Columnist Joe Nocera writes in the New York Times (7/29, Nocera, Subscription Publication) that having teachers learn on the job “just shouldn’t cut it anymore.” Nocera spends the bulk of his article quoting excerpts from Elizabeth Green’s forthcoming book “Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone).” The book addresses ways to improve the teaching of teaching, and he advocates that it ought to make the New York Times best-seller list. Nocera calls some of the recent steps in teacher training “small-scale successes” and ends by encouraging the use of those successes to reach every kid and train every teacher.
LATimes Hails California’s Common Core Implementation
An editorial in the Los Angeles Times (3/14) describes the perception that New York “botched” its implementation of the Common Core Standards and hails California’s “opposite approach,” noting that though it met resistance from the Obama Administration, “California was right.” The piece says that New York “jumped feet first into the new standards, administering tests based on them,” adding that Education Secretary Arne Duncan “only worsened matters by dismissing the outcry as coming from ‘white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.’” The Times says that California has not experienced the level of backlash that New York has because “Gov. Jerry Brown set aside $1 billion for implementation, including teacher training, and plans to invest at least as much again next year.” Moreover, “schools and teachers will not be held accountable for results on the new standardized tests this year and possibly next.”
California Paper Hails Common Core Testing Waiver. A San Jose (CA) Mercury News (3/14) editorial praises California legislators for voting to “suspend our outdated standardized tests a year earlier than planned” in favor of Common Core-aligned assessments, also praising them for standing up to “threats from US Education Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold billions in federal funds for poor kids because the state had violated federal accountability law – even though Duncan had issued waivers to dozens of other states.”
Teacher Prep Programs Increasingly Focusing On Technology Literacy
Education Week (1/29, Flanigan) reports that the teacher training program at Clemson University is illustrative of a “shift underway at some teacher colleges that are working to revamp their programs to improve the technology literacy of future educators,” noting that given the rise of digital technology, some observers see teachers’ lack of proficiency as “a major shortcoming in the profession.” Moreover, observers have expressed concerns about “whether schools of education are providing future teachers with the skills they need to address blended learning, and whether they’re using digital tools to improve instruction.”