Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 10 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Webinar – The Secondment Of Teachers To Continuing Teacher Education: Transitions And Tensions [23 November 2022 – 15-00 CET]

News & Star (UK). Cumbria Teacher Training, Workington gets new Ofsted rating   A teacher training college has said ‘significant progress’ has been made to take the centre from ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’ “The substance of the ITE curriculum is not clearly defined. This means that leaders, tutors and mentors are not sure what trainees should be learning and when this should happen.”

Saskatoon Star Phoenix. Sask. teacher uses YouTube, TikTok to teach Métis language   “After I went back to school to get my teaching degree, I became interested in learning Michif. It is the language of my ancestors and through SUNTEP (Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program), I had the opportunity to start learning from Language Keepers,” he says.

The Week. Tamil Nadu: Did school education dept tweak Kalvi TV tender to favour suppliers of particular brand?   Kalvi TV, though run by the state government, falls under the Samagra Shiksha scheme, an overarching programme introduced by the central government, for the school education from pre-primary to class 12, to provide equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes. It subsumes the three schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) under one umbrella.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Indiana’s CREA State Team Examines Standard-Setting Process for Licensure Exams   In 2021, Indiana joined the Consortium for Research Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA), an initiative by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to examine state-level certification assessment scores and their impact on promoting a diverse educator workforce… In this report, attention is given to the racist legacy of licensure exams and the problems associated with the psychometric method used to construct, validate, and set cut scores for licensure exams. More specifically, the report analyzed the demographic composition of the “subject matter experts” that were used to construct licensure exams.

Bangor Daily News. Report finds Maine hasn’t enforced law requiring schools teach Wabanaki studies   In terms of training, the state has not implemented any requirements that teachers learn about Wabanaki history or culture to become certified. 

Chalkbeat. How one Colorado Republican shaped what students will learn about the Holocaust   Leshem said his focus now is ensuring teachers have the resources to teach the topic well… Colorado also lacks the museums, the teacher training programs, the funding, and the well-developed curriculum on the issue that other states have. 

EdWeek.
1) A New Teacher at 50: Inside the Struggle to Rebuild America’s Black Teaching Workforce   CREATE 65 was the brainchild of District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton. He wanted to attract more candidates of color who are often shut out of the current teacher pipeline, then provide them with a $30,000 stipend, enrollment at either Northwestern or National Louis University, and a full year of hands-on training at the elbow of an expert teacher. The model is known as a teacher residency. More than 130 such programs are now in operation across the country.
2) HBCUs to Scale Up Teacher Residency Programs   The grant is part of a $60 million investment from the U.S. Department of Education to address teacher shortages and support the educator workforce. Enrollment in teacher-preparation programs has declined significantly over the past decade, and experts have raised serious concerns about the strength of the teacher pipeline.
3) Improving the Preparation Pipeline for Black Teachers: 5 Ideas From Experts   Education Week asked five experts to suggest in 250 words or less how the nation’s teacher preparation pipeline can be overhauled to work better for candidates of color, especially those who are Black…
4) Schools Are Still Understaffed. Here’s How Hard-Pressed Principals Are Responding   Belcastro, in Illinois, worries that some of the proposals in other states to ease teacher shortages by loosening certification requirements could hurt the profession… send the message to those already teaching that the effort they put into obtaining their certifications was pointless.

InsideHigherEd. Pinning Hopes on Future Educators: Colleges of education hope that celebrating teaching candidates with pinning ceremonies will help validate their decision to enter an increasingly demanding field.   Some institutions have been conducting such ceremonies for years. The University of Central Arkansas, a midsize university in the Little Rock suburb of Conway, held its first pinning ceremony for educator candidates back in 2007.

Las Cruses Sun News. NMSU study finds decrease in New Mexico teacher vacancies   “We have increased our enrollment in licensure programs across the board, expanded our partnerships with rural school districts, and continued our commitment to offering culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum, instruction, and professional development opportunities for educators at all career stages. We continue to celebrate strong successes in our efforts to generate and sustain a robust, diverse teacher education pipeline for New Mexico,” Marlatt said.

Mercer University. College of Education receives $9.6 million federal grant to diversify teaching workforce   Mercer University’s Tift College of Education will partner with five local school districts on a three-year, $9.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant project aimed at strengthening the teacher pipeline in order to increase and diversify the teaching workforce. The grant project, titled “Georgia Educators Networking to Revolutionize and Transform Education (GENERATE),” will develop a residency program for career changers to obtain Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) degrees, become certified teachers in Georgia and teach in high-need content areas within partner school districts.

New York Times.
1) Teaching and Learning About Abortion Laws in the United States After Roe
2) Why You Can’t Find Child Care: 100,000 Workers Are Missing   …if they are applying for lead teacher roles, submit their college degrees to the state for approval. If a degree is from a foreign country — which is often the case, she said, as many of her employees are immigrants — it must first be translated into English…a targeted visa program could draw immigrants committed to the work… States like Arizona have used existing visa programs to draw schoolteachers with advanced degrees and years of classroom experience from overseas…

Washington Post.
1) Fla. to strip licenses of K-3 teachers who discuss gender identity, sexuality   The Florida Department of Education has done little to publicize its rule on teachers’ licenses. The rule appeared online around the same time that the state was taking damage from Hurricane Ian…
2) How to teach in a political firestorm   Teachers still have to do their jobs amid all the turmoil in public education, and this post is aimed at helping them do that. It was written by Roxanna Elden… Her guidebook, “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers,” is a staple in school districts and educator training programs throughout the country.
3) Most Md. voters say elementary school discussion of LGBTQ acceptance ‘inappropriate’   Despite the pushback in some areas, resources and lesson plans are becoming much more common for those who want to teach about gender identity. At least six states require that curriculums include LGBTQ topics, and the federal government recommends that schools include gender identity in their sex-education programs.

NEW YORK STATE

University of Buffalo. UB Teacher Residency Program awarded $3.5 million to expand   The funding, from the U.S. Department of Education’s Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) Program, was announced this week by Rep. Brian Higgins (NY-26).

NEW YORK CITY

New York Post. ‘It’s scary for me’: Struggle of migrant kids in NYC schools with few Spanish speakers   …struggling to cope after being placed at a New York City school where there’s a lack of bilingual teachers…instruction in Spanish is limited because there aren’t enough teachers certified in the language…Schools Chancellor David Banks admitted Thursday that the lack of bilingual teachers for migrant students across the city was a “real problem” that hadn’t yet been resolved.

New York Times. Hasidic School Is Breaking State Education Law, N.Y. Official Rules   Ms. Rosa warned that previous visits to the school conducted by city officials did not prove that the school was offering instruction in all required subjects. She said that observations she received from city officials in fact indicated that the yeshiva does not offer sufficient instruction in English, social studies or science. 

The University of the State of New York Education Department. In the Matter of Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem regarding substantial equivalence.
   …YMAH’s current teachers are incompetent to deliver such instruction. NYCDOE did not directly address these concerns, instead indicating that teachers are evaluated using the Danielson Framework, “licensed,” and provided with professional development.…the evidence in the record is insufficient to support a finding that YMAH’s teachers are competent; i.e., that they have the appropriate knowledge, skill, and disposition to deliver substantially equivalent instruction.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Oct. 3 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Baltic News Network. In Estonia most schools will teach only in state language next year  Teachers whose language proficiency does not meet the requirements will no longer be eligible to teach starting from 2023/2024 school year… The minister also emphasized the importance of teacher compensation. Currently, the Ministry of Education and Research recommends that teachers with a master’s degree are paid 120% of the Estonian average wage. 

Education Week. U.S. Teachers Work More Hours Than Their Global Peers. Other Countries Are Catching Up   … across countries that participated in the survey, preschool, elementary, and secondary teachers earned 4 percent to 14 percent lower salaries than other college-educated workers. On average across grade spans, teachers in OECD countries earned about 90 percent of what similarly educated, adult full-time workers in their countries made, taking into account salaries and bonuses. In the United States, however, teachers on average made half of what similarly educated peers made in other fields.

Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). Investing in teachers is the first step in attaining global education goals   As we reflect on how to meet the 2030 Sustainable development goal 4 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality … * Improve the quality of teacher training, from adopting minimum standards and qualifications of all teacher training institutions, providing regular in service and continuous teacher education and providing opportunities for career growth…

NSW Government News. Aspiring teachers to earn while they learn: A new program aims to recruit high-achieving graduates into teaching careers.   Under the NSW Teach for Australia pathway, participants complete their Master of Teaching degree at Australian Catholic University while they are employed in a school. They receive holistic coaching, mentoring and classroom observations to provide teaching students with a continuous cycle of feedback and improvement.   

UNESCO. World Teachers’ Day is held annually on 5 October to celebrate all teachers around the globe.  It commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Deadline Extended to Submit: Annual Meeting Proposal by October 9
2) NCES Releases Alarming Data on School Staffing   As of August, when the latest NCES survey was administered to roughly 900 public campuses, close to 80% of schools with at least one job opening reported it was either very or somewhat difficult to hire fully certified special education and math teachers. 

Chalkbeat.
1) A Colorado experiment aims to expand the teacher pipeline and stem turnover   The Public Education & Business Coalition’s plans are part of a new initiative that relies on “pay for success” financing, a funding mechanism in which outside investors cover up-front costs and get paid back later with public money if certain goals are met… Over three years, coalition leaders seek to mint 335 new teachers, including a significant number of teachers of color. 
2) Hillsdale-linked charter group withdraws applications in Tennessee   …Hillsdale President Larry Arnn declared in June that teachers are “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” The remarks, caught by a hidden camera and broadcast by Nashville WTVF reporter Phil Williams, sparked public outrage directed at both Arnn and Lee, who was on stage with Arnn and has refused to disavow his words.

Education Week.
1) Schools’ Staffing Challenges Persist in New Year   “Grow your own” programs, which focus on introducing high school students to the profession and supporting them in getting the proper education and certification, can serve as long-term solutions to future staffing shortages…
2) To Fill Teacher Jobs, Community Colleges Offer New Degrees   In Washington state, nine community colleges offer education degrees for teaching grade school and up. All of the programs started within the last decade… There has been pushback against community college degree programs in education in Washington and nationally, as universities with teacher education programs grapple with declines in enrollment.. 
3) Webinar–‘Science of Reading’: What Are the Components?   More than half of states are mandating a radical shift in reading instruction—requiring teachers to adopt a “science of reading” approach to early literacy. [Oct. 12, 2pm EDT]

Hechinger Report.
1) How can we improve early science education? New report offers clues   Better training for teachers could help pre- and in-service educators teach science better, report finds
2) To fight teacher shortages, some states are looking to community colleges to train a new generation of educators   In Washington and a handful of other states, would-be teachers can now earn their degrees from community colleges, part of an effort to help diversify the profession..

InsideHigherEd. Another Call for Extending Public Service Forgiveness Waiver   Extending the waiver would give federal employees, military personnel and other public service workers time to use the waiver. The Student Borrower Protection Center has estimated that 15 percent of the nine million eligible employees have filed paperwork to track their qualifying payments under PSLF… 

NEA News. NEA: Real Solutions, Not Band-Aids, Will Fix Educator Shortage  NEA is calling on the federal government to enact much broader student debt cancellation (up to $50,000), support educator applications for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver, and encourage school districts to use their CARES Act funds (the COVID economic relief package signed into law in March 2020) to pay for or reimburse employees’ student loans.  

New York Times.
1) One Way to Ease the Teacher Shortage: Pay More, Some Districts Say   The mismatch in supply and demand, researchers say, points to long-neglected flaws in the teacher labor market: aspiring teachers frequently don’t know what jobs are going to be available to them when they complete their training, while states and school districts have neglected to use financial incentives to persuade candidates to take jobs and stay in them.
2) Sounding Out a Better Way to Teach Reading   Critics of the science of reading deride the approach as “drill and kill,” boring children with an exclusive focus on foundational skills, a concern that Ms. Pimentel and others reject. That’s where good teachers come in, said Claude Goldenberg, an emeritus education professor at Stanford. “We need to help train, mentor and monitor teachers to help them do it in a way that’s effective,” he said.

Tennessee Lookout. Building a better pipeline by preparing educators   We need to look at the Praxis exam — a test of knowledge and skills needed for classroom teaching — and see how it aligns with content, and possibly reconsider the use of EdTPA… Policymakers do not know how to measure and define a successful teacher training program. So, we should bring our institutions and educator prep programs together at the Tennessee General Assembly and give them a platform to address problems and find solutions.

The 74.
1) Facing Regional Shortages, U.S. Schools Now Employing 160,000 ‘Underqualified’ Teachers   Parents, experts and traditional teacher preparation programs caution against unchecked growth of emergency and temporary licensing to fill vacancies
2) For a Small Rural Texas Town, the Solution to a Teacher Shortage is a Motel.   But now she has to think about her future. It feels almost sacrilegious to say so, Ely said, because teachers are trained and conditioned to be all about the kids. They are praised when they are, in a way, martyrs to the profession, she said. 

Washington Post.
1) An American education: Amid a historic U.S. teacher shortage, a ‘Most Outstanding Teacher’ from the Philippines tries to help save a struggling school in rural Arizona   …U.S. schools have hired more than 1,000 Filipino teachers in the past few years. Most Filipino teachers have master’s degrees or doctorates. In the Philippines, teaching is considered a highly competitive profession, with an average of 14 applicants for each open position, and teachers are constantly evaluated and ranked against their peers.
2) Seeing through conspiracy theories and other news literacy lessons   NLP has an e-learning platform, Checkology, that helps educators teach middle and high school students how to identify credible information, seek out reliable sources, and know what to trust, what to dismiss and what to debunk.

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Where do Hochul and Zeldin stand on education?   She’s…attempted to address the teacher shortage by expanding alternative teacher certification programs… She also signed a popular bill that requires lower class sizes in New York City, which was celebrated by many families, the teachers union, and advocates. 

New York State Education Department Board of Regents. October meeting
Higher Education Proposed Amendments
* Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Student Teaching Requirements for Registered Teacher Preparation Programs and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification (public comment period begins Oct. 19)
* Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Definition of “Prospective School Employee”
* Proposed Amendment …Relating to the Deferment of the Declaration of a Major by Matriculated Students for State Financial Aid Purposes
Higher Education Consent Agenda
* Proposed Amendment …Relating to the Standards for School Building Leader Preparation Programs, Definition of “Leadership Standards” for Annual Professional Performance Reviews, and Safety Net for the School Building Leader Assessment 
* Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Implementation Timeline for the Computer Science Statement of Continued Eligibility

New York State Education Department Office of Higher Education. Educator Preparation September Newsletter
* Board of Regents September Items: New Students with Disabilities (All Grades) Certificate; New Literacy (All Grades) Certificate
* Certification for College Professors.
* New Office of Teacher and Leader Development and Assistant Commissioner
* New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) Test Development. Content Specialty Test (CST) Frameworks. The frameworks for the new Computer Science CST, revised Physical Education CST, and new School Counselor CST are now available on the NYSTCE website.

NEW YORK CITY

Chalkbeat. NYC principals with enrollment shortfalls brace for more budget cuts   “It would literally destroy the school’s programs, not to mention excess all the new teachers we brought in who have brought fresh energy, fresh blood and new life to the school,” said the principal, who runs one of the city’s community schools, which serve larger shares of high-needs students.

New York Times. The Influential Group Helping Eric Adams Identify a Vision for New York   The proposed policy framework, which will be announced on Tuesday, would center on three areas: using day care as an economic development tool; strengthening the city’s mental health infrastructure; and developing incentives to recruit and train teachers… Tiered pay and other incentives, such as housing and signing bonuses, are some of the think tank’s initial ideas to help attract and retain more teachers.

Teachers College. How to Maximize Your Tech Game, Thanks to TC’s Digital Futures Institute: At TC’s DFI, scholars reimagine how technology can (and will) change research and learning – and the way we live   As part of their commitment to public service and scholarship, DFI scholars are leveraging research and pedagogy to help early career K-12 teachers throughout New York effectively integrate tech into their lesson plans through their “Teachers Supporting Teachers” program. The program, which DFI runs in partnership with the Office of Teacher Education, launched earlier this year.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Sept. 26 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Border Mail (AUS). Teaching our teachers to solve a puzzling education conundrum   Unfortunately, university-based teacher trainers have proven unwilling or unable to improve its quality… Unlike many teacher workforce issues, the quality of teacher education at universities is a federal government responsibility. The government needs to send more direct signals – even punitively pulling funding – that ITE providers must give teachers adequate training in evidence-based explicit instruction methods.

Daily Times. Learning from Finland Model   They are not required to prepare students for standardized testing, giving them more flexibility to teach students the lessons they deem appropriate. Similarly, becoming a teacher in Finland is a quite competitive process, with nearly 7% of applicants accepted to the country’s top teaching program. 

UNESCO
. Celebrations of World Teachers’ Day 2022 [5-7 Oct.]

UNITED STATES
AACTE. 75th Annual Meeting Innovation through Inspiration: Remembering the Past to Revolutionize the Future Save 15% by December 31 [Feb. 24-26, Indianapolis, IN]

Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE). CFP: 2023 National Conference February 23-24, 2023 Indianapolis, IN [deadline Dec. 5, 2022]

Chalkbeat.
1) ‘I don’t think it’s fair’: Newark charter school community wants answers over inequities   Teachers also spoke out about wages and asked board members to release a pay scale and pay information for certified and uncertified teachers. 
2) Study: Teacher licensing exams shrink Indiana’s pool of Black, Hispanic teachers   … according to a new report from Indiana University. The study found that Black and Hispanic prospective teachers scored up to 52 percentage points lower than their white peers on portions of the test, known as Praxis, further shrinking the pool of nonwhite educators that enter the profession even as the K-12 student population grows more diverse.
3) With COVID aid, schools try something new: giving students jobs   When the Houston school district launched a peer tutoring initiative with iEducate, a local nonprofit, officials there specifically targeted students interested in education… It gives tutors “an opportunity to build those relationships with our scholars, to help with that learning loss from COVID in our schools,” said Joseph Williams, a district administrator who oversees the tutoring initiative. “It also gives them that experience to see what teaching is about, and hopefully build a pipeline of future teachers.”

EdWeek.
1) 6 Ways to Solve the Teacher Shortage With Federal Stimulus Money   4. Tuition and certification benefits. … school districts generally don’t pay for teachers to pursue a graduate degree or even cover the cost of taking the initial certification exam… Some school districts are already making moves on this front.
2) 25 Reasons to Get Excited About Teaching   The profession offers a host of opportunities
3) They Recruited 100,000 STEM Teachers. Now They’re Setting Their Sights Even Higher   The group 100Kin10 was formed in 2011 in response to former President Barack Obama’s call for adding 100,000 more STEM teachers to the nation’s classroom in 10 years… In November 2021, the group announced it had surpassed its goal by recruiting and training more than 108,000 STEM teachers… Now, 100Kin10 is setting a new goal—and rebranding. Now known as Beyond100K, the group aims to both prepare and retain 150,000 STEM teachers in schools with the greatest shortages. The recruitment efforts will increasingly be focused on Black, Latinx, and Native American teachers. 
4) Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff  [October 27 2:00 to 6:00 PM EDT]

Florida Education Association. Solving Florida’s teacher and staff shortage   Long-term, starting with the next legislative session lawmakers can:.. * Boost teacher education. Support Florida’s colleges and universities as they enhance and grow their teacher education programs. * Provide financial support for college students who major in education and become teachers. * Help high school graduates become teachers. Develop and support programs that encourage them to enter the profession. * Eliminate fees for teacher certification and renewal for all teachers.

Hechinger Report. Black and white teachers from HBCUs are better math instructors, study finds   … what mattered was where a teacher went to college. Both Black and white teachers trained at an historically black college or university (HBCU) helped Black students do better in math. Almost one out of 10 teachers in North Carolina graduated from an HBCU. Though not a large number, a quarter of these HBCU-trained teachers were white. During a year that a Black elementary school student had one of these HBCU-trained teachers, his or her math scores were higher. 

InsideHigherEd. A Show of Solidarity   Faculty members back a K-12 teacher who distributed a list of terms about race and gender to high school students. Some say more of this kind of allyship is needed as public education faces divisive concepts and book bans amid teacher shortages.

KETV Omaha. New $38 million state-of-the-art Teachers College at UNL officially opens   The University of Nebraska Lincoln officially unveiled the new home for its Teachers College at a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday. The new $38 million state-of-the-art facility comes as the state and the country desperately needs qualified teachers.

National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE). OECD Education at a Glance 2022: Implications for the U.S. [Oct. 3, 12pm ET]

New Jersey Monitor. Bill barring controversial teaching test gets conditional veto from governor: Governor Murphy wants lawmakers to require teaching candidates complete a different assessment   The governor’s action, if approved by the Legislature, would still remove the requirement for teachers to complete the controversial edTPA — the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, administered to would-be teachers since 2009 — but under his conditional veto, the unpopular test would be replaced with broader assessments run by educator preparation programs meant to gauge performance in the classroom.

New York Times. How U.S. Textbooks Helped Instill White Supremacy: A new history by Donald Yacovone examines the racist ideas that endured for generations in educational materials.   Universities, too, have had a shameful influence over the K-12 history curriculum. Harvard was the seat of the eugenics movement, whose pseudoscience was approvingly cited in teachers’ journals and textbooks. Columbia gave birth to the “Dunning school” of Civil War history…

NorthJersey.com. ‘Victory for all future educators’: NJ does away with teacher certification test — sort of   The Murphy administration said the educative Teacher Performance Assessment, or edTPA, would no longer be required in New Jersey, but it must be replaced by a similar test to be used to certify graduates. Murphy issued a conditional veto Thursday to bill S896, which shifts the burden of certifying teachers from the state’s shoulders to the colleges that train them. 

Register-Herald. New approach to coding unlocks student potential   A West Virginia University instructional design expert is looking to break the code of the traditional elementary school classroom… Kale’s crusade to make coding a common tool for classroom engagement as early as kindergarten will focus first on the teachers in training at WVU’s elementary education teacher education program.

The74. Traditional University Teacher Ed Programs Face Enrollment Declines, Staff Cuts   As higher ed enrollment lags, colleges try to make teacher preparation more enticing, sustainable to ward off local shortages

U.S. Dept. of Education. U.S. Department of Education Awards Over $60 Million to Strengthen the Teacher Pipeline, Increase Educator Leadership, and Support Quality Teaching and Learning to Further Address Teacher Shortage   New investments under the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, include 22 new three-year grants totaling more than $60 million, bringing the Biden-Harris Administration’s additional support for teachers through Fiscal Year 2022 grant competitions to more than $285 million.

Washington Post. Staffing shortages continue to plague schools, data shows   …approaches like Florida’s — offering jobs to veterans without college degrees. Arizona is allowing college students to instruct children.

Yidan Prize. Welcoming our 2022 Yidan Prize laureates   Dr Linda Darling-Hammond, 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research; Professor Yongxin Zhu, 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Development

NEW YORK STATE
NYACTE-NYSATE. 2022 Conference: Seeking Solidarity: Preparing Educators in and for Challenging Times [October 27-28, Gideon Putnam Resort, Saratoga Springs]

NYSED. Webinar: NYSED PLAN Pilot Webinar with Linda Darling-Hammond Topic: What is Performance-Based Learning & Assessment? [Tuesday, October 4th at 3:00 PM ET]

NYSED Board of Regents. Meeting agenda: October 3 & 4, 2022
Higher Education Subcommittee
* Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Student Teaching Requirements for Registered Teacher Preparation Programs and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification
* Proposed Amendment … Relating to the Definition of “Prospective School Employee”
* Proposed Amendment …Relating to the Deferment of the Declaration of a Major by Matriculated Students for State Financial Aid Purposes

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. “Educator of the Year” for TC Student William ‘Billy’ Green: The New York State honor recognizes the high school chemistry teacher and TC doctoral student’s ability to engage his pupils   His passion for education and commitment to inclusion is recognized throughout the TC community. “One thing that immediately stands out to me when I think about Billy is the enormous amount of passion he brings to the classroom space,” shares Felicia Mensah, Professor of Science Education and Green’s academic advisor. “He’s very dedicated to his craft as a teacher and it shows.”

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Sept. 19 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
MOFET Institute. The Eighth International Conference on Teacher Education: Passion and Professionalism in Teacher Education[June 26-27, 2023 | Tel Aviv]

Washington Post. Mexico arrests Army general in students’ disappearance   Gen. José Rodríguez Pérez is accused of involvement in the deaths of the 43 teachers’ college students who went missing in Ayotzinapa 2014, a crime that shocked the country.

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) WEBINAR: Internationalizing Education in Teacher Preparation [Oct. 6 3:00pm ET]
2) WEBINAR: Translating Learning Sciences Research for the Classroom [Mon. Sept. 26 2:00pm ET]

Chalkbeat.
1) A Philadelphia high school first: Black men teaching all freshman core subjects   the Center for Black Educator Development, which aims to get more Black students interested in teaching through the Black Teacher Pipeline Project. The project’s first fellowships were awarded in February to four Black men. The center’s founder, Philadelphia educator Sharif El-Mekki, aims to bring 21,000 Black students into the teaching pipeline over the next 12 years in 10 communities across the country, including the Philadelphia-Camden area. While teaching may not have been the four MLK teachers’ first choice, they all said they now view it as a calling.
2) State finds Denver violated the rights of Black boys with disabilities   They include that the district: …Failed to ensure that all affective needs programs had sufficient teachers with the proper certifications and licenses. A program for students with severe needs had to transition to virtual learning for several months last year because of a lack of teachers.

CNN. ‘It’s all behind us now.’ 1,700 migrant children see hope in nation’s largest school system   Already facing massive budget cuts, declining enrollments and teacher shortages, school administrations are now looking to recruit certified bilingual teachers and other support staff to deal with the influx of Spanish-speaking children from migrant families. 

EdWeek.
1) The Case for Curriculum: Why Some States Are Prioritizing It With COVID Relief Funds   a couple of IMPD network states have set their tutoring programs apart with a special feature: They’re curriculum-aligned. That means that tutors get trained in using the same materials that districts are using in their core classes, so that tutors are prepared to help students with course-specific questions…In Arkansas, for example, tutors are required to take training in specific math and reading curricula.
2) Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff [October 27 2:00 to 6:00 PM EDT]
3) What Teachers of Color Say Will Actually Work to Diversify the Profession   Teachers of color overwhelmingly chose financial incentives and relief as a strategy to boost enrollment in teacher preparation… “Teachers of color are not folks who are coming in with generational wealth,” Vilson said, adding that many Black and Latinx teachers he knows give money back to their families. More student loan forgiveness would provide relief, he said.

Hechinger Report. Waiting for the traveling teacher: Remote rural schools need more hands-on help   In Colorado, for instance, there were about 380 open positions for educators in rural schools at the start of the 2021-2022 school year… many were staffed by people who do not have traditional training or are not considered qualified to work in the subject area they are teaching.  

Kevin Kumashiro. 12th Conference On Education And Justice  [6-8 October 2022 Online]

KVOE. EMPORIA STATE: Dismissals of 33 faculty and staff come when ESU Foundation is seeking funds so students can experience ‘outstanding and supportive professors’   Terminations come as part of Emporia State’s plan, approved by the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday, to realign and re-emphasize certain programs including nursing, business, education, information management and library science — while eliminating other programs not in that “strike zone.” 

National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE). WEBINAR: Education at a Glance 2022: Implications for the U.S.[Oct. 3 12:00 ET]

Philadelphia EnquirerPa. waived the basic skills requirement for educators. Will it work to attract more teachers?   At least for the next three years, Pa. students will no longer have to pass the so-called basic skills tests in reading, math and writing, or meet the requirement through an alternative.

Prairie View A&M Univ. Sande to Increase Educator Diversity in Texas with $300K Award from Texas Tech -TEA and US Prep   The teacher population in Texas does not reflect its student population. Beverly Sande, Ph.D., plans to change that statistic with $300,000 in funding from Texas Tech University–Texas Education Agency in collaboration with the University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation (US PREP) National Center. The award will position Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) to lead innovative efforts to increase diversity among the number of teachers.

TeenVogue. Why Is There a Teacher Shortage in the US? Here’s What’s Causing it and What it Means for Students   And it appears there are fewer people studying to become teachers. Data from the Learning Policy Institute found that enrollment in teacher preparation programs went down one-third between 2010 and 2018. “There isn’t a pipeline of people coming into the profession that will fill all the vacancies that exist now,” Domenech says. Long-term structural solutions would likely help entice people to enter the field.

Washington Post. How an aspiring math teacher created go-to advice for prop betting   Smaluck… has a degree in math and stats and a masters in education, but he struggled to land his preferred job after graduation amid a teacher glut in parts of Canada… “I’m going to go back to it,” Smaluck said. “Once this props journey is done, I’m circling back to teaching kids math. There’s no question; it’s my lifetime journey.”

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC shelves $202 million plan to create a universal curriculum   Some educators — and the city’s teachers union — have argued that a universal curriculum would help give teachers access to quality materials without having to search for them. It could also allow for better-coordinated teacher training, as more teachers would be using a common set of materials, experts said.

NYDailyNews. How to solve the yeshiva problem: It’ll take much more than state regulations   Some parents I work with have told me that their children have to assist their own teachers when they try to read in English. I once watched an English teacher chanting the alphabet with his third-grade class — and incorrectly identifying the vowel sounds… Another lamented that she never had a teacher who had a college degree… ensure that yeshiva students have access to college-educated teachers with expertise in both content and pedagogy. 

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Sept. 12 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
AP News. Teacher shortages grow worrisome in Poland and Hungary   “Young people aren’t coming into the profession, and very few of those who earn a teaching certificate from high school or university go on to teach,” said Nagy. “Even if they do, most of them leave within two years.”

School News Australia. Short versus long-term solutions to the teaching shortage crisis   Following the roundtable meeting on August 12 between the federal Education Minister Jason Clare and his state and territory counterparts, a national action plan will be drawn up by December.

The New Arab. Algeria recruits 5,000 new English language teachers for primary schools in shift from French   The new teachers, hired during a recruitment drive this summer, would receive training from next week to prepare them for the upcoming academic year… Algeria, a former French colony, has been stepping away from the use of French at its institutions. Algeria’s culture ministry saidearlier this year that Arabic would replace French as its official language.

United Nations. Transforming Education Summit [United Nations, New York, 16, 17 & 19 September 2022]

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) Borrowers Can Refinance Federal Student Loans to Benefit from PSLF   …to qualify, borrowers have to refinance their loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan by October 31, 2022.  AACTE recently participated in a webinar sponsored by the Department of Education, which explains the temporary changes to the PSLF program that will allow more federal borrowers to have their loans eliminated. 
2) Call for Proposals Open: AACTE 75th Annual Meeting  [deadline Oct. 1 , 2022]
3) Registration is Now Open: AACTE’s 75th Annual Meeting [Indianapolis, February 24 – 26]

Chalkbeat.
1) Federal grant to help CU Denver expand teacher residency program   The University of Colorado Denver will use about $7 million in federal grants over the next five years to expand a teacher preparation model to rural communities across the state…The money from the U.S. Department of Education is part of $25 million five-year Teacher Quality Partnership program grants meant to help recruit, prepare, develop, and retain a strong, effective, and diverse teacher workforce. 
2) Two new Chicago efforts to cultivate more diverse teachers land federal grants   The district credited Teach Chicago Tomorrow, among other efforts, with increasing the portion of new teacher hires who are Black or Latino to roughly half of all new educators this school year… Chicago’s new Pre-Service Teaching Equity Project, or P-STEP — the CPS program receiving a roughly $1.1 million Teacher Quality Partnership grant — aims to ensure schools work more closely with faculty at local college teacher preparation programs to support student teachers.

Education Week.
1) Districts Steer Federal Teacher-Quality Funding Into Recruitment, Retention    The Education Department also announced 22 awards, totaling $24.8 million, through the Teacher Quality Partnership grant program, the only federal program that directly funds teacher preparation programs at universities, states, and nonprofits. This year, the department expressed interest in applicants with “grow your own” programs, which work to bring new educators into the profession by recruiting members of the community.
2) Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff FREE EVENT [Thursday, October 27, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET (11 a.m. – 3 p.m. PT)]

Hechinger Report. Teacher shortages are real, but not for the reason you heard: There’s little evidence of a mass exodus of teachers, but school districts flush with federal money are struggling to hire in a tight labor market   The number of unfilled vacancies has led some states and school systems to ease credential requirements, in order to expand the pool of applicants. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week that creative approaches are needed to bring in more teachers, such as retired educators, but schools must not lower standards.

Kansas Reflector. Professors frustrated by Emporia State University plans to eliminate tenured faculty and programs   The issue that “sticks in the craw” of liberal arts and sciences faculty, Michael Smith said, is their role in supporting ESU’s renowned teaching college…“I can’t train history teachers without a history program. Period,” he said. “I can’t train government teachers without a political science program…”

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English–Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces [by Drs. D. Price-Dennis & Y. Sealey-Ruiz]

New Jersey Monitor.
1) Legislature’s return creates bill signing deadlines for Governor Murphy   One Senate bill Murphy must consider by next week would ban the state Board of Education from requiring teaching candidates to complete a test, including the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), to obtain their teaching certificates. 
2) Teacher-student diversity gap widens in New Jersey   Beginning around 2013, officials adopted several policies that were intended to improve teacher quality — but instead created barriers that barred some from the profession…They raised the grade point average students need, to 3.0, both to get into and to graduate from a college teacher education program. They also expanded how many standardized tests would-be teachers must pass to prove proficiency. One such performance assessment, called the edPTA[sic], has only been required since 2017… 

NYTimes. Censorship Is the Refuge of the Weak   The state of Oklahoma seeking to revoke the teaching certificate of an English teacher who shared a QR code that directed students to the Brooklyn Public Library’s online collection of banned books.

U. S. Dept. of Education U.S. Department of Education Awards Nearly $25 Million to Recruit, Prepare, Develop and Support a Strong and Diverse Educator Workforce for our Nation’s Schools This year’s investment includes 22 new five-year grants…The TQP program funds teacher preparation programs in high-need communities at colleges and universities for the undergraduate, “fifth-year” level, and for teaching residency programs for individuals new to teaching with strong academic and professional backgrounds. 

U.S. News & World Report. 2023 U.S. News Best Colleges   2023 Best Education Schools

Washington Post.
1) U.S. News college rankings draw new complaints and competitors: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticizes rankings based on prestige as ‘a joke’
2) Wanted: Teachers. No training necessary.   States desperate to fill teaching jobs have relaxed job requirements. Public officials are openly challenging the idea that a degree in education should be a prerequisite for getting into the classroom and are aiming to undo long-standing license rules. Some states now permit people to teach without finishing college in certain cases, and many increasingly rely on substitutes…

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Meet New York’s teacher of the year: A Harlem chemistry teacher   Green became interested in education during childhood, much of which he spent living in poverty, while navigating homeless shelters or squatting in abandoned buildings… Green soon realized he wanted to teach, and he returned to the city, going to work at a school on Rikers Island.

Gothamist. New York approves new private school regulations as yeshivas face mounting scrutiny   The new regulations now require teachers to demonstrate competence in the subjects they’re teaching and update requirements for instructional time in core subjects like math and social studies.

NYSED 2023 Teacher of the Year.   State Education Department Announces Manhattan High School Chemistry Teacher Named 2023 New York State Teacher of the Year   William “Billy” Green will serve as an ambassador for teachers across the state and as the New York State nominee for National Teacher of the Year. Green is a high school chemistry teacher at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School in the New York City Department of Education’s (NYCDOE) Geographic District #6 in Manhattan [and Science Education PhD student at Teachers College]

NYSED Board of Regents
. September meeting
PROPOSALS
*P-12 Education Committee.
1) Proposed Amendment … Relating to Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) Staffing Qualifications   the Department proposes to permit agencies to employ an on-site education director who possesses a bachelor’s degree or higher in early childhood education, provided that such individual develops a written plan to obtain a certification valid for service in the early childhood grades within five years of the date such individual begins employment as a site director.
2) Proposed Amendment … Relating to Remote Instruction and its Delivery under Emergency Conditions   Finally, the Department proposes additions to section 100.1 of the Commissioner’s regulations to define the term “remote instruction.” This definition identifies various ways in which remote instruction may be delivered—but which must include, in all situations, regular and substantive teacher-student interaction with an appropriately certified (or, for charter schools, qualified) teacher.
* Higher Education Committee. Proposed…Relating to the Degree and Experience Requirements for College Professors for the Transitional G Certificate and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification   Therefore, the Department proposes to expand the P-12 teaching pool through the following three flexibilities:…

CONSENT AGENDA
*P-12 Education Committee.
1) Addition… Relating to Substantially Equivalent Instruction for Nonpublic School Students   As used in this Part: (a) Competent teacher means instructional staff employed by the school who demonstrate the appropriate knowledge, skill, and dispositions to provide substantially equivalent instruction. A competent teacher need not be certified.
* Higher Education Committee
1) Extending Flexibilities for Incidental and Substitute Teaching   The Department now proposes to extend these flexibilities for incidental teaching and substitute teaching again to the 2022-2023 school year. This proposal enables school districts to address their continuing teacher shortages by providing them with flexibility in making teaching assignments
2) Establishing the Literacy (All Grades) Certificate   the Department revised the required college-supervised practica in registered programs leading to the proposed Literacy (All Grades) certificate to be at least 50 clock hours in teaching literacy to students across the grade range of the student developmental levels of the certificate, including pre-kindergarten through grade 4 and grades 5 through 12… Additionally, the Department revised the date after which it would no longer register programs leading to the current Literacy (Birth-Grade 6) or Literacy (Grades 5- 12) certificates to be on or after October 1, 2022
3) Establishing the Students with Disabilities (All Grades) Certificate, Revising the Registration Requirements for Students with Disabilities (Birth-Grade 2) Programs, and Revising the Requirements for the Extension and Limited Extension to Teach Certain Su…   For institutions that currently have registered SWD (Grades 1-6) and SWD (Grades 7-12) programs, the programs would no longer be registered with the Department on or after September 1, 2029… Candidates who begin a proposed SWD (All Grades) program prior to the fall 2023 semester would complete field experiences and student teaching experiences across the age/grade range of the student developmental level of the certificate… The Department proposes to … allow SWD (All Grades) programs to lead to such extension and to reduce the number of semester hours required in the subject area of the extension from 18 to 12…

NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives.
1) New Literacy (All Grades) Certificate CreatedAt its September 2022 meeting, the New York State Board of Regents voted to establish the Literacy (All Grades) certificate effective September 28, 2022. The new certificate permits individuals to teach literacy in pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 in New York State public schools.
2) New Students With Disabilities (All Grades) Certificate CreatedAt its September 2022 meeting, the New York State Board of Regents voted to establish the Students with Disabilities (All Grades) certificate effective September 28, 2022. The new certificate permits individuals to teach students with disabilities in pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 in New York State public schools…

NEW YORK CITY
NY Daily News. New York Board of Regents unanimously passes rules aimed at regulating ultra-Orthodox yeshivas   “The state’s confirmation that it intends to dictate the curriculum and faculty at private and parochial schools is deeply disappointing and we oppose it,” said Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools, a group that advocates for yeshivas.

NYTimes.
1) In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money   Often, English teachers cannot speak the language fluently themselves. Many earn as little as $15 an hour. Some have been hired off Craigslist or ads on lamp posts…Yeshivas that provide secular education now mostly hire only Hasidic men as teachers, regardless of whether they know English. One former student said he once had a secular teacher who doubled as the school cook… Many young men said their English teachers spoke to them only in Yiddish.
2) New State Rules Offer Road Map for Regulating Private Hasidic Schools: The State Board of Regents on Tuesday enacted regulations aimed at holding New York private schools to minimum academic standards.   The New York State Board of Regents on Tuesday voted for the first time to require private schools to prove they are teaching English, math and other basic subjects or risk losing government funding.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Sept. 5 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Independent Online (South Africa). 4IR dream for Africa will collapse unless teachers are appreciated and better paid   One of the targets around education in the UN Sustainable Development Goals implores governments to “make teaching an attractive, first-choice profession with continuing training and development by improving teachers’ professional status, working conditions and support”. Throughout Africa, evidence of this is not visible.

SchoolsWeekUK. The week in education: How it all changed for schools   It means two of the main architects of teacher training reforms, Gribbell and Bickford Smith, are leaving at a critical time, with fears the ITT review will lead to a deficit of teacher training places, and gloomy predictions about recruitment over the next few years.

The Telegraph
. How Elizabeth II’s early years shaped the future Queen   In the autumn of 1933, Elizabeth’s education was entrusted to a recent graduate of a Scottish teacher training establishment, Marion Crawford, a serious young woman with a bent for history and patchy knowledge of mathematics, which Queen Mary considered unnecessary for a girl in Elizabeth’s position who would not be expected to manage her own household accounts. 

WomenofChina. Xi Replies to Letter from Students in Teacher Training Program at Beijing Normal University   Xi… said he was pleased to learn that the students, through classroom study and teaching practices during the first year of school, had gained more knowledge, broadened their horizons, and strengthened their commitment to teaching and educating people at the grassroots level… In 2021, the country launched a program to train about 10,000 teachers each year at normal universities for primary and secondary schools in 832 counties in the central and western regions. 

UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Participates in White House Discussion on School Staffing Shortage: Strengthening the Teaching Profession Through Public and Private Sector Actions   “It was an honor to have AACTE at the table with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and other key decision makers, such as the Secretaries of Education and Labor,” said AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D… “To have this spotlight today on the education profession from the White House elevates the importance of teachers and education in the U.S.”
2) AACTE President Keynotes at Congress of Latin American University Deans   AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D., delivered the opening Keynote of the First Congress of the Network of Deans and Deans of Education of Latin American Universities (Redecanedu) in Santiago, Chile, on Sept. 1… Gangone’s keynote entitled “Preserving Teaching as a Respected Profession: A Cautionary Tale from the U.S.,”

Apprenticeship.gov. National Apprenticeship Week How Can Registered Apprenticeship Address Teacher Workforce Challenges and Shortages? [Week Nov. 14-20]

Chalkbeat.
1) Indiana announces $111 million for phonics-focused reading instruction   The bulk of the total money — $85 million — comes from the Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation, and will go toward training current and future teachers on phonics-focused literacy instruction.
2) Michigan’s child care crisis is worse than policymakers have estimated   But the agency, known as LARA, has found more than 9,000 child care staff vacancies across the state and is now letting some facilities apply for rule exemptions to hire younger staff who are finishing required coursework and are awaiting final certifications. 
3) State orders CU Denver to fix reading courses in teacher prep program   The University of Colorado Denver must change how it trains future teachers on reading instruction before it can earn full state approval for four majors in the university’s teacher preparation program. In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the State Board of Education granted partial approval to the university’s elementary education, special education, early childhood education, and reading teacher programs. 

DCist. Federal Court Upholds D.C.’s New Requirements That Child Care Workers Get College Degrees   A four-year legal battle over D.C.’s new requirements that many child care workers get a college degree has seemingly come to an end… Under the new rules, directors of child care centers will need a bachelor’s degree in early education, teachers will need an associate’s degree in early education, and assistant teachers and caregivers in home-based daycares will need a Child Development Associate’s credential.

EdWeek.
1) Grants Aim to Support Alaska Native Students’ Education, Well-Being   …the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native Alaska preservation nonprofit in Juneau, received $8.8 million in four separate grants for projects that will create culturally responsive STEAM education for middle school students, “indigenize and transform” teacher and administration preparation programs, expand dual language pathways for the Tlingit culture and language…
2) When Did Equity Become a ‘Trigger’ Word?   … the law didn’t fundamentally change the fact that we continue to fail to give students a “fair playing field”… Low-income students continue to get more underprepared and out-of-field teachers… And we can take steps to make sure students are taught by well-prepared teachers who are ready to deliver that curriculum.

Hechinger Report.
1) Can apprenticeships help alleviate teacher shortages?   In January, Tennessee announced that it was expanding its “grow your own programs” to recruit and train teachers by developing the new apprenticeship model, which connects school districts and educator preparation programs. Tennessee’s department of education launched this program with the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System and Austin-Peay State University, making it the first registered teaching apprenticeship program in the country. 
2) Some childcare workers can get their college loans forgiven — but many are blocked   The federal Department of Education allows child care providers to participate in its Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, but only if they work in a nonprofit or federally run child care center, like Head Start, for 10 years… Nearly 1 in 5 child care workers have student loan debt, according to a Stanford University survey of 802 providers across the United States. 

Mountain Times. A standardized test is keeping potential teachers out of the workforce, Vermont to make it optional   To become a licensed teacher in Vermont — in any grade or subject area — applicants must receive a passing grade on the Praxis Core test… Proposed changes in state rules would allow applicants to “demonstrate competency with basic skills through a method determined by the Standards Board.” Relevant coursework, or certain grades could be substituted.

NYTimes. How to Use The Learning Network   Since 1998, The Learning Network has been helping people teach and learn with The New York Times. Here’s how to use our features.

NEA News.
1) Poll: Without Better Pay, Teaching Isn’t Viable Career   The national PDK Poll finds support for public schools is strong, but parents don’t want kids to become teachers without better pay and working conditions.
2) Student Debt Cancellation, PSLF & More: What Educators Need to Know   Once again: The PSLF waiver expires on October 31. It’s vital for educators to apply before the waiver expires. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t gotten to 120 payments yet. If you have old payments, late payments, payments on ineligible federal student loans, or payments made on non-income driven plans… you need to apply.

NY Education Report. UMBA: If Murphy Is Serious About Addressing Our Teacher Shortage, He’ll Eliminate This Test    As New Jersey lawmakers, we owe it to every young professional to search for the unnecessary edTPA-like barriers to other careers and stamp them out like they’re a pervasive species of Spotted Lantern Fly.

TIME. Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read   So far this year, five states have passed laws that require training for teachers in phonics-based reading techniques, adding to the 13 that passed such laws last year. And in May, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that elementary schools in the biggest district in the country would be required to adopt a phonics-based reading program.

Washington Post.
1) New York will force Orthodox Jewish schools to meet education standards   The regulations require the instruction be offered in math, science, English language arts and social studies, by a competent teacher and in English. Students with limited English skills must be provided instructional programs.
2) The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors   The annual Fed’s Survey of Household Economics and Decision making also asks if folks regret the specific school they went to. Those in vocational programs are most likely to regret their school, while education majors are least likely.
3) Trust in teachers is plunging amid a culture war in education   The growing distrust of teachers is also leading to greater scrutiny of teacher education programs. In Florida, DeSantis alleges they are churning out educators who encourage children to do things like switch gender identities without telling their parents… Will Flanders, one of the authors, said blame for parental mistrust of teachers must be laid at the feet of education schools: “Across the country these notions are being taught in schools where the local ideologies don’t match these concepts, [and] that’s why we’re seeing these discussions and these angry parents.” But Hill, the Harvard professor who also serves as co-chair of the university’s teacher education program, disagreed with this depiction of what teacher training looks like and is meant to do.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents. September 2022 Meeting
* P-12 Education Committee.
1) Proposed Addition … Relating to Substantially Equivalent Instruction for Nonpublic School Students    Competent teacher means instructional staff employed by the school who demonstrate the appropriate knowledge, skill, and dispositions to provide substantially equivalent instruction. A competent teacher need not be certified… English is the language of instruction…
2) Proposed Amendment … Relating to Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) Staffing Qualifications   Thus, the proposed rule requires that staff of eligible agencies collaborating with the district to provide Pre-K services have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a teaching license or certificate valid for services in the childhood grades. If such staff lack these qualifications, the district must obtain a waiver from the Department as a condition of their employment.
* Higher Education Committee. Proposed Amendment…Relating to the Degree and Experience Requirements for College Professors for the Transitional G Certificate and Through the Individual Evaluation Pathway to Certification   Therefore, the Department proposes to expand the P-12 teaching pool through the following three flexibilities:…

The Buffalo News. UB Teacher Residency Program is ‘future of teacher education’   the program allows anyone with a qualifying bachelor’s degree to spend a year of intensive training to be a teacher, including co-teaching and being mentored by a veteran teacher in a Buffalo public school classroom for the full school year. The program assists residents with an $18,000 stipend and requires they commit to three years of teaching in city schools afterward.

NEW YORK CITY
ABC 7. One-on-one with NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks   “We’ve engaged in a partnership with the Dominican Republic, where they are sending a number of their teachers to come and work with us here,” Banks said. “Many of will serve as bilingual teachers. And they couldn’t come at a more important time, as we are dealing with so many students who are coming in as asylum seekers.”

Chalkbeat.
1) After months of suspense, Hochul signs NYC class size bill into law   One Manhattan principal who spoke on condition of anonymity to offer a frank opinion of the bill said he worries that his school doesn’t have space to accommodate smaller classes nor guaranteed funding to hire enough teachers to staff smaller classes. 
2) Eric Adams touts NYC’s literacy efforts in school year kickoff   At P.S. 161, the pilot will include a second and third grade classroom staffed by teachers who have received intensive training to reach struggling readers

Gothamist. Gov. Kathy Hochul signs NYC class-size cap with one-year delay   But Mayor Eric Adams pushed back against the measure, arguing that it would cost the city millions of dollars to hire more teachers and secure more classroom space to account for smaller class sizes. He called on Hochul and state lawmakers to come up with funding to implement the change.

Teachers College.
1) From TC Way and Back Again: Profoundly influenced by her own education at TC, music education scholar and TC alumna Cathy Benedict (Ed.D. ’04, M.Ed. ’96) returns to the College to pay it forward   When Cathy Benedict first came to Teachers College to earn her master’s degree, she embraced a still uncommon approach to music education: leveraging a Curriculum & Teaching lens to forge new ground in how music teachers can best challenge and aid their students.
2) Meet Our Latest Faculty Granted Tenure and Full Professorships   Lori Custodero, Professor of Music Education, connects students to music in the context of human development, classroom learning, community and the rubric of family. She is currently compiling reflections from music teachers to develop a foundational understanding of musical instruction within the framework of pedagogy and practice. 
3) Welcoming New Faculty to TC Way: Joining our academic community with robust expertise and scholarship across disciplines in education…   Bettina Love, the William F. Russell Professor in the Foundations of Education, joins the Curriculum & Teaching program…Patrick Schmidt, Professor of Music & Music Education, has published extensively in the areas of critical pedagogy, urban music education and policy studies…Tran Nguyen Templeton (Ed.D. ’18, Curriculum & Teaching), Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, explores how childhoods are impacted by larger social practices through the ways young children present, negotiate and configure their identities through photography…

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Aug. 29 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
British Columbia Gov News. B.C. expands early childhood education dual-credit programs for high school students   More students in grades 11 and 12 will be able to earn both high school and post-secondary credits toward careers in early childhood education with the introduction of 30 new dual-credit programs at school districts throughout B.C.

Global News. Dene teacher education program gets $250K from Saskatchewan government    The government is contributing up to $255,000 to the First Nations University of Canada for its Dene teacher education program aimed at educating Saskatchewan students in their first language.

International Task Force on Teachers. Teachers need training and support, not just an internet connection, to deliver quality distance education   …traditional teacher training programmes do not necessarily adequately cover digital and related pedagogical skills in initial teacher training… Initial and in-service teacher education must therefore be re-imagined including these skills and technologies.

New York Times. Mexico Arrests Top Prosecutor in Case of Missing Students and Issues 80 Warrants   The arrest of the former attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, outside his home in Mexico City on Friday afternoon sent shock waves across the country. The Mexican prosecutor’s office said he was charged with “forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice” in the case of the students, young men from a teachers’ college in the rural town of Ayotzinapa.

UNITED STATES
Bank Street College. Towards a National Definition of Teacher Residencies   The Pathways Alliance has developed this definition of teacher residencies to help clarify the field’s use of the term. Our intention with this document is to support local partnership discussions about residency design and improvements and to provide state, regional, and federal leaders with a condensed yet thorough definition…

Bloomberg (Opinion) Merit Pay Is the Solution to Teacher Shortages: To attract better candidates, districts should give teachers what they’re worth.   Rather than dwelling on degrees or other credentials, districts should try to focus more on ability — in part by revamping how teachers are evaluated and paid. Linking teachers’ compensation to their performance would help to raise academic standards, encourage new teachers to pursue professional development, and draw more skilled workers to the profession. 

Brookings. Are we at a crisis point with the public teacher workforce? Education scholars share their perspectives   High rates of underprepared teachers in a district decrease student achievement and, since they are more than twice as likely to leave the profession as fully prepared novices, exacerbate teacher turnover. Teacher turnover also harms student achievement, perpetuates unequal opportunities to learn, impacts teacher effectiveness, erodes the profession’s appeal, and drains district resources. 

Chronicle of Higher Education
. The Shrinking of Higher Ed: In the past, colleges grew their way out of enrollment crises. This time looks different.   The decades following World War II saw an energetic expansion of higher education: Teacher-training schools became full-fledged colleges, community colleges sprang up… Governors in Maryland and Colorado have told state agencies to drop four-year-degree requirements in hiring for state jobs. Under a new law in Arizona, public-school teachers no longer need to have earned a degree, just be enrolled in college.

Education Week.
1) Here’s How the White House Is Tackling Teacher Shortages   The Biden administration has unveiled a three-point plan to address teacher shortages: partner with recruitment firms to find new potential applicants, subsidize other prospective teachers’ training, and pay them more so they’ll stay
2) How Teachers Can Build Productive Relationships With Families   Despite the positive impact strong parent–teacher communication has on student success, teachers-in-training and early-career teachers are not often getting formal instruction or advice on the critical subject.
3) Most Parents Don’t Want Their Kids to Become Teachers, Poll Finds: But American Adults Express High Levels of Trust in Local Schools and Teachers   “There’s a big concern in these numbers about the future of the teaching profession,” said Teresa Preston, director of publications at PDK International…  respondents had a variety of reasons for why they wouldn’t want to see their children become teachers. Nearly 30 percent cited poor pay and benefits; 26 percent said it was because of the difficulties, demands, and stress of the job; 23 percent cited a lack of respect; and 21 percent chose other reasons.

InsideHigherEd.
1) A Market Solution to Teacher Shortages Raises Alarms: For-profit “alternate route” teacher-preparation programs are gaining popularity. Some say they’re key to ending teacher shortages; others fear quality and retention will suffer.   According to a 2021 study by the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, teachers who completed university-based teacher-prep programs had a 24 percent higher retention rate than those who went through alternate-route programs. Alternative teacher-certification programs, unlike colleges of education, don’t need to be accredited to operate; states set their own standards and determine which organizations to approve. 
2) Teacher Education Programs Desperately Seek Students  Education colleges and teacher preparation programs are creating new incentives to lure students, hoping to reverse years of enrollment declines and fill classroom vacancies.

New York Times.
1) How Bad Is the Teacher Shortage? Depends Where You Live …nearly four-fifths of teaching positions… in Arizona schools had to be covered in less-than-ideal ways — by support staff, for example, or teachers in training… Brent Maddin, who leads the Next Education Workforce initiative for teachers at Arizona State University. “If we’re serious about recruiting people into the profession, and retaining people in the profession, in addition to things like compensation we need to be focused on the working conditions,”
2) School Is for Everyone (Guest Essay)   An essential part of Mann’s vision was that public schools should be for everyone, and that children of different class backgrounds should learn together. He pushed to draw wealthier students away from private schools, establish “normal schools” to train teachers (primarily women), have the state take over charitable schools and increase taxes to pay for it all.
3) Twelve public school teachers joined Times Opinion to discuss the state of education today Teaching is a second career for me. And I’ve never had a job where so many people think they could do your job better than you without any training.

Salon (Personal Essay). I’m a teacher educator, and my work has never felt so hopeless   I have found it abundantly necessary to turn to trauma-informed teaching because we, and our future teachers, and their future students, are traumatized and deserve to be heard. Also referred to as social and emotional learning, trauma-informed teaching acknowledges that our students, and their students, and we are people who bring the challenges and trauma of the real world into our classrooms every single day. Which is more than can be said of any current state licensing exam.  

Substack. Dear Teachers You nurture the flames of democracy (by Dan Rather)  Teaching, already an underappreciated profession in this country, is becoming an even less appealing line of work… And we have young idealists with freshly minted teaching certificates wondering whether they can impart their excitement and new ideas into the students before them. 

The74.
1) A ‘National Teacher Shortage’? New Research Reveals Vastly Different Realities Between States & Regions   …three trends are unfolding simultaneously: teacher preparation programs face declining enrollment; respect for and interest in teaching has plummeted; and most districts expanded hiring beyond pre-pandemic numbers with federal relief aid. 
2) ‘Untapped Talent’: TA to BA Teacher Prep Program Scales Six-Fold Amid Shortages   Two years in, fellowship training teaching assistants into lead teachers expands to new cities and “grow-your-own” programs are taking hold nationwide

The White House. FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Public and Private Sector Actions to Strengthen Teaching Profession and Help Schools Fill Vacancies   Paying teachers a livable and competitive wage… Expanding high-quality programs that prepare and support teachers, including registered teacher apprenticeship programs… Public Service Loan Forgiveness Day of Action…

U.S. Dept of Education.
1) Department of Education Makes $8 Million in New Grants Available to Help Colleges Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce   Named for Augustus F. Hawkins, the first Black politician elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from west of the Mississippi River, the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence (Hawkins) program supports comprehensive, high-quality teacher preparation programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).
2) Key Policy Letters Signed by the Education Secretary and Labor Secretary   1. Establish a Registered Apprenticeship Program for Teaching… 2. Increase Collaboration across Workforce and Education Systems… 3. Pay Educators Competitively

Washington Post.
1) Teacher ‘pay penalty’ hits new high: The trend of educators making less money than other college graduates is getting worse  According to the EPI report, the penalty grew to a record high in 2021: to 23.5 percent, meaning that teachers earn that much less than other college graduates… Simply put, teachers are paid less (in weekly wages and total compensation) than their nonteacher college-educated counterparts, and the situation has worsened considerably over time.”
2) Youngkin criticizes trans rules, eases path to becoming a teacher in Va.   The directive also establishes a “teacher occupation apprenticeship” that will let college students in training to be teachers instruct students… requires that state officials come up with legislative proposals that will “reduce red tape associated with teacher licensure.”

WHYY. Gov. Murphy addresses new teacher requirements, bear sightings in N.J.   In June, amid a teacher shortage, the state Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would eliminate a testing requirement for new teachers called “EdTPA.”… “No news on that bill in particular…I haven’t found a lot of folks who like EdTPA,” he said. “But we’re trying to figure out a good landing place to make sure, listen, we’re the number one public education system in America and that begins with the best educators in America.”

WLKY. Bellarmine University awarded $1.45M grant for future math and science teachers   Amid a nationwide teaching shortage, the grant will allow Bellarmine to recruit and prepare highly qualified science and math teachers for Kentucky’s middle and high schools.

WRLN. United Teachers of Dade president chosen as Crist’s running mate   Hernández-Mats attended Miami-Dade public schools before earning a bachelor’s degree at Florida International University… FEA President Andrew Spar said in a prepared statement. “She’s a mom with two kids in our public schools, a teacher focused on students with special needs, and cares deeply about children, families and communities.”

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. New York schools see a big disconnect between spending and test scores. Why?   New York may also be investing in areas without a clear payoff in student learning. It’s one of the few states that requires all of its teachers to obtain master’s degrees, and districts typically boost pay once they do. But research has found only a tenuous link between master’s degrees and effectiveness in the classroom.

New York State Education Department Office of Higher EducationAugust 2022 Educator Preparation Newsletter
* New Director of The Office of College And University Evaluation  We are pleased to announce that Emily Sutherland is the new Director of the Office of College and University Evaluation (OCUE).
* Education Law Section 2-D Guidance for Clinical Experiences In Educator Preparation Programs  In a memo to the field, the New York State Education Department confirms that the placement of a candidate in an educational agency (school, school district, and BOCES) for clinical experience does not require an Education Law section 2-d agreement.
* Alternative Models of Clinical Experiences  Given the current status of the pandemic, the Department does not intend to extend the alternative models of clinical experiences beyond the Summer 2022 term. However, candidates may engage in remote learning with students during their field experiences and student teaching if they are placed in schools that utilize this method of learning, as long as the clinical experiences meet the program requirements and teacher preparation program regulations
* RFP: NYS Americorps Student Support Corps  The New York State Commission on National and Community Service (the Commission) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for AmeriCorps programs that will build a New York State Student Success Corps. The purpose of the Student Success Corps is to address the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on K-12 students in New York State.

NEW YORK CITY
AMNY. New York City parents make plea to Hochul to veto class size bill   However, NYC Mayor Adams – along with parents like Chu – believe that the legislation would cost the Department of Education (DOE) millions of dollars a year to expand classroom space and hire more educators and staff – which is especially challenging with the ongoing national teacher shortage. 

NYDailyNews (Opinion) New York is charting the course on educating dyslexic kids   I’m thrilled that in New York, every teacher will get training related to dyslexia. Teachers aren’t to blame for the state of reading instruction in America. They generally haven’t been given the training or tools they need to help children become great readers, which helps explain why challenges like dyslexia get missed and only one in three U.S. fourth graders is proficient at reading.

Spectrum News. City and union celebrate new teachers Monday   …New York City Teaching Fellows program, which allows fellows to teach while earning their master’s degree and certification.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Aug. 22 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Financial Express. Delhi High Court directs NCTE to open portal for recognising new teachers’ education courses   The high court said that NCTE which is obligated to maintain high standards of teacher education institutions sought to impose a total ban on prospective entrants which would lead to a greater shortage of trained teachers and worsen an already existing crisis.

Kashmir Patriot. President to confer National Teachers Award to Javaid Rather from J&K   Renowned educationist and lecturer of Chemistry, Javaid Ahmad Rather, of Wagoora area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla has been selected for this year’s national teachers award… In 1988, he completed his M.Sc in Chemistry from the University of Kashmir and was appointed as a lecturer in the secondary school education department.

Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). The International Conference in Innovation and Education for Sustainable Human Resource Development  [15-16, November 2022 Online Conference via MS Teams]

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Paraprofessionals Awarded Full-Tuition Scholarships to Become Certified Teachers   More than 35 paraprofessionals working in the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 are set to receive full-tuition scholarships awarded by the Idaho State University College of Education to earn a college degree and teacher certification through the Paraprofessional to Certified Teacher (PaCT) program.

ABC News. President Biden announces student loan forgiveness   Easing the student debt crisis… could also aid a crippling teacher shortage that has caused thousands of staff vacancies at the start of the latest school year… Pinched salaries and rising inflation have had many teachers on edge with the loan forgiveness deadline approaching.

Chalkbeat.
1) Are Colorado teachers the nation’s most underpaid?   Colorado teachers earn almost 36% less than other workers with college degrees… That finding comes from the Economic Policy Institute…that for years has studied the teacher wage penalty, meaning the earnings that teachers forego by not going into another profession that requires similar training and education.
2) I set out to show that men could teach elementary school. Then I changed course.   Two years ago, when I was accepted into the teacher education program at Montclair State University, I decided to work toward a certification to teach kindergarten to sixth grade.
3) Staffing, attendance, behavior: 7 big issues facing schools this year   High-poverty schools have long had trouble recruiting and retaining teachers, and the supply of new educators has dwindled over the past decade as fewer people enroll in teacher-prep programs.

Education Week.
1) Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness: How Much Will It Help Teachers?   K-12 educators are among those who stand to benefit from the cancellation. Like many other professionals, teachers have taken out loans in order to afford the cost of their training. (The majority of teachers are trained in university-based programs that charge by the credit hour.)
2) The Gap Between Teacher Pay and Other Professions Hits a New High. How Bad Is It?   One new analysis conservatively estimates that there are more than 36,500 teacher vacancies across the United States, and the majority of states are experiencing teacher shortages. Yet teacher-preparation enrollment has been declining steadily by about a third in the past decade, which some experts attribute to the low pay and perceived lack of respect.
3) U.S. Education Secretary Cardona: How to Fix Teacher Shortages, Create Safe Schools   What are we doing to tap those students on the shoulder and say, “Here’s a program in your high school that could get you interested in teaching, that could get you some college credits, could get you some scholarship money and we can guarantee you an interview in this district in four years?” Those programs exist, and we’re strongly encouraging the use of American Rescue Plan dollars for this.

Learning Policy Institute. Webinar: The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning   The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning, a brief based off a forthcoming book to be published by Teachers College Press… To gain the skills necessary for creating these classroom environments, teachers must be well prepared, qualified, and supported.  [Tuesday, September 20, 2022 1–2 p.m. PT]

NEA News. ‘Grow Your Own’ Program Helps Build New Teacher Pipeline   A teacher cadet program in North Carolina that offers high school students the opportunity to learn more about teaching as a profession is seeing results.

New York Times.
1) How to Use The Learning Network   Since 1998, The Learning Network has been helping people teach and learn with The New York Times. Here’s how to use our features.
2) White House Pushes Journals to Drop Paywalls on Publicly Funded Research   The policy, hailed by researchers as “transformational,” will be fully in place by 2026 and make publicly financed research available immediately at no cost.

The Hill. Education Department to fund colleges that train more teachers of color   The Department of Education wants to award colleges and universities that train teachers of color more money to grow the nation’s teaching staff and more accurately reflect the demographics of public school classrooms. 

Pi Delta Kappan. The 54th Annual PDK Poll: Local Public School Ratings Rise, Even as the Teaching Profession Loses Ground    The multifaceted nature of the problem requires multifaceted solutions. PDK International, through our Educators Rising program, seeks to spark interest in an education career among students. 

U.S. Dept. of Education. Webinar: Helping Teachers Afford Comprehensive Pathways into the Profession and Achieve Loan Forgiveness   The purpose of this webinar is to discuss how educators can benefit from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, specifically the temporary waiver … set to expires on October 31, 2022. The webinar will also highlight recent improvements to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program and best practices for implementation. [Wed, August 31, 2022 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) ACTION: Final rule.  After a careful review of the public comments received, DHS is now issuing a final rule that implements the proposed rule, with some amendments… a university commented that expanding pathways to DACA would have an immediate positive impact on the number of teachers its teacher preparation program could produce, addressing needs in their State to increase the number of teachers who reflect the State’s diverse demographics.

Vox. The chaotic teacher shortage debate, explained   “There is definitely a crisis of morale and confidence. The belief that one can do good work and do good for young people and have a rewarding, satisfying career in teaching has gone down the tubes,” said Dirck Roosevelt, the director of doctoral specialization in teacher education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. 

Wall Street Journal [D. Buck Opinion] Education Schools Have Long Been Mediocre. Now They’re Woke Too   The Teachers College at Columbia University has more than 90,000 alumni. These institutions are producing a teaching workforce imbued with a radical ideology but lacking instructional skills. Their influence over thought, policy, instructional practice and curricula is far-reaching.

Washington Post
. 10 other ways to get your student loans forgiven   1. Public Service Loan Forgiveness program This federal program is designed to entice college graduates to go into teaching, law enforcement and other public sector jobs with the promise of debt forgiveness after years of service. 2. Teacher Loan Forgiveness program Educators have a few options to alleviate the burden of student debt. In addition to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), elementary and secondary school teachers are eligible for the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. 3. Perkins loan forgiveness Perkins loans are ineligible for PSLF and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. But teachers, nurses, firefighters, speech pathologists and other public servants can still have those loans canceled…

NEW YORK STATE
Chalkbeat. Gov. Hochul says she supports bill to cap NYC school class sizes

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU).  CICU EPPs Quarterly Meeting with NYSED [Sep 22, 2022 01:00 PM]

NYSED Office of College and University Evaluation. Ed Law 2-d Guidance for Clinical Experiences in Educator Preparation   … the placement of a candidate in an educational agency (school, school district, and BOCES) for clinical experience does not require an Education Law section 2-D agreement.

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College. 5 Must-Read Books on Race & Inclusion for Teachers   “This book will open your mind to trust in the power of our resilience and the tenacity of our spirit to remember and live our practice from positions of power and strength,” says Mensah, whose scholarship often bridges science teacher education and multicultural inclusion.

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Aug. 15 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
New York Times.
1) Clean Toilets, Inspired Teachers: How India’s Capital Is Fixing Its Schools   In the summer of 2016, the government held training sessions with over 25,000 teachers. In addition to the usual subject-matter training, it selected teachers from within the public school system to offer training on the basics of teaching. Those sessions focused on building a personal connection with students.
2) Mexico Says Disappearance of 43 Students Was a ‘Crime of the State’: The authorities said for the first time that the state had been a key player in the likely massacre of students from a teachers’ college in 2014.   The violent abduction and disappearance of the students, young men from a teachers’ college in the rural town of Ayotzinapa, and a subsequent cover-up that the commission confirmed extended to some of the highest national offices, have long been sources of national outrage, underscoring the cartel-fueled carnage and insidious state corruption that continue to wrack the country.

The Guardian.
1) No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: Australian media must change conversation about the profession   If all people hear is that teachers are to “blame” for poor standards and they should be finding their demanding, complex jobs easy, this is hardly likely to encourage people into the profession. Nor does it give those already there the support and respect they need to stay.
2) ‘She asked me, will they kill you if they discover you?’: Afghan girls defy education ban at secret schools   …many Afghans remember last time the group controlled Afghanistan, when a “temporary” closure of girls’ schools endured for their entire six-year rule. So as girls slid into depression, robbed of their dreams of becoming doctors, pilots, engineers, teachers, women and men around Afghanistan began fighting back.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Butler University’s Program Provides Training for Teachers with Alternative Credentials   Butler University is addressing Indiana’s teacher shortage through a new program designed to support new teachers, alternatively credentialed teachers, emergency-permitted teachers, or long-term substitute teachers with the training they need to succeed in the classroom. Butler’s first cohort of teachers will begin the first module of training in its “Teacher-Led, Teacher Education” program at the end of August.

Chalkbeat. Michigan programs provide route for second-career teachers. Are they rigorous enough?   The new pathway serves prospective teachers from all areas of the state. It’s one of a growing number of programs in Michigan to help people with bachelor’s degrees in other fields quickly become certified educators… In the Michigan Alternative Route to Certification, known as M-ARC, candidates spend five months in online courses and two weeks student teaching under the watch of field instructors, who provide daily feedback. That’s a fraction of the time required to complete a four-year education degree. At $9,000, it’s also a fraction of the cost.

Education Week.
1) A Dallas Principal Lost a Fifth of Her Teachers. Can She Hire Enough by the First Day?   DISD trustees approved a waiver in June that allows elementary schools to hire recruits without a teaching certification, as long as they do training during the school year and hit certain academic benchmarks, such as having a college degree.
2) When It Comes to the Teacher Shortage, Who’s Abandoning Whom?   A just released study from Australia analyzed 65,000 news articles about teachers covering the last 25 years. The headline: “No wonder no one wants to be a teacher.” The author drew three conclusions: “We are fixated on teacher quality,” “teacher work is made out to be simple (it’s not),” and “teacher bashing is the norm.” [See The Guardian link above]

edTPA.org. Community Newsletter August 2022

NEA News. Cancel Your Student Debt   NEA’s student debt experts have created tools designed to help educators through the complicated student debt system.

NBC News. Teachers say in new survey they’re being told not to talk about racism and race   “Teachers are disheartened by these things because they know how important it is for students of color and queer students and Muslim students to see themselves represented…“How do you recruit teachers in this climate?” said Bettina Love, co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and an education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Reuters. Fact Check-New Florida scheme allows veterans – not their spouses – to a temporary teaching certificate without having completed a college degree    A story online about the wife of a veteran who was able to get a teaching certificate just by observing teachers for 12 hours misrepresents the state’s requirements; spouses of veterans must meet all the normal requirements for a teaching certificate, including a college degree… A separate scheme called the Military Veteran Certification Pathway allows veterans, but not their spouses, with at least 60 college credits to apply for a temporary teaching certificate… 

NJ.com. Is this test required? New teachers await governor’s answer before school starts.   The state Assembly and Senate unanimously passed a bill eliminating a time-consuming, unpopular test as a requirement for new teachers in New Jersey on June 29…But more than six weeks later, the bill remains unsigned by Gov. Phil Murphy…The test, known as edTPA, administered by Pearson Education Inc., became a requirement in 2014 to raise the standards for teaching candidates. But many newly-trained teachers consider the $300 test redundant, as teacher preparation programs require them to show similar skills. 

Wall Street Journal. Schools Are Looking in Unusual Places to Deal with Teacher Shortage   Districts turn to virtual teachers, military veterans and college students during tough hiring season

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC wants to change the way students learn to read. Here’s how.   Katie Pace Miles, an associate professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY, offered a possible solution:  scaling up tutoring programs with teachers-in-training. This past year CUNY trained 650 students from the university system’s education schools in “evidence- and research-based programs” and placed them in schools where they worked one-on-one with first and second graders..

City & State. NYC schools chancellor talks about preparing students for the real world: At City & State’s Education Summit, David Banks laid out the legacy he hopes to leave behind in the country’s largest school system.   Now, all elementary schools are now required to adopt a phonics-based reading program for the coming school year…Officials will also train educators across the city to identify students with dyslexia and learn how to better teach them

New York Public Library. Culturally Responsive Back-to-School Titles for Students and Educators   The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools is celebrating back to school with teachers, students, and families across New York City with engaging titles for every age.

 

Categories
Teacher Education

Week of Aug. 8 in Teacher Ed News

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). 2022 Annual Conference [29-31 Aug. Riga, Latvia]

Teachers College. Your Inside Look at Building Mathematics Education in the Philippines: Explore international teacher education in the area of Daraga through the eyes of alumnus Benjamin Dickman (Ph.D. ’14)   … Dickman, a mathematics teacher at Manhattan’s Hewitt School and a researcher specializing in problem posing and teacher education. With the support of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Short-Term Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Dickman traveled over 8,500 miles this summer to lead teacher education programming related to his areas of work

Sydney Morning Herald. A teacher surplus is hiding in plain sight   If Australia’s teachers were more equitably distributed, our teacher-supply problem would be significantly eased. This would be especially so in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. Public schools and some Catholic schools are being starved of teachers while, in number terms, wealthier independent schools have a surplus.

UNESCO/EducationInternational. Teachers have their say: Motivation, skills and opportunities to teach education for sustainable development and global citizenship   The message is clear: Teachers need more support from schools, training institutions, communities, education systems and governments at all levels, if they are to succeed in imbuing the next generations with the principles and behaviours that enable the building of more sustainable ways of life.

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).
1) Innovative Teacher Pathway Program Removes Barriers for Career Changers   The Kansas State University College of Education is adding a new pathway to the teaching profession for career changers who want or need to work full time while pursuing their teaching license and master’s degree in education. The Kansas State Board of Education recently approved the Master of Arts in teaching residency, which leads to elementary licensure. It is an 18-month online program with three entry points each year: August, May and December. 
2) The Growth and Impact of Alternative Certification: Findings from Two Studies [Webinar Aug. 29 3:30 ET]

Apprenticeship.gov. National Apprenticeship Week: Event and Proclamation Resources [Nov. 14-20]

Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP).
AAQEP Institute [Sept 22-23, Kansas City, MO]

Chalkbeat.
1) Is there a national teacher shortage? Here’s what we know and don’t know.   Adding to the challenge: a decline in interest in teaching pre-dating the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the number of college students training to become teachers was steadily declining…If that decline continues, that could create a bigger and longer-term challenge for schools with open roles to fill.
2) Schools need tutors and mentors. Can a new federal initiative find 250,000?   AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith said at a White House event on recovery efforts in early July. “But it takes money. It takes positions. It takes someone to come in and recruit, manage and train them.”

Chronicle of Higher Ed. University Refuses to Fire Professor Accused of Saying Black Children Learn Better by Chanting, Singing   Jeanine Huss, a tenured professor in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences who has worked at the university since 2005, was accused of incompetence… Susan Keesey, interim director of the School of Teacher Education, a division of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, met with Huss in June 2021 to show her the negative student evaluations and set goals for her improvement. Huss was given a smaller workload for the following academic year…

Education Week.
1) States Crack Open the Door to Teachers Without College Degrees   In Arizona, people can now start training to become a teacher without a bachelor’s degree, as long as they are enrolled in college and are supervised by a licensed teacher… And in Florida, military veterans without a bachelor’s degree can now receive a five-year teaching certificate, as long as they have completed at least 60 college credits with a 2.5 grade point average and can pass a state exam to demonstrate mastery of subject-area knowledge. 
2) ‘We Are Desperate, Too’: A Message From a Teacher-Educator Higher education and K-12 have more to offer each other. Here are 4 important steps   1. Concentrate teacher-candidates in one school or district. 2. Offer each teacher-candidate regular coaching from both K-12 and higher education personnel. 3. Make deliberate connections between field duties and assignments, with higher education personnel supporting each individual candidate. 4. Place teacher-candidates with teacher-mentors who have demonstrated effectiveness in the classroom.
3) What It Will Take to Recruit Teachers in a Tough Job Market   …Walton says, job candidates—especially those coming out of teacher-preparation programs aware of the teacher shortage—are not afraid to leverage the situation to their advantage.
4) When the ‘Science of Reading’ Goes Too Far : How we assess reading shapes how we teach reading   … teachers must actively support students’ comprehension. This means two things. First, we must teach comprehension as a multidimensional experience… Second, supporting students’ comprehension means nurturing what’s called active self-regulation—the ability to monitor our understanding and adjust our reading when something doesn’t make sense.

InsiderHigherEd. The Campus Child Care Crisis: Emporia State will close its campus child care center next year. Parents are pushing back, highlighting the nationwide shortage of affordable options in higher education and beyond.   Part of the reason for the change is that the center was initially a “laboratory school for our students in the teacher’s college,” Larson said. But, over the years, the teacher’s education program has evolved and now sends students into K-12 classrooms across the state, meaning the center was no longer needed as a training ground.

NYTimes. Trained, Armed and Ready. To Teach Kindergarten: More school employees are carrying guns to defend against school shootings. In Ohio, a contentious new law requires no more than 24 hours of training.   “This is a very reactive way to think about gun violence prevention,” said Sonali Rajan, an associate professor at Teachers College…who studies school gun violence. School gunmen are often teenagers in suicidal crisis. To intercept them beforehand, experts recommend mental health support, systems to identify children who may become threats and tighter gun laws…

TeachingWorks. Helmsley Charitable Trust Grants $1.1 Million to TeachingWorks   The goal of the grant is to support the establishment of rigorous standards for entry to teaching, and to partner with teacher preparation programs in developing ways to prepare teacher candidates to reach this threshold of practice. The mission of TeachingWorks is to ensure that novice teachers are ready for responsible beginning practice.

The 74.
1) Inside How Texas Trains Teachers to Carry Guns: The state is considering increased training and money to arm more school employees after the Uvalde shooting   The state has not modified its preparation courses based on what happened in Uvalde…
2) Students with Disabilities Often Overlooked in Gifted Programming: These “twice exceptional” children face unique challenges: Their disability can mask their smarts, leaving their talents undiscovered at school   Teachers should be better trained to spot these students and they should be admitted on a rolling basis… it’s easy for teachers without proper training to correlate low test scores to low skills…  
3) Want To Become a Teacher? You Could Land a $25K Signing Bonus   As labor shortages continue to plague schools across the county, districts are offering thousands of dollars in signing bonuses to entice new teachers…

University of Colorado
. First-of-its-kind teacher apprenticeship program launched at UCCS   The program was approved by the United States Department of Labor as the first registered K-12 Teacher Apprenticeship Program in Colorado. There is an application process, and some classroom experience is required. But once participants take a certain number of classes and show competency in a few key areas, they can move to the next level in the apprenticeship, which allows them to have their own classroom.  

USA Today. From preschool teachers to professors: A breakdown of teacher salaries.   Primary and secondary school teaching positions require a bachelor’s degree and a certification from the state where you intend to teach. Certifications vary state to state… Teaching assistant positions can be a necessary part of a bachelor’s degree or part-time work for some. Teacher assistants work with a licensed teacher and aid learning in the classroom… the typical entry level education for a principal is a master’s degree… 

VT Digger. A standardized test is keeping potential teachers out of the workforce. Vermont wants to make it optional.   To become a licensed teacher in Vermont — in any grade or subject area — applicants must receive a passing grade on the Praxis Core test… “The Praxis Core becomes an assessment of how good your high school was,” said Patrick Halladay, director of the Education Quality Division at the Agency of Education. “And so, if I came from a less advantaged neighborhood and went to a less advantaged high school, I probably didn’t do as well on the Praxis Core.”

Washington Post. ‘Never seen it this bad’: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage   Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children…

NEW YORK STATE
Democrat & Chronicle. New York law will survey schools on how they’re teaching about the Holocaust   The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center is a nonprofit that for over three decades has trained educators on how to teach about the Holocaust and its lessons regarding human rights.

New York State Education Department Office of Higher Education. Educator Preparation Newsletter July 2022
1) New Director Of Teacher Certification  Jennifer Pendleton is the new Director of Teacher Certification in the Office of Teaching Initiatives.
2) 2022 Education In New York Summit [Aug. 18 NYC Museum of Jewish Heritage]
3) Board of Regents July Items
* Residency Programs and Certificate.
* Graduate Program Admissions Requirements.
* NYSED Guidance Related to Insurance and Student Teachers
* Teaching In Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments (TRLE) Request for Proposals
* Teaching In Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments (TRLE) Framework Released
* Institution Of Higher Education CTLE Sponsor Renewal Process for Expired Terms

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.  Peace Corps Perspectives in the Classroom: Meet Zachary Gomes, who through the College’s Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows Program, is leveraging his unique background and skills to improve learning classroom experiences   Gomes is just one of 750 Peace Corps volunteers who have received tuition support for their education – agreeing to parlay their skills and unique experiences to teach in New York City public schools… now in TC’s Social Studies Education program and a 7th grade teacher in Harlem.