Colleges for Teacher Education

AACTE Weekly News Briefs | June 16, 2009
. . . delivered to your inbox so you can enjoy up-to-date news on colleges of education, teaching and the classroom, legislation, STEM teacher issues, grants, and upcoming events. Please click on linked headlines for full story.

AACTE ANNOUNCEMENTS

AACTE’s 5th Annual Day on the Hill Starts Tomorrow!
AACTE’s premier advocacy event, Day on the Hill, takes place June 17-18 in Washington, DC. This year’s theme is “Innovation and Reform in Teacher Preparation.” For more information, please contact Mary Harrill-McClellan at mharrill@aacte.org.

Registration Extended for AACTE’s Leadership Academy
The deadline to register for AACTE’s new Leadership Academy has been extended to June 19! Two of AACTE’s yearly professional development conferences, the Leadership Institute for Department Chairs and the New Deans Institute, will be combined in 2009 to create this exciting educational opportunity. With the goal of sustaining the teacher education profession by providing powerful learning and networking tools, the academy is an essential event for new deans, department chairs, and other educational administrators to attend. This event will take place June 28 - July 3 in St. Louis, Missouri. Click here to view the 2009 Leadership Academy brochure.

FREE Access to Archived Webinar on Closing the Achievement Gap for Children in Foster Care
Access this free AACTE webinar anytime through June 30! “Tutor Connection: Closing the Educational Achievement Gap for Children in Foster Care” is sponsored by the Casey Family Programs. Tutor Connection has provided 1,240 student teachers from California State University-San Marcos to work directly with children in foster care to improve academic performance. Hear about the results for over 1,500 foster care youth who have participated in this program and learn more about the roles that Departments of Education can play in positively impacting this unique and often invisible population.

NATIONAL NEWS

Innovation Crowded Out
From Inside Higher Ed
This moment, when many experts argue that higher education is in greater need of innovation than ever before, is probably a particularly bad time for what is supposed to be the federal government's primary driver of policy experimentation to be rendered obsolete. But that appears to be what is happening, as the U.S. Education Department quietly revealed this week that the Fund for the Improvement in Postsecondary Education will forgo its main open grant competition.

Despite Stimulus, Schools Feel Budget Pain
From Stateline.org
More than $100 billion in federal economic stimulus will help public schools and colleges survive the recession over the next two years, and for districts in dire straits, that money is a lifeline. But some states’ finances are so precarious their schools are still going to face large cuts.

Education Chief Offers Cash Incentives to Develop Standards
From the Boston Globe
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering federal cash incentives to achieve one of his priorities: developing national standards for reading and math to replace a hodgepodge of benchmarks in the states. At a June 14 meeting in North Carolina, Duncan said that the efforts of 46 states to develop common, internationally measured standards for student achievement would be bolstered by as much as $350 million in federal funds to help them develop tests to assess those standards.

Study Casts Doubt on Charter School Results
From Education Week
A national study released today casts doubt on whether the academic performance of students in charter schools is any better than that of their peers in regular public schools. Looking at 2,403 charter schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia, researchers at Stanford University found that students in more than 80 percent of charter schools either performed the same as—or worse than—students in traditional public schools on mathematics tests.

Study Urges ‘Mobilization’ for Math and Science Education
From Inside Higher Ed
Math and science education throughout the country must improve dramatically if America hopes to compete in the 21st century, according to a study released Wednesday. The report, conducted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, outlines a comprehensive and ambitious plan to advance math and science learning. The main objectives include establishing high and common assessment standards in those subjects across all 50 states, as well as aggressively recruiting and supporting teachers.

Enhanced HBCU Teacher Preparation Role Discussed at U.S. Education Department Meeting
From Diverse Issues in Higher Education
A national strategy to avert teacher shortages as well as improve overall teaching quality in U.S. public schools will include the participation of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as key players in the formulation of strategic policies, U.S. Education Department officials told a gathering of HBCU education school officials and HBCU presidents June 9. The meeting, which was organized by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, brought together many of the veterans of past teacher education programming and credentialing reforms to plot new strategies based on what one attendee called “an ideal moment in time.”

Majorities of Americans Continue to Believe Teacher Pay Too Low
From Business Wire
As the economic recession continues one area that could be impacted is education as states and localities look to trim costs and cut budgets. Compared to last year, however, perception of the quality of education in both the country as a whole and Americans’ local areas is holding steady, but it is overall not considered excellent or very good. These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,681 U.S. adults surveyed online between May 11 and 18, 2009 by Harris Interactive®.

Fellowships Empower Next Generation of Teacher Leaders
From PR Newswire
As the nation struggles with a critical shortage of qualified teachers, thirty-five dedicated young men and women are embarking on a career in education with the help of fellowships from the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF). Each year KSTF, a national advocate for improving the quality of science and mathematics teaching in US high schools, awards teaching fellowships worth up to $150,000 over five years to exceptional early career teachers committed to making an impact in science and mathematics education.

Rep. McKeon to Leave GOP Top Spot on Ed. Panel
From Education Week (Blog)
Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., is going to be the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, replacing Rep. John McHugh of New York, who is going to work in the Obama administration. That means McKeon won't be the ranking member on the House Education and Labor Committee anymore, because lawmakers typically don't hold that slot on two different committees. Republicans will get to choose a replacement for McKeon, and the pick could have major implications for No Child Left Behind Act reauthorization in the House.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

To Fight Shortage, State Plan Aims to Churn Out Teachers
From the Detroit Free Press
Michigan education officials are considering a faster route to a teaching degree—one that would allow people who already hold degrees in key subjects to earn a teaching certificate with as few as 15 credit hours. But deans who head colleges of education in Michigan have questioned whether there's really a shortage and said the standards for the proposed programs are lower than what the state expects of traditional teacher-preparation programs.

Two Years of Hard Lessons for D.C. Schools’ Agent of Change
From the Washington Post
In her quest to upend and transform the District of Columbia's long-broken school system, Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has acquired a sometimes-painful education of her own. The lessons, in many respects, tell the story of her tenure as her second school year draws to a close Monday: that money isn't everything; that political and corporate leaders need to be stroked, even if you don't work for them; that the best-intentioned reforms can trigger unintended consequences; and that national celebrity can create trouble at home.

Florida Schools Steer by Numbers
From Education Week
Florida has been hailed as one of the nation’s bright spots in the use of longitudinal data, with a history of building an information-rich “data warehouse” that connects K-12, postsecondary, and workforce information. Educators and policymakers at the state, district, and school levels are using the reams of data to improve schools, and students and parents have been given access to students’ information to help them plan for a future that includes a college degree.

N.C. District Lets Go of Veteran Teachers, But Keeps TFA Hires
From Education Week
Faced with a yawning budget gap, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board last week approved plans to let go of hundreds of teachers, basing that decision on the teachers’ low performance on evaluations, rather than on their seniority. Even more controversially, the 134,000-student North Carolina district granted an exemption to teachers hired through the Teach For America recruiting program who meet teaching standards over more-senior teachers, and it is poised to hire more TFA alumni.

Board of Regents Approves Iowa Teacher Intern License Program
From IowaPolitics.com
The Iowa Board of Regents has approved establishment of the Iowa Teacher Intern License program, a collaborative effort of Iowa’s public universities that provides a nontraditional teacher preparation program for professionals wishing to enter the teaching field from other careers. This collaborative program will allow Iowa’s public universities to combine their strengths and resources to create a single, integrated, teacher preparation program that meets the unique needs and draws upon the special talents and experiences of nontraditional students.

R.I. Teachers Union Would Overhaul Peer Evaluations
From the Providence Journal
Without a comprehensive mentor program and evaluation process, it is difficult for schools to give new teachers guidance and, if necessary, steer them out of teaching. Friday, the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, which represents teachers in 11 districts including the state’s largest, Providence, announced plans to launch a more rigorous teacher-evaluation and mentoring program that has proved successful elsewhere. Union leaders said they would begin a yearlong planning process to modify the Peer Assistance Review for Teaching Excellence, a widely respected peer-evaluation process started 28 years ago in Toledo, Ohio.

No Longer Letting Scores Separate Pupils
From the New York Times
Sixth graders at Cloonan Middle School in Stamford, Connecticut, are assigned numbers based on their previous year’s standardized test scores — zeros indicate the highest performers, ones the middle, twos the lowest — that determine their academic classes for the next three years. But this longstanding system for tracking children by academic ability for more effective teaching evolved into an uncomfortable caste system in which students were largely segregated by race and socioeconomic background, both inside and outside classrooms. So in an unusual experiment, Cloonan mixed up its sixth-grade science and social studies classes last month, combining zeros and ones with twos.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Competition Now Open
The U.S. Department of Education has opened this year’s Teacher Quality Partnership grant competition. Interested applicants must file a letter of intent by June 26. Final applications are due July 23. To read the notice in the Federal Register, click here. For the application package and other information, click here.

Free Web Conference on Survey of Teachers’ Preparedness
“Demonstrating Teacher Quality in a Changing Environment”—Thursday, June 18, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Thousands of new teachers enter the classroom eager to make an impact on our nation's youth, but how prepared do they actually feel? In a recent survey by Eduventures, over 1,500 newly prepared teachers and administrators nationwide responded to a series of questions about their preparation to date and their preferences for ongoing graduate and professional development work.

Center on Disability Studies Shares Techniques
The Center on Disability Studies (CDS) at the University of Hawaii coordinates the Teaching All Students, Reaching All Learners project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. This project shares teaching techniques CDS has researched, developed, and synthesized that will enhance the quality of work for both faculty and students. In the project, CDS staff will assist faculty to focus on learning skills such as Universal Design for Learning and increasing knowledge about working with students from many cultures, including disability culture, and enhancing comprehension of mentoring. For more information, contact Kathryn Yamamoto at kky@hawaii.edu.

Kristin K. McCabe, Editor
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
1307 New York Ave., NW Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
(207) 899-1309
kmccabe@aacte.org