The Best And Worst States For Teachers by  Kathryn Dillon the Forbes site.

State education systems are often evaluated in the context of their students. But which provide the best work environments for teachers? With the school year kicking into full gear, personal finance site WalletHub took a look.   To determine  this list ,  WalletHub  considered an array of factors, placing particular emphasis on average starting salary for teachers, median annual salary for teachers adjusted for cost of living, teachers' projected income growth potential, unemployment rate, and projected number of teachers per 1,000 students by 2022, as well as the site's own  school system rankings , student-to-teacher ratios, commute time, and state and local expenditures per capita for public school students Kindergarten through 12th grade.

At the top of the list is Massachusetts. The Bay State claims the country's fifth highest annual salaries for teachers, adjusted for cost of living, and places first in WalletHub's ranking of school systems. Virginia comes in second, followed by Minnesota, and Wyoming.

New Jersey rounds out the top five, with one of the lowest student-to-teacher ratios in the country, some of the highest public school spending, and one of the best school system ranks.  ( Read more.)

Understanding Poverty, Racism, and Privilege Again for the First Time by P.L. Thomas on the Becoming Radical site.

A New Lawsuit Challenges The Legality Of 'No Excuse' Charter Schools on the Progressive site.

by  Tara Haelle on the Health Day site.

Childhood traumas of various sorts can cause kindergartners to struggle in class as well as life, new research contends.

A study of more than 1,000 urban children showed those with difficult experiences up until age 5 had math and reading difficulties and difficulty focusing in kindergarten, and were also more likely to have social problems and to be aggressive toward others.

The experiences included neglect or physical, sexual or psychological abuse. They also included living in a household with domestic abuse or with a household member who was in jail or prison, had a mental illness or had an addiction or substance abuse problem.

"The first five years of a child's life are an incredible time of opportunity and vulnerability," said study lead author Dr. Manuel Jimenez, director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics education at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. "Combined with previous work documenting how early traumatic experiences are tied to poor health, these findings illustrate how early adversity can place children at risk for poor outcomes across multiple aspects of life."

The Rutgers researchers interviewed the caregivers of just over 1,000 children and found that slightly more than half of the kids had faced at least one out of nine adverse experiences; 12 percent had experienced three of them.  (Read More.)

  Tackling the teacher shortage by  Deborah Yaffe on the District Administrator site.

Judging by recent media reports, the message seems clear: The United States is suddenly running short of people to teach its children. But schools-especially in troubled cities and isolated rural communities-have always struggled to staff in-demand fields such as science, math and special education. With clear trend data elusive, some experts are unsure whether anything especially new is happening.

But superintendents who have teaching vacancies aren't waiting for statistics. They are turning to an array of new and creative strategies, such as starting the hiring process earlier, looking farther afield for recruits, offering perks and signing bonuses to new hires, and rampi ng up efforts to help candidates earn teaching credentials.  

Washington State: Whose Children Matter Most?    by Diane Ravitch on the Ravitch site.

Washington state has a school problem. The legislature confronts two court decisions that it doesn't  like.

First, the highest state court ordered the legislature to fund the schools fairly. For every day the legislature fails to do so, it pays a fine of $100,000. This affects 1,070,000 children.

Second, the court ruled that charter schools are not public schools and cannot receive public schools. T his was a direct rebuff of Bill Gates, who lives in Seattle and spent millions on a referendum supporting charters that passed by less than 1%. He and his friends want the legislature to bypass the court ruling so charters can get public money.  This affects 1,000 children.

Professional development, CPD, staff development or professional learning, whatever you like to call it, should reflect the best of what we know about learning. But does it?

The first question I have is: What time do you provide for professional learning in your setting? When do staff learn?

Interestingly, many leaders respond to these questions with an assumption that learning occurs at externally provided professional development sessions. For others it is the in-school professional development days and for others the weekly staff meeting is prime learning time.

What would nail it now? I think schools should recognise that:

1. Professional learning must reflect what we know about quality learning. 

2. Professional learning should link to purpose and values.

3. Professional learning is not just staff meetings and if you're lucky enough to have them, staff development days. 

4. Professional learning should be teacher led and enable them to meet their own learning goals; against both site and personal priorities.  ( Read more.)

Ensuring High-Quality Teacher Talent: How Strong District-Teacher Preparation Program Partnerships are Transforming the Teacher Pipeline  by John Luczak, Anand Vaishnav, Bill Horwath, Priti Sanghani and Angie Hance on the Education First site.

In an era of rigorous college- and career-ready standards, students' increasingly diverse backgrounds, and tougher educator evaluation systems, novice teachers are entering classrooms that require new and higher levels of expertise and instruction. Yet many district leaders face the prospect of not being able to put anyone, much less a high-quality teacher, in front of each student on the first day of school. This is a risk they cannot afford. Preparation programs, too, are challenged to find strong student teaching placements, ensure jobs for their graduates and keep up with the rapidly changing requirements of the teaching workforce. Many of these organizations have realized they cannot do it alone. The rapidly changing environment requires strong, bold partnerships between districts and preparation programs, supported by effective policy, to ensure all students have access to an excellent teacher. 

It was a big statement, if not a little unusual, from the only U.S. mayor with the authority to oversee what's been a fast-growing portfolio of charter schools.

But with that, Hogsett made clear how his education agenda would differ from his predecessors'-the last two of which prioritized and fast-tracked charter expansion.

"I think the emphasis needs to be on quality over and against quantity," Hogsett said. "The emphasis will not be on adding more charter schools just to add more, but rather, holding the current charters appropriately accountable and making sure they have the resources they need to be successful."      (Read more.)

"Turning the Tide" sagely reflects on what's wrong with admissions and rightly calls for a revolution, including specific suggestions. It could make a real difference not just because it has widespread backing but also because it nails the way in which society in general - and children in particular - are  badly served by the status quo.

Focused on certain markers and metrics, the admissions process warps the values of students drawn into a competitive frenzy. It  jeopardizes their mental health. And it fails to include - and identify the potential in - enough kids from less privileged backgrounds.

"It's really time to say 'enough,' stop wringing our hands and figure out some collective action,"  Richard Weissbourd , a senior lecturer at Harvard's education school, told me. "It's a pivot point."  ( Read more.)

 

    

  

 

A Gift:   On the Art of Teaching   by Horace Mann