NCTAF Learning Studios as a Way to Improve NAEP Science Scores
Year after year, NAEP science scores demonstrate that the way the U.S. tinkers with “business as usual” in schools isn’t improving education far enough or fast enough to meet the needs of students. Today’s students must know more, do more, and create more to thrive in a global community. It is time to remake American education. The NAEP study revealed that students have higher NAEP science scores if they engaged in “hands-on science activities at least once a week in class.” Yet schools still don’t embrace this as a way to...
read more(Teams of) Teacher(s) Appreciation Week
Teacher Appreciation Week has once again resulted in the extension of good will to teachers in the form of tweets, articles, and various other virtual shout-outs. Although it is nice to see this outpouring of appreciation for teachers (who are the lifeblood of the much-maligned public education system), it is essential that we take a stand to support teachers not only this week, but next week and every week hereafter by putting systems in place that make the expectations we have for them clearer (this does not mean lower), the training and...
read moreA Response to Michael Fullan’s Education Reform Recommendations
In a recent video, Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, offers a thoughtful, concise list of do’s and don’ts for policymakers who seek to make large-scale changes in education in the United States. Fullan first describes commonly employed strategies that do not lead to better teaching and learning: Using heavy-handed external accountability as an incentive for improvement, Focusing on individual teacher quality instead of team development, Replying on technology while ignoring pedagogy, and Making...
read moreWatch the New Video From the 100kin10 Partner Summit!
As a partner in the 100kin10 movement, NCTAF has committed to hiring, developing, and retaining teachers in the STEM disciplines. 100kin10 has a goal of providing America’s classrooms with 100,000 excellent science, technology, engineering and math teachers over the next ten years. In February, the partners in 100kin10 convened for a summit in Washington D.C. to discuss the urgency of STEM teaching in the U.S. and to highlight work that is already being done on this pressing issue. To view the new highlight video of the Partner...
read moreDeepening Our Investment in Teachers
Pam Grossman, Professor of Education at Stanford University, makes the case for investing in quality teachers in a recent blog for Huffington Post. In “We Need Experienced Teachers,” Grossman describes debates in the education arena, such as those on eliminating tenure, as distracting from what’s needed most: preparing and supporting excellent teaching. The author concludes that as a nation, we are at a fork in the road with two possible paths: “We can invest in the development of highly skilled and well-prepared teachers and...
read moreA New Article on Flipped Classrooms from Kathleen Fulton
In a recent article in THE Journal, Kathleen Fulton, the former Director of Reinventing Schools for the 21st Century at NCTAF, reports on a group of innovative teachers who are embracing technology in their classrooms with outstanding results. Ms. Fulton illustrates the power of teachers coming together to solve a common problem: how could they increase their students’ achievement levels with fewer resources? The district profiled in the piece, like many around the country, has been forced to make difficult decisions in the face of budget...
read moreTeachers Learning in Networked Communities: Best Practices from UC-Denver
What does it take to integrate technology into teacher education? And how can technology help universities and districts work together? Seven years ago the faculty members and site professors from the University of Colorado Denver and Denver Public Schools (DPS) established a need for greater communication among all the stakeholders involved in teacher education. Though there has been a long-standing Professional Development School Model in the Denver area, the relationships between the university and the districts its graduates serve as...
read moreNotes from the Field: TLINC at the University of New Mexico
Since 2009, the University of New Mexico’s College of Education (UNM) has been a partner in NCTAF’s Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC®) project. Through TLINC, our college has been working to support our teacher education programs with increased collaboration, both online and face-to-face, and with added technology resources. Early efforts to integrate technology had been challenging because some faculty members and even some students were reluctant to adopt new technologies or new uses for now-familiar technologies, such...
read moreThe Wilde Lake Learning Studio Takes Their Climate Change Investigation Into The Field
How might global warming alter coastlines and coastal regions? Last summer during a NCTAF planning session, a team of five teachers selected this question to be the center of their work with their students for the academic year. The teachers, representing science, technology, engineering, and math classes, make up the Learning Studio at Wilde Lake High School in Howard County, Maryland. The teachers work together to create student-driven inquiry-based projects around this central guiding question on climate change. With the assistance of...
read moreDuVal High School Hosts STEM Event as Part of NCTAF’s Learning Studio Program
What if every student had the opportunity to defend their work to a real NASA scientist? DuVal High School students had that exact opportunity this Thursday during a day-long STEM event organized by a team of teachers as part of NCTAF’s Learning Studios program. DuVal’s Learning Studio consists of five teachers who teach grades 9-12 and across multiple STEM disciplines. The teachers in Prince George’s County, Maryland have been working throughout this year to coordinate their respective curricula for the year around the...
read moreSpeak Up Survey: Opportunity for America’s Next Generation of Teachers to Be Heard!
NCTAF is pleased to announce that our longstanding partner, Project Tomorrow, has just launched a new component to its annual Speak Up research project: “Speak Up 2012 Survey for America’s Future Teachers.” The aggregated national data findings will be used to inform national policies on technology use in education, and to inform K-12 school and district leaders on the aspirations of tomorrow’s teachers. This is a unique opportunity for America’s next generation of teachers to “speak up” about their views on their career...
read moreScience Magazine Examines the Effectiveness of Novice STEM Teachers
The March 2nd issue of Science includes the report “The Effects of Experience and Attrition for Novice High-School Science and Mathematics Teachers.” Gary Henry and Kevin Bastian from the University of North Carolina and Kevin Fortner from the University of Georgia examined over one million test scores taken by students of almost 8,000 teachers in North Carolina. Using a value-added methodology, the authors were able to analyze the teachers’ effectiveness in raising test scores. The study had a particular emphasis on teachers...
read moreNCTAF presents at 2012 SITE Conference in Austin
Last week, Cindy Gutierrez of the University of Colorado Denver, Carolyn Awalt of the University of Texas El Paso, Jody Britten of the Metiri Group, and Tom Carroll, and I presented at the SITE conference in Austin. Our panel focused on NCTAF’s vision for 21st century teacher preparation in which student teachers are members of dynamic professional communities of their peers, cooperating teachers and university faculty. Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC) is about using a blend of technologies and face-to-face interactions...
read moreCentennial High School Learning Studio Deepens Their Examination of Energy Usage and Efficiency
During Howard County Public Schools February 2nd Design Session, DaNel Hogan, an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, was introduced to the Learning Studio team at Centennial High School. This team, currently in their third year of the Learning Studios program, is examining the question “How does climate affect us?” across their science, math, technology, and engineering classrooms. At the design session, Ms. Hogan collaborated with the teacher-team to design student projects for the...
read moreEnough is Enough: Teacher Bashing is Taking its Toll
Enough is enough! As a nation we say that we value teachers, but the way that we treat them says otherwise. The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher released today found that teacher job satisfaction has fallen from 59 percent to 44 percent since 2009, the lowest level in 20 years. Teachers are more than four times as likely to say they do not feel their jobs are as secure as they were five years ago, and not unsurprisingly, there has also been a large increase in the number of teachers who are likely to leave the teaching profession. The...
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