Teacher Education News

AACTE Weekly News Briefs | June 2, 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
AACTE's 2009 Day on the Hill will take place June 17-18 in Washington, DC. This is AACTE's premier advocacy event! Come to DC to meet with your members of Congress and to tell them about the good work you do. 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 (AACTE webinar)
Access this free 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

Recession Imperils Loan Forgiveness Programs
From the New York Times
When a Kentucky agency cut back its program to forgive student loans for schoolteachers, Travis B. Gay knew he and his wife, Stephanie — both special-education teachers — were in trouble. From Kentucky to Iowa to California, loan forgiveness programs are on the chopping block.

46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards
From the Washington Post
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools. Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal.

A Changing Student Body: Report Shows Record Enrollment, More-Diverse Population
From the Washington Post
Public school enrollment across the country is hitting a record this year with just less than 50 million students, and classrooms are becoming more diverse, largely because of growth in the Latino population, according to a new federal report. The picture of the nation's classrooms comes annually through the Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated look at enrollment and performance trends in schools and colleges.

Study Finds Teacher Evaluations Usually Rosy
From Education Week (LOGIN REQUIRED)
In many school districts, nearly all tenured teachers—like the children in author Garrison Keillor's fictional town of Lake Wobegon—are deemed above average, concludes a study released today by the New Teacher Project.

Supreme Court to Address Meeting the Needs of Special-Education Students
From the New York Times
In a case with potential financial repercussions for school districts and families alike, the United States Supreme Court will soon decide when public schools must reimburse parents of special-education students for private-school tuition.

Grads Apply in Record Numbers to Teach for America
From the Associated Press
When school starts next fall, Teach for America will send an unprecedented number of college graduates to teach in poor communities across the country — but not as many as the group would like. Teach for America this year chose 4,100 recruits from more than 35,000 applications, an increase over last year's class of 3,700 recruits. While the group has never accepted every applicant, this was the first time it had to turn down people who met all its rigorous criteria. The constraint is the economy.

Reviewer Commends RAND Report on Charter Schools
From the Think Tank Review Project at the Education and the Public Interest Center
A new report from RAND on charter schools in eight states generally finds them to have modest or insignificant effects on an array of outcomes, including student achievement, student attainment, integration, and public school competition. A review of the RAND report raises questions about all four of the report's sections, particularly stressing some weaknesses in the data and analyses regarding the integration and competition findings. But overall, the review concludes that the report is of high quality and makes an important contribution to the empirical literature on charter school effectiveness.

The Math Gender Gap Explained
From Newsweek
Even the most hidebound male chauvinists have been forced to admit that girls are as good at math as boys, on average. But the stereotype that females lack the innate ability to match males at the highest levels of math lives on. A new study comes as close to burying it as anything yet.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Charter Schools: Illinois Lawmakers Pave Way for Number to Double
From the Chicago Tribune
Charter school proponents scored an important victory late Sunday after state lawmakers paved the way for the number of charters in Illinois to double. Under the legislation, Chicago would be allowed 45 new charter schools, five of which would be reserved for schools enrolling high school dropouts, and 15 additional charters would be allotted for the rest of the state. Advocates say the new schools would help address the nearly 13,000 students statewide who wanted to enroll in charter schools but were squeezed out for lack of space.

Oklahoma Opens Way for More Second-Career Teachers
From NewsOK.com
A new law will allow teachers certified through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence to be hired in Oklahoma schools. The program, founded with a federal grant, is designed for professionals who want to change careers. The traditional certification route and even the state's own alternative certification process can take years and is expensive for adults looking to switch careers.

Science, Math Shortfalls Targeted
From the Deseret News
To counteract shortfalls the country is facing in the science and mathematics education sector, the Utah Board of Regents on Friday announced the creation of a consortium that will address them. Deans of the colleges of science and mathematics at all nine public institutions in Utah, along with representatives from public education and the community will play a central role in understanding and solving global problems in energy, food supply, human health and national and international security.

Birmingham School Administrators Trek to Philippines to Find Math, Science Teachers
From the Birmingham News
Four Birmingham city school administrators returned this week from a week-long teacher recruitment trip to the Philippines, where they interviewed 89 potential math and science teachers. Jeff McDaniels, director of human resources, said he and three others traveled to Manila at no cost to the school system, and came back Sunday with a list of 10 candidates for the board to consider hiring in June. A California-based international recruiting firm paid for the trip.

Economy Nudging Central Texans Into Teaching Certification Programs
From the Waco Tribune
Though it took longer than some might have expected, the economy is playing a role in nudging Wacoans and Central Texans toward the teaching field. Officials from both McLennan Community College's alternative teacher certification program and the Region 12 Education Service Center's teacher preparation and certification program say interest in their programs has spiked this spring.

Ohio Governor Backs New Teacher Mentoring Program
From Kypost.com
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland continued to push Wednesday for a four-year mentoring program for new teachers in their first four years after getting their college degrees. The governor's comments came during a forum on teacher quality held at the University of Cincinnati. Sixteen UC education students had a chance to ask the Strickland questions about their future profession.

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. Prospective applicants also may participate in one of two preapplication workshops on Monday, June 8. The first is from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and the second is from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time. To read the notice in the Federal Register, click here. For the application package and other information, click here.

Free Live Webinar on Education Week's Diplomas Count Report
"Diplomas Count 2009: Broader Horizons"—Thursday, June 11, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern Time
At a time when only seven in 10 American students are leaving high school with a diploma, President Barack Obama is demanding that the nation lift its educational sights by asking all Americans to commit to at least one year of education after high school. The 2009 edition of Education Week's Diplomas Count report, produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, investigates the issue of college readiness, exploring national policy debates as well as state and local initiatives to prepare all students for postsecondary education. The report also includes the EPE Research Center's latest graduation-rate analysis, which identifies several dozen big-city school systems that are exceeding expectations. Free registration is now open.

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.

Last Chance to Comment on Draft Title II Reporting Forms on Teacher Quality and Preparation
The U.S. Department of Education seeks comments on the draft institutional and state report card forms required of the accountability provisions in Title II of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). The public may comment on these forms by June 8. Title II of HEOA requires institutions of higher education that prepare teachers to provide annual reports on how these teacher candidates perform on certification/licensure exams; goals that the institution has set for preparing teachers in key shortage areas; assurances for how institutions are preparing all candidates to be successful in the classroom; and descriptions of how preparation programs are structured. AACTE encourages its members to respond to this call for comment.


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