Tag: teacher educator

GLOBAL
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). Call for Proposals. “Education and Society: expectations, prescriptions, reconciliations” 6-10 September 2021 [deadline 31 Jan.]

Korea Herald. AI education to begin in high schools next year   In order to strengthen teachers’ AI-related competencies, the government will ensure that AI-related content is included in basic and information and computer teaching courses. In a relevant move, it will push to have graduate schools of education offer AI reeducation programs to about 5,000 incumbent teachers by 2025. 

The Sector. Teacher training programs to be fast tracked in Victoria to combat workforce shortages   While the measure is primarily focused on supporting schools to employ local teachers to work in hard-to-staff roles in outer-metropolitan, rural and regional locations, in areas such as STEM, languages, applied learning and specialist education, it will also help early childhood educators become teachers as part of the roll-out of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.

UNESCO. Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, 2020. Latin America and the Caribbean: inclusion and education: all means all   70% of countries in the region provide for teacher training on inclusion in laws or policies, in general or for at least one group, and 59% provide teacher training for special education needs in laws, policies or programmes…

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Announces 2021 Annual Meeting Keynote Speakers  Bettina L. Love: Speaker Spotlight Session Presenter; Michael Beschloss: Closing Keynote Speaker 
2) Leading and Engaging Faculty in Teacher Preparation Reform: The Role of Deans [Webinar: Dec. 16, 12:00pm EST]
3) Leveraging Teacher Candidates as Assets During the Pandemic: A Win-Win for All   Last month, AACTE partnered with CCSSO, the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institutes for Research, and the CEEDAR Center to discuss how teacher candidates can be leveraged as assets for PK-12 districts navigating online learning and uncertainty during the pandemic.

Barron’s. America’s Students Are Struggling. Biden Needs to Unite Us Behind Them.   Millions of highly skilled Americans with real skills honed in a range of related professions can be recruited to become second-career teachers provided with the education content and skills. And far more teachers and principals need to be people of color. Students can’t learn unless we focus on improving teacher quality, which is essential especially given the enhanced demands on the profession.

EdSource. Less siloed, more inclusive: Changes to special education teacher preparation expected to have big impact on schools   Last month, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing approved the latest in more than a dozen changes to the requirements for credentialing aspiring special education teachers.

EDWeek. How to Bring ‘Surprise and Delight’ to Virtual Teacher Training During COVID-19   No matter the content, connections to careers and real world applications exist. Museums, national parks, zoos, and more that rely on field trip events are looking for ways to connect with classrooms virtually. Teachers simply need to find the education contact at these locations and learn more about what opportunities exist or be willing to brainstorm with the organization to design a personalized event for their students.

InsideHigherEd. Biden’s Pick to Head Economic Advisors Seen as Sympathetic to Loan Borrowers   Cecilia Rouse… found that holding student debt made it more likely for students to choose high-paying careers and eschew lower-paying ones like teaching.

NEA News. How Student Debt Cancellation Would Help Educators Breathe: NEA and other advocacy organizations are urging President-elect Joe Biden to immediately cancel federal student loan debt as an act of racial justice and economic advocacy.   For teachers, who are paid less than similarly educated professionals, it’s a particular burden, and it’s especially severe for teachers of color who often borrow more to pay for college. Debt cancellation would honor the decades of financial sacrifice that educators make to serve students, and also help to recruit and retain future teachers into the profession, educators say.

NYTimes. Pantyhose and Trash Bags: How Music Programs Are Surviving in the Pandemic   at New Mexico State University …Mr. Vigil’s first student teaching position, critical for the degree in music education he is seeking, was canceled….In Missouri, Nevaeh Diaz, who graduated from North Kansas City High School in May, is now studying music education at Missouri State University.

 

NEW YORK STATE
EdWeek. Biden Might Please the K-12 World by Picking an Education Secretary From Outside It   It’s also possible that Biden’s pick could have experience in both K-12 and higher education. Betty Rosa, New York’s interim state education commissioner, has been on a few wish lists, including that of incoming Democratic congressman and former public school principal Jamaal Bowman, of New York. Rosa, who started her career teaching English-language learners, has also taught graduate-level courses and serves as the president of the University of the State of New York.

InsideHigherEd.  Jim Malatras, president of Empire State College, part of the State University of New York system, has been named chancellor of the SUNY system.

NYSATE/NYACTE.  Open and Joint Board Meetings, Award Presentations [4pm Dec. 10]

NYSED Office of Higher Education November Newsletter.
*Board of Regents November Items Definition Of University
*New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (Nystce) Test Development Activities  The revised Content Specialty Tests (CSTs) in Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts became operational on November 9, 2020.

New York State Legislature. On Dec. 3rd, the Cumulative Grade Point Average Legislation, S.7117 (Sanders)/A.9750 (Glick), was delivered to the Governor’s desk. This legislation would lift the requirement that prospective students in masters in teaching programs have a 3.0 undergraduate GPA to be considered for admission.  It would allow higher education institutions to consider alternative criteria in determining admissibility into graduate-level teacher and education leadership programs. The Governor will have until December 15, 2020 to either sign or veto the bill.  Comments: Dan Fuller, Deputy Secretary for Education, <[email protected]>; Michael Mastroianni, Assistant Secretary for Education <[email protected]>; Terry Pratt, assistant counsel to the Governor <[email protected]>

                                   Each institution registered by the department
     5  with graduate-level teacher and leader education  programs  shall  adopt
     6  rigorous  selection criteria geared to predicting a candidate's academic
     7  success in its program, including but not limited to, a minimum score on
     8  the graduate record examination or a substantially equivalent  admission
     9  examination,  as  determined  by  the  institution, and achievement of a
    10  minimum cumulative grade point average [of 3.0 or higher] in the  candi-
    11  date's  undergraduate  program;  provided, however, such graduate record
    12  examination or substantially equivalent admission  examination  require-
    13  ment  shall in no case apply to certified teachers or school administra-
    14  tors who already hold a graduate degree.

NEW YORK CITY
Queens Daily Eagle. AOC taps huge team of volunteers to tutor kids in Queens   U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rallied a massive team of volunteers from across the country to provide free tutoring for kids in Queens and the Bronx… Last week, over 1,500 volunteers signed up… “So we are calling on retired teachers, college students or anyone interested in helping kids keep up with their studies to sign up and volunteer their time.”

Teachers College.
1) A Teaching Model for Trying Times: TC’s Peace Corps Fellows Program has much to teach an education system in crisis.  “The Peace Corps Fellows Program attracts teachers with a dedication to serving students’ needs, a devotion to social justice, a commitment to the pursuit of peace, and a passion for education,” says the Peace Corps Fellows Program’s Director, Elaine Perlman (M.A. ’92).… upon completing a three-month Intensive Summer Institute, the Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows work as full-time, certified teachers earning $58,300 annually, plus benefits, while earning their TC master’s degrees. Since 2019, thanks to the support of the Jaffe family and Teachers College, the Program has offered 100 percent tuition scholarships to up to a dozen Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows.
2) Teaching Residents @ Teachers College. Induction and Beyond. Holiday 2020 I TR@TC Induction Newsletter

GLOBAL
Global Partnership for Education. Teacher Leadership in the time of COVID-19: At the Global Education Meeting, ministers and experts renewed calls for the international community to support teachers as they lead responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.   … teacher education institutions and district offices can support female teachers so they advance into leadership positions by targeting them during pre-service and in-service training, and, in so doing, building their leadership competencies and skills.

International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. Teachers of today on teaching in the future.  The Forum recommended that models of teaching, teacher training, and professional support for teachers must evolve as the meaning of a ‘foundational education’ shifts… It also called for teachers’ education to be adapted to brace for coming crises, which could result in more large, linguistically diverse, and virtual classrooms.

Mail & Guardian [South Africa]. Pre-service teachers adapt in a pandemic.  This year the University of Johannesburg piloted a course with final-year Bachelor of Education students at the Soweto campus… The course was planned prior to Covid-19, so the pandemic complicated the execution of the course, but it also presented an opportunity for us to glean our own lessons about facilitating pre-service teachers’ learning in the context of emergency remote teaching. 

Microsoft News. Language learning in Canada needs to change to reflect ‘superdiverse’ communities   Language teacher education and teacher professional development must include anti-bias training that extends beyond equity issues of race, gender, class, religion and ethnicity to address the suppression of other languages in the language learning classroom. In this way, we can ensure teachers understand that affirming students’ linguistic identities is integral to their engagement and to their future success.

NZHerald. Education Ministry: End to primary teacher shortage, but problems in secondary schools.  It said the pandemic had affected the supply of teachers. “We anticipate even higher teaching retention rates, more Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduates, more qualified teachers interested in returning to the workforce (including those returning from overseas), and fewer international students resulting in reduced demand.

 

UNITED STATES
American Assoc. of College for Teacher Education.
1) AACTE and Edthena to Offer $500,000 in Grants for Teacher Preparation Video Observations.  AACTE member institutions may apply by December 7, 2020, to receive up to $25,000 for implementing video observation technology to support their teacher candidates during COVID-19 and beyond.
2) John Henning Counters Opposition to Critical Race Theory in Teacher Preparation  It is appropriate for teacher preparation programs to discuss this theory as part of their coursework because of the increasing racial diversity in schools. Most teachers are White females (around 80%) and critical race theory provides teachers, whether they are White or another race, with perspectives that allow them to gain insights into their students.
3) Town Hall on Critical Race Theory [Webinar Nov. 19 3pm EST]

Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation. 2021 Quality Assurance Symposium [All Virtual Feb. 23-25, 2021]

Atlanta Daily World. Amoy Walker of the Atlanta Girls’ School Named Teacher of the Year by GISA   Walker joined AGS in 2019 where she teaches sixth grade English and seventh grade humanities and serves as Middle School Curriculum Coordinator.  She received a B.A. from Stony Brook University and went on to earn her M.A. from the Teachers College at Columbia University [MA ’06 Social Studies Education].

Education Week.
1) How Biden Could Steer Education Spending Without Waiting on Congress   Here are a few other grant programs the Biden administration could use to push its policy preferences when awarding grants, along with their current funding:… Teacher Quality Partnership ($50.1 million): These grants focus on teacher training and recruitment as well as increasing diversity in the teaching workforce.
2) N.C. watchdog agency critiques teacher diversity efforts.  The Program Evaluation Division’s review of activities by state officials, local school boards, charter schools and educator preparation programs describes initiatives to attract and retain Black and Hispanic candidates for K-12 classrooms… But the report’s authors conclude recent state initiatives — such as those originating from the Department of Public Instruction or Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper — either don’t explicitly target people of color or are too new or preliminary to be evaluated. 

Learning Policy Institute. Sustainable Strategies for Funding Teacher Residencies: Lessons From California   … in 2018-19, California appropriated $75 million dollars to establish the Teacher Residency Grant Program. Under this program, teacher residencies can receive a competitive grant of up to $20,000 per resident to launch or expand programs to recruit and prepare teachers in high-need areas.

National Review. To Tackle Critical Theory in the K–12 Classroom, Start with Colleges of Education   Colleges of education have cornered the market on teacher training, even though they’ve seen enrollment declines in recent years. But it is in the colleges of education that prospective elementary and secondary teachers are steeped in the philosophy of Critical Theory, which manifests itself in K–12 schools through lessons on “Confronting Whiteness in Our Classrooms” and the 1619 Project.

NEA Today. The Teacher Shortage Can Be Addressed — With Key Changes.  Teachers often have master’s degrees, even doctorate degrees, and yet they earn far less than other college graduates. This problem, commonly called the “teacher pay penalty,” has grown far worse over the past three decades, EPI has found. Currently, teachers earn about 20 percent less, on average, than their non-teacher college graduates. With this kind of pay — coupled with the student debt that many teachers must take on to pay for their advanced degrees — a career in teaching doesn’t pay the bills for a middle-class life. As a result, 59 percent of teachers took on second or third jobs in 2016…

Washington Post.
1) ‘Telepresence’ robots are making virtual school feel a little more like real school.  There are several telepresence robots on the market. Pre-pandemic, they were most commonly used in higher education and for teacher training. But manufacturers of these devices say that starting in June, sales to K-12 schools skyrocketed.
2) With DeVos out, Biden plans series of reversals on education  For the Education Department, the transition committee is being led by Linda Darling-Hammond  [TC faculty 1989-1998]…several people said. Darling-Hammond, who was considered for education secretary by President Barack Obama in 2008, is under consideration again… Other names mentioned by people familiar with the process include … Betty A. Rosa, interim commissioner of education in New York state…

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. Regents Meeting for November 16, 2020
* Definition of “University” in New York State- Department staff will present an overview of the current definition of “university.”
* 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, 17

 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC public schools have lost 31,000 students this fall, preliminary data show.  “Unstable staffing patterns, unstable dollars, often lead to worse outcomes for kids,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College… Bay Ridge dad Simeon Stolzberg decided to formally home-school his third grade son… Stolzberg spent his career working in public education, including as a charter school principal, so he felt prepared to teach his son.

NY1. She Failed a Teaching Test and Lost Her Career. A Federal Judge Says It Was Discrimination.   DeZonie didn’t get to see her teaching career grow because she failed a state certification exam used by the city, the Liberal Arts and Science Test.  She wasn’t alone: Black and Hispanic teachers failed it at a significantly higher rate than their white counterparts. A lawsuit filed 24 years ago said the test, intended to measure knowledge of liberal arts and science, was discriminatory. In 2012, a federal judge agreed…The city has been ordered to pay more than $450 million to about 1,700 teachers so far. Thousands more claims still must be heard. The case has dragged on so long, the original judge died.  

Teachers College.
1) A Veteran’s Journey to Teaching: For Peter Kim (Ed.D., Applied Linguistics), leadership in both the military and the classroom are about ‘instructing, teaching, counseling and guiding’   For Kim, who earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and his master’s at Farleigh Dickinson University, the shift from teaching to earning his doctorate at Teachers College was connected to the College’s role as an “epicenter of pedagogical research and practice” — and its place in New York City, “where millions of non-native speakers come to learn English.”
2) Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring: COVID’s Psychological Fallout in Schools   Mary Mendenhall, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of International & Transcultural Studies, who is a leading authority on preparing teachers to work with refugee and displaced populations, argues that everyone has a stake in better supporting teachers.

GLOBAL
GhanaWeb. Quality teacher education holds the key to national development – Minister.  The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, says the Ghanaian Child will be competitive globally by acquiring well-researched knowledge and skills for national development on the foundation of quality teacher education.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)  Online Teacher Preparation Clinical Experiences Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Teacher candidates’ clinical experiences and methods of instruction and student engagement are shaped by the PK–12 schools and districts where new graduates teach. Yet, many schools and districts around the country will not place student teachers during the 2020-21 academic school year.

UNESCO.  Policy Paper: Inclusive Teaching: Preparing All Teachers To Teach All Students   Despite their differences in teacher standards and qualifications, education systems are increasingly moving away from identifying problems with learners and towards identifying barriers to learning. To complete this shift, education systems must design teacher education and professional learning opportunities that dispel entrenched views that some students are deficient, unable to learn or incapable.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Issue Briefs Examine Education Degrees Trends and Future Implications for Teacher Workforce. The reports examine education trends through an analysis of the number of institutions awarding degrees in education and the imminent threat of increased teacher shortages, particularly in high-demand areas. The findings raise significant concerns about the nation’s future capacity to produce new teachers and other education professionals to meet the diverse needs of students, families, and communities. 
2) Addressing the Teacher Shortage: Capacity and Degree Trends in Educator Preparation [Webinar 3pm Nov. 4]

AACTE/SCALE. August – October 2020 Newsletter: News From edTPA®

Business Insider. 10 popular online STEM, coding and gaming courses — all are taught by women   This class is specifically designed for teachers and educators to learn how to incorporate STEM and STEAM learning in K-12 classrooms… Ellen B. Meier is the Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Technology and School Change and a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at [Teachers College] Columbia University. 

Chalkbeat. Pandemic won’t silence the music in this Nashville teacher.  I grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, where we only had one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school… My teachers were amazing, and they’re the reason I decided to pursue a career in education.

Chicago Tribune. Is a 96% attendance rate a bright spot in a pandemic stricken school year? Not exactly, as remote learning skews annual report card.   In order to diversify the teaching force across the state, Roxanne F. Owens, chair of the teacher education department at DePaul University’s College of Education, said universities must support students studying to be educators. “We have to help high school students and career changers see the benefits of becoming teachers. Right now, teaching is a tough sell for anyone,” she said.

InsideHigherEd. ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’: Teacher education programs were facing major problems even before the pandemic, but are they dying of natural causes or being killed off? Either way, what’s lost when they go away for good?  Nationally, enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs in education is declining, but not as precipitously. Some 82,621 students graduated with four-year degrees in education in 2018, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared to 102,849 in 2008.

Lexington Herald Leader. The best teacher in Kentucky and the top high school teacher are from Lexington   In addition to being named the state’s overall best teacher, Donnie Piercey, a Stonewall fifth grade teacher was also Kentucky’s elementary teacher of the year… He graduated from Asbury College and earned his master’s from Auburn University. He has taught in Kentucky since 2007. 

New York Times: Those We’ve Lost
1) Choua Yang, Hmong Refugee and Educator, Dies at 53   The family landed in New York City and settled in Syracuse, N.Y… Ms. Yang graduated from Henninger High School in Syracuse in 1985, earned her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1995, and in 1998 obtained her first of three master’s degrees, in K-12 curriculum. Her other master’s degrees were in bilingual education and educational administration.
2) Sharon Hunt, Teacher for a Quarter-Century, Dies at 65.  Sharon Hunt always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She solidified that notion while attending high school and, once she graduated, was totally smitten after substitute teaching in Georgia, where she was able to do so without a college degree. Finally, once her children were old enough that she didn’t need to care for them full-time, Ms. Hunt resumed her schooling. She earned two degrees in education, a bachelor’s at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights and a master’s at Wright State University in Ohio.

The Chronicle of Higher Education. Can These Degree Programs, Under Assault for a Decade, Survive a Pandemic?   Physical-education teaching programs, business-teacher education programs, and mathematics-teacher education programs saw the largest declines across the decade within the discipline. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education identified similar shifts in its own research, finding that the number of degrees conferred in science and math education — including bachelor’s, master’s, and post-baccalaureate certificates — declined by 27 percent from the 2009-10 to the 2018-19 academic years.

Washington Post. Two key questions teachers should ask students after the election   …teachers aren’t trained as social workers or therapists, and emotional processing shouldn’t be their ultimate goal. Emotionally charged moments can be at the foundation of powerful learning experiences. Teachers can use these moments to help their students develop their voices and direct them toward possible action, regardless of the students’ political views.

 

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives.
1) edTPA Safety Net for Certain Candidates Who Are Impacted by the COVID-19 Crisis During the Spring 2020 through Summer 2021 Terms [updated Oct. 23]
2) October Newsletter
* Board of Regents October Items
* State Personnel Development Grant In Special Education
* Distance Education Guidance Update
* Coaching Course Internship Flexibility

 

NEW YORK CITY
NY Daily News. Budget cuts smaller than expected for NYC school support programs — they’ll lose $15 million, down from $50 million originally planned.  The Community Schools counseling program, Learning to Work initiative, and Affinity Schools teacher training network will lose a combined $15 million this year — less than the $50 million originally planned, Education Department officials said.

Teachers College. Teaching Residents at Teachers College. Induction and Beyond. November 2020: TR@TC Induction Newsletter

GLOBAL
CBC. Ford government revokes seniority rule for Ontario teacher hiring   Some school boards have suggested the rule makes it harder for younger applicants straight out of their education degree to break into the system and constrains boards from diversifying the teaching workforce. 

Marino Institute of Education (Trinity College Dublin). Virtual International Winter School: Building your Professional Identity for the Classroom [2-13 November]

Teachers College. ‘A Crisis Within a Crisis’: TC’s Mary Mendenhall and Lena Verdeli address the pandemic’s impact on efforts to support refugee education and mental health   Mendenhall, Associate Professor of Practice in TC’s Department of International & Transcultural Studies, has spent years shaping new methods to prepare teachers who work with displaced populations. She lamented the pandemic’s impact on such efforts.

Voice of America News. Schools in Northern Cameroon Close as Boko Haram Steps Up Attacks  …some troops have also been deployed to teach displaced students in safer areas less susceptible to Boko Haram attacks.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1)  2020 Teacher Quality Partnership Grantees Announced   The Department of Education has awarded 23 grants administered as a of part of a pool of funding created to benefit programs including the Teaching Quality Partnership Program (TQP).  Of the 10 grants awarded under Teacher Quality Partnerships program—totaling $7.3 million—six of the grantees are AACTE members.
2) Issue Brief: How Do Education Students Pay for College?  There is a growing body of research suggesting that concerns about compensation generally—and about being able to repay student loans in particular—are dissuading college students from entering teaching. 

Education Week. Are Aspiring Teachers Learning Classroom Management? It Varies   …the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based group that advocates for more rigorous teacher preparation, has found that just 14 percent of traditional teacher-preparation programs require candidates to demonstrate their ability in five research-based classroom management strategies… NCTQ scored 979 traditional teacher-prep programs and 40 alternative programs on their approaches to classroom management. The analysis found that a third of non-traditional programs required candidates to demonstrate their ability in all five strategies.

InsideHigherEd. Is It Time for All Students to Take Ethnic Studies?  With funding from the National Science Foundation, Goffney developed a rubric for assessing whether teachers are employing equitable teaching practices in their classrooms. She also developed a curriculum entitled Mathematical Knowledge for Equitable Teaching (MKET) that is used as the elementary mathematics methods course in the elementary teacher certification program focused on equity and justice.

Learning Policy Institute. Webinar—Closing California’s Opportunity Gap: Ensuring All Students Have Access to Fully-Prepared Teachers [10:30 am PT, Nov. 12]

NEA Today.
1) Local Union Steps Up Effort to Diversify Teaching Force: A grant from NEA’s EdSummer program supported a team of Connecticut educators working to recruit and retain more educators of color.  CEA has a number of initiatives to help diversify the teaching profession, including awarding scholarships to students of color pursuing teaching careers and building upon the Future Educators of Diversity Clubs across the state that encourage high school students to examine teaching as a profession.
2) ‘Why is Our Expertise Not Treated the Same?’: Depending on the state, educators make between 2% and 33% less than other comparable college-educated workers.   The erosion of educator pay over the years coupled with the marginalization of the profession has led to an alarming teacher shortage, Pringle said. “Overall, fewer people are entering the profession and more are leaving”.

New York Times. After the Pandemic, a Revolution in Education and Work Awaits.  …the Industrial Revolution produced a world in which there were sharp distinctions between employers and employees, between educators and employers and between governments and employers and educators, “but now you’re going to see a blurring of all these lines.”.. The most critical role for K-12 educators, therefore, will be to equip young people with the curiosity and passion to be lifelong learners who feel ownership over their education.

U.S. Dept. of Education. 2020 Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Recipients.  To improve student achievement; improve the quality of new and prospective teachers by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities for new teachers; hold teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education (IHEs) accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers; and recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

Washington Post.
1) D.C. middle and high school employees asked to staff elementary classrooms in reopening plans   Seven thousand of these students would receive in-person instruction from teachers. The remaining 14,000 students would participate in virtual learning from their classrooms under the supervision of an adult who is not a teacher. The school system is calling these “CARE classrooms.”
2) Is it time to stop segregating kids by ability in middle school math?  In a report published in May, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended districts eliminate tracking in middle school math.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AACTE. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Teacher Residency Pilot at the College of Staten Island   In Summer 2019, CSI welcomed the first cohort of residents into a pilot Teacher Residency program hosted at PS 45 in Staten Island. The pilot program was the outgrowth of longstanding conversations between CSI and its P-12 partners about how to create deeper, more meaningful clinical experiences for aspiring teachers that could also serve real needs inside public schools…

NYSED Board of Regents. October meeting.
Board of Regents Acts on Sixth Series of Emergency Regulations to Ease Burdens on Educators, Students and Professionals in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 Emergency Regulations Part VI and Further Regulatory Flexibility for the Reopening of Schools

 

NEW YORK CITY
Education Week. Lucy Calkins Says Balanced Literacy Needs ‘Rebalancing’   Early reading teachers and researchers are reacting with surprise, frustration, and optimism after the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, the organization that designs one of the most popular reading programs in the country, outlined a new approach to teaching children how to read. 

Teachers College. Education for the Times: Alumnus Nick Stone Is Part of a Corps of Teachers Creating Nationwide Curricula   “The New York Times and Washington Post are basically my textbooks,” says Stone, a Social Studies teacher at Millennium High School in Lower Manhattan… Stone, who earned his TC degree in Social Studies Education, acknowledges that young people for the most part do not use the sources that sustained their parents and grandparents: newspapers, magazines and network news broadcasts.

 

GLOBAL

CNA [Singapore]. More support for early childhood educators, outdoor learning to be enhanced: ECDA   … organising peer sharing session for educators to share experiences in conducting outdoor learning, as well as advanced training courses for educators and trainers who attended training sessions in outdoor learning in 2019.

Education Business (UK). DfE cuts and cancels some teacher training bursaries. The government has cut some teacher training bursaries as well as scrapping others altogether, it has been revealed in new guidance on initial teacher training funding for the 2021-22 academic year.

Florida State University News. USAID-Florida State University partnership set to boost teacher training systems in Zambia.  Over the five-year period, the “USAID Transforming Teacher Education Program” will give more than 60 Zambian teacher educators the skills to deliver effective instruction to 9,000 college and university students studying to become primary grade teachers.

GMA News Online. PRC exec: ‘Open enrollment’ behind low LET passing rate among teachers; CHED disagrees   The lack of strict admission rules for aspiring teachers is one of the reasons behind the low passing rate among education graduates who take the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) in the Philippines, an official from the Professional Regulation Commission on Monday. During a Senate committee on basic education hearing on quality of teacher education and training, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked why only an average of 30% and 48% of elementary and secondary education graduates who take the LET have passed in recent years.

 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Issue Brief Explores Financial Challenges Facing Future Teachers   The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) released today its latest issue brief, How Do Education Students Pay for College? The report provides colleges of education a closer look at the financial pressures impacting education students..
2) Registration open. 73^rd Annual meeting: Resisting Hate, Restoring Hope: Engaging in Courageous Action [Virtual Conf. Feb. 24-26, 2021]
3) Strengthening Teacher Preparation: Transforming Clinical Practice   Back in 2015, a group of department chairs, administrative leadership, program directors and faculty at Jackson State University formed a task force to write a plan for transforming our teacher preparation program. In that plan, we identified areas of strength and areas we needed to improve.

Chalkbeat. How do you create a more diverse teacher force? Hire your own graduates, Chicago says.   The district is partnering with City Colleges of Chicago and Illinois State University to offer scholarships, financial and career counseling, and eventually preferential hiring to district graduates… The program will also encourage more men to become teachers. My Brother’s Keeper, created by former President Barack Obama to address racial disparities facing young men of color, also will partner with the district.

Education Week.
1) To Root Out Racism in Schools, Start With Who You Hire.  Brooks-DeCosta’s [TC EdD ‘17] doctoral leadership program at Teachers College focused on anti-racist leadership, and part of it required her to write a racial autobiography identifying the first time she became racially aware or the first time she became aware of her race, who she is, and how she identified…
2) Yes, Teachers Are Still Being Evaluated. Many Say It’s Unfair   … the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers issued a joint statement along with state administrators’ associations warning that “teachers are not primarily trained to provide remote instruction and qualified evaluators are not trained to evaluate remote instruction.” Districts should focus on evaluations on “formative feedback and support” instead of summative ratings, the groups said. 

Hechinger Report.
1) Getting rid of gifted programs: Trying to teach students at all levels together in one class   “I have gone to a lot of conferences about educational diversity that were held during the weekday during the school year,” said Amy Stuart Wells, professor of education at Teachers College… “There were no teachers at these conferences. There was a lot of talk about moving kids around. There were a lot of recommendations thrown out there. But when it came to how they’d really work, the attitude was, ‘Let’s let the teachers worry about it.’ ”
2) Why decades of trying to end racial segregation in gifted education haven’t worked: Is it even possible to make a concept that has racist origins more equitable?   And testing only students whose teachers or parents are aware of the program and request it; few teachers get trained in gifted education, so their recommendations are often based on stereotypes… 
3) Why we need a new generation of special education teachers   To ameliorate shortages, districts and programs may depend on teachers who have been certified in alternative ways, via fast-tracked models, or rely on part-timers. This means that teachers step into the classroom with less preparation. 

InsideHigherEd. Graduate Enrollment Grew in 2019   Other fields with year-over-year increases in first-time graduate enrollment include engineering (+5 percent), health sciences (+3.5 percent)… and education (+0.4 percent).

Learning Policy Institute. Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality.  Analysis of statewide teacher supply and demand factors indicates that there are three main factors driving shortages in California: the decline in teacher preparation enrollments, increased demand for teachers, and teacher attrition and turnover. However, the relative weight of supply and demand factors can vary from district to district.

New York Times. School Is (Whisper It) a Form of Child Care: And child care, at its best, fosters children’s development. So how did we come to treat them so differently?   In the 1800s, school was transformed state by state from a few weeks of instruction by a teenage girl in a one-room house into a system of formal classrooms with grades and professional teachers.

University Business. Navigating the COVID-19 maze.  Teachers have needed to adapt their pedagogy for online instruction. States have been necessitated to implement flexible licensure requirements. And EPPs have been asked to provide innovative solutions that ensure teacher candidates are qualified to meet state licensure and certification requirements.

USNews. Amid Shortage, WVa College Students Can Substitute Teach   West Virginia education officials will let college seniors who are studying to become educators apply for immediate substitute teaching jobs in public schools due to a critical shortage.

Washington Post.
1) How ‘good’ parenting can make for ‘bad’ democracy   Resource availability for highly qualified teachers, engaging curriculums and suitable facilities are a function of the school-financing schemes states adopt… Administrators and teachers can be taught how to create school environments that minimize marginalizing student experiences on account of race.
2) In new memoir, the father of ‘multiple intelligences’ explains how he conceived his famous theory – and why he exhausted family and friends  The theory became highly popular with K-12 educators — though is now often misunderstood as wrongly equating “multiple intelligences” with the concept of different “learning styles.” Gardner never said that, though debunkers of his theory have claimed he did.
3) School reading classes still in a slump without more social studies   “Social studies has long been neglected in American primary school,” the authors say. “Elementary teachers are often taught that students should ‘first learn to read, so they can read to learn,’ even though youngsters can learn a lot about the world before they can decode.” 

 

NEW YORK STATE
LOHUD. For new teacher, 21, remote learning means connecting with students she hasn’t met   Zepeda, who grew up in New Rochelle and graduated from New Rochelle High School in 2016, was hired by the district last year for a one-year spot at Isaac Young Middle School… She stayed close to home for college, graduating from the College of New Rochelle in only three years… Maria Gomez, a guidance counselor at New Rochelle High School who was Zepeda’s counselor, said Zepeda was “laser focused” on math and later on becoming a teacher.

NYSATE/NYACTE. Discussion with NYSED Leaders. The New York State Association of Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education are pleased to host a discussion and question and answer session with New York State Education Department Leaders [Wed. Oct. 21 4pm]

 

NEW YORK CITY
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Urban Teacher Residency at the American Museum of Natural History   “We wanted to create a program that addressed the shortage of middle and high school Earth Science teachers and embodied AMNH’s mission of research, education, and the dissemination of knowledge about the natural world,” says Maritza MacDonald [TC EdD ‘95], senior director of education and policy emeritus… The result was the American Museum of Natural History Richard Gilder Graduate School’s Earth Science Residency Program—the only museum-based residency model for teacher preparation in the world.

Teachers College.
1) Beyond the Grid: The Untold Story of Harlem’s Fight for Quality Education   …the number of teachers of color in Harlem rose sharply from 1972 on — particularly in District 5 schools. White and Rogers attribute that increase to several factors, including the de facto segregating of black teachers to black neighborhoods, the emergence of alternate routes to teaching, the development of new models of school governance, and “curricular and pedagogical priorities tied to accountability and market-based competition charter schools.” There are positives and negatives to each of these trends, but, the authors conclude, “one outcome that has remained elusive through these years is the development of a stable, diverse, cadre of teachers who are well-prepared to teach District 5 students.”
2) Paul D. Coverdell Fellows 35th Anniversary Video  On January 20, 1985, the Peace Corps Director, Lorette Miller Ruppe signed an agreement establishing the first Paul D. Coverdell Fellows program at Teachers College, Columbia University. The TC Peace Corps Fellows Program was the first Fellows USA (now Coverdell Program).
3) The Roads Not Taken? There aren’t many for aspiring researcher, administrator and teacher Catherine Cheng Stahl   She volunteered as an aide teaching reading to third- and fourth-graders, and it felt so right that she stayed on at Wellesley for a fifth year, taking additional education classes before leaving to teach biology and chemistry at a rural Connecticut high school.

 

GLOBAL
All Africa. Africa: Teachers Shoulder the Burden – Improving Support in Crisis Contexts  [co-authored by TC Assoc. Prof. M. Mendenhall]  To respond to teachers’ needs, our organizations, Education Cannot Wait and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) have forged a new partnership to build a toolkit that focuses on teacher well-being, particularly in emergency settings – a resource that will be developed in collaboration with teachers…Enable teachers to support all learners by continuously investing in and dramatically improving the nature and quality of teacher preparation, continuous professional development, and sustained support.

University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education. Academy for Leadership in Teacher Education (ALiTE) International Webinar Series for Exemplary Scholarship and Knowledge Exchange. Lecture by Prof. M. Cochran-Smith, Boston College: Global Trends and Challenges in Teacher Education and The Place of Teacher Inquiry [via Zoom, Oct. 15 6pm HK SAR]

 

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

Artesia Daily Press. New Mexico offers scholarships for advanced teacher training   New Mexico offers scholarships for advanced teacher training.  State officials say they’re making funds available to mid-level public school teachers to cover the cost of continuing education certifications that can lead to a significant salary increase.

Chalkbeat. Harper Lee’s love letter to teaching” Before ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Lee wrote about why people become educators.  She never taught, but her first job when she moved to New York City from a small town in Alabama involved editing an education trade magazine… Lee was writing up a survey of some 57 people who all answered the question: “Why did you enter the teaching profession?” … Some were inspired by memories of teachers who had changed their lives, others by a love of children and young people. Some felt a patriotic calling to help educate good citizens, including a young veteran of World War II. In another sign of the times, some had taken aptitude and interests tests that suggested they would be good at teaching.

Colorado Sun. Colorado’s substitute teacher shortage, worsened by coronavirus, could force some schools to close. Again.: Districts are finding creative ways to fill the gap, leaning on their own teachers, administrators and even parents to sub   Subs who have a bachelor’s degree and are licensed teachers or have a substitute teaching license receive $100 per day, and subs who have a high school diploma and their substitute teaching license are paid $90 per day.

Council on the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).  Public Comment Page.   The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation is seeking public comment on proposed revisions to the CAEP Standards for Educator Preparation. The CAEP Board of Directors received recommendations from a task force charged with reviewing the standards and has approved a public comment period through November 2,2020.   

EdWeek.
1) Gates Foundation Unveils Grants to Make Algebra More Culturally Relevant   In Seattle last year, the school district created a new framework designed to “rehumanize” math… The move received acclaim from some educators and scholars of mathematics education, but also faced pushback from conservative commentators. 
2) How to Make Science Class Relevant During the Pandemic.  … fewer than half of all science teachers surveyed in Horizon Research’s “2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education” report responded that they feel “very well prepared” to encourage students’ interest in science and/or engineering. Among elementary teachers, that figure is just 26 percent.

National Education Association. How Did an NEA Member Get $103,000 in Student Debt Erased? With the help of NEA, music teacher Sean Ichiro Manes [TC MA, ’01 EdM ‘04] navigated federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that needs improving.

NYTimes.
1) Making Remote Schooling a Family Affair: Parents are more crucial then ever to their children’s education. Here are two programs, thousands of miles apart, that have helped get them involved. [OpEd by T. Rosenberg] When Covid-19 hit, Springboard ramped up. The group trained 3,000 incoming Teach for America members. Freed from geographical constraints, Springboard went from working in 62 schools to 667. 
2) Resources for Teachers.
3) What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America.  In 2018, the starting salary for a public-school teacher averaged $38,000. In more than 1,000 districts, even the highest paid public-school teachers with advanced degrees and decades of experience earn less than $50,000. 

SFGate. Top teacher hopes more equitable system follows pandemic   John Arthur, Utah’s Teacher of the Year…credits his teachers for taking a personal interest in him and supporting him after his grandmother, who lived with his family, died…After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah, Arthur worked as a substitute teacher and discovered his passion for working with children. He returned to college to earn a masters degrees in elementary education and special education from Westminster College.

Washington Post.
1) Former D.C. Public Schools chancellor: Black cultural education ‘could change the entire calculus’ for children   Q: much of your prior work—DCPS, New Teacher Project, Teach for America, Chan Zuckerberg—focused on improving schools, education systems A: Well I think this is a systemic play I’m making now… the content we’re developing is as important for non-African Americans to learn as it is for African Americans. 
2) It’s been a week for Trump conspiracy theories. Here’s how to teach students to identify them — and more news literacy lessons.
3) Pandemic teaching, in their words   As crazy as this sounds, I feel like I can relate to my students more than I ever have in my entire career. I’m learning with them. I’m growing with them.

 

NEW YORK STATE
AACTE. Clinically Rich Programs in New York: Early Childhood Urban Education Initiative at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education.  One of Bank Street’s newest programs—the Early Childhood Urban Education Initiative—helps uncredentialed early childhood educators in under-resourced New York City neighborhoods complete their certification and earn master’s degrees while remaining employed in their existing early childhood classrooms.

New York State Association of Teacher Educators (NYSATE). Sharing Educational Goals In These Challenging Times. [Oct. 7 4pm Via Zoom]

NYSED. Memo: Extension of Distance Education Flexibility for the Spring 2021 Semester NYS Education Department guidance for NYS Colleges and Universities related to distance education and the Spring 2021 semester.

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching (PSPB). Meeting Minutes May 2020

 

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) A New Vision for American Education: A book co-authored by TC’s Sonya Douglass Horsford wins a Critics’ Choice Book Award. It analyzes policies long in the making and charts a new future for school leadership.  They trace how market-driven approaches to education reform have ensured that “teachers, administrators, and students will be more mobile, leading to less stability and a weakening of professional expertise and organizational capacity.” They demonstrate that “a new generation of teachers and administrators is being socialized into a very different workplace with a different conception of teaching and leading.” And they lament a diminished faith in public education and the government’s ability to administer it..
2) On World Teachers Day, A Call to Recognize and Support Those Working in Emergency Conditions.  Mendenhall has been one of the world’s driving forces in refugee education. During the past several years, as part of INEE’s Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaborative, she has spearheaded Teachers for Teachers, a research-based teacher professional development initiative operating in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, that delivers teacher training, coaching, and mobile mentoring. 
3) Teaching Residents @ Teachers College. October 2020 I TR@TC Induction Newsletter
4) Walking the Curriculum Walk: For Jacqueline Simmons, Online Course Design is a Standing Invitation to Rewrite the Script   I’m always interested in helping students expand upon the ways they view curricula — whether that’s in education, pop culture or public spaces. This course is designed to do so in a digital format, yet prepare students to teach these concepts in the classroom.