Tag: teachers

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.

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.”

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.

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.

GLOBAL
Philippine Star. CHED to review moratorium on new teacher education programs   Following its decision to lift the moratorium on new nursing programs, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said it will also review the existing rule prohibiting higher education institutions from opening new degree program on teacher education.

The Conversation. Growing numbers of unqualified teachers are being sent into classrooms – this is not the way to ‘fix’ the teacher shortage   Our colleagues around Australia are regularly telling us about their students being recruited into paid teaching roles with special permissions to teach. This can be as early as their first, second or third year of study… Putting student teachers in the classroom to help deal with the teacher shortage seems logical. But it is a quick and risky fix

Washington Post. Russia sending teachers to Ukraine to control what students learn: The Kremlin is promising teachers big money to ‘prepare schools’ in Ukrainian regions its forces now occupy   Several days after the head of Putin’s party announced this month that a “brigade” of student teachers had reached Ukraine, Kravtsov visited a city in the northeast and said the first batch of Russian textbooks, including language and history books, had arrived. Ukrainian children, he noted, must be educated in “traditions of friendship” with Russians… Larisa expects history teachers to have the most difficult task: changing Ukrainian students’ views of their country’s past to fit Russian government demands.

UNITED STATES
AL.com. Alabama lowers teacher certification, Praxis requirements, effective immediately   If the teacher scores within one standard error measure of the required passing score, passes the edTPA, has graduated from an Alabama college or university but does not have at least a 2.75, the teacher can be given a non-professional temporary certificate for up to three years while they work toward either a passing score on the Praxis or complete 100 hours of professional learning approved by the state department of education.

Chalkbeat.
1) MSCS reports over 200 teacher vacancies three weeks before school starts   In Tennessee, the latest report card on the state’s 43 teacher training programs found that the number of new educators graduating has dropped by nearly one-fifth over five years, leading the state Department of Education and the University of Tennessee system this spring to announce a $20 million Grow Your Own Center to create new paths to the teaching profession.
2) Pennsylvania aims to reverse decline in new teachers, diversify K-12 workforce   …improve pathways to Pennsylvania teacher certification for teachers prepared out of state… puts in place a talent recruitment grant program for colleges to increase participation in the education workforce, and waives the basic skills assessment for education candidates for three years. 

Chronicle. A College’s Explosive Online Growth Drew Scrutiny. Now the Feds Are Stepping In.   In a blistering three-page letter sent to Eastern Gateway Community College this week, federal education officials ordered an immediate halt to the program…The college, federal officials say, used Pell Grant and state financial-aid dollars from students to finance its “free” college offerings, but it improperly waived all tuition costs for students who didn’t qualify for financial aid.. Students in the program could pursue degrees in such fields as accounting, criminal justice, health-care administration, and teacher education.

Education Week.
1) AFT Head Randi Weingarten to Conservatives: Stop Politicizing Education and Let Teachers Teach   They do not care about children’s knowledge if they are watering down credentialing so that you do not have people who know their content, know how to teach. That has always been signified by a college diploma, and they would never do it in the professions or the occupations they thought were important. It shows you why they don’t think teaching is important.
2) Which States Have Passed ‘Science of Reading’ Laws? What’s in Them?   These mandates touch on many different components of instruction, including teacher training, curriculum, and how students are identified for extra support.
3) Why Putting the ‘Science of Reading’ Into Practice Is So Challenging   Some districts have tried to use data to make the case for the science of reading, using stagnant student achievement scores to argue that current methods aren’t working. Leaders stress that they’re not trying to blame or shame teachers, but to help them use methods that weren’t emphasized in their preparation. 

Hechinger Report. The paradox of ‘good’ teaching: Researchers find a tradeoff between raising achievement and engaging students   Researchers like Blazar dream of developing a “science of teaching,” so that schools of education and school coaches can better train teachers to teach well. But first we need to agree what we want teachers to do and what we want students to achieve.

Inside Higher Ed.
1) Democrats Want Public Service Loan Waiver Made Permanent   The waiver was announced by the Biden administration in late 2021 and was designed to eliminate bureaucratic red tape that made the program confusing and inaccessible to eligible borrowers working in public service jobs like teaching, nursing or military service. The waiver is only temporary, however, and is set to expire at the end of October.
2) Hillsdale President Clarifies Criticism of Teachers   “Dumb can mean ‘unintelligent,’ which I did not mean. Dumb also means ‘ill-conceived’ or ‘misdirected,’ which is, sadly, a fitting description for many education schools today. Professors of college and graduate education programs primarily teach methods. To be sure, methods are important in almost any human activity, but they are seldom the chief object…”

NJ.com. Some new college grads are ditching plans to become N.J. teachers. Here’s why.   …a number of recent college graduates in New Jersey who studied education but have decided not to become teachers. Their reasons vary, but experts say some students are giving up on their plans to teach over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, well-publicized fights over race and gender curriculum and a general lack of support for educators in the classroom.

Philly Voice. Pennsylvania seeks to reverse teacher shortage, diversify staff in K-12 schools with new plan: The state’s Department of Education hopes to recruit and retain thousands of educators over the next three years   …amend the Public School Code and eliminate the basic skills assessment required for entry into an educator preparation program. This amendment was approved earlier this month, waiving the requirement for the next three years. Other approved amendments include improved pathways to certification for teachers coming into Pennsylvania from other states. 

Teachers College. Meet Four TC Alumni Leading Education in Big Ways: Four education champions are the latest to join the ranks of TC alumni in major leadership roles throughout the education sector   Chrystalla Mouza (Ed.D. ’02, M.Ed. ’99, M.A ’98) is the new Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign… Holding degrees from both TC’s English Education and Education Leadership programs, Matt Wayne began his career in New York City public schools before relocating for leadership positions in northern California.

The74.  Despite Urgency, New National Tutoring Effort Could Take 6 Months to Ramp Up   Some districts, she said, hire “surplus” educators who don’t yet have a classroom position, retired teachers and those still in teacher preparation programs.

US Dept. of Education Federal Student Aid. PSLF Waiver Offers Way to Get Closer to Loan Forgiveness   … change to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program rules for a limited time as a result of the COVID-19 emergency. Now, for a limited time, borrowers may receive credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF.

NEW YORK STATE
News 1. What’s causing massive staff shortages in New York public schools   Administrators say many leave to teach in other states that have fewer hoops to jump through. The New York State Department of Education said it’s working to enhance the talent pipeline and remove barriers that impede candidates from teaching

NYSED. New Framework, Resources Available to Support Ongoing Success of Remote and Hybrid Teaching and Learning   The QRT is a framework for statewide support and continuing success for teaching both in a remote/hybrid learning environment and to facilitate the use of technology in traditional classrooms, using lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic over the last three school years. It is intended to help teachers navigate the broad landscape of teaching, utilizing technology both in-person and online, and learning