GLOBAL
New York Times. Why Did a Drug Gang Kill 43 Students? Text Messages Hold Clues. Why did Guerreros Unidos execute a group of 43 students who were training to be teachers and had nothing to do with organized crime?… What’s clear is that the horror started on Sept. 26, 2014, when dozens of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College traveled to Iguala, in the state of Guerrero. They commandeered several buses to go to a march in Mexico City, a tradition the authorities had tolerated in the past… So, when dozens of young men swept into the city of Iguala on passenger buses — not unlike the ones the cartel used to smuggle drugs into the United States — the traffickers mistook their convoy for an intrusion by enemies and gave the order to attack
UNITED STATES
AACTE. A New Opportunity for Candidates to Observe Classrooms with ATLAS AACTE has already provided webinar resources (Part 1 and Part 2) on how to use ATLAS as a tool and framework for using video resources in teacher preparation, and is now excited to offer you this tool at a reduced cost for those who register for a new subscription before the end of the year.
Chronicle of Higher Education. Transitions: New Chancellor Named for the California State U. System; Stanford U. President to Step Down André Green, a professor of leadership and teacher education and associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of South Alabama, has been named dean of the College of Education at East Carolina University.
Education Week.
1) 6 Challenges for Early Educators as Preschool Growth Halts “We found unprecedented teacher shortages as well as waivers to education and specialized training requirements resulting in fewer qualified teachers in preschool classrooms,” NIEER researchers concluded.
2) Public Schools Rely on Underpaid Female Labor. It’s Not Sustainable Becoming a teacher became an option for women around the mid-19th century. But for years afterward, female teachers would often have to resign if they got married or became pregnant. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century, in fact, that those conditions changed. “The career opened up so women could actually make a lifetime commitment to teaching,” said Susan Moore Johnson, a professor of education at Harvard University… “Teaching was traditionally a career that women might be drawn to if they really wanted to prioritize family, but it’s no longer the best option,” said Williamson, the Southern California English teacher.
3) What Teacher-Preparation Enrollment Looks Like, in Charts The data reveals a significant national decline in enrollment that now seems to be leveling out. Still, the number of education students in the United States declined by about a quarter of a million between 2008 and 2020.
InsideHigherEd. WVU Proposes No Language Degrees, Just Chinese and Spanish Courses …now proposing to offer courses in Chinese and Spanish—while still jettisoning the department’s teaching of Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian… The department’s current foreign language majors are French, Spanish, Chinese studies, German studies and Russian studies, and it offers master’s degrees in linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).
New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NJACTE). CFP: 6th Annual Diversifying the Teacher Workforce Convening (Proposal Deadline: September 10, 2023)
Wall Street Journal. Welcome Back to School. Your Teacher Is 2,000 Miles Away: Some parents remain skeptical of piped-in teachers, while schools say they don’t have a choice The virtual teachers typically must have state-issued teaching credentials. Many are former full-time teachers looking for more flexible hours or retirees who still want to work a bit. Some companies, such as Austin-based Proximity Learning, are tapping U.S.-certified teachers from countries like Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines.
Washington Post.
1) After uproar, WVU to keep some foreign language classes, but not all There would be no more bachelor’s degrees at WVU in those languages or in Chinese or Spanish, and there would be no more master’s degrees in linguistics or in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)… Many faculty at WVU remain distressed. Tuesday’s announcement provided little comfort to those who have devoted their careers to teaching foreign language and literature.
2) Biden administration cancels loans for former Ashford U. students, with plans to recoup costs Under its previous ownership, Ashford’s recruiters told students they would be able to work as teachers, social workers, nurses and drug and alcohol counselors, but the school never got accreditation for those professions, according to California’s lawsuit.
3) In a crisis, schools are 100,000 mental health staff short In a moment that seems to plead for creativity, educators are finding new ways to bring support into schools. Some universities are expanding counseling programs, hoping to produce more graduates.
NEW YORK STATE
Univ of Buffalo. Tackling the teacher shortage requires a multifaceted approach, UB expert says Addressing teacher shortages effectively requires a multifaceted approach that prioritizes teacher quality, diversity, and retention. Research indicates that teacher residency programs, such as the one we have in our Graduate School of Education, can achieve these goals; thus, we have recently transitioned all of our teacher certification programs to culminate in residency… says Julie Gorlewski, PhD, professor and senior associate dean of academic affairs and teacher education
NEW YORK CITY
Gothamist. NYC school year set to begin with thousands of new migrant students There are more than 3,400 teachers in the city’s public schools certified to teach English as a new language. At least 1,700 other teachers are fluent in Spanish, Banks said. Those numbers are not a significant increase compared to figures reported by Gothamist in December, when educators said the school system was scrambling to meet migrant students’ basic needs. At that time, teachers described relying on bilingual students or translation apps to communicate with migrant kids.
Teachers College. Advancing Literacy Through Teachers College Programs, Research and Partnerships To support this objective, the work of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) and its staff will transition to an Advancing Literacy unit within TC’s Continuing Professional Studies (CPS) division for the 2023-2024 year, a return to its original professional development roots. The entity TCRWP, founded in 1981, will be dissolved as part of this shift. TC is working to align the work of TC staff with the needs of school districts and changes in reading curriculum locally and nationwide… For many years, TCRWP’s founding director Lucy Calkins led efforts to support teachers as they develop students as readers and writers. Dr. Calkins has stepped down as Director of the Reading and Writing Project. She is Robinson Professor in Children’s Literature at Teachers College, a tenured faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, on sabbatical during the 2023-2024 academic year.