Variation in Improvement Among Schools in the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching
In 2018, The RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) published an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative, which was designed to improve achievement among low-income minority (LIM) students. The initiative provided support for several reforms that were theorized to result in improved teacher effectiveness, such as teacher workforce conditions (e.g., hiring, retention, dismissal), teacher-evaluation policies, individualized professional development (PD), strategic compensation, and career ladders. However, the study found that the initiative did not meet its goals of improved teacher effectiveness and greater access to effective teachers among LIM students.
ISU’s Education Students Adapt To Pandemic
“Gladly We Learn and Teach” has long been Illinois State University’s motto, a nod to its roots as a training ground for teachers. This semester, ISU’s education majors are doing a little less teaching and a little more learning, because of the pandemic. The pandemic has abruptly changed K-12 education statewide, and that’s trickled down to how ISU’s teacher education program approaches clinical experiences and student-teaching.
AACTE Issues 10 State Recommendations for Educator Preparation Programs and New Teachers During Global Crisis
AACTE released its new report, Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: State Recommendations for Educator Preparation Programs and New Teachers. The 10 recommendations address critical state policy changes necessary to support innovative improvement in education during the global pandemic and beyond. Increased barriers to developing the educator workforce during the health crisis, coupled with the national teacher shortage, create demands for acute collaboration between educator preparation programs (EPPs), state education agencies, and PK-12 schools to reinvent systems for producing high-quality teachers to meet the growing needs of diverse learners.
Overcoming Racial Battle Fatigue Through Education Reform
Racial battle fatigue (RBF), a term coined by critical race theorist William Smith, reflects the cumulative results of race-related stress. It emerges not only due to macroaggressions, but also from daily microaggressions, such as dismissive and demeaning comments directed at Black and Brown individuals. Basically, RBF is a wearing down based upon one’s racial identity. Some of the symptoms include depression, anger, frustration, and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness that a person of color is unable to contribute to positive change. RBF is persistent and pervasive, and it manifests in different ways dependent upon who the person of color is and what he or she has experienced in the past.
Louisiana Department of Education, Board of Regents, BESE Launch Teacher Preparation Program Website
The Louisiana Department of Education, Louisiana Board of Regents and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) debuted a new website that will help soon-to-be educators choose the teacher preparation program that fits them best. Prospective educators can now visit LouisianaTeacherPrep.com to explore teacher preparation programs and pathways to become a teacher. “If we want to provide our children with the education they deserve, we need a highly effective teacher in front of every child,” said State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley. “Not only does this new tool help prospective teachers find the best pathway for them, but it will recruit educators to our state by showcasing Louisiana’s many quality preparation programs.”
Education Policy ‘Ghost’ Carmel Martin Is Biden’s Most Important Staffer You’ve Never Heard Of
Carmel Martin is one of the most powerful education experts in Washington, a top Democratic policy adviser likely headed for a high-level job in the White House if Joe Biden is elected president. So why haven’t you heard of her? “Carmel’s a ghost,” said Andrew Rotherham, a longtime education commentator and founder of the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners. “You’re not going to find lots of published stuff by her. She’s that archetype that you can work with on various issues, an inside-game person, but she’s set herself up for this moment because she doesn’t have this crazy-long paper trail.”
Leveraging the Perspectives of Rural Educators to Develop Realistic Job Previews for Rural Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Rurality is perceived by many to be a deficit or challenge when it comes to teacher recruitment and retention. However, recently, some have argued that moving away from a deficit model and treating rurality as an asset may hold promise for teacher staffing. Drawing on Person-organization (P-O) fit theory, we extend this argument in our study by investigating the perceptions of teachers from the rural Lowcountry of South Carolina, a region with documented severe teacher shortages, concerning rural teaching advantages and challenges. These reflections provide the data necessary to develop realistic job previews (RJP) that can be highlighted in the teacher staffing process at their schools. To obtain the data, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 rural teachers and one principal (n=12). Several common themes emerged, which we used to develop a sample web-based RJP content for demonstration purposes.
Explore Leading in Difficult Times during AACTE’s 2020 Leadership Academy Series
For much of 2020, COVID-19 has forced the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and its members to “think outside the box” and reimagine programming. Just last week, AACTE conducted its inaugural virtual event, with educators coming together to receive advocacy training and learn effective techniques for effectively engaging with political leaders. And in keeping with innovating its professional development opportunities during the current pandemic, the association is pleased to announce the 2020 AACTE Leadership Academy Series. In lieu of the traditional, in-person, four-day training, this years’ experience will offer a series of interactive sessions for attendees.
Educator competencies for student-centered teaching
The idea of student-centered learning is not new; teachers have long sought to design personalized, competency-based environments that are tailored to individuals and that empower students to drive their own learning. What is new is the emergence of an online learning ecosystem and, with it, the technical possibility of equipping all students with a student-centered model. Add to this mix COVID-19, which has provoked unprecedented demand for reinventing what teachers do, and it’s the perfect combination of catalysts for a rapid conversion to student-centered schooling.
Operating Schools in a Pandemic: Predicted Effects of Opening, Quarantining, and Closing Strategies
To help educators make more informed decisions about the best strategy for reopening schools in their community, Mathematica ran complex models of 108 different school situations, including urban, suburban, and rural settings. The results offer insights about the best approaches for individual communities and schools to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while providing meaningful learning opportunities. The study modeled outcomes for various in-person, hybrid, and distance learning approaches to determine how many infections a school is likely to experience; the total number of likely infections in a school at the time the first infection is detected; and the percentage of school days a student is likely to be able to attend in person.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Reflection Guide
This resource is intended to support the reflective practice and ongoing learning of culturally responsive teachers. It can help teachers assess their personal strengths and develop a plan to sharpen their practice. Additionally, this guide can and should be used by those who support teachers. Teacher preparation faculty, mentors, coaches, and administrators can use this resource to assess how well they model and support the development of culturally responsive teaching practices. Specifically, school system leaders should take a closer look at how they embed the eight culturally responsive teaching competencies outlined in this resource into important school and district initiatives and systems of teacher preparation, training, evaluation, professional development, coaching , and rewards. Ultimately, leaders have the biggest role to play in ensuring all educators have the resources they need to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of culturally responsive teachers.
Affirmative Action and Pre-College Human Capital
Racial affirmative action policies are widespread in college admissions. Yet, evidence on their effects before college is limited. Using four data sets, we study a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reinstated affirmative action in three states. Using nationwide SAT data for difference-in-differences and synthetic control analyses, we separately identify the aggregate effects of affirmative action for whites and for underrepresented minorities. Using state-wide Texas administrative data, we measure the effect of affirmative action on racial gaps across the pre-treatment test score distribution. When affirmative action is re-instated, racial gaps in SAT scores, grades, attendance, and college applications fall. Average SAT scores for both whites and minorities increase, suggesting that reductions in racial gaps are driven by improvements in minorities’ outcomes. Increases in pre-college human capital and college applications are concentrated in the top half of the test score distribution.
New Ideas In Teacher Compensation
To help states retain teachers and recruit the next generation into the profession, this brief examines teacher compensation policies in states and how adjustments could help reverse teacher shortage trends. The report looks at teacher compensation packages as a whole, including data on salary, health insurance, retirement and other benefits. It also outlines moderate-, low- and no-cost strategies for states and districts to improve teacher working environments.
Lessons from Drive to Write: Supporting Teachers’ Use of Technology for Remote Instruction
In spring 2020, teachers across the country suddenly faced the need to conduct remote instruction due to the COVID-19 crisis. They quickly adopted new technology and new routines to teach content they’d previously only delivered face-to-face in their classrooms. Now, as educators prepare for the possibility of remote learning extending into the fall and beyond, schools and districts are working to support them from afar. In 2019, MDRC published an evaluation of Drive to Write, an intervention in which expert coaches helped teachers use Google Suite tools to manage classroom assignments, provide actionable feedback to students, and use data to assess a student’s progress in order to differentiate or customize instruction.
Report: Teacher pay still lags peers in other professions by 19.2 percent
The disparity between teachers’ salaries and those of other industries remains high despite some slight improvement last year. In 2019, teachers made 19.2 percent less than their nonteaching peers who had similar experience and education, an improvement of 2.8 percent from the year before when teachers made 22 percent less, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute. For teachers, this “wage penalty” has grown substantially from a regression-adjusted 6 percent in 1996, and while recent improvement has come in the wake of teacher strikes, it is too soon to tell how much of an impact the strikes will have in the long term.
How COVID-19 Is Hurting Teacher Diversity
The Schenectady, New York, school district realized it needed to do better by its students of color: The vast majority of its teachers were white, while less than a third of students are. A couple years ago, the district began ramping up its efforts to hire more teachers of color, as well as provide anti-racist training for its staff. The Albany-area district was highlighted by the state education department and other groups for its efforts, which included recruiting a more diverse pool of educators, building relationships with historically Black colleges and …
Strengthening Teacher Preparation: Who we are and why we want to tell stories about teacher preparation
Teachers matter, and so does their preparation. It’s a tall order to provide quality preparation for the roughly 100,000 teachers hired each year in the US, but we have ample reason for optimism. Why? Because we work every day alongside preparation program leaders across the country who inspire us. They inspire us with their passion for excellence, their commitment to equity, and their ability to manage complex change while never once losing sight of their vision for training the next generation of teachers who can help our students soar.
Teaching Social-Emotional Skills Amid COVID-19
It’s tempting to put students’ social, emotional, and mental well-being on the back burner as schools scramble to make up for lost learning and navigate the tough logistical and political challenges of safely opening school buildings. But ignoring social emotional learning could be a recipe for disaster. The fact is: Children can’t process and retain new information if their brains are overwhelmed with anxiety.
