Tag: Teaching

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Call for papers & proposals 2022 Winter Conference  Teaching and Learning for an Inclusive, Interconnected World [deadline 15 January]

British Columbia News. Legislative changes to support First Nations jurisdiction over education   First Nations participating in the education jurisdiction initiative in B.C. will soon be able to certify and regulate teachers who work in schools under their jurisdiction… Supporting First Nations control over First Nations education, including greater control over teacher certification and regulation, will lead to improved outcomes for students.

National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE). More Than Money: The U.K. Approach to Attracting and Keeping Teachers   While the strategy does include financial incentives like loan forgiveness and bonuses for teacher candidates training to teach in-demand subjects or in high-need districts, these are only one component of a multi-pronged approach. Key among the provisions is the creation of an early career framework that requires two years of structured supports, including mentoring, for new teachers…

The Independent (Uganda). Universities, colleges disregard changes in teacher education policy   Effective this year, the Ministry of Education and Sports through the 2019 National Teacher Policy, phased out lower qualifications for teachers in favour of degree programmes. According to the policy direction, the ministry also stipulated that the teacher degree programme will be running for four years instead of the normal three… Makerere has also established collaboration with Uganda National Teacher Institute-UNITE which is currently being prepared to handle issues of teacher education to see how the transition period can be handled.

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Early Bird Registration Deadline for #AACTE22  Register by midnight on November 22 to take advantage of discounted early bird rates [login required].

Chalkbeat. Illinois wants to diversify teacher ranks. Will a pilot program help?    The state board of education announced on Thursday that 24 Illinois colleges and universities have volunteered to develop plans to recruit and retain future teachers of color. The pilot will help the board create best practices for 54 of the state’s teacher prep programs to develop plans the following year.

Columbia Daily Tribune. The profession that prepares people for all other professions is diminishing. Help is on the way.   The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education this week launched TeachMo.org, calling it a “digitally powered recruitment platform” to identify and cultivate new teachers. It’s a collaboration with TEACH, a national, not-for-profit organization. The plan also will include $50 million over the next three years for retention and recruitment.

Education Week.
1) ‘More Than a Demographic’: The Important Work of Cultivating Native Teachers.  For nearly two decades, the Sapsik’ʷałá teacher education program has worked with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes to create a career pathway to address the tremendous gap in Native teacher representation in the classroom… Sapsik’ʷałá students pay nothing to be in the program, but they agree to work for two years in schools with a high percentage of Native students after graduating.
2) What New Teachers Need: Any new job is hard. But the stakes are too high to let new teachers flounder   …some data suggest that most teacher-preparation programs fail to adequately prepare future teachers to lead classrooms. An examination of 1,100 college-based teacher-preparation programs by the National Council on Teacher Quality evaluated 4 out of 5 as mediocre at best. Insufficient student-teaching experience is a commonly identified weakness of teacher-preparation programs.

Hechinger Report. Retraining an entire state’s elementary teachers in the science of reading: North Carolina passed a law to make every school replicate how reading is taught in its most successful classrooms   Whether educators can effectively teach reading often depends on how they were taught in college. It’s more important than the curriculum they use, said Shawn Clemons, the director of accountability at Hickory Public Schools. “Institutions of higher education don’t always teach the students how to teach reading,” Clemons said.

Indian Country Today. Supporting Arizona’s Indigenous students through the pandemic and beyond: Arizona Department of Education targets federal recovery dollars to support Native American students   University of Arizona… Indigenous Teacher Education Program’s collective vision and dedication center on Indigenous cultures, histories, Indigenous knowledge systems and values, and ensuring that they are better equipped to teach Native students.

LA School Report. California aims to come from behind in making sure children learn to read, but some see new push as political   Senate Bill 488, now law, would aim to make sure that doesn’t happen to new teachers entering the field. The legislation requires colleges and universities to meet higher standards for ensuring that new teachers can teach “foundational reading skills” and have strategies for supporting English learners. The state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing will certify teacher preparation programs, and candidates for elementary and special education teaching positions will have to pass a new literacy assessment, beginning July 2025. 

National Academy of Education. Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs. A Tale of Two Cities: State Evaluation Systems of Teacher Preparation Programs   … this landscape analysis report presents information and data about state evaluation standards for teacher preparation programs and providers. 

NEA News. What is Quality Teaching and How is It Supported?: An NEA policy forum explores what it takes to create a force of “profession-ready” teachers.  Changes in teacher preparation and ongoing professional development are critical in creating “profession ready” educators… New funding from the American Rescue Plan must be targeted to preparing and recruiting more teachers, especially teachers of color.

Washington Post. Charlottesville labeled 86 percent of students as gifted. Will learning improve?   Renzulli and Reis, the University of Connecticut scholars who created the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, said in a joint statement that Charlottesville “has taken an important step.” They said they hope the model “will be implemented with fidelity by hiring teachers who are trained in our approach.”

NEW YORK STATE
Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. Statement by Lola W. Brabham, The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities President, on the signing of S.5666/A.7490 and S.6600/A.7491 into law.  “Governor Hochul’s action paves the way for more New Yorkers to pursue their passion for teaching by obtaining graduate degrees in education and school leadership. CICU member campuses are proud to educate nearly 60 percent of all future teachers and school leaders who earn bachelor’s and graduate degrees in New York…we thank the bills’ sponsors, Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, for their unwavering commitment to independent higher education in New York.”

Governor Hochul. NEW LEGISLATION: Admission Requirements for Graduate-Level Teacher and Educational Leader Programs
1) S5666/A7490 has been signed by Governor Kathy Hochul  Relates to the maximum percentage of students that can be exempted from the admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs   Increases the percentage of students from any incoming class who can be exempted from the admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs from no more than fifteen percent to fifty percent.
2) S6600/A7491A has been signed by Governor Kathy Hochul  Relates to SUNY admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs   Relates to SUNY admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs; removes the requirement for a minimum score on the graduate record examination or similar examination.

NYSED Board of Regents. November meeting agenda
Higher Education Committee
* Proposed Amendment to Section 80-1.1 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Definition of a Year of Experience for Permanent or Professional Certification  “the Department is proposing to revise the definition to provide a single definition of a year of experience for Permanent or Professional certification, which would be defined as: a minimum of 180 days in a 12-month period of full-time satisfactory experience, or its equivalent, in an educational setting acceptable to the Department.”
* 2022-2023 Non-State Aid Budget and Legislative Priorities: New Non-State Aid Budget Priorities – Higher Education    Improving the Teacher & School Building Leader Certification Process – In addition to other noted efforts, increase staffing levels in the Office of Teaching Initiatives (OTI) to improve the current teacher and school building leader certification review process timeframes.
* Educator Certification Reform

NEW YORK CITY
Teachers College.
1) College Celebrates New Faculty Appointments
*Limarys Caraballo is joining the English Education program as an Associate Professor in the Department of Arts and Humanities… Her work seeks to build upon youth’s critical epistemologies to transform and reimagine teacher preparation…Caraballo is also a Teacher Opportunity Corps faculty advisor in the Office of Teacher Education.
* Mary Mendenhall, who previously served as Associate Professor of Practice at the College, has been named an Associate Professor in the International & Comparative Education program. A recognized leader in the research, training and support of teachers in refugee camps and under-represented nations, Mendenhall has gained acclaim in international circles for “Teachers for Teachers”
2) New Research and Applications for Teaching Reading Workshop; January 7, 2022 – February 20, 2022 (12 Clock Hours CTLE)

GLOBAL
OneIndia. Gender neutral teacher training manual: Rectify anomalies says NCPCR.  The new manual for teachers aims to educate and sensitise them towards the LGBTQ+ community and different gender orientations. It highlights practices and strategies to make schools sensitive and inclusive for transgender and gender non-conforming children.

Teachers Task Force.
1) 13th International Policy Dialogue Forum [1-3 December; Kigali, Rwanda and on-line]
2) Qualified teachers urgently needed – What TIMSS data reveal about teacher training and student learning.  The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an international assessment of student achievement, can shed light on teacher quality. 

UNITED STATES
AACTE. Board of Directors Election Now Open through Nov. 30. [sign-in required]

Chalkbeat. First 8 Memphis gives $1M to NEXT Memphis to strengthen early education   NEXT Memphis is a shared services child care initiative housed at Porter Leath that provides high-quality education and health services for children, including advice from early childhood experts, training and support for teachers, and business assistance for child care centers. 

Daily Citizen. Dodge County schools work to solve substitute teacher shortage.  A traditional sub must be licensed through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a teacher or a substitute teacher. Anyone without a license must possess an associate’s degree or higher and participate in 8 hours of substitute teacher training.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram. This program is raising wages, quality in the child care workforce. Here’s how it works   In Tarrant County, where only 21% of licensed child care providers are part of a quality rating and improvement system, the apprenticeship program facilitated by Camp Fire … Lyn Lucas, the senior vice president of Early Education and Program Evaluation for Camp Fire First. “Apprenticeships have long been the answer to industry shortages in all kinds of industries, and right now we know that we have a serious shortage of quality early education teachers.”

NEAToday.
1) ‘Grow Your Own’ Programs Produce Pathways for ESPs: Recruiting education support professionals to pursue teaching certification creates career growth and educator diversity in school communities.   The programs are designed to harvest promising teacher candidates from local communities and school systems to not only offer a career path for education support professionals (ESPs) but to create a more diverse teaching force that reflects the student population.
2) Substitute Teacher Shortage Causes More School Disruptions  Some districts are raising pay for subs, others are loosening requirements for substitute teachers… In its emergency licensing order, Oregon is allowing people with just a high school diploma now to be substitutes with some training

NYTimes.
1) Republicans Pounce on Schools as a Wedge Issue to Unite the Party  “It’s going to be incumbent on Democrats to have a compelling response,” said Mr. Garin, who worked as a pollster for Mr. McAuliffe during his 2013 campaign for governor. “They also need to be prepared to assert the value of public education in terms of a place where there’s a common curriculum and common set of values that most voters agree are the right ones for public schools.”
2) California Tries to Close the Gap in Math, but Sets Off a Backlash: Proposed guidelines in the state would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted and build a connection to social justice. Critics say math shouldn’t .   Divya Chhabra, a middle school math teacher in Dublin, Calif., said the state should focus more on the quality of instruction by finding or training more certified, experienced teachers.

Washington Post. Youngkin pledged more parental control of education, but changes may prove difficult   To grant parents radically increased say in what or how teachers teach, Youngkin would have to overhaul the structure of American public-school education in Virginia, which is now determined by state standards and elected school boards that represent all residents of a district, not just parents.

NEW YORK STATE
Commisssion on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). Support Future Teachers and Urge Gov. Hochul to Sign Graduate Admissions Reform   These two bills will remove arbitrary barriers that disproportionately affect students of color who want to be teachers.  With this legislation New York can increase teacher diversity and remove a discriminatory barrier to graduate admissions.

NYS Legislature.
1) Senate Bill S5666 has been delivered to Governor Hochul   Relates to the maximum percentage of students that can be exempted from the admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs
2) Senate Bill S6600 has been delivered to Governor Hochul  Relates to SUNY admission requirements for graduate-level teacher and educational leader programs

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. There aren’t enough men teaching elementary school. Here’s how we can change that — and why we must.   I enrolled in an elementary education program after a teacher friend of mine inspired me with her words: “There’s not enough of you in education, especially in elementary schools. We need people like you!”… This past May, I wrapped up my first semester as an adjunct professor at the City College of New York’s Childhood Education Department, where out of 19 students studying to teach grades 1-6, only two were male. This semester, I have one male student out of 15.

Pix11 News. Lawmakers work to slash class size at NYC schools   It would require the city purchasing or leasing new educational space or adding access to buildings as well as hiring about 13,000 new teachers.

Teachers College. The Peace Corps Celebrates Top-Enrolling Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program Institutions [incl. Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College]  First established in 1985 at Teachers College at Columbia University, the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program has grown to include more than 120 higher education partners in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe [ATEE]. The programme of the ATEE 2021 Conference – online on 28 & 29 October – is now live!

London Review of Education. Call for Papers: Rising to the challenge of teacher education to prepare teachers for today’s world [Deadline for draft papers: 30 June 2022]

Sydney Morning Herald. ‘The joy of teaching’: Plan to find 3700 new teachers to plug school shortage   The NSW Department of Education will promote the joy of teaching, poach teachers from overseas and identify regional students suitable for the profession while they are still in high school as part of a multi-pronged plan to avert a looming teacher shortage.

The Guardian [Nigeria]. Improved teacher education will solve problems in the sector, says provost   Provost, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Ijanikin, Prof B.B Lafiaji-Okuneye, has assured that with improved teacher education, the college will help in fixing the challenges confronting the sector.

UNITED STATES
Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation [AAQEP]. Quality Assurance Symposium: March 22-24, 2022 [early bird registration through Nov. 19, 2021]

Chalkbeat. Black teacher workforce declined sharply as Michigan students left city districts — study   The state education department has mounted several efforts to attract and retain more African American educators, from encouraging students to return to their home districts as teachers to supporting alternative certification programs, which offer a fast track into the teaching profession. Such programs have proved appealing to would-be educators who are Black at a time when the number of Black students entering traditional teacher prep programs has fallen. In Detroit, training programs for district support staff have already put dozens of people, many of them African American, into classrooms for the first time.

Council of Graduate Schools.  Graduate Enrollment and Degrees 2010 to 2020.  Consistent with previous survey cycles, business (87,045), education (75,083), and health sciences (67,126) were the three largest broad fields for first- time graduate enrollment in Fall 2020. These three broad fields collectively represented 45% of first- time graduate enrollments

EdWeek. Advice to New Teachers From a 20-Year Veteran: 7 lessons I’ve learned from two decades in the classroom

Hechinger Report. Funding and training is rarely available when your child care is friends, neighbors   Unlike licensed child care workers, FFN providers do not need to follow state child care regulations or meet health and safety requirements — unless they receive state-funded subsidies to provide care for a lower-income child. They are also not required to undergo any formal child development training before they begin to care for children.

Milwaukee Neighborhood New Service. Trouble finding child care? You’re not alone, and here’s why.    Johnson said she would like to see investment in teacher prep programs such as the Milwaukee Teacher Education Center, or MTEC, and the Literacy Lab. She said doing so would help ensure a steady supply of qualified teachers to keep early childhood education centers enrolling closer to their licensed capacity.

NEW YORK STATE
NYSED Board of Regents Meeting, Oct. 18-19
Higher Education Subcommittee.
*Proposed Amendment to Sections 52.21, 57-4.5, and 80-1.13 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Removing the Face-to-Face Instruction Requirement for the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) Training
*Proposed Amendment to Section 50.1(l) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Definition of “University” 
Feb. 2021: “University means a higher educational institution offering a range of registered undergraduate and graduate curricula in the liberal arts and sciences and doctoral programs registered in at least three of the following discipline areas: agriculture, biological sciences, business, education, engineering, fine arts, health professions, humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences.”
Oct. 2021 following public comment: “University means a higher educational institution offering a range of registered undergraduate and graduate curricula in the liberal arts and sciences, including graduate programs registered in at least three of the following discipline areas: agriculture, biological sciences, business, education, engineering, fine arts, health professions, humanities, physical sciences and social sciences.”
*Recognition of the Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education as an Institutional Accrediting Agency   VOTED: That the Board of Regents will not submit an application for renewal of recognition by the Secretary of Education as an institutional accrediting agency at the expiration of the current term of recognition on May 9, 2023.

NYPost. More than 20K public school staffers across New York aren’t fully certified   NYSED’s Emergency COVID-19 Certificate allows applicants to “work in New York State public schools or districts for two years while taking and passing the required exam(s) for the certificate or extension sought,” according to the agency’s website. Previously, aspiring educators and other employees had to complete their certification entirely before working with students.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. With NYC’s ‘gifted’ program headed for overhaul, here’s what some experts say should come next   With training and support, many teachers can meet the needs of most students in their classroom, he said. But in many of the schools and districts he works with, “it winds up being implemented really inconsistently,” especially with newer teachers.

New York Magazine. Will Ending Gifted and Talented Programs Help Desegregate Schools?   “Even though Gifted and Talented education is my field of study, I can’t really bring myself to shed a tear over their demise,” said James Borland of Teachers College at Columbia University, who studies the effects of these programs on economically disadvantaged students. “For years they were bordering on disgrace. It was a really disturbing difference between the makeup of regular classrooms and the Gifted and Talented classrooms. It’s been that way for a number of years, and the department hasn’t really done anything that I’m aware of to remedy the situation. So there is no choice other than to pull the plug on the whole thing.”… Brilliant NYC… will aim to offer accelerated learning to all 65,000 kindergarteners. To do so, the mayor said, the city will retrain all of the city’s kindergarten teachers in addition to hiring new ones.

GLOBAL
CBC News. Ontario announces new Indigenous curriculum for Grades 1-3   However, those changes have been criticized, both for the lack of consultation in the lead-up to them, and for the amount of training teachers are given prior to being expected to teach the curriculum.

Education International. Improving the status of teachers through intelligent professionalism   The responses identified that status is affected by teacher pay and working conditions, is related to workplace stress, influences the attractiveness of teaching as a career for young people and impacts whether qualified teachers want to remain in the classroom. 

International Task Force on Teachers. Teachers in Crisis Contexts: We must invest in their strengths, not rest on them [by Danni Falk and Chris Henderson from Teachers College, Columbia University.]  3. Enable teachers to support all learners by continuously investing in and dramatically improving the nature and quality of teacher preparation, continuous professional development, and sustained support.

NYTimes. GONE: Nearly 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. Their families now search for clues among the dead.   Among the most widely known examples: the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers’ college in the town of Ayotzinapa. An investigation under Enrique Peña Nieto, the president at the time, placed blame on a local drug cartel and the municipal police. But that explanation has been widely condemned by international experts, including the United Nations…

Washington Post. Millions of Indian kids have been out of school for 18 months. The break threatens decades of progress.   Some state governments have attempted to stem the mounting learning losses with local initiatives. In Odisha, a poor state on the eastern coast of the country, a government initiative supported by UNICEF connected trainee teachers with out-of-school kids in villages.

UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) ‘Alarming’ shortage of child care workers in Philadelphia prompts recruitment event   Jackson said that the minimum requirement for her center to keep its top rating from Keystone Stars is a high school diploma with two years of experience or a child development associate credential, or CDA, which can be obtained online and is the equivalent of nine college credits toward an early education degree.
2) Four reasons why schools are facing crippling shortages    Short-term bonuses can help, but make less of an impact in increasing the supply of teachers or other certified jobs like counseling that require longer-term training.

CivXNow. State Policy Menu   *Pre-service Teaching Requirements: States should strengthen pre-service requirements for civics teachers by requiring undergraduate courses in U.S. Government and U.S. History, as well as undergraduate course work in the unique pedagogy of history and civics. States should also implement a fellowship program to encourage humanities and social science graduates of color to join the social studies teaching profession.

Colorado NewsLine. Congress has a plan for universal pre-K. Will states opt in?   If the congressional plan grandfathers in a workforce that is not required to have a four-year degree, that could in turn affect the quality of education some children receive, he said. Often private or home-based day care providers have two-year degrees or high school diplomas. States would be able to decide on the teaching skills needed in order to bypass a degree requirement. 

Education Week.
1) Combating the Problems With Facebook and Instagram: 8 Tips for Teachers
2) I’m Back in the Classroom With a Ph.D. and Some Advice for Policymakers   I spent time with the elusive psychometricians who created those value-added models of teacher performance. (Turns out, many of them were not thrilled their models were used to judge teacher quality, particularly when the models were attached to pay-for-performance schemes.)… The university where I work, like others, has been seeing declining enrollment in teacher-preparation programs.

Inside Higher Ed. Change Comes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Most of the reforms are temporary, but they’ll still help hundreds of thousands of borrowers chart a renewed path toward loan forgiveness.   The overhaul is intended to fulfill a “largely unmet” promise to wipe away the student debt of teachers, military service members and others working in the public sector.

MarketScreener. Nation’s Largest College of Education Celebrates American Education Week with Scholarships for Current and Aspiring Teachers.  Western Governors University’s (WGU) Teachers College will mark the National Education Association’s (NEA) 2021 American Education Week Nov. 15-19 by announcing its WGU Loves Teachers and Become a Teacher scholarship programs, together totaling $6 million, for current and future education professionals who wish to pursue bachelor’s or master’s degree programs in the Teachers College. 

National Academy of Education. Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs: Commissioned Paper Series   As part of the Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs project, this commissioned paper series covers key aspects of teacher preparation and evaluation methods that support high-quality preparation and continuous program improvement.

NYTimes.
1) Lesson Plans and Teaching Ideas: Resources, strategies and ideas for teaching with The New York Times.
2) Troubled Student Loan Forgiveness Program Gets an Overhaul: The sweeping changes will help more than a half-million public service workers who had thought they were paying down their debt for years.   Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, which sued the Trump administration over its management of the program, said the measures would bring “urgently needed relief” and “overdue changes” that would help at least 200,000 of the union’s members.

Santa Fe New Mexican. New Mexico’s teacher-prep programs face challenges amid surging vacancies   Alternative pathways are associated with higher rates of diversity compared with traditional teaching programs, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics — but research from the Learning Policy Institute also shows that in Northern New Mexico, those finishing out alternative licenses often are underprepared. That lack of preparedness could be exacerbated this year as schools return to in-person learning through the pandemic…

U.S. Dept. of Education. U.S. Department of Education Announces Transformational Changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, Will Put Over 550,000 Public Service Workers Closer to Loan Forgiveness   … U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Teachers, nurses, first responders, servicemembers, and so many public service workers have had our back especially amid the challenges of the pandemic. Today, the Biden Administration is showing that we have their backs, too.”

The 74. A New Kind of Curriculum Night: Armed With Protest Signs and Data, Diverse Group of Minneapolis Parents Demands Better Reading Instruction for Their Kids   The report, along with follow-up pieces documenting teachers’ lack of awareness and explaining why colleges of education cling to discredited strategies for teaching reading — such as having students guess at a word after looking at pictures in a book — made Hanford a household name at dinner tables around the country. 

NEW YORK STATE
Press-Republican. SUNY Plattsburgh Teacher Education programs earn full accreditation.   SUNY Plattsburgh’s teacher education programs have been accredited for a full seven-year term by the Association for Advancing Quality in Education Preparation.

University at Albany. SOE Earns National Accreditation of Graduate Education Programs   The Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) has awarded full 7-year accreditation to the University at Albany’s graduate programs for school leadership, literacy educators, and special education preparation. The award includes a commendation for the literacy and special education programs (inclusive of the early childhood and childhood education programs).

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC to eliminate ‘gifted’ test in overhaul of segregated program   Under the new model, the city will train roughly 4,000 teachers and hire additional teachers already versed in accelerated learning to work in neighborhoods with historically little to no gifted programming, city officials said Friday. The new program, called Brilliant NYC, will start in the fall of 2022 and will be phased into first and second grade the following years.

NYTimes. New York City to Phase Out Its Gifted and Talented Program: Students who are currently enrolled in gifted and talented classes will not be affected. But the highly selective and racially segregated program will be replaced for incoming students.   …the city will train all its kindergarten teachers — roughly 4,000 educators — to accommodate students who need accelerated learning within their general education classrooms.

Pix11. NYC DOE employees reassigned over vaccine mandates say students, schools are shortchanged     They are vaccinated, trained specialists who say that a DOE policy related to the mandate reassigned them to schools to teach and to do other classroom educational tasks, even though they’re not classroom educators. Instead, they’re data analysts, social workers, guidance counselors, researchers and others who are connected to the DOE central office.

GLOBAL
Counter Punch. “Compulsory Irish”: the Place of the Irish Language in Ireland’s Post-Colonial Education System    The programme failed to be implemented effectively due to a lack of investment in teacher training, an under provision of additional physical spaces to teach the additional subjects, and a lack of democratic “buy in” by interested parties i.e. parents and the churches.

Irish Times. Why are there so few migrant teachers in Ireland?   One requirement at primary level is for all teachers, regardless of where they trained, to be able to teach through Irish. “For migrant teachers who did not train in Ireland, this is doable, but it takes about three years and they need to do an exam at the end of it,” says Campbell. “If they work on basic Irish and spend time at the Gaeltacht, they can pass, and there are a handful who are doing this every year.”

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  Building Digital Teaching Skills Among Teachers In The Caribbean   …in response to the significant needs of the education system in the region, UNESCO, Blackboard and the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning (CCEP) at the University of the West Indies teamed up to launch the Education response to Covid-19: Distance Learning and Teacher Training Strategies in the Caribbean SIDS. With funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), this year-long project aims to strengthen the capacities of teachers and school leaders on digital skills and blended learning solutions. The goal is to train 10,000 teachers in the use of online education tools, resources and platforms.

UNITED STATES
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments   The Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA) is seeking your help to recruit teacher candidates, teachers, and faculty for its upcoming focus groups. The Consortium, which is comprised of educator preparation programs (EPPs) and state and local education agency representatives across 14 states, is examining the processes and considerations that states use to determine cut scores for entrance (i.e., Praxis Core) and teacher licensure examinations.

Chalkbeat. Tutors wanted: Inside the nationwide sprint to build big new programs to catch students up   Many programs are putting tutors through fairly rigorous training. Arkansas is requiring tutors to spend six hours learning about the science of reading and another six studying how to teach math. The Chicago, Dallas, and Denver area initiatives are paying college-age or adult tutors at least $20 an hour. Oklahoma is paying college students $25 an hour. Some are giving high school or college students course credit. And New Mexico is offering educator fellows a $4,000 stipend toward any degree in education, in the hopes of converting some into teachers or other school staff.

CivXNow. A Policy Agenda: Restoring Civic Education for Civic Strength   6. Investment in educator preparation in history and civics and diversification of the history and civics teaching corps, including development of an educator competency rubric and certification program to ensure that educators are recognized for achievement and supported in developing the skills required to teach history and civics

Hechinger Reports. Struggling readers need standards and structure based on the science of reading: Proven ways to close gaps and improve outcomes will help students catch up    There is a strong coalition of support behind the science of reading, even though it had yet to be reflected in conventional wisdom about reading instruction or widely utilized in U.S. classrooms or teacher preparation programs — until now. For the first time since the National Council on Teacher Quality began publishing teacher preparation program ratings, the number of programs that embrace the science of reading has crossed the halfway mark.

Teacher Stories. Inspiring Stories of Teachers Changing Lives   Our mission is to share stories about teachers who have elevated people’s lives, strengthened communities, inspired a passion for their subjects, and enabled students to attain what they thought was unattainable.

Washington Post. School superintendent asks: ‘Who would want to be a teacher right now?’   I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a large group of superintendents tasked with generating potential solutions. Here are some of the proposed strategies: *College loan forgiveness *Tax breaks *Housing assistance *Signing and loyalty bonuses *Limit what we expect from teachers to teaching and teaching only

NEW YORK STATE
NYSATE/NYACTE. 2021 NYSATE-NYACTE CONFERENCE   This year, we embark on a new venture: a progressive, online conference. Rather than schedule all activities intensively over a two to three day period, we are offering our conference events on separate occasions throughout the fall semester. 

New York State Education Department.
1) State Education Department Awards $3.45 Million in My Brother’s Keeper Grants for Teacher Opportunity Corps II: Grants Aimed at Expanding the Rate of Historically Underrepresented Individuals in Teaching Careers  [Teachers College is one of 17 grantees]    …the State Education Department seeks to invest in programs that bolster the retention of highly qualified individuals who value equity and reflect the diversity inside and outside of our classrooms, particularly in high-need schools with recurrent teacher shortages. 
2) Office of Higher Education September Newsletter.
* Regents Items: Emergency COVID-19 certificate, Permanent School Counselor Certificate Requirements, School Counselor Bilingual Education Extension, References to Institutional Accrediting Agencies.
* Certification Test Vouchers
* Impartial Hearing Officer System for Special Education Due Process In New York City Request for Information

NEW YORK CITY
ABC7. NYC schools unveil groundbreaking Black studies program for students in grades K-12   The nation’s largest school district unveiled a groundbreaking curriculum change to teach children about the history and contributions of Black Americans.

Chalklbeat. De Blasio insists substitutes will fill staff gaps caused by vaccine refusal. Some schools have doubts.   Students with disabilities might also lose out at the Brooklyn elementary school pulling a teacher out of ICT, which mandates two teachers, one of whom must be trained in special education to teach a mix of students with disabilities and general education students.

Teachers College. $3.25 Million Grant to Fund Development of Black Studies Curriculum for NYC Public Schools  TC’s Black Education Research Collective, led by Sonya Douglass Horsford, will play a lead role in a landmark initiative to develop an interdisciplinary K-12 Black studies curriculum

GLOBAL
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Conference Proceedings 2020 ATEE Winter Conference: Teacher Education For Promoting Well-Being In School

Inside Higher Ed. Simple Rhetoric, Complicated Realities: What may be surprising is that the occupied regions of the West Bank and Gaza have become home to a vibrant, albeit struggling, network of postsecondary institutions   It may come as a surprise that from 1948 to 1967, when Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza, no new universities were established in those territories. (One agricultural school became a technical institute offering associate degrees during that period, one primary school became a teacher preparation institute and another teachers’ institute was established)… Al Aqsa University, founded in 1955 as a teachers’ college, became a university in 2001. 

NSW Government [AUS]. Training program to upskill assistant principals   The largest professional learning program in Australia for assistant principals and head teachers will begin next year to build leadership excellence and help lift student outcomes across public schools.

OECD. Education at a Glance 2021: Indicator D5. Who are the teachers?   With large proportions of teachers in many OECD countries set to reach retirement age in the next decade and the size of the school-age population projected to increase in some countries, governments will be under pressure to recruit and train new teachers. There is compelling evidence that the calibre of teachers is the most significant in-school determinant of student achievement, so concerted efforts are needed to attract top talent to the teaching profession and provide them with high-quality training

UNITED STATES
Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE). Calling All edTPA participants: Share Your Experiences with the Texas EdTPA Pilot and Receive an Amazon Gift Card

Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity.
1) Fall Workshop: Infographics as Assessment for Teacher Educators [Oct. 8, 2021]
2) Four Minority-Serving Institutions Across the Country Selected to Participate in Rigorous 3-year Program to Enhance Teacher Prep   Through BranchED’s one-of-a-kind Quality Preparation Framework, Azusa Pacific University, Pacific Oaks College, Texas A&M University–San Antonio and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke will spend the next three years strengthening their educator preparation programs (EPPs) to better prepare highly effective and diverse future educators.

Chalkbeat. The state or districts? Indiana lawmakers weigh who should have the authority to license teachers   Indiana lawmakers on Tuesday debated giving school districts the authority to license their own educators as a solution to ongoing teacher shortages… Indiana has several alternative paths to licensure, including a career specialists permit available to people with a certain amount of occupational experience plus a bachelor’s degree or licensure exam.

Cision. National University Taps Expert in Teacher Preparation to Lead College of Education   National University, a nonprofit university with a 50-year history of serving working adult learners, educators, and veterans, today announced the appointment of Dr. Robert Lee as dean of the Sanford College of Education, one of the largest colleges of education in the United States and the largest provider of teaching credentials in California. 

EdWeek. The Classroom-Management Field Can’t Stop Chasing the Wrong Goal   When we’re led to look for “effective” strategies without asking what exactly that word means, the default objective is less likely to be about promoting students’ social, ethical, and intellectual development than simply getting them to do whatever they’re told. That was true in 1996, when teachers were advised to train students as if they were pets by dropping marbles into a jar, a step to receiving a reward for following directions. And it’s true in 2021, when teachers are told to monitor students on an app and award points for obedience.

Laredo Morning Times. TAMIU selected to consortium addressing barriers to a diversified teaching workforce   Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) has been selected as a lead institution representing Texas in the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)’s Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA)… TAMIU Dean of the College of Education, Dr. James O’Meara, said TAMIU is in a uniquely qualified position to be part of the Consortium. “The impact of TAMIU teacher preparation is undeniable in South Texas. We prepare 100% of the traditionally trained teachers working in the schools within our 100-mile zone of influence (ZOI). ..”

Pearson Education. 2021-22 edTPA submission/reporting dates

Washington Post. ‘The pay is absolute crap’: Child-care workers are quitting rapidly, a red flag for the economy: Child care employment is still down more than 126,000 positions as workers leave for higher-paying positions as bank tellers, administrative assistants and ret.   Still, the top concern in the industry is how to raise pay. Among college graduates, those who major in early-childhood education earn the least out of 137 majors, according to a report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

NEW YORK STATE
Spectrum News NY 1. Emergency certification program for educators extended   An emergency certification program for New York educators was extended for a year by state education officials, two state lawmakers announced Wednesday. The extension will affect a wide variety of people in the education field, including teachers, librarians, school administrators, teaching assistants, school athletics coaches, GED instructors and jobs skills training instructors who are seeking certification or recertification.

NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. NYC schools brace for staffing shortages as vaccine mandate takes effect next week   Schools can hire certified teachers as “regular substitutes” for the remainder of the year, the letter stated. Additionally, staffers from the education department’s central offices — those with and without teaching licenses — were told this week that they might be redeployed to campuses for various school-based jobs.

Columbia University, Institute of Latin American Studies. Teaching Early Grade Literacy to Migrant Children from Central America and the Dominican Republic. A culturally relevant pedagogy-based guide  5pm Oct. 8, 2021

Teachers College.
1) Cowin Financial Literacy Program – Online Course  October 4 – November 20, 2021   Those who complete the 6-week course will receive 30 Clock Hours and 30 CTLE credits*
2) US News & World Report. 2022 Best Education Schools   Overall, TC ranks #9 (tie with Univ. of Michigan); #2 in Curriculum & Instruction; #6 in Educational Administration and Supervision Programs; #4 in Education Policy Programs