As U.S. schools closed their doors this past spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a little-considered effect was the impact of school closures on the preparation of the next generation of educators. Teacher and leader candidates all over the country had their field experiences abruptly cut short, and educator preparation programs (EPPs)-in partnership with Read more about Educator Preparation During COVID-19: Lessons Learned[…]
Improving diversity among educators is one way to alleviate some of the persistent and systemic racial disparities in academic achievement and student discipline. But about 80% of the educator workforce is white, while more than half of the nation’s K-12 population is racially and ethnically diverse. A new Education Commision of the States report shows Read more about Building a Diverse Teacher Workforce[…]
Writing for The Hechinger Report, Jill Barshay explores a Virginia study that shows that prospective teachers improve their handling of student misbehavior when training simulations with avatars are combined with coaching. Excerpts of the piece appear below: University of Virginia researchers are rigorously testing computerized simulations of misbehaving students to see if they help student Read more about Learning to Teach Through Avatars[…]
Writing for the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Patricia Saenz-Armstrong explores how student teaching and initial licensure practices are shifting during this time of school closures. Excerpts from the piece appear below: School closures have obvious impacts on current students and teachers and are also creating challenges for teacher candidates hoping to graduate this Read more about Student Teaching and Initial Licensure in the Times of Coronavirus[…]
PK-12 districts and universities across the nation are currently challenged with social distancing measures that are limiting and, in most cases, preventing deep, authentic, and job-embedded clinical experiences that we know to be one of the cornerstones of a candidates’ effective preparation as a teacher. In light of this reality, US PREP has assembled resources Read more about Shifting the Clinical Experience Using Virtual Formats[…]
The Center for American Progress recently released recommendations to states, teacher preparation programs, and districts to improve the preparation of teachers to serve students with disabilities. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Roughly 7 million students in the K-12 public school system–14 percent–are identified as students with disabilities. Of these, more than 62 percent spend Read more about How Teacher Preparation Programs Can Help All Teachers Better Serve Students With Disabilities[…]
Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL) has released a new policy brief titled Transforming Teaching: What University Presidents and Deans of Colleges of Education Need to Know about Modernizing the K-12 Educator Workforce. It is a call-to-action to higher education to play a role in bringing the teaching profession into the 21st century. Transforming K-12 education systems Read more about What University Presidents and Deans of Colleges of Education Need to Know About Modernizing the K-12 Educator Workforce[…]
The Education Deans for Justice and Equity in partnership with the National Education Policy Center has released a statement calling for a significant shift in teacher education programs. Over 350 deans and other leaders caution against many of the current trends for “reforming” how we prepare teachers for our nation’s public schools. They argue that Read more about Seven Trends to Reform U.S. Teacher Education, and the Need to Address Systemic Injustices[…]
Since 2010, the total enrollment nationwide in teacher preparation programs has declined by more than one-third; this decline has occurred in the context of increasing enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs nationwide over the same time period. This means that across the country, approximately 340,000 fewer students elected to enroll in teacher preparation programs in the Read more about What To Make of Declining Enrollment in Teacher Preparation Programs[…]
How is the education workforce organized? How does a motivated, passionate individual pursue a career in education? Limited guidance exists about entering the education workforce, moving between roles and understanding job responsibilities. This opaqueness is problematic for soon-to-be college graduates considering entering the education sector, school employees who want to pivot their careers and system Read more about Making Sense of the Education Workforce: A Snapshot of 10 Education Careers[…]
Addressing shortages in a state’s teacher labor market can present unique challenges and requires access to comprehensive data and an understanding of available policy levers. To support informed policy, the Education Commission of the States has compiled a national comparison of state policies related to teacher recruitment and retention, with a focus on shortages in Read more about 50-State Comparison: Teacher Recruitment and Retention[…]
The Learning Policy Institute and Bank Street Graduate School of Education have announced the launch of Educator Preparation Laboratory (EdPrepLab), an initiative to help educator preparation programs ensure that new teachers and leaders are able to provide K-12 students with education that helps them develop skills like critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and being able to Read more about EdPrepLab Will Help Educators Develop the Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions to Support All Students in Learning Deeply[…]
The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) has released a free, user-friendly data tool that helps states, educator preparation programs (EPPs), and districts to identify and visualize diversity gaps across the entire educator career continuum, from “future teachers” graduating from high school and entering preparation programs, to preservice teachers entering the educator workforce, Read more about Insights on Diversifying the Educator Workforce[…]
Each year a significant number of aspiring elementary teachers, having successfully completed their formal preparation, are still unable to become licensed professionals. That’s because an alarming number of candidates fail their licensing tests, far surpassing the failure rate for other professions’ entry tests, bar exams, and boards. The fact that more candidates fail than pass Read more about A Fair Chance: Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce[…]
A new report from Educators for Excellence New York outlines the importance of teacher preparation and offers recommendations for increasing teacher diversity. Ready for Day One and Beyond is a new paper written by teachers on the Educators for Excellence New York Policy Team. The paper starts with two important questions: 1. What Read more about Recommendations to Strengthen Teacher Preparation & Diversity[…]
Recently, Susanne Nobles, writing for the Christensen Institute, explored the topic of virtual field experiences as a method for infusing diverse classroom experiences in all teacher preparation programs, regardless of location. Excerpts from the piece appear below: The dilemma is this: Preservice teachers need to practice teaching many times and in many places and ways. Read more about Disrupting teacher prep through virtual field experiences[…]