Tag: Teacher Residency

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE).
1) CFP: ATEE Spring Conference 2022 Teacher Education and Practice: Foresight and Hindsight; 25-27 May [submission deadline 31 January]
2) Winter Conference: Teaching and Learning for an Inclusive, Interconnected World. [Sestri Levante, Italy 20-22 April]

EtornoInteligente. PM Holness Announces Comprehensive Review of Tvet System   Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a comprehensive review of the organisation and output of Jamaica’s technical and vocational education training system following receipt of the Education Transformation Commission’s report… “The way we train our teachers and the way our teachers teach in the school will have to move from one in which the teacher stands and delivers, and the students passively receive. We have scores of recommendations about the teaching profession, about teacher training and teaching itself, as well as curriculum and assessment as we move towards the realisation of or incorporation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) education,” Professor Patterson outlined.

European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). Education in a Changing World: The impact of global realities on the prospects and experiences of educational research 2020 ECER Yerevan [in-person 23-26 August] & ECER Plus [online 1-10 September]

UNITED STATES
EdPrep Lab. Webinar: Second Annual Virtual Policy Summit Addressing Teacher Shortages: Investing in a Strong Educator Workforce   At this virtual summit, join Linda Darling-Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, and a distinguished panel of teacher preparation policy and practice experts who will discuss approaches to teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention that are effective, sustainable, and ultimately foster equity for the nation’s students. [Jan. 25, 1:30pm]

EdWeek.
1) Data Science Is the Future. Let’s Start Teaching It: The subject needs to be part of rigorous math prep leading to college and careers   The District of Columbia school system is partnering with American University to offer teacher training at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Stanford Graduate School of Education’s teacher education program (known as STEP) is launching a new preservice teacher education course on teaching high school data science that is responsive to multiple disciplines. 
2) Ind. Teachers Push Back Against Bill That Would Let Parents Vet School Curricula  Paul Farmer, a teacher in the Monroe County Community School Corporation, noted that the bill’s language requiring educators to separately post all classroom curricula online for parents — including lesson plans, worksheets, presentations and other materials — would be an additional workload for already stressed teachers. “Is this really going to decrease the number of teachers that go into education? The answer is yes, it will, because it’s going to scare them … because you can’t do it all,” Farmer said.
3) Teachers Deliver Less to Students of Color, Study Finds. Is Bias the Reason?   Specialized training, the diversification of the teacher workforce, and an overhaul of teacher preparation programs need to happen together, Cherng said, in part due to his study finding that teachers of color were not exempt from subscribing to anti-Black biases about their students. Cherng notes that teachers are often trained to teach in a way that ends up aligning with racial bias and teachers of color, in particular, are not trained to draw on their identities and backgrounds as assets for working with students of color.

Herald News. UMD program can help meet demand for Portuguese teachers   UMass Dartmouth Portuguese language faculty are hoping the growing demand for qualified teachers to teach Portuguese language and immersion programs around the nation will shine a spotlight on a one-of-a-kind program being offered at the university.

Lansing State Journal. Can MSU students solve Lansing’s substitute teacher shortage?   In a new partnership, MSU College of Education graduates will fulfill their student teaching requirements as paid substitutes in Lansing schools. Students selected for the residency will substitute teach once a week and be guaranteed a job once they’re certified. They also must participate in community engagement activities and live in the City of Lansing.

Learning Policy Institute (LPI).  Tackling Teacher Shortages: What Can States and Districts Do?   An especially important strategy for some of these districts—one that has proven critical during the pandemic—was the creation of teacher residency programs. In these programs, school districts and teacher preparation programs partner to provide residents with a yearlong apprenticeship under the guidance of an expert mentor teacher while residents complete tightly integrated coursework… comprehensive preparation is key to teacher retention and effectiveness, and that making teacher preparation affordable is essential to recruiting and retaining qualified teachers, especially for candidates of color, who face greater debt burdens and economic barriers to entry.

Missoulian. Board of Public Education discusses new teacher licensing system, annual report   Staff with the Office of Public Instruction provided an update on the new educator licensure system as well as the annual teacher licensure report to the Montana Board of Public Education… issued 1,646 new licenses and 62% of those were for standard teaching licenses, which means the educator has completed an accredited teacher preparation program with a bachelor’s degree… initial licenses have increased this year by almost 400 licenses…

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Pay increases and other non-obscure strategies to address the substitute teacher shortage   In most of these instances, the relaxation of education requirements consisted of only a moderate reduction in the number of college credits (or equivalent) required to qualify as a substitute teacher. Perhaps the biggest declines in education requirements have happened at the state level. Both Missouri and Kansas previously required a minimum of 60 college credits for substitutes, but now require only a high school diploma. 

New York Times. Teaching and Learning About Martin Luther King Jr. With The New York Times: How do you celebrate and teach the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., both on the holiday that celebrates his birth, and all year long?

Tennessee Dept. of Education. Tennessee Pioneers Permanent Program to Become a Teacher for Free, First State to Sponsor Registered Teacher Occupation Apprenticeship   Apprenticeship programs are high-quality, industry-driven, work-based learning pathways that provide individuals with hands-on work experience while earning a wage that increases during the progression of the program. The Teacher Occupation Apprenticeship will provide a national model and permanent Grow Your Own pathway for Tennesseans to become teachers for free and obtain high-quality jobs in their own communities.

Washington Post. Schools are facing dire staff shortages. Some are asking parents to step in.   At Hays Consolidated Independent School District, just south of Austin, parents are now considered qualified to fill in for absent teachers without the 30 college hours usually required, district spokesman Tim Savoy said in a statement. A flier posted on the district’s Facebook page says its schools are hiring “certified and eligible noncertified” substitute teachers.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED News & Notes.
*In an effort to streamline New York’s pathways to teaching, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) proposed last month to modify teacher certification requirements to reduce barriers to certification while maintaining rigorous standards. The proposed changes would eliminate the requirement for teacher candidates to pass the edTPA and replace it with a teacher performance assessment taken during a candidate’s student teaching or similar clinical experience in a New York State-registered teacher preparation program. Public comment on the proposal will be accepted through February 28, 2022 via [email protected].
*At its January meeting, the Board of Regents adopted two additional proposed regulatory amendments to streamline teacher certification requirements. The first proposed amendment relates to assessment requirements in school district leader, school district building leader, and Transitional D programs. Public comment on this proposed amendment will begin on January 26, 2022.
*The second proposed amendment relates to the exam requirement for the reissuance of an Initial certificate. Public comment on this proposed amendment will begin on January 26, 2022.
*Statement from Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr., the Board of Regents, and State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on Governor Hochul’s State of the State Address… The Governor’s proposal to address teacher shortages by providing incentives to enter the teaching profession, leveraging our state’s institutions of higher education to expand teacher recruitment, and making higher education more affordable are the steps necessary to build upon the Department’s efforts to grow and sustain a diverse and qualified teacher workforce.

NYSED Board of Regents. January Meeting
* Higher Education Proposed Amendments
1) Proposed Amendment… Relating to the Assessment Requirements for School District Leader (SDL) and School District Business Leader (SDBL) Program Completion, the Institutional Recommendation for Professional SDL and SDBL Certification, and the Institutional…
2) Proposed Amendment …Relating to the Requirements for the Reissuance of an Initial Certificate
* Higher Education Consent Agenda
1) Proposed Amendment … Relating to Removing References to Regional Accreditation
2) Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Definition of “University

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) Leading for Educational Equity in New York: The Case for Emancipatory Leadership  TC Prof. Sonya Douglass Horsford, in conversation with NYCDOE Chancellor Banks and NYSED Board of Regents Chancellor Young. REGISTRATION NOW OPEN [Thurs. Jan. 27 5:30pm]
2) Teaching for Writing Improvement  provides teachers and other educators with information about how to teach writing to elementary, middle and high school students who do not have full proficiency in writing. Participants receive 20 Clock Hours and 20 CTLEs [March 31- April 24, 2022]
3) Virtual Seminar: The Pandemic as a Portal to New Futures in Education  Please join Bank Street College, Teachers College, and Erikson Institute for a 90-minute special event featuring educators and parents who contributed articles to Bank Street Occasional Paper Series #46, “The Pandemic as a Portal: On Transformative Ruptures and Possible Futures for Education.”  This issue, which was guest-edited by Mariana Souto-Manning, President, Erikson Institute launched in October to examine how inequities in schooling and education have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic… [Jan. 21 5-6:30 pm]

GLOBAL
Daily Mirror. Teacher Training College of Fine Arts Moves to convert historic institute to a school   Sri Lanka Art Educationists Association has written to the Minister of Education Dinesh Gunawardene and State Minister Susil Premajayantha saying that a video was released to the public containing a proposal that the Teacher Training College of Fine Arts be converted to a school due to lack of teachers in the school.   This is the only Teachers Training College of Fine Arts in the country at present.

Hindustan Times. Security agency warned of ‘grave threat’ prior to PM Modi’s Ferozepur rally   The report predicted demonstrations organised by members of Elementary Teacher Training-Teacher Eligibility Test (ETT/TET) pass Teachers Union and Sikh Radical organizations.

National Indigenous Times (AUS). National Early Childhood Strategy announced for First Nations children   Acting Minister for Education and Youth, Stuart Robert, commented that this pilot will improve quality and increase access to training and development for Indigenous educators.

UNITED STATES
Associated Press. American Indian College Fund Launches $2.25 Million Wounspekiya Unspewicakiyapi Native Teacher Education Program   The American Indian College Fund is launching a two-and-a-half-year Native teacher education program at tribal colleges and universities serving Native communities across the country to support teacher recruitment, development, and retention. Funding for the program is provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

EdPrep Lab. Second Annual Virtual Policy Summit Addressing Teacher Shortages: Investing in a Strong Educator Workforce [Jan 25, 2022 01:30 PM]

EdWeek. The 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. TC faculty incl: J. Brooks-Gunn, S. Cohodes, C. Emdin, J. Henig, S. Horsford, H. Levin. A. Pallas. J. Scott-Clayton, Y. Sealey-Ruiz, A. S. Wells

Forbes. 7 Ways Our Intuition Can Mislead Us About Learning   1. Children don’t need systematic instruction in phonics. Evidence shows that many or even most kids do need this kind of instruction to become fluent “decoders” of written text—and fluent decoding is key to comprehension. But those who train reading teachers have generally resisted the evidence, and teachers’ intuition about what’s working can be misleading… It would certainly help if teacher-training programs disseminated accurate information, as a handful are now beginning to do.

Hechinger Report. Why we could soon lose even more Black Teachers: America has long had a teacher diversity problem, and the strains of the last two years are poised to make it worse   A year and a half ago, officials in Mississippi temporarily waived many of the licensure exam requirements for new teachers, as well as test score requirements for students entering teacher preparation programs… Between 2018 and 2020, the number of people of color entering educator preparation programs jumped by more than 500 percent. (The growth in the number of white candidates was about 44 percent.)

The Daily News (Longview, WA). Lower Columbia College opens applications for new groups of four-year degree students   The Teacher Education program is for people seeking endorsements in elementary education, which is kindergarten through eighth grade; or early childhood education, which is preschool through third grade. There also is an option for people who want to work with young children in early care and education settings but who do not want teaching certification.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York Gov. Hochul offers first look at education priorities   Hochul is proposing to speed up the teacher certification process and incentivize more people to become educators… allow teachers, counselors, social workers, and other positions with shortages to immediately begin working without waiting through the education department’s approval process… Hochul also wants to add more staffers to the department’s certification office to speed up what she described as a “lengthy” approval process. It currently takes about 16 weeks, according to the department’s website… To get more teachers into the pipeline, Hochul has proposed a new state teaching residency program. It would provide matching funding to local school districts so they can create two-year programs for graduate-level teacher candidates, who would be eligible for either reduced or free tuition at SUNY, CUNY, or partnering private colleges.

Governor Kathy Hochul. New York State of the State. Section VII: Rebuild New York’s School System and Reimagine Higher Education *Provide Incentives to Attract More Teachers and School Workers… *Accelerate the Teacher Certification Process… Create at State Teacher Residency Program… *Fund New Cohorts of the Master Teacher Program… *Upskill Teacher Support Workers to Earn Their Certifications [see p. 169ff]

NYSED Office of Higher Education December Newsletter
*Board Of Regents December Items
1) Teacher performance assessment. The Department proposed a regulatory amendment that would modify the teacher performance assessment requirement by eliminating the edTPA requirement for certification…
2) General Core in Liberal Arts and Science Requirement. The Department proposed a regulatory amendment that would remove the general education core in LAS requirement for registered teacher preparation programs…
3) Teacher Certification Study. Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands REL staff presented key findings from a study on New York State teacher shortages and certification to the Board of Regents.
4) School Counselor Bilingual Education Extension. The Board of Regents adopted a regulatory amendment that creates the Bilingual Education extension and Supplementary Bilingual Education extension for the new Initial and Professional School Counselor certificates that will begin to be issued on February 2, 2023.
* Fingerprinting Fee Decrease

NEW YORK CITY
InsideHigherEd. Touro System Will Build New Times Square Campus   Touro, a nonprofit institution of higher and professional education under Jewish auspices, will house the College of Pharmacy, New York School of Career & Applied Studies, Graduate School of Business, Graduate School of Education…. Touro said it plans to move into the new space in January 2023.

Teachers College Center for Educational Equity. Civic Education: Essential for Sustaining U.S. Democracy Webinar [Jan 21, 2022 11:00 AM]

GLOBAL
Japan Times. A dramatic shift: Subject teachers in Japan’s grade schools   Beginning in April 2022, fifth and sixth grade students in Japan’s public elementary schools will have different teachers for different subjects — a change from the current system where a homeroom teacher essentially teaches everything from math and science to physical education. The dramatic revision is aimed at easing the burden on teachers — who currently must prepare for all subjects — and allow them to refine their teaching skills and improve their students’ learning experience.

Mayer D., Goodwin A.L., Mockler N. (2021) Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts of Super-Diversity and Early Career Teaching. In: Mayer D. (eds) Teacher Education Policy and Research. Springer, Singapore.  There are remarkable similarities in teacher education policy in each of the 13 nations and, while most nations have a history of intense political interest in reforming teacher education, there are many instances of strong and influential leadership by teacher educators through their research, agency and partnerships, and practices. 

The National UAE. Trusting teachers drives innovation in education, Dubai conference told: Ministers from around world spoke of the importance of giving staff the skills to shape young minds   Liina Kersna, Estonia’s Minister of Education and Research, said… “We highly value schools and teacher’s autonomy, and teacher education. Our teachers must hold a master’s degree which means five years of universities and one year of in-service training,”

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Action Needed: Urge Your Members of Congress To Co-Sponsor the Educators for America Act The bill specifically calls for:
* Authorizing two, $500 million grant … as well as expanding partnership programs such as the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP)
* …support historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions in expanding and strengthening their educator preparation programs
* Doubling TEACH Grants to $8,000 per year…

Chalkbeat.
1) Michigan lawmakers create a pathway for school support staff to substitute teach   Lawmakers passed a bill late Tuesday temporarily allowing school support staff to substitute teach even if they don’t have a single college credit. The Republican-sponsored bill passed on near party lines. It’s unclear if Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, will sign it into law.
2) When I was 14, an English teacher saved my life without knowing it   She doesn’t know this, but I credit my life to Ms. Hunt’s presence. I eventually became a teacher myself in the hope I could maybe be a figure like Ms. Hunt to another lonely eighth grader struggling to see her place in the world. [Kelly Gleischman (she/her) is the managing partner of EdFuel, a national nonprofit that supports schools to recruit and retain high-quality, diverse teaching staff.]

NEA News. Educators Share 6 Ways the Build Back Better Act Can Support Students, Schools  The Build Back Better Act will begin to address the educator shortage by investing in educator recruitment and retention to address shortages and diversifying the profession, including Grow Your Own programs and teacher residencies   

U.S. Congress. Educators for America Act   The purposes are to build the capacity of educator preparation programs to ensure all students have access to profession-ready educators; recruit new and diverse educators into the profession; invest in partnerships between higher education, state and local partners, and support innovation to meet the changing need of students.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents December meetings
2022–2023 State Aid Proposal  Improve the Educator Certification Process: $1.5 million for Department staff to improve teacher and school building leader certification review process timeframes… Increase Access to a Highly Qualified Diverse Teaching Workforce: $5 million to increase the participation rate of underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers through the Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC) II program.

2022-2023 Non-State Aid Proposal
* Improving the Educator Certification Process. Funding Critical Staff Needs: Approximately $1.5 million in new state funding is needed to hire seven additional staff members in OTI. OTI Modernization: The Department is requesting that the 2022-2023 enacted budget enable the Department to access the entire $8 million prior year balance to support the cost of a technology project to overhaul and enhance the online TEACH educator certification application system. This technology upgrade will help to make the application process easier for individuals and reduce the OTI processing time for applications.

* Technology Modernization of the Office of College & University Evaluation (OCUE). Funding Critical Staff Needs: The Department is requesting $65,792 in new state funding to hire an Administrative Specialist 1 to provide support for OCUE Modernization Project.  OCUE Modernization: The Department has requested Division of Budget (DOB) approval to allocate $8.5 million to update technology and build an online system for evaluating and approving college and university programs from the $100M appropriation included in the 2021-22 enacted budget for agency related technology improvement projects.

* Increasing Access to a Highly Qualified, Diverse Teaching Workforce – Expand TOC II: $5 million in new state funds to establish a separately appropriated Teacher Opportunity Corps II program to increase the number of certified educators of color. Under this expansion, the Department projects to increase the number of TOC II programs across the state from 17 to over 30 and/or to increase the number of TOC II students served from 544 to up to 1,451.

Higher Education Sub-Committee
* Teacher Certification Reports Key findings on New York State Teacher Shortages and Certification, studies conducted and presented by Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands (REL)

* Presentation on Proposed Teacher Performance Assessment Requirement Changes

* Proposed Amendment… Relating to the Teacher Performance Assessment Requirement for Certification and Establishing a Teacher Performance Assessment Requirement for Registered Teacher Preparation Programs  … proposed regulatory amendment to modify the teacher performance assessment requirement by eliminating the requirement of the edTPA for certification and, instead, requiring that New York State registered teacher preparation programs develop or choose their own teacher performance assessment according to a proposed definition of a teacher performance assessment in New York State. Given this proposed change, Department staff will also propose to remove the edTPA safety net, edTPA multiple measures review process, and Conditional Initial certificate in the classroom teaching service from the regulations.  

* Proposed Amendment… Relating to the General Education Core in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Requirement for Registered Teacher Preparation Programs and the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Teacher Certification proposed regulatory amendment to remove the general core education in liberal arts and sciences requirement for New York State registered teacher preparation programs and the individual evaluation pathway to certification.

* Proposed Amendment… Relating to the Requirements for the Reissuance of an Initial Certificate   The Department is therefore proposing to remove the requirement that these candidates complete 50 clock hours of CTLE and/or professional learning to obtain a reissuance of their Initial certificate.

Consent Agenda
Relating to the Creation of the Bilingual Education Extension, Supplementary Bilingual Education Extension, and Registration Requirements for Programs Leading to the Bilingual Education Extension for Initial and Professional School Counselor Certificates   The Department is proposing to create the Bilingual Education extension and Supplementary Bilingual Education extension for the new Initial and Professional School Counselor certificates, continuing these extension options for school counselors in the future… If adopted at the December 2021 meeting, the proposed amendments will become effective on December 29, 2021.

NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives. Teacher Performance Assessment Proposal Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

NYSED Press Release. State Education Department Proposes Changes to Teacher Certification Requirements to Reduce Barriers to Certification While Maintaining Rigorous Standards   …edTPA Requirement Would be Replaced with a Teacher Performance Assessment in New York State-Registered Teacher Preparation Programs Public Comment will be Accepted Through February 28 via  [email protected](link sends e-mail). It is anticipated the proposed amendment will be presented to the Board of Regents for adoption at the April 2022 meeting. If the Board adopts the proposal, New York State-registered teacher preparation programs would have until September 1, 2023 to integrate a teacher performance assessment into teacher candidates’ student teaching or similar clinical experience.

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT)  NYSUT applauds Regents for plan to eliminate edTPA requirements    “We’ve heard too many stories about edTPA’s needlessly onerous requirements and costs negatively impacting the student-teaching experience. It’s policies like this that drive people away from the profession before they even get started in their own classroom. We thank Commissioner Rosa, Chancellor Young, Regents Cashin, Collins and their colleagues on the Board for hearing educators’ concerns and taking firm steps like this toward ensuring the next generation of students will have the high-quality educators they need to be successful.”

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat.
1) Could NYC families once again have a remote option? Incoming Chancellor David Banks says yes: In a Q&A with Chalkbeat, David Banks talks about remote learning, reading instruction, school segregation, and more.   I think our fundamental approach to how we’re teaching is flawed… A lot of our schools across New York City are teaching at the earliest grades through a balanced literacy approach. And I think there’s growing research that’s been talking about the fact that balanced literacy has not really worked, and particularly for Black and brown kids. The phonetic approach to teaching of reading is something that I think has been missing.
2) New York City Council punts on bill to reduce class sizes after school officials said the proposal was unworkable   Reducing class sizes can require hiring more inexperienced teachers which can dampen the academic benefits, according to a study focused on New York City…Adding roughly 100,000 classroom seats would have come at a steep cost: roughly $993 million a year over 30 years… That figure does not include the cost of hiring additional teachers to staff smaller classrooms

Hechinger Report. Students need more computer training for our increasingly digital world   City University of New York has developed robust professional learning experiences for educators, such as integrating computational thinking into the coursework and field experience of teacher education programs.

Teachers College.
1) Leading for Educational Equity in New York: The Case for Emancipatory Leadership.  hosted by the Black Education Research Collective (BERC) at Teachers College Professor Sonya Douglass Horsford, Founding Director of BERC, in conversation with Chancellor Lester Young, Jr. New York Board of Regents, and incoming Chancellor David Banks, New York City Department of Education.  Thursday, January 27 5:30 [viewing details to follow]
2) New Research and Applications for Teaching Reading Workshop   online asynchronous course March 4-April 16; 12 clock hours CTLE credit; Facilitator: Dr. S. G. Masullo
3) The Pandemic as a Portal to New Futures in Education   Please join Bank Street College, Teachers College, and Erikson Institute for a 90-minute special event featuring educators and parents who contributed articles to Bank Street Occasional Paper Series #46, “The Pandemic as a Portal: On Transformative Ruptures and Possible Futures for Education.”  Friday, January 21, 5PM

GLOBAL
European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). CFP Education in a Changing World: The impact of global realities on the prospects and experiences of educational research [deadline 31 Jan.]

MTL Blog. Quebec Has New Scholarships Ranging From $9K To $20K For Students In 6 Fields   The government has identified six in-demand sectors. These are health and social services, education, early childhood education and care, engineering, information technology and construction.

The Guardian. Staff absences having ‘massive impact’ on pupils in England say head teachers: More than half of 1,000 senior teachers surveyed say they have insufficient staff due to absences caused by Covid and illnesses   Last year, there was a welcome spike in applications for initial teacher training, amid fears over the impact of the pandemic on jobs. Just 82% of the DfE’s target for secondary trainees was reached this year, well short of last year’s peak of 103% and below even the 83% achieved in 2019.

UNESCO. 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report on non-state actors in education, Who chooses? Who loses?    Chapter 7 unpacks the special case of tertiary education, where expansion of private provision has been rapid in several countries, posing particular challenges for governments that wish to promote equity and assure quality. Post-secondary teacher training institutions are another area in which non-state provision has emerged.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. AACTE Endorses Educators for America Act   The legislation, introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), addresses crises in educator preparation, including the growing teacher shortage, fewer students completing bachelor’s degrees in education, and the lack of diversity in the profession.

Boston Globe. An Andover preschool hired an unusual teacher’s aide: a robot   The district first connected with Bolat, a father to an adult son with autism and a Navy veteran, this summer. He introduced Stetson to a slate of MOVIA robots, each built to aid people with intellectual disabilities… “We worked extensively with teachers and therapists to create their personalities and the lesson plans,” Bolat said…MOVIA needs teachers to keep the robots attuned to educational advances and children’s responses.

Chalkbeat.
1) Child care staffing shortages across Pennsylvania persist, but solutions taking shape  … the state’s Teacher Education and Compensation Helps Early Childhood, or TEACH, program…a public-private partnership including businesses, foundations and government that offers scholarships to help child care workers improve their education and their compensation. Through TEACH, the college courses are free, and she gets paid release time during the work day to attend them. It is a powerful incentive.
2) Michigan dyslexia bills launch debate over supporting struggling readers   The bills require school districts to screen students for dyslexia characteristics and increase teacher training requirements so teachers are better able to identify and address reading problems… Several of the state’s largest teacher preparation programs previously told Chalkbeat that they already cover dyslexia and the science of reading.

Education Week. 4 Changes Schools Can Make to Recruit Teachers of Color and Keep Them Around   1. Establish teacher residency programs   2. Advocate for states to rethink the use of teacher certification exams or establish alternative certification requirements 3. Establish ‘grow your own’ programs 4. Provide targeted specific training and support for teachers of color

New York Times.
1) In Texas, a Battle Over What Can Be Taught, and What Books Can Be Read   As for the state’s attempt to ban critical race theory, for all the Republicans’ talk, the Texas law makes no mention of the term. Aspects of critical race theory are influential in some teacher colleges, and shape how some administrators and teachers approach race and ideas of white privilege. Yet no one has identified a Texas high school class that teaches the theory.
2) How Public Preschool Can Help, and How to Make Sure It Doesn’t Hurt: Congress is considering universal pre-K and subsidies for child care   The bill in Congress includes quality thresholds. It says that within six years, all children should be able to secure a spot in a center of the highest quality. It also has grants that include teacher training and building improvements. 

U.S. Congress. S.879 – Civics Secures Democracy Act.  SEC. 105. GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. (a) Program Authorized.—The Secretary of Education is authorized to make grants to institutions of higher education, on a competitive basis, to assist such institutions in developing and implementing programs to train elementary and secondary school teachers in methods for instructing and engaging students in civics and history.

Washington Post.
1) D.C.’s struggle to hire more diverse teachers — and keep them: Latino educators remain sparse, even in the city’s largely Latino schools   Nineteen percent of the city’s students, meanwhile, were Latino or Hispanic, compared with 7 percent of teachers. The latter gap was even wider in Wards 1 and 4, where “15 percent and 10 percent of teachers are Hispanic/Latino, respectively, but 58 percent and 40 percent of students are Hispanic/Latino,” the report said… “What message does that send to [students]? That Latinx people don’t or can’t become teachers,” Sanchez, who has since moved to Garrison Elementary, said of those disparities in an interview. “There’s so much messaging that happens on kind of a subconscious level.”
2) GOP resistance to preschool plan could imperil key Biden proposal in many states   The president’s plan would also require states to implement new standards for what children learn in the classroom, upgrade credentials for hiring new preschool instructors and mandate higher teacher pay than most states do currently…

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents. December meeting agenda

New York State Register. Rule Making Activities Education Department: Definition of the Term “Year of Experience” for Permanent or Professional Certification. Candidates in the classroom teaching, educational leadership, and pupil personnel service must complete … at least three years of experience for the Professional certificate… To allow for additional types of experiences, the Department is proposing to revise the definition to provide a single definition of a year of experience for Permanent or Professional certification, which would be defined as: * a minimum of 180 days in a 12-month period of full-time satisfactory experience, or its equivalent, in an educational setting acceptable to the Department. Data, views or arguments may be submitted before Jan. 28, 2022 to: Petra Maxwell, NYS Education Department, Office of Higher Education, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 975 EBA, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-2238, email: [email protected]

New York Times. SUNY Leader to Resign After Disparaging Cuomo Victim: Jim Malatras, the chancellor of the State University of New York, said he would resign after text messages showed he had belittled a woman who had accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. It’s official: David Banks will be NYC’s next schools chancellor   Banks, 59, has a long track record as an educator stretching back to 1986 when he began as a teacher at P.S. 167 in Crown Heights, a post he held for five years before becoming the school’s dean of students for a year…

Gothamist. Teachers Union, Parents Push For Class Size Bill As Legislative Session Winds Down   According to the city’s Independent Budget Office, under the bill originally proposed, nearly half the city’s 1,600 schools would not be able to comply with the class size legislation. Schools would also have to hire additional teachers to accommodate smaller classes.

NY Daily News. NYC teachers union pressures City Council to vote on class size bill before end of the year.  The union projects that the amended bill would require the city to hire an additional 11,000 teachers over the next five years — outlays he said could be funded by the recent influx of state and federal funding.

NYTimes. David Banks, Educator and Adams Ally, Is Next N.Y.C. Schools Chancellor    Mr. Banks earned his law degree from St. John’s in Queens and worked for the city’s law department and the state attorney general before becoming a public school teacher in Crown Heights… Mr. Banks has already begun to build out his cabinet. Daniel Weisberg, who served as the lead labor strategist for schools under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and now runs an organization focused on teacher training and quality, will serve as Mr. Banks’s first deputy. 

Teachers College. Advocacy at Teachers College. Join Tuesday, December 14 at 12pm ET for an Advocacy Academy workshop to learn about the federal, bipartisan Civics Secures Democracy bill (see U.S. Congress above) that would improve civics education; we’ll also write letters to Congress in support of the bill [hosted by Dr. Matt Camp]

The Action Network. Please bring the class size bill to a vote!  Please send a letter today to NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, urging him to bring the bill that would require smaller classes, Intro 2374, to a vote.  We only have one week before nearly the entire NYC Council turns over.

The Nation. To Reduce Inequality in Our Education System, Reduce Class Sizes   New York City has a rare opportunity to pass a hugely popular bill to shrink class sizes. So why are the mayor and the City Council speaker standing in its way?   The legislation currently has 41 cosponsors out of 50 members—a supermajority that could overturn the mayor’s likely veto. Yet the vote on this bill has been delayed by Speaker Corey Johnson… time is running out. If the City Council doesn’t vote on the bill by December 16, it will have to be reintroduced and reconsidered by a largely new council under a different speaker.

GLOBAL
Jersey Evening Post. Government misses secondary school teacher training target   Data from the Department for Education (DfE) shows there were 37,069 new entrants to initial teacher training (ITT) this year (2021-22) compared with 40,377 last year (2020-21) – a fall of 8%. The figures show that only 82% of the overall target for secondary subject trainees was reached this year, down from 103% in 2020-21 and 83% in 2019-20.

Mirage News. Growing teacher shortages and NSW could miss out on thousands of teachers   A confidential government document warns NSW has a large and growing shortage of teachers and says the state could miss out on more than 3,000 teachers unless a drop of almost 30% in the number of people studying to become a teacher is reversed.

National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE).  Should France Establish Charter Schools?     …since 1959, France has funded education at private schools—which are primarily Catholic—through a system called sous contrat (“under contract”), whereby the government covers about 90 percent of tuition, and schools, in turn, must hire only state-certified teachers and follow the national curriculum…

Teacher Task Force. This radio program in Uganda is inspiring teachers to take risks and try new ideas   STiR worked closely with senior officials within the country’s Ministry of Education and … The sessions were based on simple but effective evidence-based teaching strategies to help all teachers progress and improve their practice. Each lesson was accompanied by a one-page document or infographic shared over WhatsApp to reinforce the content. 

US Dept. of Education International Affairs Office. International Summit on the Teaching Profession 2021 (ISTP21)  Based on the success of the first ISTP in 2011, the event became an annual event hosted by different countries each year. Subsequent host countries have included the United States (which hosted again in 2012); the Netherlands (2013), New Zealand (2014), Canada (2015), Germany (2016), the United Kingdom (2017), Portugal (2018), Finland (2019), and Spain (2020). OECD and Education International have continued to co-host each year.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. In Memoriam: Dean Corrigan  Corrigan, who served as AACTE president from 1981-82, passed away on November 7 at his home in Middlebury, VT. He was 91 years old …received his doctorate degree in education from (Teachers College EdD ‘61) Columbia University”  [Dissertation: “Attitude changes of student teachers”. Gottesman Library: LB2157.A3 C67 1961]

BuzzFeed News. “This Is Blackface”: White Actors Are Playing Black Characters In Virtual Reality Diversity Training: Mursion tells big corporate clients that its VR simulations will help teach racial sensitivity. But the actors playing its Black characters are often white.   Mursion was not created to provide diversity and inclusion training. It began as a K–12 teacher training tool, enabling teachers to practice lesson plans on avatar children before going into a live classroom. 

InsideHigherEd.
1) A Road Map for a Compassionate Classroom: It’s the environment where students reap the most educational and social-emotional benefits   Ultimately, effective teaching and compassionate teaching are synergistically linked, and it is in a compassionate classroom where students reap the greatest educational and social-emotional benefits.
2) Higher Education’s Brave New World   To reflect on Levine’s career is to confront a welter of contradictions.  He’s a former president of Teachers College, who is perhaps best known for his damning critiques of schools of education, which he derided for their low admissions, academic, and graduation standards, faculty out of touch with practice, limited interaction with K12 schools, and a sizable gap between the theories that they teach and the actual challenges that classroom teachers face… a 13-year tenure as president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (now the Institute for Citizens & Scholars). There, he launched initiatives to transform STEM teacher preparation programs, recruit teachers with strong STEM backgrounds to work in high-needs schools…

NEAToday. The Making of the Student Debt Crisis, Explained   The federal student loan program was created in the 1970s so that all Americans could go to college. Those good intentions have had some less-than-good consequences, as student debt has grown astronomically.

New York Times. In Minneapolis Schools, White Families Are Asked to Help Do the Integrating. … research by the Black Education Research Collective at Teachers College, Columbia University, which surveyed hundreds of Black families and educators nationally this year. “Integration never comes up,” said the group’s founding director, Sonya Douglass Horsford. Instead, she said, Black families often express other priorities: “I want my child to be safe. I don’t want them to be harassed. I don’t want them to be discriminated against. I’d like the curriculum to reflect them.”

Omaha World-Herald. Bellevue University combats Nebraska teacher shortage   BU is the newest secondary education program in the state, having just received its full certification in March 2021. Currently, BU only offers the secondary education track, but this will not be the case for much longer. “One of the things that we’re doing right now is we’re adding an elementary ed and a special ed endorsement area, because those are the top two shortage areas in the state right now,” Alford said. Alford said in her 40 years of teaching she has not seen a shortage in elementary education quite like it is now.

Tristate Homepage. Lawmaker pushes to eliminate some teacher tests in Illinois   An Illinois state lawmaker is looking at eliminating a test teachers take to get their license. State Representative Sue Scherer, a former teacher, is targeting the edTPA test. She says it’s redundant because it just makes prospective teachers take all of the hard work they did during residencies and student teaching and make them replicate it during a high stress test.

Washington Post. The principal is cleaning the bathroom: Schools reel with staff shortages.   The Los Angeles Unified School District is hiring students in teacher-preparation programs who will soon graduate, district officials said.

NEW YORK STATE
InsideHigherEd. Calls Mount for SUNY Chancellor’s Removal: Jim Malatras has repeatedly faced criticism for his work with the Cuomo administration. Old text messages that show him mocking a former Cuomo aide have prompted demands for his ouster.

New York State Education Department Office of Higher Education. Educator Preparation Newsletter November 2021
Board of Regents November Items
* Certification. The Department presented an overview of certification and plans for a comprehensive review of certification in response to teacher shortages across New York State.
* Admission Requirements for Graduate-Level Teacher and Educational Leader Programs.  Governor Hochul signed two bills that changed these admission requirements effective November 15, 2021

Times Union. Schenectady schools partners with colleges to diversify teaching staff   “The goal is to take students who are interested in education and becoming teachers from Schenectady High School and feed them into SUNY Schenectady to then Cazenovia College, and then Clarkson, and then ultimately hopefully bring them back into our workforce to work with our future scholars,” said Soler. “The powerful thing here is that we’re taking it from the beginning all the way through to the end and working with our partners.” 

NEW YORK CITY
Class Size Matters. Time is running out on the class size bill — & how you can help!   41 of 49 City Council members plus the United Federation of Teachers have endorsed the bill. Please send a letter TODAY to Council Speaker Corey Johnson by clicking here— demanding that he schedule a vote for the class size reduction bill, Int 2347.  

Gothamist. City Faces Largest-Ever Lawsuit Payout To NYC Teachers Affected By “Discriminatory” Certification Tests   A massive decades-long lawsuit against New York City over the use of two teaching certification tests is winding to a conclusion, with nearly $660 million and pension benefits in damages awarded to plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit claiming the tests were discriminatory against Black and Latino teachers and prevented them from achieving full seniority, pay and benefits.

NY Daily News. Ex-NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg pledges $750 million for charter schools   The money will go toward expanding existing charter schools, incubating new ones, upgrading facilities and providing teacher and administrator training, he said.

Pix11. Parents, teachers call for NYC Council to vote for smaller class sizes at schools   It would require the city purchasing or leasing new educational space or adding access to buildings as well as hiring about 13,000 new teachers. The City Council could vote on the bill in December.

Teachers College.
1) Diversifying City Classrooms with the Teacher Opportunity Corps: The TC program recently received renewed state funding to support educators from underrepresented backgrounds in pursuing NYC public school careers   Teacher Opportunity Corps is a State Education Department initiative that in September renewed its commitment to TC with a $812,500 grant across five years. “This grant allows us to offer 25 eligible TC students tuition support, seminars with top faculty, professional development opportunities, and internship experiences in local schools,” said Katie Ledwell, Associate Director for Specialized School-Based Support Services in the Office of Teacher Education… “TC is grateful for our partnership with the New York State Education Department, which supports us in meeting our deep and longstanding goal of preparing outstanding teachers of color for work in New York City public schools,” said Aimee Katembo, Director of the Office of Teacher Education.
2 ) The Success of Blue’s Clues Runs Straight Through TC Alumna Angela Santomero: Creator of the hit children’s television show rooted in her studies of developmental psychology, Santomero discusses building a phenomenon as the program celebrates its 25th year   “The idea that we could put educational and curriculum development into a television show and make it a hit – that was the dream,” says Santomero.

GLOBAL
The Hindu. Nod for teacher education centres: Calicut varsity to file appeal   The University of Calicut will file an appeal within a week with the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) over the lose of recognition of 11 teacher education centres directly run by it.

Times of India. ITEP to expand the horizons for teachers. National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has announced the introduction of Integrated Teacher Education programme (IITEP) from the academic year 2021-22.

UNESCO. Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education   Teacher education needs to be rethought to align with educational priorities and orient better towards future challenges and prospects.  The weak qualification of many teachers in various regions of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, calls for urgent measures.  There is no one-size-fits-all model for this change.  Collaboration of the various actors connected to teacher education – for example, public authorities, researchers, teachers’ associations, community leaders, etc.  –  offer possibilities for creating new spaces for learning and innovation. 

Washington Post. Prince George’s County teacher wins $1 million global educator prize   Keishia Thorpe, who teaches 12th-grade English at the International High School at Langley Park, in the Prince George’s County public school system, received the Global Teacher Prize at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization… Thorpe was born and raised in Jamaica by her grandmother… She graduated from Howard in 2003 as a pre-law and English student… while tutoring at night during college at a D.C. charter school, Thorpe said, she realized the inequity in the U.S. public education system and decided to skip law school and go into teaching instead.

UNITED STATES
Education Week. English Teachers Must Be Anti-Racist, National Group Says   The council’s standards for educators preparing to be English/language arts teachers in grades 7-12 were released on Tuesday after last being updated in 2012. They were developed by an NCTE committee that is comprised of educators in both K-12 and higher education, and will be used in teacher education programs to determine the coursework for teacher candidates.

El Paso Herald-Post. UTEP Receives $5 Million to Promote Computer Science through Training K-12 Teachers   Teacher education students enrolled at UTEP’s College of Education will be required to pass at least one computer science education course. The Center will collaborate with the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education to create a new Bachelor of Science in Education program for CS teacher preparation.

Fox2Now. Missouri teacher shortage: State launches online recruitment and training platform   The state is investing $50 million over the next three years in TeachMO.org and other recruitment projects, such as the Teacher Education Recruitment and Retention Grants and the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program.

Honolulu Civil Beat. Are You a Laid-Off Hotel Worker? Hawaii’s Education Department Wants You   The state Department of Education is struggling to fill critical positions ranging from custodians and food service managers to substitute teachers and tutors. Meanwhile, thousands of hotel workers who were laid off during the pandemic need jobs. The DOE and the Unite Here Local 5 union see a potential match and have joined forces to try to fill some of those public school vacancies with unemployed hospitality workers.

Inside Higher Ed. Making Transfer Work for Rural Students and Communities   Strategies to encourage return migration include work-based experiences, job placements and financial incentives. For example, in the rural area southeast of Raleigh, N.C., Johnston Community College, Johnston County Public Schools and North Carolina State University have built several connections to the region into their teacher education program. These include summer internships and teaching practicum in the county, guaranteed job interviews and a $10,000 incentive to return.

Lohud. Child care workers are in short supply, forcing parents to quit their jobs, too  …finding qualified teachers is a lot more of a struggle. To work as a head teacher, a candidate must have certification and experience, which often results in an expectation of higher pay.

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). NCTE Standards for the Initial Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts 7–12 (Initial Licensure) Approved by the NCTE Executive Committee 2021

New York Times.
1) How Public Preschool Can Help, and How to Make Sure It Doesn’t Hurt: Congress is considering universal pre-K and subsidies for child care.  “The quality literature is pretty clear that credentials matter, yes, but what really matters is these moment-to-moment interactions,” said Bruce Fuller, a sociologist at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Education… The bill says that states must use the subsidies to pay child care workers and pre-K teachers “a living wage” (though it does not specify what that is), and one that is equivalent to that of an elementary teacher with the same degree. 
2) Substitute Teachers Never Got Much Respect, but Now They Are in Demand   Oregon once had 8,290 licensed substitute teachers, but by Sept. 18, that number had been cut in half. To create a bigger pool, the state, in an Oct. 1 emergency order, created a new license. These substitutes no longer need to pass several tests, or have a bachelor’s degree. They simply need to be at least 18 years old, sponsored by a participating district or charter school, and have “good moral character” with the “mental and physical health necessary” to teach… Missouri once required 60 college credits, the equivalent of an associate degree. Now, substitutes just need to complete a 20-hour online course on professionalism, diversity and classroom management.

Washington Post. As numbers of multilingual students rises, finding teachers for them becomes a priority: A Towson University program prepares educators to teach the fastest-growing population in the nation’s public schools   The program, ELEVATE, is a Towson University College of Education initiative to train teachers through partnerships with six schools in the Anne Arundel County public school district selected because of their high number of ESL students.

NEW YORK STATE
Albany Times Union. Letter: Make teacher education more accessible [Opinion by G. Weinstein]   I’m a proud faculty member at Western Governors University Teachers College, the nation’s largest college of education, which is accredited, nonprofit, completely online and pioneered the competency-based model. WGU has graduated more than 16,700 students across the country since the start of the pandemic. Think of how many more teachers we can produce if other institutions follow suit.

NYSED.
1) New York State My Brother’s Keeper Community Network Reaches 31 Member Communities   …since 2016, NYSED has awarded $18.45 million in Teacher Opportunity Corps II (TOC II) grants to 23 colleges and universities [including Teachers College]. The TOC II statewide enrollment as of February 2021 was 594, with TOC II institutions reporting 442 graduates of the program. 
2) New York State Teacher of the Year, 2023   applications due Feb. 1, 2022

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC delays its massive academic recovery program for students with disabilities   There are signs that education officials are worried about finding enough staff who are willing to work overtime for it. Schools are now allowed to hire educators who are not certified in special education for the program, a break from the city’s original plan…

Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC).  November 2021: Educator Resources. *Special Announcements *Action Center *Educator Grant Opportunities *Induction Highlights

 

GLOBAL
British Council. British Council celebrates a decade of special teacher training programmes in Maharashtra   The special programmes trained nearly 2,000 master trainers and 146,000 teachers, thus benefiting 4.38 million learners in schools across Maharashtra.

Greater Kashmir. NEP-2020 | MoE notifies 4-yr integrated teacher education programme   The Union Ministry of Education (MoE) has notified a four-year integrated teacher education programme (ITEP) under which the bachelor’s degree offered by the degree colleges in any stream would be integrated with the BEd course.

The Observer [Uganda]. 23 teacher training colleges to close as gov’t phases out Grade III, V qualifications   At least 23 Primary Teachers Colleges (PTCs) are set to close indefinitely as the government officially phases out Grade III and Grade V teaching qualifications in favour of a bachelor’s degree in Education. There are 46 PTCs in Uganda, 23 of which are core institutions that run both pre-and in-service programmes…

UNITED STATES
AACTE. 24th Annual Meeting: “Rethink, Reshape, Reimagine, Revolutionize: Growing the Profession Post Pandemic” [March 4-6, 2022, New Orleans]

Chalkbeat.
1) Pre-K, free lunch, Pell grants: What the D.C. reconciliation plan would mean for kids and schools   the proposed legislation includes a handful of programs designed to improve training for school staff and influence the new teacher pipeline. They include: *$200 million for the preparation and professional development of Native American language teachers; *$113 million for “grow your own” programs that recruit teachers “who live in and come from the communities the schools serve;” *$112 million for teacher residency programs, which are typically teacher training programs run by school districts in partnership with local universities… 
2)  The substitute teacher shortage we should have seen coming   Though higher wages and reduced requirements for licensing may help fill near-empty substitute pools in the short term, these feel like inadequate solutions… Reversing the substitute teacher shortage is an enormous issue that requires big policy changes and restructuring at and beyond the state level…

Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA). The History, Current Use, And Impact Of Entrance and Licensure Examinations Cut Scores on the Teacher-Of-Color Pipeline: A Structural Racism Analysis   The relationship between performance on teacher preparation program entrance examinations and licensure examinations and the ability to be a successful teacher has been challenged repeatedly, both in scholarly research and in courts. Nonetheless, use of these tests has proliferated and, by some estimates, has eliminated hundreds of thousands of prospective Black, Hispanic, and other teachers of color from our nation’s classrooms.

Daily Herald [Suburban Chicago]. Lower scores, high absenteeism, more teachers: A first look at how pandemic affected state’s students   Among the few silver linings in the data was an increase in the number of full-time teachers statewide by almost 2,000 educators. New enrollment in teacher preparation programs also increased by 23% with a 17% increase in completion. Illinois schools also added more teachers of color last school year — 1,251 additional Latino teachers and 184 more Black teachers. Latino and Black teachers now represent a greater proportion of the teacher workforce — up from 5.6% and 5.8%, respectively, in 2016-17, to 7.9% and 6%, respectively, last year.

EducationNC. Central Carolina Teaching Initiative trains new teachers through residency   The program began working with school districts who are members of CCRESA. Its goal is to train what used to be called “lateral entry” participants to become teachers in those districts. Lateral entry programs — now called “residency” — work with people who have careers or degrees in other fields to train and license them to become teachers.

Harvard Crimson. Harvard Teacher Fellows Subsumed by New HGSE Master’s Program   Harvard Teacher Fellows — a teacher training initiative for students at the College — will no longer accept new cohorts of students as it is rolled into a new degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Harvard Teacher Fellows was created in 2015 to prepare students and recent alumni to teach in under-resourced urban schools. Beginning in 2022, the initiative will be subsumed by the Teaching and Teacher Leadership master’s program at the Graduate School of Education.

NJ Education Report. Q and A: You Won’t Retain Black Teachers Without Transforming Your School Culture   We are here to provide resources so that school leaders know their audience and Black teachers know that they deserve authentic affirming spaces in their classrooms. We have the tools to make this happen to foster a true pipeline so students—and, really, in the end, this is about the students—are able to thrive in an environment that celebrates their authentic selves.

The Oklahoman. Much accomplished, much ahead for Oklahoma public higher education system   The additional funding for teacher education programs at our public institutions will enhance efforts to recruit, develop and graduate highly qualified teacher education majors to address the critical shortage of certified teachers in our state.

St. Louis Public Radio. Substitute teachers are in short supply. Missouri hopes it’s found a solution   Underprepared teachers are two to three times as likely to leave the profession, García said. Reducing qualifications for substitute teachers could have negative consequences for staffing issues, she said… To reduce turnover, García said policymakers should focus on teacher compensation, working conditions and teacher preparation and support.

Washington Post.
1) Imagine a class with 25 kids — and all of their parents insist on telling the teacher what to teach   “It’s absurd for parents to tell teachers what to teach,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian and advocate for public schools. “The result would be chaos, and in most cases would be parents telling teachers to teach the way they were taught decades earlier.” What’s more, she said, “It thoroughly discredits the teacher’s professionalism and expertise”…
2) Weeks later, servicers still waiting on Education Dept. guidance for loan-forgiveness expansion: Democratic lawmakers worry that a sloppy rollout could imperil the initiative   The Education Department said it would temporarily allow all payments that borrowers made on federal student loans to count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which cancels outstanding debt after 10 years of on-time payments. The decision allows teachers, members of the military and other public servants to sidestep the program’s complex rules to receive debt relief, but only until Oct. 31, 2022.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Office of Higher Education. October Newsletter
* Signed Accreditation Agreements
* Board of Regents Items: DASA Training, Definition of University
* Physical Education Learning Standards Presentation

NEW YORK CITY
Bank Street College. Occasional Paper Series, Issue 46. The Pandemic as a Portal: On Transformative Ruptures and Possible Futures for Education [by TC Prof. M. Souto-Manning]

GLOBAL
RNZ. Auckland secondary school principals worried by teacher shortage   Hargreaves said students were not graduating from teacher education programmes in the numbers and subjects that were needed, and very few foreign teachers were able to enter New Zealand.

Sahara Reports. US Government Seeks To Equip 300 Nigerian Teachers With Tech Skills   Declaring the workshop open, U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer Stephen Ibelli, reiterated the U.S. Mission’s commitment to supporting a more educated population by increasing and strengthening the capacity of Nigerian teachers through teacher training workshops and exchange programs.   

World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education (WFATE).  6th Biennial WFATE Conference “Social Justice in Education. Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion and Interculturalism in Our Global Society” [ 12-15 November 2021]

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

Associated Press. White House Continues to Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)   Through the FY22 budget request and the Build Back Better plan, President Biden has proposed $60 million for the Augustus Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program to support teacher preparation programs at HBCUs and minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Chalkbeat.
1) Philly needs more Black teachers. A new report shares insights on how to retain them.   The district has created several teacher residency and fellowship programs geared towards people of color. It is working on helping paraprofessionals in schools, many of whom are from the community, to earn teaching credentials… A teacher academy at Science Leadership Academy-Beeber helps high school students pursue a career in education.
2) The latest Nobel Prize winner: Researcher who helped show money matters for schools   Joshua Angrist — a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who has studied charter schools, class sizes, and teacher certification rules — also won the prize…In two studies published in 1992, Card found that American students who attended schools with smaller class sizes and higher teacher salaries wound up with better paying jobs as adults.

District Administration. Advocacy for educator preparation has never been more critical   Advocacy is a tool that creates a collective voice for change and navigates our path to continuous improvement. We must advocate for educator preparation to rectify and amend past policies, that although implemented with good intent, have since failed to achieve intended goals and are inherently flawed. 

EdWeek.
1) Popular Literacy Materials Get ‘Science of Reading’ Overhaul. But Will Teaching Change?: Lucy Calkins and Jennifer Serravallo Are Among Those Making Shifts   … more states started to mandate teacher training in, and classroom attention to, foundational skills instruction in an effort to adhere to what came to be referred to as the “science of reading”.. And Calkins, of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, has announced upcoming revisions to her popular Units of Study for Teaching Reading program. The changes, Calkins said, will incorporate more explicit instruction in phonics and remove some prompts that ask students to look to pictures or context for word identification.
2) Thousands of Teachers Who Were Denied Loan Forgiveness Will Get a Second Chance.  The department has agreed to reconsider upon request the application of any borrower who pursued the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and was denied, and to automatically review all applications from borrowers that have made payments on a direct loan for at least a decade and were denied before November 2020. 

KTSM. NMSU to fill teacher vacancies with help from students in special education program   New Mexico State University aims fill special education teaching vacancies with students enrolled in the THRIVE Special Education Alternative Licensure Program.

NYTimes. Black Lives Matter, She Wrote. Then ‘Everything Just Imploded’: A Black superintendent’s email to parents after the killing of George Floyd engulfed a small, predominantly white Maryland community in a yearlong firestorm.   Born and raised in West Baltimore, Dr. Kane, 56, had wanted to be a teacher ever since she served as a teacher’s assistant in Sunday school. … In 1996, she took a job as a substitute in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools, a district adjacent to Queen Anne’s, while she pursued her teaching certificate.

Phi Delta Kappan. Building a more ethnoracially diverse teaching force: New directions in research, policy, and practice   The special report highlights the forthcoming Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color (AERA, 2022) by Gist and Bristol, featuring research by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) educators on developing a more diverse teacher workforce.

Washington Post. American Federation of Teachers settles lawsuit against Education Dept. over loan forgiveness program   The agreement resolves a 2019 lawsuit the teachers union filed against then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the department alleging gross mismanagement of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It affords teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public servants who have been denied cancellation a case review by the Education Department and credit for years of past payments.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED
1) Board of Regents Meeting Agenda  [October 18-19]
2) Family Newsletter. Students taught by teachers that look like them benefit both academically and emotionally. NYSED recently awarded $3.45 million in Teacher Opportunity Corps II (TOC II) grants to 17 New York colleges and universities [including Teachers College] to increase the rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers. The project period is September 1, 2021 – August 31, 2026, with an anticipated allocation of $3.45 million annually. Programs like TOC II can deliver a more diverse workforce to schools across the state, and we must continue to support them.

NEW YORK CITY
Gothamist. “I’m Just Not Trained For This”: Dept. Of Education Office Workers Sent To Understaffed NYC Schools   De Blasio said these reassigned Central staffers had experience and pedagogical licenses to work in classrooms with students. “We have thousands and thousands of vaccinated, experienced substitute teachers ready to go”… Still, some Central staffers without educational experience have found themselves in classrooms. 

NYC Council. Int 2374-2021.  This bill would require each classroom in a school of the city school district of the city of New York provide 35 square feet of net floor area per child by September 2024, with no less than one-third of schools complying with such targets by September 2022, and no less than two-thirds of schools complying with such targets by September 2023.

NYTimes. The End of Gifted Programs?: New York City may overhaul its elementary admissions to the selective track.   De Blasio’s plan would permanently end the kindergarten tests. “The era of judging 4-year-olds based on a single test is over,” he said in a statement. Instead, de Blasio proposed retraining teachers to accommodate kindergarten students who need accelerated learning, which could cost tens of millions of dollars.

Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC). October 2021 Educator Resources

GLOBAL
JapanTimes. Japan may scrap teacher’s license renewal rules.  The education ministry is considering abolishing the requirement that teaching licenses be renewed every 10 years in an effort to ease burdens on teachers… It is considering introducing a new training program for teachers in exchange for scrapping the license renewal rules. The program is expected to cover online teaching, digital textbooks and care for children with developmental disabilities.

Stuff [NZ]. Education Review Office warns of ‘slippage of expectations’ in maths teaching   The Education Review Office says that maths standards at schools are slipping as teachers lack capacity to teach well and modifications to the curriculum are bedding in among educators… They found that graduate teachers were beginning in the classroom while still needing to “substantially develop” their own skills teaching maths.

The Sector [AUS]. Child Care flagged as occupation in national shortage with “strong future demand” expected   As the overview of the report highlights, “This list provides the backbone piece of labour market analysis on occupations that will be a key input to a range of Australian Government policy initiatives, including targeting of skilled migration, apprenticeship incentives and training funding.”

University of Canterbury [NZ]. $10 million boost for literacy education will upskill 70,000 children  Professor McNeill, a leader in UC School of Teacher Education, says the Better Start Literacy Approach is strengths-based and supports teachers to engage in positive ways with children’s whānau… The Better Start Literacy Approach builds on research-based evidence about the most effective methods to teach children letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, oral language, reading and spelling.

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) Only a third of NJ teachers pass licensing exams the first time around. Does that reflect teacher prep programs?   Nationally, 45% of all aspiring teachers pass on their first attempt, the data shows. But critics of the study argue that focusing on the pass rate on the first attempt is not a valid indicator of the quality of a teacher prep program or a good predictor of classroom performance.
2) Report: More than half of aspiring Colorado elementary teachers fail their licensure exam on the first try; many don’t try again   Colorado will start reporting similar data later this year, part of a new law that aims to identify ways to diversify the teacher workforce. State education officials also plan to pick up work that was derailed by the pandemic: a series of data “deep dives” with the state’s educator preparation programs to better understand gaps and necessary changes.
3) When teaching children how to write, we must also explain why to write: Writing is not just a set of skills to master; it’s a way of acting in the world.   Research suggests that teachers are underprepared to teach writing, and schools do not teach enough writing, particularly digital writing for broad audiences using tools to combine text, images, audio, and video.

Columbia University Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL). Pandemic Learning Reveals the Value of High-Quality Instructional Materials to Educator-Family-Student Partnerships   Lags in teacher preparation programs, and dramatic shifts between old and modern standards, mean most teachers expected to implement high-quality instructional materials were never exposed to them—either as a part of formal training or as K–12 students themselves

Erikson Institute. Mariana Souto-Manning, PhD Named President of Erikson Institute   Dr. Souto-Manning is currently Professor of Early Childhood Education and Teacher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University… She is Vice President-elect for the American Educational Research Association Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education)… Prior to her career in higher education, Souto-Manning was a teacher in public preschools in Brazil and the United States.

InsideHigherEd. Outlawing Best Practices: I train K-12 teachers to use such research-based practices in their classrooms, writes Rosalie Metro, but bans on critical race theory could make this illegal.   Most of my students are white women, as am I. Therefore, I’ve found it especially important to prepare them to serve students who have identities different from their own, as studies show they will be more effective in this role if they actively consider the impact race has on their teaching. Around the country, legislators are proposing bills that could make those practices illegal. 

Learning Policy Institute. Leveraging Recovery Funds to Prioritize Wellness and Accelerate Learning    Through Yakima Valley College, West Valley High School students can participate in a registered apprenticeship and eventually earn an associate’s degree at a 50% discount. When they graduate from high school, the district hires these students as paraeducators, who can then decide to earn their bachelor’s degree as part of a two-year teacher residency model and become fully certified classroom teachers. This approach allows the district to create a “pretty amazing pipeline” for teacher hiring…

NEA News.
1) The Depth of Educators’ College Debt   1. Educators under the age of 35 are more likely to have taken out loans than educators over the age of 61—65 percent compared to 27 percent, NEA researchers found. However, many retired educators are still paying off their college debt. 2. Black educators have significantly more student debt than White educators ($68,000 compared to $54,300, on average). One reason is Black families have less generational wealth… 3. The failure of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program—98 percent of applicants have been rejected—is making matters worse.
2) When Speaking Up for Student Safety Gets You Fired   Jones, a well-respected professor of education at Texas’ Collin College, was effectively fired this spring after speaking up for student and faculty safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and organizing the Collin College chapter of the Texas Faculty Association (TFA), which is affiliated with the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) and NEA.

NYTimes. Pandemic and Racial Injustice Cause Outsize Harm to Black Students, Study Finds: The disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black people, coupled with racial trauma from last summer, will make it harder for Black students to return to classrooms, Teachers… Sonya Douglass Horsford, an associate professor of education leadership at Columbia’s Teachers College and an author of the report… The report recommends using funds allocated to schools by the American Rescue Plan — nearly $122 billion — to respond to the academic and mental health needs of Black students. Some of these solutions include simply investing in school infrastructure and hiring more Black teachers to update school curriculums to better understand Black history in the United States.

U.S. Dept. of Education. Request for Information Regarding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program   The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is requesting information in the form of written comments that may include information, research, and suggestions regarding the administration of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program… It is critical for our Nation to maintain a highly educated public service workforce to serve as teachers, nurses, physicians, servicemembers in our military, social workers, legal aid attorneys, and first responders…

New Hampshire Union Leader. Licensing exams trip up teacher candidates, and failure pushes many out of the field, report shows   Statewide, about 43% of elementary school teacher candidates passed what is typically the toughest exam — social studies — on the first try, according to data released this week by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The data showed wide disparities in test performance between students from different colleges and highlighted how dozens of trained candidates walk away from teaching after failing the exam once.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Professional Standards and Practices Board.  April 2021 Meeting Minutes

NYTimes. 40 Educators Join The New York Times Teaching Project: Representing 19 states and a range of subjects across the curriculum, these talented teachers will bring the mission of The Times to their schools for the 2021-22 school year.  Incl. Yumiko Bendlin (TC EdM TESOL ’97) Rye Middle and High School, Rye, N.Y.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. 72 NYC schools are getting money to lower class sizes. Will it help students?   The City Council, seizing on billions of federal relief dollars available for K-12 city schools, wanted officials to spend $250 million to lower class sizes by hiring 2,500 new teachers. Instead, the administration announced the pilot program for a fraction of the proposed cost. The initiative could bring just over 140 new teachers to the pilot schools, unless principals decide to hire part-time staffers.

Teachers College. A Tech Star’s Unusual Ascent: For doctoral student Yvonne Thevenot (M.Ed. ’20), it all gets back to being a concerned school parent   “After what happened with my son, I wanted to understand more about how teachers are trained.” She’s drawn particular inspiration from culturally responsive teaching pioneers Christopher Emdin, Associate Professor of Science Education, and Felicia Mensah, Professor of Science Education, whose work stands in sharp contrast to the approach of her son’s fourth-grade teacher.

GLOBAL
Education International. Iraq: Social dialogue leads to a roadmap for quality education.  During their meeting with the Education Minister of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, leaders the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union (KTU) were able to address several crucial educational issues… *Training teachers and developing their capacities to use new teaching methods and techniques…

Schools Week [UK]. ITT reform ‘hugely risky’ to teacher supply and quality, warns government’s own adviser   Professor Sam Twiselton, a member of the advisory group set up to contribute to the review, also told Schools Week the “risk to school engagement is a particular concern”. She appears to back delaying implementation for an extra year so issues are “properly worked through and sensible solutions found”. Leading universities have also rebelled against the plans.

Sydney Morning Herald. NSW schools struggle to find teachers as supply collapses   A federal discussion paper on university teacher training, released at the weekend, found almost 50 per cent of trainee teachers nationally failed to complete their degrees.

UK Department of Education. Initial teacher training (ITT) market review report   The aim of the review is to enable the provision of consistently high quality training, in line with the ITT core content framework (CCF), in an effective and efficient market.

University of Cambridge.  Statement on the UK Government Initial Teacher Training (ITT) market review report: The University of Cambridge prepares around 300 new teachers to enter the profession every year, many in priority subject areas such as STEM disciplines.   The University cannot in all good faith accept or offer aspiring teachers a programme that would lower standards in this way. Now, more than ever, children need teachers of the highest possible quality. These recommendations would compromise the essential characteristics of programmes such as ours, which are already producing outstanding teachers, year after year.

UNITED STATES
Associated Press (AP).  Biden says teachers deserve ‘a raise, not just praise’    And he pitched further investments for teachers, including a proposal to double the amount of a federal grant for aspiring teachers and to boost career training for current teachers.

Deans for Impact. How American University redesigned teacher preparation [YouTube Video]  American University is one of 10 programs participating in DFI’s Learning by Scientific Design Network. For the last two years, Dr. Traci Dennis and colleagues have helped future teachers understand the science of how students learn and what the implications are for their teaching practice…

Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Diversity in the Classroom: Why Representation Matters.  … before teachers of color enter the field full-time, educator preparation programs can support the retention of candidates of color through the establishment of affinity groups, supportive clinical field experiences, and residency models that include partnerships between the preparation program and the district.

EducationWeek.
1) Live Online Talk Show.  Critical Race Theory: Understanding the Debate [July 13, 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time]
2) Science Teaching and Learning Found to Fall Off in Pandemic   “The current emphasis on content dimensions of the current standards that we have, along with how we’re thinking about teacher education, teacher preparation, in-service education, makes it really challenging to pivot when we get to moments like this when we as a field really do need to pivot and adjust to this international crisis,”
3) Teachers’ Unions Vow to Defend Members in Critical Race Theory Fight   … at the NEA’s representative assembly, held virtually last week, union delegates passed several measures that explicitly support the use of critical race theory in curriculum and allocated tens of thousands of dollars to those efforts.

InsideHigherEd.
1) Controversial Student Visa Rule Withdrawn   The Biden administration formally withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that would have required international students to reapply for student visas after fixed terms of up to four years.
2) Regulatory Changes to TEACH Grant Program Take Effect   The Department of Education has implemented changes to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant program in an effort to provide greater flexibility and alleviate challenges that previous grant recipients have had in navigating the program. In exchange for grant funding of up to $4,000 a year for students to complete teacher education coursework, recipients of the TEACH Grant must complete four years of teaching in a high-need field and underserved school within an eight-year period or their grants will be converted into direct unsubsidized loans. 

LPI. Supporting the Educator Pipeline: How States and Districts Can Use Federal Recovery Funds Strategically   Strong educator preparation is critically important to support improved teacher effectiveness and retention and improved student achievement. State and LEA investments in comprehensive educator preparation are allowable through multiple routes.

WashingtonPost.
1) How and why Loudoun County became the face of the nation’s culture wars   Prior, a former Trump administration official, has appeared on Fox to discuss Loudoun and critical race theory, and won a reputation as the face of the county’s movement against critical race theory… Prior said his group is also broadly opposed to the implementation of critical race theory in teacher trainings and the classroom.
2) One of the nation’s largest student loan servicers plans to cut ties with the Education Department: PHEAA’s decision comes as the federal agency seeks to revamp its system for collecting student loans    A group of teachers also sued PHEEA over its management of the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant, a federal program that provides money to students willing to work in high-needs schools or teach high-needs subjects for four years. The educators claimed the servicer converted their grants to loans in error and refused to right the wrong. Other teachers complained of having their grants converted as a result of paperwork snags, missed certification deadlines or receiving incorrect information from FedLoan.

NEW YORK STATE
Troy Record. Local teacher prep program creates first-of-its-kind apprenticeship.  New Yorkers will now have the opportunity to enter the profession through a new apprenticeship approach to initial state teacher certification… Under the first ever New York State Apprenticeship program for teacher preparation through the state Department of Labor, SUNY students will now be eligible for $5,000 in SUNY tuition assistance in addition to the $22,000 per year living stipend they already receive through the BOCES. 

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Eric Adams is New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate. Here are major education issues he could face.   The focus on COVID-19’s toll has drawn attention away from a problem that has long confounded New York City mayors: how to improve the city’s lowest-performing schools. Struggling campuses often suffer from structural inequities ranging from academic and racial segregation to teacher recruitment and retention. Adams has said he is committed to hiring more bilingual educators and aides, particularly for the roughly 4,000 students who require bilingual special education. 

NYDailyNews. What does Eric Adams want to do as mayor? Read his policy book   In education, his big new idea is “moving to a full-year school year.” You can’t have a full-year school year without thousands more teachers or other child-care professionals willing to work through the summer months.