Tag: Teacher Prep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching. January Meeting Agenda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLOBAL
BDNews24. Japan to provide fresh grant for Bangladesh’s primary education   For more than a decade, various approaches composed of policy strengthening, …and improvement of teacher’s training, as well as this financing support have been taken.

EdWeek Market Brief. Brazil’s Private Education Market Poised to Take Leap and Attract Investors, Says Report   Lack of technology infrastructure and teacher tech training has long been seen as barrier to those ambitions… The biggest challenge for bilingual schools is finding qualified teachers, the researchers say.

National Center on Education and the Economy. NCEE’s Top 8 for 2018  [incl. Singapore’s Educator Career Ladder: A First Person Account by Qidong ‘Alan’ Yang, alumnus of the joint-degree MA program between Teachers College, Columbia University and National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University]

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) Lawmakers pledge to ‘put some legs’ to new Colorado education plan   It also calls for maintaining a high bar through teacher licensing and for alternative certification programs — used by many to enter teaching as a second career or after majoring in something other than education — to have equivalent standards.
2) McQueen ends her Tennessee tenure the same way she started — focused on reading   Since 2016, Tennessee has launched a statewide coaching network for elementary reading teachers, offered new training for educators, and made investments in better resources for students. There are also new standards and expectations in teacher training and summer reading camps…
3) What worked (and didn’t) this year: 10 lessons from education research to take into 2019   Here’s a common-sense way to improve teacher preparation: ensure prospective teachers are paired with mentor teachers who are themselves effective. A trio of recent studies were among the first to document that teachers are more effective when they first taught under the supervision of high-quality teacher.

Charlotte Observer. Math portion of NC teacher licensing exam could be replaced   The math test that nearly 2,400 elementary and special education teachers have failed in their bids to secure their licenses might be phased out in a matter of months… The current licensing exam costs $139 and consists of three portions created by the for-profit Pearson publishing company: reading, math and a multi-subject test. 

EdWeek.
1) Charter Schools More Likely to Ignore Special Education Applicants, Study Finds   “This pattern of results is consistent with an explanation that the costs of educating certain students are imperfectly compensated in most contexts,” write the study’s authors, Peter Bergman of Teachers College..
2) Four Things to Know About TEACH Grant Debt Forgiveness.  About 58 percent of TEACH Grant recipients said the program “was somewhat or very influential in their decisions to pursue teaching in a high-need field at a high-need school,” a March report by the U.S. Department of Education found.
3) New Mexico Highlands offers fast track to teacher licensure   New Mexico Highlands University will soon be offering a new online teacher licensure program aimed at getting professionals with bachelor’s degrees or higher into education careers faster.
4) Scrap Discipline Guidance, Consider Arming School Staff, Trump Commission Says   …it recommends that districts offer incentives for retired law enforcement officials, military veterans, and others with firearms training to serve as educators, as well as ease teacher certification so that they can more easily join the profession.
5) This State Is Reimagining How to Mentor Teachers in Alternative-Certification Programs   In Louisiana, almost 20 percent of teachers who are prepared through alternative routes leave the profession after just two years.. This school year, eight rural Louisiana districts received planning grants from the state to support 38 alternative-certification candidates who are teaching in 16 schools.
6)  What the Trump School Safety Report Says About Teachers  Finally, the report recommended that states reduce barriers to teacher certification for veterans and law enforcement officers—including allowing schools to hire retired law enforcement officers without any impact on their pensions. 

Grand Island Independent. New U of Nebraska program aims to develop more teachers   A gift from the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation is underwriting the Teachers Scholars Academy, providing four-year scholarships that will cover full tuition plus $8,000 annually for other educational costs for 104 students.

Hechinger Report.
1) More black and Hispanic science teachers could mean more scientists of color   The New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning trains physics and chemistry teachers based on the belief that it is harder to train people to be good teachers than it is to train good teachers to lead science classrooms.
2) The ‘dirty secret’ about educational innovation: A 2018 federal report found that only 18 percent of the innovations funded by the Education Department lifted student achievement   Big chunks went to building new KIPP charter schools and training thousands of new Teach for America recruits to become teachers.
3) Will the real Montessori please stand up?   5 things to look for in your child’s Montessori school: 1. Trained teachers: Teachers should be trained in the age group they teach by a teacher-preparation program accredited by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education.

Inside Higher Ed. Lamar Alexander Calls It Quits   His decision could have big consequences for a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act as well as congressional approaches more broadly on issues like student loans and college accountability.

John Hopkins University. Black Students Who Have One Black Teacher More Likely to Go to College   Relatedly, another working paper by the same team titled Teacher Expectations Matter, also circulated today by NBER, found teachers’ beliefs about a student’s college potential can become self-fulfilling prophecies…Pappageorge said. “While we make efforts to find and train new black teachers, we also need to educate white teachers about implicit bias, teach them to be culturally competent, and show them how not to exacerbate these existing achievement gaps.”

Tennessean. Audit: Some Cheatham educators did not have proper licenses to teach students between 2014 and 2018   … “the district employed unlicensed teachers, allowing each to teach courses for at least one full year, with the hopes that they would be licensed in the future.”

Texas Tech Today. Texas Tech Receives $9.1 Million to Grow National Teacher Prep Center   The funds will help double the size and expand the reach of the University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation National Center (US PREP), which collaborates with universities and school systems to help strengthen teacher talent pipelines and prepare educators for diverse classrooms.

U.S. Department of Education. FINAL REPORT OF THE FEDERAL COMMISSION ON School Safety  Teacher preparedness is critical to school security, especially in cases of an active shooter. As every state requires teachers to meet certain requirements for certification to teach in their state, it is recommended that states and school districts consider requiring basic school security and/or active shooter preparedness training as part of their state’s teacher certification requirements.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED. New York State My Brother’s Keeper Community Network Reaches Significant Milestone with More Than 20 Member Communities Across New York State   … $3 million in Teacher Opportunity Corps II (TOC) grants to increase the participation rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers.

NYSED Regents. Board of Regents Advances 2019 Budget and Legislative Priorities and State Aid Request for the 2019-2020 School Year Increase access to a highly qualified, diverse teaching workforce through the Teacher Opportunity Corp program ($500,000);

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC) 2012-2018 Production Report. 17 peer-reviewed publications, 47 global conference presentations to date.

GLOBAL
BBC News.
1) Mexico missing students: New president creates truth commission   The 43 trainee teachers disappeared in 2014
2) Scottish teacher training numbers increase   The number of people in teacher training in Scotland has gone up for the third year running, according to new figures.

Digital Learning Associates. Emergency English   DLA teams are currently working in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Ethiopia. We are setting up emergency language solutions for children and teachers when English suddenly becomes essential… solutions will include teacher training videos to use on mobile phones, syllabus designs that leverage additional learning beyond the classrooms, and very high speed content creation processes to allow scale and urgency.

International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET). 63rd Annual Conference, University of Johannesburg [9-11 July, 2019]

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Community College Educator Preparation Programs Are Invited to Join the NACCTEP/AACTE Partnership
2) University of Idaho Receives Grant to Support Future Indigenous Teachers   … a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S Department of Education to support the second cohort of its Indigenous Knowledge for Effective Education Program (IKEEP), which prepares and certifies culturally responsive Indigenous teachers to meet the unique needs of Native American students in K-12 schools.

Education Week.
1) How to Be a Better Mentor to Your Student-Teachers   The children in our care deserve a teacher who is healthy, happy, and well-rested. We need to share with student-teachers how we walk that line between student needs and our own well-being. If we don’t, they won’t last long in a profession that often chews up and spits out promising teachers before they ever reach their full potential.
2) Is the Time Right to Make Education a Constitutional Right?   …Michael Rebell, the lead counsel on the case and an education law professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. “We’re not going to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to come up with a laundry list of what should be in a civics course or what extracurricular opportunity should be afforded to students… The plaintiffs’ brief contains some clues about what they feel should happen: teacher training; a curriculum that includes media literacy, civic experiences both inside and outside of the classroom; and supports for students learning English.
3) My Teacher Prep Was Not ‘Weak’ [reply to M. Tucker]  I learned skills that could not be taught in the college classroom: Empathy, differentiation for students with diverse needs, building connections with families, work ethic for the long hours it takes to be a teacher, and many more. Before entering “student teaching,” my professional internship as a senior, I had already spent hundreds of hours with students.
4) New Study Calls for More Research Into Early-Childhood Teacher Preparation  “The research suggests that we don’t know what a high-quality, early-child program looks like, so there’s no guarantee that if an early educator goes through a degree program that it will improve their practice,” said Ashley LiBetti, an associate partner with Bellwether Education Partners…
5) Thousands of Teachers Can Have TEACH Grant Debt Forgiven   The move, which comes amid pressure from the media and federal lawmakers, brings relief to thousands of teachers who received grant aid under a federal program for teacher-candidates planning to work in low-income areas, only to have those grants converted to loans due to paperwork processing issues. 

Hechinger Report. The debate over students with learning disabilities, suspensions and race   But it’s an indication that policymakers might be moving in the wrong direction if they’re trying to solve the school-to-prison pipeline by training teachers to do a better job of working with students with disabilities.

Inside Higher Ed. Education Department Changes to TEACH Program   Undergraduate and graduate students can receive the TEACH Grant if they promise to teach in a high-need field at a public school serving low-income students for four out of eight years after graduating college. But a department study released in March found that 63 percent of recipients who began teaching before July 2014 had their grants converted to loans…

KFSNTV.Fresno. 30 students sign up to be teachers with the Fresno Unified School District   It was like a high school athlete signing day, but in this case, they were committing to teaching at the district. This is the first year they could do this.

NEAToday. ‘Education is Political’: Neutrality in the Classroom Shortchanges Students    The study concludes that teacher training programs need to better prepare educators in adapting their classrooms to help students understand current events and political upheavals.

NewsChannel20. $1M grant helping support Illinois teachers   The Teacher Residency Planning Grant makes $750,000 available specifically for districts serving high rates of low-income students or students of color and districts that have experienced chronic teacher shortages. The grant will support partnerships between institutions of higher education and high-need school districts to plan full-year teacher residencies.

NPR.
1) Exclusive: Ed Department To Erase Debts Of Teachers, Fix Troubled Grant Program   Since it began in 2008, the goal of the TEACH Grant program has been to entice talented, young teachers to take hard-to-fill jobs at schools in lower-income districts… Aspiring teachers get grant money to help pay for their own college or graduate school. In exchange, they agree to teach a high-need subject, including math or science, for four years in a school that serves low-income families.
2) Were Your TEACH Grants Converted To Loans While Teaching At A Qualifying School?   There is now a fix underway to help teachers who lost their grants. If you can document that you are meeting or have met the teaching requirements of the program, the Department of Education says it will change your loans back to grants.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents. December Meetings
1) DASA Task Force Recommendations for the DASA Training Requirement for Certification  NYS educator preparation providers could meet the three-semester hour requirement if they can demonstrate that they have incorporated the multicultural education course content into their approved program.
2) Proposed Amendments to Section 52.21 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Field Experience Requirements for Teacher Certification and the Registration of Teacher Preparation Programs  [NOTE: discussion tabled]
3) Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21 and 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Student Teaching Requirements for Teacher Certification and the Registration of Teacher Preparation Programs [NOTE: moves to public comment Dec. 26, 2018]
4) Proposed Changes to Regulations on Clinical Experiences in New York State Teacher Preparation Programs

NYSED. Proposed Amendments Posted to the NYS Register with Open Comment Periods
1) State Education Department Proposes Changes to Create Opportunities for Teachers of Students with Disabilities and Career and Technical Education   Proposed Amendments Would Expand List of Eligible Certificate Titles for Certain Teachers of SWD, Extend Certain CTE Certificates to Grades 5 and 6. Public comments will be accepted through December 30, 2018
2) Addition of Certificate Titles Eligible for Grade-Level Extensions, Limited Extensions and a Statement of Continued Eligibility for Certain Teachers of Students with Disabilities. Public comments will be accepted through December 30, 2018.

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) Reflections on a Home Run   …an inspired donor and trustee created a fellowship program to support aspiring New York City teachers…The bequest has recently been realized, the donor’s wishes are being implemented and students are being supported. Soon NYC will have a new crop of well-prepared teachers committed to teach in New York City, free of debt, and able to focus on their dreams.
2) 2018 Sanford Teacher Award for the state of Delaware. Laura Thompson (M.A. ’02) who teaches third grade at William F. Cooke, Jr. Elementary School.

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Winter Conference 2019: Science and Mathematics Education in the 21st Century. [Apr. 15-17 University of Minho, Braga, Portugal]

New York Times.
1) Mexico’s New President May Investigate Soldiers in Missing Students Case   The abduction and suspected massacre of the 43 trainee teachers in the southwestern city of Iguala precipitated one of the worst crises of former President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government…
2) Teaching Children Regardless of Grade   The problem is widespread. Millions of students are in multigrade classrooms worldwide, especially in developing countries, but teachers rarely receive training to manage such classrooms and policymakers neglect the problem

New Vision. Teacher education symposium to address quality of teacher   As one way of addressing the quality of the teaching profession in Uganda, the Ministry of Education has organised the first symposium on Teacher Education slated for December 9 to 11

Washington Post. Educator: In Finland, I realized how ‘mean-spirited’ the U.S. education system really is   …Finland has no standardized tests, starts formal reading instruction at age 7, requires all general teachers to have a master’s degree and makes sure no student goes hungry.

World Education Services. Education in Ethiopia   Ethiopia’s teacher training system is currently in flux with reforms being implemented at varying speeds in different parts of the system. Elementary schoolteachers are trained at 32 public teacher training colleges under federal supervision, as well as at private institutions.

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Towson University Builds Clinical Curriculum Through Virtual Simulation   The program features eight faculty who develop problem-based case scenarios for teacher candidates to experience real-world human interactions with avatars via the virtual reality technology called Mursion.

Association of Teacher Educators. 2019 ATE Annual Meeting, registration now open  Keynote by Dean Goodwin, Univ. of Hong Kong [Atlanta, Feb. 16-20, 2019]

Education Week.
1) ‘Learning Styles’ Aren’t a Reliable Way to Categorize Students, Study Says   At this point, many researchers consider learning styles to be a myth… But the idea’s popularity in education circles persists—in part, said Papadatou-Pastou, because there are, of course, real differences among learners. “The intuitive appeal of learning styles rests on this reality,” she said.
2) Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures   Leaders of teacher-preparation programs, those who have studied personnel shortages, and educators themselves cite additional factors when asked about the shortage: For example, fewer young people, particularly women are interested in entering teaching at all, let alone special education.
3) Special Education a Growing Priority in Teacher-Training Circles   More colleges of education and state education departments are beginning to put a priority on teaching their general classroom teachers how to work with students with disabilities. After all, those students’ success in mainstream classes hinges in large part on their teachers, experts say.
4) Special Education Plagued by Faulty Teacher Data  …low-shortage states produce eight teachers with special education degrees for every less-than-fully qualified special education teacher. In high-shortage states, preparation programs produce one special education graduate for every two teachers who are not fully qualified in the subject.
5) Teachers: I Trust My Students, I Trust My Principal, But Trust Me, You Don’t Want My Job  Only a little more than 1 in 4 teachers said they would recommend their profession as a career for a friend or colleague. By contrast, 42 percent of teachers said they would actively try to convince the friend not to become a teacher.
6) When Hiring Teachers, District Leaders Prioritize ‘Cultural Fit.’ That Can Be a Problem   When hiring teachers, district leaders prioritize “cultural fit” above all else, including training and experience. But most are unable to measure what exactly that means. 

Learning Policy Institute. Essential Building Blocks for State School Finance Systems and Promising State Practices   Effective teaching is the single most influential in-school factor impacting student learning and therefore requires significant investment to ensure a steady pipeline of highly educated, well-prepared teachers.

National Education Policy Center. Nancy Bailey’s Education Website: Common Core Creator Slammed Reading Teachers for Having a Research Gap—How Ironic   Several weeks ago, I criticized a series of reports about reading by journalist Emily Hanford. Hanford claimed teachers didn’t understand reading instruction and that their education schools failed to teach them what they should know.

New York Times.
1) A Ban on Parents in a School Lunchroom? Everyone Seems to Have an Opinion   Brian Perkins, a former superintendent in New Haven, and now an associate professor of practice in education leadership at Columbia University’s Teachers College, confirmed that parents lunching with their children was not a new or expressly suburban phenomenon.
2) Nation’s First Teachers’ Strike at Charter Network Begins in Chicago  In addition to higher pay for teachers and support staff, the union is asking that more money be spent on special education services for students and on a program that allows classroom assistants to continue their education and become lead teachers. 

The Intercept. Pro-Charter School Democrats, Embattled in the Trump Era, Score a Win With Hakeem Jeffries   …editorials or op-eds based on DFER’s anti-Darling-Hammond talking points, which focused on the Stanford professor’s criticisms of Teach for America and other alternative-certification programs for teachers. Less than two weeks later, Obama appointed DFER’s choice to the Education Department post, Chicago schools CEO [Arne] Duncan.

The Texas Tribune.  San Antonio ISD is innovating to integrate its schools. Is it leaving some behind in the process?   …Ogden Academy, a chronically low-performing pre-K through 7th grade school in one of the city’s poorest ZIP codes, now serves as a training ground for student teachers from the Relay Graduate School of Education, a teacher training program founded by charter school operators. The student teachers commit to work in the district for three years after graduation.

U.S. Regulations.gov. Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance  Summary: The Secretary of Education proposes to amend regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Dates: We must receive your comments on or before January 28, 2019.

World Education Services. Can Immigrant Professionals Help Reduce Teacher Shortages in the U.S.?   This report explores the role that immigrant and refugee professionals can play in addressing these urgent shortages – and increasing the diversity of the teacher workforce – through alternative teacher certification programs that tap into these newcomers’ training, skills, and professional experience.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED
1) Office of Higher Education. November Newsletter

1. a) Multi-Subject: Secondary Teachers (Grades 7-12), Part Two: Mathematics Test
2. b) New York State Next Generation Learning Standards
3. c) DASA Task Force Recommendations

2) Regents Meetings, Dec. 10-11

• Proposed Amendments to Section 52.21 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Field Experience Requirements for Teacher Certification and the Registration of Teacher Preparation Programs
• Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21 and 80-3.7 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Student Teaching Requirements for Teacher Certification and the Registration of Teacher Preparation Programs

NEW YORK CITY
Daily Kos. A Statue for Shirley Chisholm in Prospect Park   Chisholm earned a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1946 and a Master’s degree in early childhood education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1952. Before she entered politics and was elected to the New York State Assembly, Chisholm was a nursery school teacher and consultant to New York City’s Division of Day Care.

New York Daily News.
1) Brooklyn BP Eric Adams calls for fix to unequal sports, gym access for New York City school kids   A 2015 audit by city Controller Scott Stringer found 32% of the city’s public schools had no full-time, certified gym teachers, and that 28% had no indoor space for physical exercise.
2) EXCLUSIVE: Columbia University study shows program helped troubled NYC schools   “We found significant improvements in student achievement,” said Wohlstetter, a professor at Teachers College… The new report is a bit good news for de Blasio’s Renewal Program, which is in its fourth year and has been criticized for failing to boost outcomes enough to justify its massive price tag.

Teachers College. Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC) December Newsletter