Blog

President Joe Biden has nominated Dr. Miguel Cardona as the next U.S. Secretary of Education. As the leader of the Department of Education, it’s vital that Dr. Cardona commits fully to uplifting teacher professional learning practices we know will make schools more equitable places for students to learn.  Along with 28 other organizations and researchers, we ask for the opportunity...
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Guest blog by Maeghan Jones This blog first appeared as part of the We Refuse to Lose series that profiles five cradle-to-career initiatives working to close racial gaps for students journeying from early education to careers.  More than ever, we can feel the turbulence of history. This past year has changed all of our lives as we navigate a global pandemic, political...
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Guest blog by Megan Boren Last spring as the pandemic gathered force, my high school chemistry teacher, who was rounding out his 42nd year of teaching, died from COVID-19. Mr. Metcalfe was loved and honored for his teaching. His funeral was an all-day parade as cars stretched miles down the street into the high school parking lot, where community members...
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Guest blog by Brian Sevier A couple years ago, when I became Dean of the School of Education (SoE) at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), I kicked off my first all faculty/staff meeting with this question: If I were to ask our community stakeholders (teachers, principals, superintendents, etc.) to use one word or phrase to describe what our program...
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Guest blog by Terra Wallin This blog first appeared as part of the We Refuse to Lose series that profiles five cradle-to-career initiatives working to close racial gaps for students journeying from early education to careers.  As I watched a mob of brazen white supremacists storm the United States Capitol during a global pandemic, I feared not only for my home city...
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“Now would be the time, especially with everything going on in this country, to recruit Black teachers into teacher preparation programs.”—Rachel Tillman Up until 5th grade, Rachel Tillman had never been taught by a Black teacher. Rachel teaches 8th Grade English Language Arts at Rochester Academy Charter School. To say that experience influenced her is only part of the story....
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Guest blog by Adina Lopatin Remember being a student teacher? On any given day, my mind was filled to the brim. My mini-lesson, my handouts, timing transitions just right, remembering modifications for particular students… and where is my clipboard?! The list went on. I was so focused on my plans that I had limited cognitive capacity for listening to my...
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Guest blog by Susan Baker Here in the College of Education at California State University Sacramento, we’ve been in the business of preparing teachers for 73 years, and in the past few years have prepared approximately 380 teachers annually across 12 certification areas. A central aspect of our offerings across these programs is a focus on helping candidates understand the...
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Guest blog by Calvin J. Stocker A number of educational leaders are visionaries, others pacesetters and some servant-oriented in their approach. Shea Culpepper—Clinical Full Professor & Director of Teacher Education at the University of Houston—is all three, and has set out to transform how teacher educators think about, and do, teaching. She is a math teacher educator at heart, though...
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Guest blog by Calvin J. Stocker Thoughtful approaches to partnerships with district partners are core to the most effective teacher preparation programs in the nation. Without district input and collaboration, all of the preparation of a future teacher candidate is for naught. Dr. Raymond Flores, an associate professor of mathematics education in the Department of Teacher Education at Texas Tech...
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