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Eric.ed.gov – State Teacher Policy Yearbook: Progress on Teacher Quality, 2007. National Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Countless reports have analyzed the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on teacher quality and student achievement. What many of these reports truly leave behind, however, is the reality that state governments–not the federal government–have the strongest impact on the work of America’s 3.1 million teachers. With that in mind, three years ago the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) began the process of analyzing states’ teacher policies. NCTQ analysts sifted through tens of thousands of pages of state codes, regulations and rules, regularly corresponding with state officials who graciously provided their important knowledge and perspectives. The “State Teacher Policy Yearbook” is the first project of its kind to provide a 360-degree detailed analysis of any and every policy that states have that… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Hispanics in Math and Science: Attracting Student Teachers and Retraining Experienced Teachers.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This digest reviews a variety of strategies that might be employed by school districts, teacher education institutions, and state educational agencies to attract, train, and retrain Hispanic teachers in math and science. The need for long-term solutions is discussed. Five action-oriented steps to attract Hispanic high school graduates into the teaching profession include identifying talented Hispanic high school students, developing their interest in teaching, locating and engaging “master” teachers, arranging significant student-teacher contact, and providing incentives for students to participate in special programs. Adaptations of recommendations by Franz, Aldridge, and Clark are also listed. Short-term solutions are listed, e.g., providing readily available opportunities for recertification, offering improved working conditions, offering teachers financial assistance during additional years of college preparation, providing summer jobs in industry, recruiting part-time instructors… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher Labor Markets in Developed Countries

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Helen Ladd takes a comparative look at policies that the world’s industrialized countries are using to assure a supply of high-quality teachers. Her survey puts U.S. educational policies and practices into international perspective. Ladd begins by examining teacher salaries–an obvious, but costly, policy tool. She finds, perhaps surprisingly, that students in countries with high teacher salaries do not in general perform better on international tests than those in countries with lower salaries. Ladd does find, however, that the share of underqualified teachers in a country is closely related to salary. In high-salary countries like Germany, Japan, and Korea, for example, only 4 percent of teachers are underqualified, as against more than 10 percent in the United States, where teacher salaries, Ladd notes, are low relative to those… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Math English Science Technology Education Project (MESTEP).

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Begun in 1983, the Math English Science Technology Education Project (MESTEP) is a collaborative effort among the University of Massachusetts, a network of Massachusetts school systems, and private corporations, designed to recruit into teaching academically talented college graduates with degrees in math, English, and science. MESTEP is an intensive 15-month program during which candidates complete an M.Ed. degree program that includes certification in one of three disciplines, one full semester paid teaching internship, and one full semester paid industry internship. The combination of course work, teaching, and industry experience represents a new route by which college graduates can enter teaching. Teaching interns are employed by a school system to assume most of the responsibilities of a full-time teacher; industry interns work in a full-time position at one… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Problems in Math and Science Education. Research in Brief.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: A conference sponsored by the National Institute of Education (NIE) examined some of the issues associated with the shortage of science and mathematics teachers. This report discusses problems related to the shortage and reviews strategies that have been undertaken to alleviate the shortage. Solutions are proposed and priorities are identified. These include: (1) curriculum improvement directed to make instruction more meaningful for the average student; (2) increased research on classroom learning and instruction; and (3) recruitment and retention of more competent teachers in the areas of science and mathematics. (ML) Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Finding & Keeping Educators for Arizona’s Classrooms

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Quality teaching is essential to providing children with the knowledge and skills necessary for a high quality of life. It’s essential to the economy, as well. Business thrives when it has ready access to an educated workforce, allowing Arizona to compete for the best industries and companies. Quality teaching helps build the society in which we live today and tomorrow. This report uses hard data as well as voices from teachers themselves to describe the current state of Arizona’s educational workforce, specifically focusing on the factors that attract new teachers into the profession and those factors that drive too many existing teachers out of it. Highlights of the findings include the following: (1) Teachers of the baby-boom generation are approaching the end of their careers and will… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining High Quality Secondary Mathematics and Science Teachers for Urban Schools: The Cal Teach Experimental Program

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Recruiting, preparing, and retaining high quality secondary mathematics and science teachers are three of the most critical problems in the nation’s urban schools that serve a vast majority of children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Although the factors contributing to these problems are complex, one area that has caught the attention of leaders of the teacher education community centers are the alternative pathways (or routes) through which teachers are trained and allowed into the profession. Many of these alternative pathways, teacher educators argue, aim to move teachers into teaching on a fast track and thereby short-change the necessary training that candidates need to have to become adequately prepared as classroom teachers. This article looks at the arguments on both sides: proponents and critics of traditional and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Promoting Gender Diversity in the Faculty: What Higher Education Unions Can Do

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In spring 2011, public higher education is under attack as never before. Public institutions have been targeted for drastic cuts in the past, but now the attacks are aimed at the very core of the educational enterprise and at the basic rights of college faculty and staff. This, in turn, has the potential of placing at risk the practices and policies that have arisen on campuses around the country to diversify the racial, ethnic and gender composition of the faculty corps. Diversity-related efforts do cost money, of course, and periodic budget crises can create situations in which institutions may sacrifice faculty diversity efforts on the altar of financial exigency. By undertaking a series of publications on diversity issues, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is saying that… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – “Educate to Innovate”: How the Obama Plan for STEM Education Falls Short. Backgrounder. No. 2504

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: President Obama’s Educate to Innovate initiative has provided billions in additional federal funding for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs across the country. The Administration’s recognition of the importance of STEM education– for global competitiveness as well as for national security–is good and important. But the past 50 years suggest that federal initiatives are unlikely to solve the fundamental problem of American underperformance in STEM education. Heritage Foundation education and national security analysts explain that, though Educate to Innovate is intended to raise the U.S. “from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math,” the federal program’s one-size-fits-all approach fails to remedy the underlying problems of academic performance and does not plug the leaky pipeline in the American education system. (Contains… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Fifty Years of Federal Teacher Policy: An Appraisal

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Federal policy directed to teaching and teachers is the subject of this review, which is organized around: (1) recruitment; (2) training; (3) accountability; (4) incentives; (5) qualifications; (6) class size reduction; (teacher working conditions; and (8) human resource management and the overall coordination of teacher policy. For each theme, the authors describe past and current federal policy; assess the evidence on policy effects and effectiveness; and conclude with an overall appraisal. Recommendations for future federal teacher policy are provided. Reported observations include: (1) lack of policy research that might supply direction to ongoing policy investments; (2) teaching presents a number of fundamental problems that policy has yet to address successfully; (3) local conditions in schools and districts play a large role in the effectiveness of federal teacher… Continue Reading