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January 14, 2016 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
In This Issue
In his final State
of the Union Address, President Obama focused on his education achievements during his tenure – passing the new ESSA law, lifting high school
graduation rates and boosting graduates in fields like engineering. Citing "the teacher who comes in early, maybe with some extra supplies that she bought, because she knows that that young girl might someday cure a disease," he named top priorities as making college more affordable, providing “pre-K for all, offering every student the hands-on computer
science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one, and we should
recruit and support more great teachers for
our kids.”
 Acting Secretary John King wonders what snowmen do at night with students enthralled by the story.
Acting Secretary Visits
Acting Secretary John King spent time during his first days in charge meeting with teachers and principals about his top priorities. Watch the video as he toured JoAnn Leleck Elementary School (Silver Spring, Md.), where he was impressed by high-quality classroom instruction and the school's commitment to early education. John also appeared on CBS This Week, saying "we've gotta ask every [presidential] candidate... 'What are they going to do to raise graduation rates? What are they going to do to make sure more students graduate from college?'" John also met with a group of accomplished principals this Wednesday, telling them that "I was a middle school principal in Boston so I can relate."
 First There Were Police Body-Cams, Now Texas is Exploring Teacher-Cams
Texas passed a law in June
that made it the first in the nation to make it mandatory for schools to videotape interactions
between teachers and special-needs students, if they are asked
to do so by a parent or teacher, for example. There are some restrictions, but
some advocacy groups say that other states are watching how this plays out in
the state to see if cameras might have a place in your classroom someday (Schuette,
NPR.org).
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James Ford grew up in an integrated school and later became North Carolina's teacher of the year. He writes in Charlotte Magazine of the candid conversation he has with his students at the beginning of each year: how "people didn't expect much from their population, because of where they live and what they look like." After that stirring speech, he'd tell them "the purpose of my presence: That I knew what it was like to be doubted and mistreated. That I was on a mission to make sure they broke out of this destructive system. That I needed their trust before I could teach them." Read what else he said and how his students responded. |
The California Teachers Association is appearing in front of the Supreme Court this week in a lawsuit that asks for a change in the requirement that workers in 23 states who decline to join a union pay fees anyway. The case could have major impact for the nation's teacher unions. One of the California teachers involved in the lawsuit writes in the Wall Street Journal that he "realized that my dues—about $1,000 a year—went toward ideas and issues that ran counter to my beliefs." Veteran teacher and Education Week commentator Walt Gardner says if the teacher gets his way, then "he should immediately return to his school district all the raises he received over his entire career, and refuse to accept in the future the increases in salary that his union negotiates."
He Made $1,000 an Hour Tutoring and 'Created a Monster'
Anthony-James Green has been referred to as "America's top SAT tutor." After charging as much as $1,000 per hour for his services, he "realized that as a nation, we've created a monster: a generation of disempowered, directionless, and overburdened students who work harder every year, yet continue to see their SAT scores decline. And I was becoming a key part of the problem." He stopped tutoring, realizing that students he tutored one-on-one actually did worse than students to whom he merely sent his study materials: read his explanation (Vox Media).
Schools Add — Not Drop — Recess to Improve Learning
Some schools have cut recess, claiming that there just isn't enough time with the increased rigor of academic demands. But in response to research saying that "kids with regular recess behave better, are physically healthier and exhibit stronger social and emotional development," other schools are adding more recess -- even having as many as four recess periods per day. Teachers say kids are less distracted and are even ahead of schedule with curriculum (Connelly, NPR.org).
The nation's recently released 2016 National Education Technology Plan articulates a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make everywhere, all-the-time learning possible. Included are numerous stories from the field, such as how the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana expanded access to technology and how a small district decided to create and use openly licensed content instead of purchasing textbooks. Key recommendations include:
- Redesigning teacher preparation programs to more thoughtfully integrate technology.
- Ensure equitable access to technology and connectivity inside and outside of school.
- Adopt openly licensed educational materials in place of staid, proprietary textbooks.
- Implement universal design principles across all educational institutions and in teacher preparation.
How ESSA Creates Opportunities for Teacher Leadership
For the first time, ESSA, the new law replacing No Child Left Behind, makes numerous references to teacher leadership. U.S. Department of Education Teacher Leader in Residence Maddie Fennell shares three new access points to teachers courtesy of ESSA. She writes that, "For many educators, NCLB was an attack on our schools and our profession ... ESSA offers us a truce and an opportunity to learn from past mistakes." (Education Week Teacher).
 Alton L. Frailey
Celebrating African American Educators
Alton L. Frailey is the Superintendent of the Katy
Independent School District (Katy, TX). Frailey is also a member of the
AASA, the School Superintendents Association.
Why and how did you decide upon a career
in education? Working
with children comes naturally to me. It is
work I enjoy. Education was a game
changer for me and being immersed in working with students allows me to help
change the world for them.
In what ways do you encourage parents,
family members, and other caring adults to support the learning and development
of African American students? The
role of the parent and community is critical for the growth and development of
any student. For the African American
student this is even more critical. I
encourage all to balance the actions of helping the student feel “special” with
a strong sense of belonging.
What do you want to see change within
education to better support the learning and development of African American
students? I
want to see leaders in more of our schools reflect the students in our
schools. I want the achievements and
contributions of African American leaders better highlighted and integrated
into the overall story of the development of our country. I want our students prepared to be fully and
effectively functional, socially literate and positive contributors to our
society.
Celebrating African American Educators will be on hiatus next week. We look forward to sharing more profiles soon.
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Higher Expectations
The conclusion of a report from the University of
Virginia found that kindergarten, in terms of teacher expectations and how classroom
time is spent, has “become startlingly like first grade.” Researchers used data from an early childhood longitudinal study in 1998 and 2011 to compare kindergarten classrooms between 1998 and 2010. Critics argue that focusing heavily on academic content is not developmentally appropriate and can crowd out other important types of learning experiences that help develop social skills or foster physical and mental health. The study emphasizes the need for high quality early childhood education prior to kindergarten (Camera, U.S. News & World Reports).
 New Math
Peer-to-peer online sexual harassment affects about 1 in 4
children. The findings are based on a survey of 439 middle- and
high-school students.
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (Michigan State University),
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Too Much Screen Time
Overexposing Young Kids to Screens Might Lead to ADHD
Seattle doctor Dimitri Christakis says that overexposing kids younger than three-years-old to screens increases the risk of attentional deficits at school age. The typical preschool child watches four hours of television per day -- about 30 percent of their waking hours -- but kids who spent time reading, singing, and playing with children decrease their risk of attentional deficits later on. Christakis suggests that ADHD might be being overdiagnosed and instead that we should focus on helping students along a continuum of attentional capacity (Kamenetz, NPR).
Resources for Educators
 Teachers' Notes
• ESSA Public Comments. ED is accepting
written comments concerning issues related to the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to help clarify statutory ambiguities or to provide appropriate flexibility, through January 21 -- see the Federal
Register notice for instructions. The
Department will decide whether to proceed with negotiated rulemaking after
considering the feedback received via the public hearings and online.
• Celebrate MLK Day. The Corporation for National and Community Service is asking
Americans to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy on
January 18 by making the holiday a day ON -- versus a day off. A dedicated web
site offers up a toolkit to plan for the day of service, enables organizers
to register projects nationwide, and provides free lesson plans on Dr. King’s
legacy of service.
• Apply Science Strategies. Stanford University is launching a new free MOOC
for K-12 science teachers who want to help their students better understand
scientific texts that will be available on the NovoEd platform. The course
titled “Reading To Learn in Science” will be taught by Professor Jonathan
Osborne (Schaffhauser, The Journal).
• Ready to be Counted. A wide array of high-quality research combines to show that intrapersonal and interpersonal noncognitive skills, such as self-control and social competence, are well-established predictors of success in academics, career, and well-being. A new report makes a powerful case for social and emotional learning based on a wide body of research.
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 Wisdom from educators heard by ED
5. "When you put teachers together in the same room, that’s P.D" (Teacher, New Mexico).
4. "Teachers are broken. If we help them put their hearts back together, then they can do that for their broken students" (Teacher, Georgia).
3. "I see myself as a change agent, an equity lever for my students" (Teacher, New York).
2. "Teachers need the opportunity to pay forward some of their talents" (Teacher, Washington DC).
1. "We need to treat teachers as the solution to the problems in education, rather than the cause of the problems in education" (Teacher, New Mexico).
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