AACTE Weekly News Briefs | May 26, 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
Peace in Accreditation Land
From Inside Higher Education
Two years ago, a federal negotiating process designed to recommend changes in regulations governing accreditation blew up amid intense acrimony between higher education and Bush administration officials. The issues that caused the greatest conflict: how colleges might (or should) measure the learning outcomes of their students, and institutions’ stances on the transferability of students’ academic credit. Those issues were on the agenda again as another panel of negotiators completed several months of work on accreditation at an Education Department office building Tuesday, but with a dramatically different result.
Duncan Brings Obama Agenda to Congress
From Diverse Issues in Higher Education
President Barack Obama’s goals of more college financial aid and an end to high school “dropout factories” will significantly increase opportunities for minority students, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Congress on Wednesday. Some minority-serving institutions have concerns about the 2010 Obama education budget. Despite its financial aid provisions, the budget would end the large short-term funding increases for these colleges that were authorized by Congress for 2008 and 2009.
Principals Younger and Freer, but Raise Doubts in the Schools
From the New York Times
Principals in the New York City public school system today are younger than their predecessors, have less experience in the classroom and are, most often, responsible for far fewer students. But their salaries are higher and they have greater freedom over hiring and budgets, handling a host of responsibilities formerly shouldered by their supervisors. An analysis by The New York Times of the city’s signature report-card system shows that schools run by graduates of the celebrated New York City Leadership Academy – which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg created and helped raise more than $80 million for – have not done as well as those led by experienced principals or new principals who came through traditional routes.
The Crisis in Math, Science (Opinion)
From the Boston Globe
The nation is not producing enough well-qualified teachers of math and science. And too many of the ones it does produce are leaving the classroom after a few years. We cannot continue to lead in math and science without substantial and immediate changes nationwide. We need a new Mathematics and Science Education Act.
Prepare Teachers Well, Create the Conditions for Excellence (Interview with Linda Darling-Hammond)
From the Des Moines Register
Do teacher-education programs generally prepare future teachers well? Some places have gotten better and better, and do a very good job now of preparing teachers to work with students who learn in different ways, including students with disabilities and English-language learners. These very high-quality programs are probably a quarter of the teacher-education enterprise. There are others that are pretty good, but they could be a lot better if there were incentives and supports to get them there. And there are some that need to be put out of business.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
Gregoire Signs Bill Overhauling Education, But Vetoes 2 Parts
From the Seattle Times
A plan to overhaul Washington’s K-12 education system was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Chris Gregoire, but she vetoed parts of the measure focusing on preschool and gifted education. The measure spells out how the state should change the way it pays for education and updates the definition of what is basic education in Washington state.
Aspiring Teachers Fall Short on Math
From the Boston Globe
Nearly three-quarters of the aspiring elementary school teachers who took the state’s licensing exam this year failed the new math section, according to results being released today that focus on the subject for the first time. Some educators, including representatives of teachers unions and school administrator groups, place blame squarely on teacher preparation programs for failing to adequately train elementary school and special education teachers in math instruction, which is often overshadowed by the critical skills of reading and writing.
New Jersey Seeks Laid-Off Traders to Teach Math
From Reuters
A new program called “Traders to Teachers” is being set up at Montclair State University to retrain people in the finance industry who have been laid off in the deepest crisis to hit Wall Street since the Great Depression. The university’s 101-year-old College of Education received 146 applications for 25 spots in the first round of the program, which offers three months intensive training followed by a job at a high school in January. The first year on the job includes close mentoring, and after two years probation they can become fully certified math teachers.
Certification Changes, Student Performance Eyed
From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
A Carnegie Mellon University professor will be permitted to present a long-awaited study on teacher quality today as lawmakers battle Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell over a $201 million no-bid contract for high school exit exams. The three-year study, commissioned by the state and funded by the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation, looks at the impact of changes in teacher certification and preparation requirements in 2000 and their relationship to student performance.
Board Doubles Florida Teacher Exam Fees
From the Miami Herald
The State Board of Education voted Tuesday to increase the fees for each of the three exams required before becoming a Florida teacher. Assistant Deputy Education Commissioner Cornelia Orr told the board the state had previously subsidized the tests as a teacher recruiting strategy. The increases are designed to make the certification program more self supporting. The fees now are expected to generate $8.9 million a year, still short of the program’s $16.5 million cost.
Illinois Joins School March Toward National Standards, Test
From the Chicago Tribune
Illinois has joined a growing list of states that favor common learning guidelines for math and English, a movement that could lead to national testing and what supporters say is a better way for teachers and parents to gauge whether students are improving and measuring up on a nationwide level. Officials hope to move quickly and have set December as a target for mapping out grade-by-grade standards from kindergarten through senior year.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement
Education funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provide a unique opportunity to jump start school reform and improvement efforts while also saving and creating jobs and stimulating the economy. These one-time resources should be spent in ways most likely to lead to improved results for students, long-term gains in school and school system capacity, and increased productivity and effectiveness.
U.S. Department of Education Invites Comments on the HEOA Title II Reporting Forms on Teacher Quality and Preparation
The U.S. Department of Education recently released 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