What Teachers Are Talking About This Week
January 21, 2016 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
Three weeks into his first month as Acting Secretary, John King has prioritized hearing from educators. He had tea with some of Twitter's most active teachers; he hosted a roundtable with principals; and this week, as part of his Opportunity Across America tour, he will lead a teacher town hall in Philadelphia and hear from educators in Delaware. One of his top priorities for 2016 is to support and lift up teachers like the ones he discussed at Monday's National Action Network's MLK Day Breakfast: "New York City public school teachers made school this place that was compelling and interesting and engaging and safe [for me] when home was not."
 VOICE FROM THE CLASSROOM
Teaching Ambassador Fellow and Connecticut teacher Matt Presser (@mpresser5) writes about Teachers Edition's new look and how each article that goes into the newsletter will be subject to an initial test: "Will teachers want to read this?" He suggests that the same "for teachers, by teachers" philosophy that's being applied to this newsletter ought to be the operating principle for so much that affects our classrooms: our curriculum, our assessments, and more.
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 This Teacher's Letter to Obama Was So Powerful, He Stopped By Her House
The first stop on President Barack Obama's tour
of the country during his final year in the White House was at the home of a
Nebraska high school teacher. Lisa Martin, who sent him a letter
last year, says the visit should be a powerful lesson for her students:
"The fact that I wrote a letter and he responded and he came and met with
me, that kind of proves to them, 'Hey, you can make a difference, no matter
how small.'" Read her letter here.
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Teacher Prep Textbooks Leave Out Important Information
A study of 48 textbooks used by teacher preparation programs determined that not a single one includes the most up-to-date research on how children learn. Despite a teacher-prep textbook market that rakes in some $40 million each year, the report by the National Council on Teacher Quality contends that cognitive research is left out of textbooks in favor of "theories du jour and debunked notions." Traditional teacher prep programs have come under increased scrutiny lately, leading to more residency programs that emphasize real-world experience.
Grad Rate Is Up, But Why Isn't College Enrollment Up Too?
There is much to celebrate in the news that the country recently recorded its highest graduation rate yet. But The Atlantic's Alia Wong wonders where the graduates are going. The number of students enrolling in colleges and universities is 1.7 percent lower than it was last year. Some signs point to whether fewer students are enrolling in predatory for-profit institutions. Another analysis shines a light on why the graduation rate for special education students is significantly lower than the national average (Grindal and Schifter, Huffington Post).
 This week, we heard from teachers from across the country on Twitter. Some highlights:
- "Attracting and retaining high quality teachers begins with us and how positive we make our profession and what we do everyday!" - Matt Johnson, Teacher, South Carolina
- "Look strongly at the morale on the campus and turnover. Teachers stay when they are part of something." - Alice Keeler, Teacher, California
- "Without an official role as leader, I still lead by action. I jump with both feet and I'm fearless. Then others follow me." - Kelly Kolpitcke, Teacher, Idaho
What change would increase the retention of high-quality teachers?
Tweet your answer to us @TeacherEdition and you might be featured in next week's edition.
In New York City, more than 100,000 middle and high school students start their days going through metal detectors -- about as many as are scanned at Miami International Airport each day. About two decades after they were installed, some are wondering whether the metal detectors send students the wrong message, especially in light of the fact that the amount of contraband found is low. Says one principal: "The answer is not the machines, the answer's the relationships" (Reyes and Ye, ProPublica).

5. "We talk about individualized learning a lot for students. We should think about the same for principals too" (Principal, Wisconsin).
4. "Often when you challenge the status quo in education, you are blacklisted. We must support innovation" (Teacher, Maryland).
3. "If we want our kids to cure cancer, we have to rethink how they learn" (Principal, New York).
2. "Collaboration is such a major lever, but we don't give teachers enough time to work together" (Principal, Washington).
1. "Teachers treat P.D. the way students treat our classes and we see no irony in that" (Teacher, Pennsylvania).
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