the AACTE community during its 2021 Annual Meeting Opening Keynote session on February 24. 

Capitol News Illinois. GOP members hope to block new teacher standards   The new standards would apply to teacher training programs at Illinois colleges and universities rather than K-12 school curricula. They are scheduled to come up for legislative review on Tuesday, Feb. 16, before the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, a legislative body that has oversight authority over state regulatory agencies. If approved, the standards would take effect in October 2025 in order to give state-approved educator preparation programs ample time to incorporate them, according to a statement from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Chalkbeat. Colorado joins multistate effort to improve how teacher prep programs cover reading.  The Mississippi-based Barksdale Reading Institute is spearheading the effort — called The Path Forward — with an inaugural group of six states. Besides Colorado, they include Arizona, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. Path Forward will allow state leaders to share strategies for embedding the science of reading into teacher training programs, holding those programs accountable for early literacy outcomes, and enlisting the help of philanthropic groups in such efforts.

Early Learning Nation. New Mexico On Verge of Securing State Constitutional Change to Ensure Stable Funding for Children Zero to Five   “I just believe education is important at every age, and I believe that educators need fair pay,” Natachua said. With more funding that enables better pay, she thinks that early childhood educators will be able to get more training and degrees, and that the industry will see less turnover. 

Forbes. The Puzzling Gap In Research On Writing Instruction   A hugely popular curriculum developed by literacy guru [& TC Professor] Lucy Calkins, often referred to as Writers’ Workshop, is the subject of a recently released rigorous evaluation—the first ever conducted of the approach, despite the fact that it’s been around for decades. Researchers found significant gains beginning in the second year of implementation, although they were smaller for students from lower-income families and other vulnerable groups.

Hechinger Report. Singing in the parking lot, and other pandemic strategies for music students   … next-generation music professionals are inventing — and reinventing — the music teaching tools and techniques we all will need to see our way through the pandemic.

New York Times. Schumer Pushes a $50,000 Student Debt Forgiveness Plan.

Showbiz Cheat Sheet. How Tony Bennett’s Wife Susan Benedetto’s Background As a Teacher is Helping Her Care for Her Ailing Husband   Benedetto worked for many years in arts education. A graduate of Fordham University and of Columbia University’s Teachers College, she eventually launched Creative Artists Management and assisted performers and artists in the navigation of their careers. She and her husband in 1999 opened in Queens, New York City the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, where Benedetto worked both as a social studies teacher and assistant principal. 

Washington Post.
1) How to start ending the school-to-prison pipeline — by an educator just elected to the U.S. House   First, we must teach BIPOC history and culture in our schools, so that children can learn the global contributions of BIPOC people and our BIPOC kids can feel empowered. The majority of public school teachers are White; we must recruit, train and retain more teachers of color, and train all teachers using an anti-racist curriculum.
2) Teachers to Biden: What we want from your administration   In order for democracy to continue to thrive, we need to rethink the way we educate our nation’s students. And we need to equip our teachers with the training and support they need to be changemakers in the classroom.   * Ensure teacher education programs require current, fact-based science coursework, for elementary school teachers as well as secondary science teachers.
* Support the development and spread of professional learning programs that show efficacy in anti-racist training for teachers.
*Require science-based training for all preservice teachers, and ongoing training for in-service teachers, in trauma-informed teaching, including spotting and understanding signs of mental illness.
3) What you need to know about standardized testing   It is time to relax the heavy hand of federal regulation and to recall the original purposes of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act: to distribute funding to the neediest students and schools; to support the professional training of teachers; and to assure the civil rights of students… At this critical time, as we look beyond the terrible consequences of the pandemic, American schools face a severe teacher shortage. The federal government can help states raise funding to pay professional salaries to professional teachers. It can help pay for high-quality prekindergarten programs. 

NEW YORK STATE
Governor Andrew Cuomo. FY 2022 Executive Budget Briefing Book.
* Eliminate Teacher Support Programs. In recent years, the State has provided $27.4 million annually for several recurring teacher support and training programs, including the Teachers of Tomorrow Program ($25 million), Teacher Mentor Intern Program ($2 million) and the Albert Shanker Grant Program ($0.4 million). The FY2022 Executive Budget eliminates these programs, starting in the 2021-22 school year, in order to achieve necessary State savings while preserving programs that provide direct services to sensitive student populations. These spending reductions may be restored if the State receives requested Federal COVID relief funds
*Streamline New Education Program Approval to Meet Workforce Needs. To ensure responsiveness to the rapidly evolving skills that New York’s employers require of their employees, the Budget will streamline the process to approve programs and degrees at New York’s colleges and universities. This change will help fuel New York’s economic recovery and enable New York to better compete in the Global Economy.

NY1. New York Senate Approves Education Diversity Measures   Lawmakers in the state Senate on Wednesday advanced measures meant to boost diversity in the state’s schools and education policy, including mesures meant to encourage school and college officials to attract underrepresented candidates for teaching positions… The bills include the “Grow Your Own” initiatives for school districts, cooperative education services and higher education institutions to attract diverse teaching candidates. 

NYSED. NYSED seeks educator input on how program activities can best support teaching students in remote/hybrid instructional settings. [Survey deadline: Feb 15]

NEW YORK CITY
NYTimes.
1) Missing in School Reopening Plans: Black Families’ Trust   Sonya D. Horsford, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said the moment presented an opportunity for public schools to rethink much of what was not working for Black children. “It’s a great time to have that conversation about the source of mistrust and what we want as part of this recovery,” …
2) Sylvia Lieber, Creative Kindergarten Teacher, Dies at 102    To Sylvia Lieber, there was no reason that the kindergartners and first graders she taught at P.S. 26 in Fresh Meadows, Queens… After graduating from New Utrecht High School, Sylvia received a bachelor’s degree in education from Hunter College and began teaching.

Patch. Chelsea Camin, Voice Teacher: Long Island’s Best Kept Secret   A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, Ms. Camin received her Master’s in Music & Music Education, she continues to uphold those ideals and formulates curriculum for her private studio. An asset that sets her apart from other voice teachers. 

Teachers College.
1) Imagining and Re-Imagining Teaching, Becoming and Being Teacher Educators: A colloquium series [12 Noon on Feb. 5 & 12]
2) Redefining Scholarship: With the new year under way, the Teachers College Record is amplifying a diverse new range of voices and topics   The articles in the year’s opening issue included: “Invisible Shifts in the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China;” “White Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions when Teaching about Race”…
3) Two Teachers College Alumni Will Serve in the Biden-Harris Administration   Cardichon most recently directed the Washington D.C. office and federal policy arm of the Learning Policy Institute. Earlier in her career, she was a teacher in New York City for seven years and then worked at TC as a program manager for implementation of early career educator induction programs.

GLOBAL
The Citizens Foundation. For Children to Learn, We Must Teach them in Languages they Understand.  But because the majority teachers in Pakistan are not proficient in English, it is only textbooks that are in English while teachers and students speak local languages in the classroom…countries like Pakistan should give thought to developing a cadre of teachers who are able to provide language instruction, in the mother tongue as well as second, third, and fourth languages.

The Conversation. Scholarships alone are not enough to get more qualified female teachers into Nigeria’s schools.  We found that there were both academic and other obstacles to the trainees’ success, including financial worries. This was because the scholarship stipend was too small and payments were often delayed. Based on these findings, we suggest that improving the quality of teacher education is more important than just increasing teacher numbers. We also recommend that such programmes pay attention to non-academic difficulties.

The Hindu. All schools in State to turn disabled-friendly   The libraries would also have audio books and video teaching aids. Playgrounds too would be changed accordingly. Teachers would be trained and awareness would be created among students pursuing Bachelor of Education course, S.Y. Shooja, State programme officer, SSK, said.

UNICEF. COVID-19: Trends, Promising Practices and Gaps in Remote Learning for Pre-Primary Education  Going forward, most countries have reported that remote-learning modalities will continue to be provided as schools reopen and many will utilise a hybrid model combining in-person and distant learning (UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank, 2020). Therefore, through incorporating ICT competence (UNESCO, 2018) in pre- and in-service teacher training will have both short- and long-term benefits.

Washington Post. Report: Witness implicates Mexico’s army in abduction of 43   The accusation is one of a series of conflicting testimonies that have offered differing versions of what happened to the students from a rural teachers’ college who were hijacking buses when they were rounded up by police and turned over to a drug gang.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. National Office moves to Washington, D.C.

Chalkbeat.
1) The Detroit district’s new way to recruit teachers: Train its own support staff   On Wednesday, the state’s education department announced its approval of the program, called On the Rise Academy, an alternative, teacher certification program. Current district employees, such as support staff, can begin teaching while working toward an interim certification if they meet program qualifications. Current district teachers can also earn certifications in math, science, and elementary education. 
2) Will holding back struggling third-grade readers improve literacy? Tennessee’s governor thinks so, but others aren’t sure.   The state plans this year to start retraining teachers on phonics-based reading instruction and change how prospective teachers are taught in college to teach reading.

Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). Education In Uncertain Times: A Research-Backed Guide   The guide, created by a team of teachers, counselors, school leaders, psychologists, teacher educators and university faculty, advocates for the development of an “uncertainty mindset,” and offers strategies for educators to recognize challenges, make plans and care for the wellness needs of themselves and their students.

Education Week. How to Talk About Social Media and the Capitol Insurrection: A Guide for Teachers   Students can also consider whether “the CEO of a private tech company” should have the “power to decide whether Trump keeps his account or not,” said Ioana Literat, an assistant professor of communication, media, and learning technologies design at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “How do we feel that [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg has this power? And if we don’t like it, what’s a better process?”

Forbes. The Biden Administration Could Usher In A New Era Of Teaching American History  The executive order required all federal agencies to immediately stop funding any training that “teaches or suggests” that the US is racist and condemned critical race theory as “anti-American” propaganda. The new administration will almost certainly quickly reverse that executive order that sought to outlaw the teaching of history based on “critical race theory.” Critical race theory acknowledges the existence of white supremacy and its impact on our legal and cultural systems. 

LPI. The Importance of Getting Tutoring Right   The literature is clear about the characteristics of effective tutoring programs that lead to success in the classroom. Effective tutoring: 1) Employs certified classroom teachers when available (whether currently teaching or not), or paraprofessional staff, such as existing paraprofessionals, teacher candidates enrolled in preparation programs, or well-trained tutors who earn a stipend, such as AmeriCorps members;…

NYTimes. Pandemic Teacher Shortages Imperil In-Person Schooling: The nation’s schools need thousands of more teachers, full-time and substitute, to keep classrooms open during coronavirus outbreaks.  Some states and districts have also suspended college course requirements, or permitted abbreviated online training, for emergency substitute teachers… One potentially beneficial consequence of the teacher shortage crisis is that loosened substitute rules are enabling college students to gain hands-on classroom experience more quickly, potentially fast-tracking them into educational careers. 

Philadelphia Inquirer. Prompted by complaints, Temple taps law firm to probe education college leadership   Anderson… earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1989 and a doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York. He has taught at Columbia University and worked as a program officer at the Ford Foundation. At the University of Denver, he led the education college for about four years until leaving in 2013 for Temple.

The74. Meet 2 Aspiring D.C. Public School Teachers in This College’s Inaugural Class of ‘Ready-to-Go’ Post-COVID Educators   AU’s inaugural class of Teaching Fellows — three D.C. public school graduates who received full four-year scholarships and are likely to teach in a DCPS school post-graduation — has overlapped with a pandemic that’s forced nationwide transitions to virtual learning, redefining teachers’ roles and skills.

Washington Post.
1) After Biden request, Education Department extends pause on federal student loan payments through September   With the extension, all borrowers with student loans from the Education Department will see their payments automatically suspended until Sept. 30 without penalty or accrual of interest. Each month until then will still count toward loan forgiveness for borrowers in public-service jobs.
2) This teacher was called to protect the U.S. Capitol as a National Guard member. He now holds class from a Humvee.   Music has always been a driving force in Kohut’s life. He was an avid saxophone player throughout high school, studied music in college and ultimately earned his doctorate in music composition at George Mason University. “What I really wanted was to teach,” explained Kohut, who grew up in Saginaw, Mich. “My mom, who is a single mother, was a music teacher. That’s why I do what I do, because she was such a good role model.”
3) Trump’s ‘patriotic education’ report excuses Founding Fathers for owning slaves and likens progressives to Mussolini   They contend that educators who teach students full histories of the country, including about the evils of slavery and endemic racism in America, are ignoring the country’s virtues and indoctrinating young people into hating their country.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. State Finalists Selected for 2020 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching   Leslie earned an Honors Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Delaware, majoring in Elementary Education with a concentration in Middle School Mathematics. Leslie has also earned a Master of Education degree from SUNY New Paltz, choosing Childhood Special Education as her major… Lynda earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Marketing and Management. She went on to Fordham University in Massachusetts to earn a Master of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education. 

WIBX. Utica College Offering Certification Program For Future Teachers Amid Looming Teacher Shortage   Utica College officials say in the Summer 2021 they hope to prepare for a potential educator shortage by offering the Transitional B Apprentice Teacher Certification Program which will begin in May… Officials say “During the summer session of the program, students must complete 10 graduate credit hours, 40 hours of fieldwork, and pass the content specialty teacher certification test (CST) and the Educating All Students teacher certification test (EAS) given through the NYS Department of Education.”

New York City
New York Times. Grace Knowlton, Sculptor Who Worked ‘in the Round,’ Dies at 88: A rare female modernist who broke into the masculine culture of outdoor sculpting, she exhibited her spheres at top museums and galleries.   Ms. Knowlton eventually went back to school, earning her master’s in art education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1981 and expanding her interests in photography, drawing and painting. She taught at the Art Students League of New York from 1998 to 2012.

GLOBAL
European Conference on Educational Research Online. Sept. 6-10 [submission deadline 31 Jan.]

Hindustan Times. Delhi govt restructures SCERT, DIET for better teacher training opportunities   The Delhi government on Thursday announced the restructure of the State Council of Educational Research And Training (SCERT) and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) in order to further improve the facilities for teacher training in the national capital

India Education Diary. Berlin Senate Approves Establishing a “Chinese Language and Society” Teacher-Training Degree Program   Berlin’s Senate Chancellery – Higher Education and Research has given its seal of approval to the development of a new teacher-training degree program, “Chinese Language and Society” at Freie Universität Berlin. Students will be able to enroll in the degree program starting winter semester 2021/2022.

Japan Times. Info on school jobs in Japan to be opened to companies   Both public and private educational institutions, ranging from kindergartens to universities, are allowed to release information on a wide range of jobs on the website, such as teachers, assistants for English education, information and communications technology assistants and business etiquette lecturers, officials of the ministry said. Many such jobs will not require a teaching license, according to the officials.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.  AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting Online February 24-26 [early bird discount available until Tuesday, January 19]

Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP). 2021 AAQEP Quality Assurance Symposium [Feb. 23-25]

Black on Black Education. Conference February 23rd – 27th, 2021 Daily Topics incl. Student Voice & Choice, Family Night:  It Takes a Village, Education Policy and Equity, The Future of Education is in Our Hands

EdSource. Stipends, jobs for student teachers needed to diversify California’s teaching force   California requires 600 hours of student teaching, nearly double the requirement of other states. Student teachers are not paid and student teaching typically lasts for an entire academic year. Thus, most teacher candidates cannot work and student teach at the same time (or it is very difficult to do so).

Education Week. How to Teach the U.S. Capitol Attack: Dozens of Resources to Get You Started

Inside Higher Ed.
1) Biden to Extend Pause on Student Loan Payments   …Biden also plans to expand income-based repayment plans and reform the currently little-used debt forgiveness program for borrowers working in public service.
2) Higher Ed Workers Get in the COVID Vaccine Line   A spokeswoman for the CDC, Kristen Nordlund, confirmed that “college, university and professional school teachers, support staff, and daycare workers are included in 1B.”

LPI. The Importance of Teaching and Learning Conditions: Influences on Teacher Retention and School Performance in North Carolina   Underprepared teachers teaching in high-poverty schools rarely have the knowledge and skills to adequately support student learning and address the social-emotional learning needs of their students. And without significant training in teaching high-need students, teachers struggle to contribute to consistent and equitable school discipline policies and practices. 

NEA News. Five Reasons Educators Are Excited About Miguel Cardona   He also announced programs to entice more students of color to become teachers and to get Connecticut college students already planning a teaching career into the classroom quicker.

NYTimes. The New York Times Teaching Project, 2021-22  Apply now to join our second cohort of distinguished educators who teach with The Times. The deadline is Feb. 2, 2021.

Politico. First professor: Jill Biden to make history as a first lady with a day job   Biden took a leave of absence from the Northern Virginia Community College in January because of the campaign, but she kept an eye on returning next year, completing online-teaching training and certification.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat.
1) Lester Young Jr. makes history as NY’s first Black chancellor for Board of Regents
2) NY teachers can get coronavirus vaccines as soon as Monday, but it could take months to reach all of them   Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the next phase of vaccine distribution, also known as 1b, which includes education workers…

New York State Education Department Board of Regents, January meeting.
1) Appointment of Sharon Cates-Williams as Executive Deputy Commissioner
2) Board of Regents Elects Dr. Lester W. Young, Jr. as Chancellor
3) Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.3, 52.21, 57-4.5, 70.4, 74.6, 75.2, 75.5, 76.2, 79-9.3, 79-10.3, 79-11.3, 79-12.3, 80- 1.13, 80-1.5, 80-3.15, 80-4.3, 83.5, 87.2, 87.5, 100.2, 100.4, 100.5, 100.6, 100.10, 100.21, 119.1, 119.5, 125.1, 151-1.4, 154- 2.3, The proposed amendment provides regulatory flexibility related to the following:
*Required Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) training;
*Teacher performance assessments (edTPA)… It is anticipated that the proposed rule will be presented for adoption as a permanent rule at the February 2021 Regents meeting, which is the first scheduled meeting after the 45-day public comment period prescribed in SAPA for State agency rule makings.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. Nov. 2020 meeting minutes

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. Reimagining Education: Teaching, Learning and Leading for a Racially Just Society [July 12 – 15, 2021]