Writing for CRPE’s Thinking Forward collection of essays, authors Michael DeArmond, Christine Campbell and Paul Hill have published a piece that explores new teacher roles that enable teachers to focus on soft skills and personalization. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Above all, emerging ideas from the field about how to make teaching more doable Read more about The Uncertain Future of Teaching[…]
Education Week recently released data on the nation’s shortage of special educators. Excerpts of the article appear below: The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years. An analysis of federal data Read more about Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures[…]
Since its founding in 1990 to help staff classrooms in low-income communities, Teach For America has been attacked for devaluing public education by recruiting teachers to spend a minimum of two years in the classroom. A member of the Philadelphia City Council recently called TFA a “gimmick.” But TFA’s most recent information about its more Read more about Staying Power: TFA Alumni in Public Education[…]
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has announced its new ISTE Standards for Educators: Computational Thinking Competencies (CT Competencies). CT Competencies focus on the knowledge, skills and mindset needed to bring computational thinking to all K-12 content areas and are designed for all educators, including those who are new to computer science. The Read more about ISTE Announces New Computational Thinking Standards for All Educators[…]
School districts and teacher preparation programs both play critical roles in setting educators up for success in the classroom. However, too often they work in isolation. By creating a partnership around shared goals, they can build a stronger, more diverse workforce–and provide a better and more equitable education experience to students. But how should they Read more about Tools for Strong District-Teacher Preparation Program Partnerships[…]
For the past two years, Education First has facilitated a community of practice of five teacher preparation technical assistance centers–Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, National Center for Teacher Residencies, TeacherSquared, TeachingWorks and University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Prep–working to reimagine the way teachers are prepared for the classroom. As part of Read more about New Tools and Resources for Reimagining Teacher Preparation[…]
Recently in Education Week, Madeline Will wrote about the challenges that the CAEP standards have faced in the past five years and the goal of strengthening teacher preparation. Excerpts of the piece appear below: The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, which was created by a 2010 merger between two national accrediting bodies, officially Read more about CAEP: A Bold Set of Teacher Preparation Standards Faces Challenges[…]
Recently in The 74, Kate Walsh wrote about the power of school districts to fix their own teacher pipeline, including the portion of the pipeline coming from traditional teacher preparation programs. Excerpts from the piece appear below: A growing number of school districts are embracing the teacher residency model as a solution to their shortage Read more about District Power to Fix the Student Teacher Pipeline[…]
Teaching is one of very few professions that expects new employees to be masters of their craft — where they handle all of the responsibilities of long-serving veterans — on their first day on the job. Historically, new teachers have received limited exposure to life in the classroom. Even today, most traditional preparation programs require Read more about Realizing the Potential of Teacher Residencies[…]
Writing for Chalkbeat, Matt Barnum explores the research on the value of being mentored by an expert teacher. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Studies released this year offer real evidence that good teaching can be passed down, in a sense, from mentor teacher to student teacher. In several cases, they find that the performance Read more about Mentors matter: Good teaching really can be passed down to student teachers, new research finds[…]
Many organizations offer technical assistance (TA) to teacher preparation programs seeking to improve their programming. But until recently, there was no common way to assess the impact of that technical assistance or even define what high-quality technical assistance looks like. How can TA providers better understand the impact their technical assistance actually has on teacher Read more about Providing High-Quality Technical Assistance in Teacher Preparation[…]
In recent years, public officials have sought to determine the quality of our nation’s teacher preparation programs, both the traditional programs at colleges and universities, as well as alternative preparation programs like Teach for America. One proposed way to do this is to track graduates into the classrooms where they become teachers to see how Read more about Don’t Rate Teaching Schools Based on Student Test Scores, Study Warns[…]
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its latest ratings for 567 traditional graduate programs, 129 alternative route programs, and 18 residencies preparing both elementary and secondary teachers. Assessing programs on a number of key factors – such as how well they assess teachers’ subject matter content knowledge, classroom management, and the need Read more about NCTQ Releases 2018 Teacher Prep Review[…]
In school year 2011-12, the majority of early-career teachers (i.e., teachers who had taught for five or fewer years) in public schools reported that they were well prepared for a range of instructional duties in their first year of teaching. The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Statistics in Brief report entitled “Preparation Read more about Early-Career Teachers’ Preparation and Support[…]
It is often difficult for school and district leadership to identify high-quality teachers who will remain in the classroom, especially among those who are just entering the profession and in the first years of employment. However, a recent study by Robert Vagi, Margarita Pivovarova and Wendy Miedel Barnard suggests that examining a prospective teacher’s instructional Read more about What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?[…]
NCTQ’s 2018 State Teacher Policy Best Practices Guide highlights leading state work across 37 different policy areas that impact teacher quality. This resource serves as a guide to all states seeking concrete ideas and examples of how to improve teacher policy. Despite consistent concerns regarding whether states are acting quickly and ambitiously enough to improve Read more about NCTQ Releases 2018 State Teacher Policy Best Practices Guide[…]