"It is with deep regret that I must inform you ... that you will be reduced in force." No teacher ever wants to read those words; however, over 400 Clark County teachers and other licensed personnel had to do exactly that today when they received pink slips from the school district. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Is this really what is best for students? Continue Reading...
Department of Education Study Sheds Light on New Teacher Workforce
posted by: Colin | September 20, 2011, 03:28 PM
One thing on which everyone in the education community can agree is the fact that effective teachers are the key to the overall success of our school system. In light of this consensus, the Department of Education has spent the past several years studying the behavior of new teachers and their career paths, of which the findings were released last week in an ongoing study. In an effort to understand the typical career journey of a new educator, the study tracks 2,000 teachers as they begin their teaching careers and follows their behavior patterns as they continue in both elementary and secondary settings.
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Slashed budgets and threats of teacher lay-offs have been dominating headlines in most states. The economic climate and labor battles have had an obvious effect on teachers across the country; however, not much has been said about the thousands of teachers who leave these states for teaching jobs in bordering states often times in search of higher pay or choice in membership affiliation.
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Beginning in Wisconsin, legislation aimed at curbing union power, advancing education reform policy, and ending forced unionism has spread across the country. Currently states in every part of the country are in various stages of passing their own laws as the protests and debates rage on. The national unions and their state counterparts are on the defensive, organizing large ballot initiative campaigns and considering increasing their dues to pay for their efforts to preserve their monopolies. Make sure to follow the news in your state by reading AAE's daily blog posts.
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President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have often mentioned that the cornerstone of their education agenda is their focus on recruiting America's best and brightest young people to a career in teaching. With programs like the TEACH campaign, the Obama administration realizes that we are at a crossroads with our teacher workforce, as the majority of American teachers will be retiring in the next ten years. Unfortunately due to unprecedented budget shortfalls and the threat of layoffs, experts are warning that college students will be less likely to pursue a career in teaching for fear of uncertainty in the profession.
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Former Chancellor of New York City public schools Joel Klein as featured in the Washington Post this weekend:
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After a month of union led protests, national media attention, walk-outs, and closed schools, Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate and Assembly have finally approved Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill. The Governor is expected to sign it imminently. Continue Reading...
This weekend in Wisconsin and state capitals all over the country, union leaders and members gathered together to protest the various bills aimed at ending forced unionism and closing budget gaps. Despite the weeks of protests, news polls are shedding light on who the American people really support in this debate.
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AAE Executive Director Gary Beckner op-ed as featured on the Washington Times website:
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As thousands still march in Madison, Wisconsin, the battle for public-sector forced unionism continues. Democratic state legislators have refused to return to the state for a vote and thousands of public employees continue to miss work for protests. While the battle rages on in Wisconsin, both Ohio and Indiana are experiencing similar protests over union-crippling legislation.
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Recently governors across the country have made national headlines bringing the salaries of district superintendents to light. While all of these salaries are a matter of public record, the public has become particularly outraged with the astronomical salaries of administrators at a time when school systems everywhere are seeking to cut back.
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Last week in State of the State addresses in New Jersey, Idaho, and Florida, tough talking governors focused on education reform proposals all centered on eliminating tenure for public school teachers. With the issue of tenure making headlines lately, the support for elimination has been gaining steam nationwide.
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AAE Executive Director Gary Beckner op-ed on National School Choice Week as featured on Townhall Magazine's website:
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Text Messages Top Causes of Lost Teachers Licenses in Tennessee
posted by: Colin | January 10, 2011, 07:30 PM
New technologies have completely revolutionized the way we communicate. From Facebook wall posts, to text messages and blogs, we can communicate at all times and almost anonymously. However, this new form of impersonal communication can wreak havoc in the work place, especially for teachers who work with children. A recent Associated Press report finds that more than half of Tennessee teachers who lost their teaching licenses last year were revoked for inappropriate relationships with students, mostly through text messages.
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With the call for school reform, there has been a lot of buzz on reforming and enhancing teacher education as well. With advancing technologies, online learning plans have been gaining ground all over the country. Two new virtual education programs called TeachME and simSchool have been gaining praise as innovative ways to prepare student teachers for real-life classroom experiences.
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Teach for America, a non-profit organization that recruits recent college graduates and professionals to teach in high-need schools for two years, has been in the headlines recently as the school reform debate rages on. Both sides agree that finding highly effective teachers is the most critical component in improving student performance, Teach for America is seen as part of the solution.
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Recently experts have focused their attention on not only the need to reform the classroom, but the need for reform in educating our future teachers. Many colleges of education have done little to keep up with emerging technologies and teaching techniques. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan once said, "Our university-based teacher preparation programs need revolutionary change, not evolutionary tinkering." To that end, an emphasis on intense in-classroom training has been the focus of change for a new pilot program being introduced in eight states.
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