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December 3, 2015 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
In This Issue
Changes in Legislation
On
Wednesday, the House
approved the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaces the No Child Left
Behind law. Encouraged that the bill will codify his vision to give a fair
shot at a great education to every child in America – regardless of zip code, Secretary Duncan said, “Our nation deserves a law that prioritizes both excellence and equity for our
students and supports great educators. We are pleased the House has voted in
strong bipartisan fashion in favor of a bill that does that, and we look
forward to the Senate moving quickly to do the same.” The bill rejects the
overuse of standardized tests and one-size-fits-all mandates on our schools,
ensures that our education system will prepare every child to graduate from
high school ready for college and careers, and provides more children access to
high-quality state preschool programs.
Florida special education teacher Chris Ulmer has gotten lots of attention for a video that went viral last month featuring his morning ritual of complimenting his students. His blog might be even better. He highlights the stories of people with disabilities, urging Facebookers to show love and acceptance for his students. On one post, he writes: "He is not Down Syndrome. He is not autism. He is Joshua and he is my treasure."
 Video Worth Watching
Alexis Smith, a 15-year-old from Chapel Hill (N.C.), already holds one patent and has another one pending. She hopes to pass on the invention bug and bring her middle school elective, Inventing 101, to students across the country. Watch her demonstrate her first patent, a wheeled travois—a triangular load-carrying device that she designed to serve Somali refugees, who need to transport their children many miles to camps and hospitals. Her patent-pending emergency mask pod is a canister that firefighters and first responders can throw through a window of a smoke-filled building to those trapped inside (Gambino, Smithsonian.com).
Teacher Leadership
Salaries
A San Francisco teacher describes how she juggles four jobs to make ends meet in a video by the Teacher Salary Project that is bookended by insights from Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman: "Our society says that teachers are nearly 270 times less valuable than one corporate CEO at one of the top 300 firms." Meanwhile, a recently released report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development compares teacher salaries to those of other similarly educated individuals and warns that "uncompetitive salaries will make it much harder to attract the best candidates to the teaching profession" (Edwards, TIME.com).
The Teaching Profession
Award-winning elementary school teacher Emily Smith writes: "Roughly 80 percent of teachers in the United States today are white. Yet the population of our students is a palette. That means America’s children of color will, for the majority of their school years, not have a teacher who is a reflection of their own image." When she realized that, she took steps to change her curriculum: "You may agree that black and brown lives matter, but how often do you explore what matters to those lives in your classroom?" (Washington Post).
Sharon Contreras
Editor's note: The following is part of a series reporting on excellent African American educators. Educators were selected by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
 Sharon Contreras is the Superintendent of
Schools of the Syracuse City School
District (Syracuse, NY). She was also the Chief Academic Office of the Providence, Rhode Island school
district from 2007 to 2011. In addition, Contreras has worked to expand CTE and
STEM fields programs by partnering with area universities and local education institutions.
Why and
how did you decide upon a career in education? My parents nurtured the love for education in
me at a very early age. By the time I was five years old, I knew that I was
going to be a teacher. My siblings were the first enrolled students in my
“Saturday School” before I expanded my classroom to include the neighborhood
children.
What is
the one thing you most celebrate about your students? Our students are bright, creative, beautiful
and full of so much potential; however, the one thing that I most celebrate is their resilience. With consistent love,
high expectations, and great teaching we can help them to develop their unique
gifts and grow into successful, productive members of society.
In what
ways do you encourage parents, family members, and other caring adults to
support the learning and development of African American students? The opportunity gap facing African American students has reached crisis
proportions. These students are being disproportionately disciplined, suspended and expelled, propelling them into the
school-to-prison pipeline. As superintendent of a school district that has been
disproportionately overusing suspensions for decades, I empower families by
reinforcing the message that a quality education is a civil and human right.
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Educational Equity
President Obama was deeply moved when he spoke with six students at a school on an Indian reservation last year; administration officials said it was the most emotional they've seen him during his presidency. Politico checks in on the state of Indian education and finds that although some teachers now have computers and smartboards, turning them on could mean tripping outdated circuit breakers.
(Goldstein, The Marshall Project).
What Does it Mean for Children to Grow up in a
World with Terrorism? The new special issue of Social
Policy Report explores the impact of growing up in a world with terrorism on
children and youth. It considers both the direct traumatic effects of being a
victim and the indirect effects of living in societies in which
the threat of terrorism is on the minds of children, but perhaps more
importantly, of adults -- parents and policy makers in particular (Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute).
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Education Policy
PARCC. STEM. NCLB. ESEA. NAEP. And for that matter: authentic, rigorous, standards-based, and student-centered. If we got rid of all the jargon in education, what would we be left with? Liz Willen of the Hechinger Report urges journalists to eschew these somewhat empty terms and just say what we mean. Those of us who sit through faculty meetings can relate.
 Currently, only about one-third of all
children attending school in the United States can read proficiently by fourth
grade, and for the most vulnerable students, the numbers are worse. A new report
from New America’s Education Policy Program measures states on a broad set of
policy indicators that can help ensure children are on track to read on grade
level by the end of third grade. The report says some states are tackling pieces necessary for early literacy, but they must fit them together.
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 Poetry Slam. Watch the Slam as teen poets compete in a high-spirited competition reciting new
poems celebrating books & literature at the 2015 Library of Congress
National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Department of Energy wants to help high school teachers integrate bioenergy into the classroom. Check out their webinar next Thursday (December 10) at 4 p.m. and their infographic competition.
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 Wisdom from educators heard by ED
5. "Our principal did a great job of recruiting. The people in our classrooms love those kids and give everything they have. That's equity." (Teacher, Illinois)
4. "I love the Common Core because it means my students will be held accountable to the same standards as rural and suburban kids. It levels the expectation playing field" (Teacher, Colorado)
3. "When teachers are empowered, they inspire their students to do amazing things" (Teacher, Maine)
2. "I'm burnt out every year. I don't know why I do this, but I keep comping back because I'm committed to helping these students." (Teacher, Illinois)
1. "In order for education policy to work, we must turn to the experts in its creation." (Teacher, Massachusetts)
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