February 19, 2015 THE TEACHERS EDITION
U.S. Department of Education sent this bulletin at 02/19/2015 01:03 PM EST
THE PRESIDENT AND ESEA Overhauling NCLBIn his recent weekly address, President Obama laid out his plan to ensure more children graduate from school fully prepared for college, careers, and life. The President wants to replace No Child Left Behind with a law that addresses the overuse of standardized tests, makes a real investment in preschool, and gives every child a fair shot at success. He reminded everyone that, when educating our students -- the future of our nation -- we “should not accept anything less than the best.” “Some of these changes are hard,” he said. “They’ll require us to demand more of our schools and more of our kids, making sure they put down the video game and iPhones and pick up the books. They’ll require us to demand that Washington treat education reform as the dedicated progress of decades -- something a town with a short attention span doesn’t always do well. But I’m confident we can do this. When it comes to education, we are not a collection of states competing against one another; we are a nation competing against the world. Nothing will determine our success as a nation in the 21st century more than how well we educate our kids.”
Also, the President’s Domestic Policy Council released a report breaking down the harmful effects of legislation being advanced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would lock-in sequestration funding levels, eliminate accountability for taxpayer dollars, and allow states to shift Title I funding from high-poverty schools to more affluent districts. The President has a different vision to improve schools and help teachers by giving them the resources they need, identifying what works, and fixing what does not work. His budget would invest an additional $2.7 billion in Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs next year (blog post).  VIDEO WORTH WATCHING
More Connected Than Separate
Students from Sannii Crespina-Flores’s classroom in north Philadelphia connect through Skype with kids from New York, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Paris, and Kazakhstan and discover that their worlds are not as different as one might think. In this shot, the students ask: Have you experienced racism? Crespina-Flores runs the Do Remember Me Project, featured in the documentary, The World Is As Big Or As Small As You Make It recently shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
EDUCATION AS A CIVIL RIGHT
|
 TEACHER SALARIESShortchanged
In a typical urban district, ineffective teachers with 20 years of experience earn nearly 60 percent more than highly effective teachers with five years of experience.
Sometimes the way we pay teachers discourages great ones from staying in the profession, without encouraging outstanding young people to consider teaching as a career. This new TNTP paper, Shortchanged: The Hidden Costs of Lockstep Teacher Pay, explores how lockstep compensation hurts the best teachers, while providing incentives for ineffective ones to stay. Read a blog by Amanda Kocon, who unpacks the report and shines a light on districts that are building smarter compensation systems. |
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS
Improving Learning through Cultural Diversity
MORE THAN ORAL TRADITION. Resources ranging from culturally appropriate curriculum to successful instructional strategies to help teach American Indian and Alaska Native students are in this Center for Standards and Assessment Implementation Resource Library collection.
I GET IT. Getting the text means getting the answers, according to bloggers Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder who have developed text dependent questions (TDQs) for ELLs in the middle grades. Read about the 6th-8th grade example titled "The Evolution of the Grocery Bag" by Henry Petroski that illustrates their point. Using TDQ guidelines from Student Achievement Partners' website Achieve the Core, they describe considerations in creating TDQs for ELLs.
WORTH THE EFFORT. Research shows that studying a subject with a different language has many advantages and students who do tend to be more cognitively advanced and more flexible learners. But getting the right immersion program in place has challenges. Read more from Ernest Kimme.
 • JoLisa Hoover (2014 Classroom Fellow): JoLisa and her fourth graders at River Ridge Elementary School in Leander, Texas were featured in Kid President's new book, Guide to Being Awesome, for their awesome socktober sockfest!
• Jen Bado-Aleman (2012 Washington Fellow) and English resource teacher encouraged seniors to fill out their forms and talk about their college and career aspirations at FAFSA Fill-In Day at Gaithersburg (MD) High School (GHS). Read the blog about the GHS Blue Crew that goes for the green. |
 CELEBRATING AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORYOn Racial EqualityDuring February, The Teachers Edition has featured teaching resources to support this year's African American History Month theme, "A Century of Black Life, History, and Culture," which focuses on African Americans who struggled to achieve equality in American society.
• Teaching Tolerance has released Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot, a FREE classroom documentary that explores the Selma-to-Montgomery legacy through the activism of students and teachers. The accompanying viewer’s guide encourages students in grades 6-12 to think about voting issues today and to consider what they would march for. Teaching Tolerance has also launched an interactive campaign using the hashtag #imarchfor. • Studying Jackie Robinson's breaking of the racial barrier in professional baseball can lead students to a deeper exploration of racism in the United States. Review the lesson plan offered for teachers from the Library of Congress with primary sources and other research documents. |
 Teachers' Notes
• WHAT IT'S LIKE TO TAKE A COMMON CORE TEST. Reporter Allie Bidwell (U.S. News & World Report) took a third grade practice PARCC test and found it "kind of difficult." Read her reflection on the newly released test and how the new tests affect teaching. Bidwell says that PARCC officials told her that each test item is reviewed by more than 30 experts, including teachers, and that the consortium has drawn on information from last spring's field test of more than 1 million students.
• AROUND THE WORLD. Preparing young people to be better global citizens is one goal of the World Digital Library (WDL) – a project led by the Library of Congress in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and other libraries, archives, and museums. Learn more about the free Primary Sources from WDL and how educators can incorporate them into their teaching in this webinar February 24. • GOOD NEWS. U.S. students are graduating from high school at a record rate. The nation’s high school graduation rate hit 81% in 2012-13, the highest level since states adopted a new, uniform way of calculating graduation rates five years ago. For three consecutive years, graduation rates have continued to climb, reflecting continued progress among America’s students. Learn more. View the data. • FIVE-CENT SOLUTIONS. What simple solutions will help find ways to eliminate wasteful professional development and promote ones that will lead to better classroom performance? Stephanie Hirsh’s blog reflects on the ways that people change behaviors and seeks answers. • HOW CREDS OPEN DOORS. Missouri teacher and top-50 Global Teacher Prize Finalist Jamie Manker blogs about how accolades create the space for conversations about teaching. |
 INNOVATION IN ACTION
Best in Show
Students at Cardozo Education Campus (Washington, DC) are making big gains in attendance, reading proficiency and overall student achievement through efforts of educators, community partners and help from an Investing in Education (i3) grant from ED. Students showed off their projects, including a nationally acclaimed app designed to increase attendance and decrease truancy and dropout rates, when Secretary Duncan visited their school. Students of Mr. P’s (Aris Pangilinan) Project Lead the Way computer science and software engineering class won the District of Columbia High School Level “BEST IN THE STATE” 2014-2015 Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Learn more. Read the related Washington Post article.
|
 Top 5 Quotes
Wisdom from educators heard by ED
5. On how teachers can convince their principals to listen: "Be the best instructors in your classroom that you can possibly be and that will be the biggest influencer without saying a word." (Principal, Mass.) 4. On the importance of patience in understanding student growth: “I think about Keith’s growth and how slow it was and not necessarily on my timeline, or my school’s timeline, or my state’s timeline, but it surfaced on his timeline. I keep this lesson in mind. He taught me to never give up.” (Teacher, Fla.) 3. "There should be no debate on support. 'Education for all' is an investment. How well we support our students today will directly determine how the United States fares in the future." (Angie on ED blog) 2. "Nobody knows what you [teachers] know about teaching and learning." (Teacher-in-Residence, Colo.) 1. "Students must be our grounding point. We must see our students’ faces. When I get frustrated or when I feel far from my students, I close my eyes and see their faces. These faces help me remember the important work we do and stick to the mission." (Teacher, Fla.) |
U.S. Department of Education
THE TEACHERS EDITION - ED Teacher Newsletter
The Teachers Edition contains links to other websites and news articles. These links represent just a few examples of the numerous education reference materials currently available to teachers and the public. The opinions expressed in any articles or web pages do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. The inclusion of resources should not be construed or interpreted as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any private organization or business listed herein.
