Education Commons^™

A Path To Equity: Solving New Mexico's Teacher Turnover Challenges, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

This memo discusses New Mexico's need for shifts in teacher preparation structures and options to meet Yazzie/Martinez requirements. New models of sustainable, affordable teacher residencies that can provide New Mexico the teaching workforce its students need are outlined.

Career Pathways And Wage Ladders: A Key Opportunity For Improving Quality, Courtney Parkerson, Annie Schaeffing, Emily Sharrock

Bank Street Education Center

To leverage the possible opportunity the Build Back Better Act presents, this policy brief closely examines the potential of career pathways and wage ladders to serve as the foundation for transformative change for the early care and education workforce.

“Nadie Nos Han Preguntado…” (Nobody Has Asked Us...), Mark Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This is the latest in a series of reports from the Listening to Teachers Study, which seeks understanding of how New York City's early childhood educators are faring during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to use data gathered through surveys (May 2020, n=3355; June 2021, n=663) and in-depth interviews (spring 2022) to prompt reflection and discussion about what a more equitable post-pandemic ECE system could look like.

This report focuses on describing the June 2021 sample and preliminary findings:

1. As in 2020, emotional/mental health support was the most frequently requested need, but professional …

Moving Into A New Realm Of Education And Parenting, Katherine Rodriguez-Agüero

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Schooling During The Pandemic: Children’S Perspectives And Lived Experiences

Occasional Paper Series

This issue of the Occasional Paper Series is enriched by a collection of images, artwork, and photographed experiences from five child contributors who help us understand what it was like to be schooled during the pandemic.

Black Feminist Love: An Open Letter To My Children, Katie Harlan Eller

Occasional Paper Series

In an open letter to my young twins, I reflect on an open letter from the past and consider the context of this one: the historic moment of living through a pandemic anticipating a presidential election in 2020. In this reflection, I document the circumstances of our family’s life and turn toward what we are learning. My children have taught me to recognize my need for and commitment to Black feminist conceptions of love. I share a story and imagine letting go of conditional, enwhitened love that fears discomfort. Black feminist conceptions of love cannot coexist with fear and must …

Fighting For Justice In Education: How Schools Can Lead The Change Towards A More Equitable World, Tara Kirton

Occasional Paper Series

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine the world anew. This one is no different” (Roy, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous implications for every aspect of life. School, work, celebrations and everyday social interactions have all felt the repercussions of the pandemic. While the shutdown called for an immediate pivot from our everyday ways of being, it has also provided opportunities for stillness and deep reflection. This moment of pause has provided an opportunity to think, speak and act differently. As a parent my hope is that educators will lead the change.

Raising A Coconspirator: A Letter To My Daughter, Abby C. Emerson

Occasional Paper Series

In this letter to her daughter, the author utilizes a journey map to anticipate some of the decisions and actions she will have to make and take in order to raise her as an antiracist co-conspirator. As a white parent to a white child, the author explores necessary moves towards racial literacy, rethinking obedience, and revisiting concepts of independence. She explores the way in which her parenting must be envisioned differently given this current COVID moment amidst the movement for Black lives.

Remember, Reclaim, Restore: A Post-Pandemic Pedagogy Of Indigenous Love In Early Childhood Education, Trisha L. Moquino, Katie M. Kitchens

Occasional Paper Series

This article discusses Early Childhood education, it’s settler colonial roots, the harm it has caused for Indigenous children and people and the possibilities for a better Indigenous Early Childhood education pre and post COVID-19. Reclaiming the education of our Indigenous children in Early childhood through the centering of Indigenous languages, cultures, knowledge systems, etc. is paramount to a loving and just pathway forward for Indigenous children. For all of us.

An Invitation To Imagine Education Otherwise, Grasilel Esperanza Diaz

Occasional Paper Series

This article presents an invitation to imagine education otherwise, what education could be if we took a restorative justice approach and make immediate changes. It focuses on the changes needed to make this vision a reality. Covid-19 has exposed many of the inequalities that exist in education and how these inequalities have negative effects on the neediest students. You are invited to imagine schools as sites of justice and freedom, to think of teaching that is centered on children, caring, and building relationships with families.

The Pandemic As The Time To Interrupt Harm And Foster Healing Through Schooling, Jessica Martell

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Re-Storying Ourselves As Early Childhood Teachers Amidst Covid: Toward Needed Transformations, Julie Orelien-Hernandez, Patricia Pion, Rafaella Soares-Bailey

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Taking Flight: Giving Up The Things That Weigh Me Down, Karina Malik

Occasional Paper Series

From the perspective of a Latinx, dual-language, special education, public school teacher, I explore and detail what an equitable and just education could look like in our future. I begin by envisioning a future that:

• Values collaboration in teaching and learning

• Allows for spaces of ongoing teacher learning where we teachers decide where we want to grow and how we want to learn.

• Invests in our growth and development as educators.

• Consists of a solid understanding that there is more expertise across communities than in any one person.

I continue by explaining that in order for this to be a …

Shifting Skins: Becoming Multiple During Emergency Online Teaching, Bianca Licata, Catherine Cheng Stahl

Occasional Paper Series

In this essay, we reflect on the emergence of our (new) teacher identities from the phenomenal space created within online learning, following the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Thrust from classrooms into in-between spaces mediated by digital technologies, the capricious co-inhabited new learning space functioned as a becoming-other space of identity-play, surfacing from centrifugal intra-actions among human, non-human, and inorganic entities and energies—what we have named a thinning space (authors, forthcoming). It called for becoming shapeshifters together through resisting crystallized roles and (re)claiming a multiplicity of vulnerable thin skins. We draw from the possibilities of existing virtual gaming spaces to …

Telling Tales For Justice And Equity: Storytelling As Public Nepantla Pedagogy, Ayesha Rabadi-Raol

Occasional Paper Series

As the COVID-19 pandemic led to schools moving to online platforms, I launched Tell-a-Tale, a livestreamed, biweekly read-aloud program for children. I designed and implemented each episode to include diverse children’s literature, followed by an artistic response, and finally a discussion about issues of equity and justice. Applying public pedagogy as a theoretical construct, I used this platform to create a space of “public intellectualism and social activism” (Sandlin, O’Malley, Burdick, 2011, p. 338). In this paper I will describe how I used “the pandemic as a portal” (Roy, 2020) to make space for historically marginalized stories and voices take …

Reimagining Early Childhood Classrooms As Sites Of Love: Humanizing Black Boys Through Head Rubs And “ Playin’ The Dozens ”, Nicole M. Madu

Occasional Paper Series

Black boys in American schools are often subjected to crisis narratives that negatively impact teacher-student relationships. However, two Black male early childhood teachers in New York City have reimagined teacher-student relationships which can be used to inform the future education of Black boys post-pandemic. Central to their reframing of teacher-student relationships between Black male teachers and Black boys is a focus on the importance of nurturing social and emotional health. This manuscript highlights how these two Black male teachers foster positive relationships with their young Black boys, empowering Black boys to see themselves as capable learners.

Recognizing And Sustaining #Blackgirlmagic: Reimagining Justice-Oriented Approaches In Teacher Education, Tia C. Madkins

Occasional Paper Series

As our global public health, race, and education crises continue to converge, PK-12 teachers must engage justice-oriented pedagogies. This historical moment highlights BIPOC children’s dehumanizing experiences, yet Black girls’ educational lives remain invisible. To address these issues within teacher education, scholars suggest teachers need to develop critical consciousness and reject deficit views of students, especially Black girls. Therefore, I discuss how we can support educators and teacher educators in recognizing and sustaining #BlackGirlMagic (i.e., Black girls’ and women’s universal awesomeness and brilliance). We can prepare educators to celebrate the diversity of Black girlhoods and disrupt monolithic views of who Black …

Remote Portals: Enacting Black Feminisms And Humanization To Disrupt Isolation In Teacher Education, Mildred Boveda, Keisha M. Allen

Occasional Paper Series

As two Black women teacher educators who contend with the neoliberal expectations of the westernized academy and the material realities of preparing teachers for P-12 contexts, we face the pressures of performing productivity while attempting to ameliorate injustices for multiply-marginalized students (e.g., Black students with disabilities facing economic hardships). Working within predominantly white spaces, we were already socially and intellectually isolated prior to the 2020 pandemic. In this collaborative essay, we articulate how COVID-19 exasperated existing educational and social inequities, yet served as a portal to collective sense-making of our heightened intersectional consciousness, sense of duty to community, and enactments …

The Pandemic As A Portal : On Transformative Ruptures And Possible Futures For Education, Mariana Souto-Manning

Occasional Paper Series

In 2020, as COVID-19 made us pause, it also gave us pause, shedding light on inequities in schooling and society. As Roy (2020) notes, it “brought the world to a halt like nothing else could.” However, the tragicpatterns of inequity unfolding before our eyes were not new; we were witnessing “the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years” (para. 8). Inequities that have long existed in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of Color were accentuated by the pandemic, and the exacerbation of these inequities remains devastating in and beyond the United States.

The Pandemic As A Portal: On Transformative Ruptures And Possible Futures For Education

Occasional Paper Series

In 2020, as COVID-19 made us pause, it also gave us pause, shedding light on inequities in schooling and society. As Roy (2020) notes, it “brought the world to a halt like nothing else could.” However, the tragic patterns of inequity unfolding before our eyes were not new; we were witnessing “the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years” (para. 8). Inequities that have long existed in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of Color were accentuated by the pandemic, and the exacerbation of these inequities remains devastating in and beyond the United States.

Establishing Early Care & Education As A Public Good, Brandy Jones Lawrence, Emily Sharrock

Bank Street Education Center

This brief outlines a set of guiding principles including tactical policy and advocacy actions needed to move us toward investing in early childhood education as a public good to support all children, families, and society as a whole.

Expert Report, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

Please do not cite without permission. Contact Karen DeMoss (kdemoss@bankstreet.edu) for information.

This report offers a comprehensive review of literature on teacher quality as it relates to preparation, culminating with an analysis of New York State certifications and a policy solution to improve teacher quality and retention in New York City schools

Esser Logic Model For Teacher Residencies, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

This document provides support for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) who might wish to use their Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds to develop teacher residency programs. Residencies are explicitly allowable under federal guidance, as they can address both immediate COVID-19 learning opportunity gaps and help districts "build back better" by diversifying the teaching force, reducing turnover, and improving outcomes. The logic model above is part of the new resource that LEAs can use to complete their required ESSER plans.

Teacher Residency Website Guidance, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

This document provides guidance on how to design an effective teacher residency webpage that can support partnerships in garnering support, interest, awareness, and enrollment. Guidance is rooted in four key principles: Highlighting partnership values, telling stories, centering navigability, and focusing on keywords.

Designing Early Childhood Educator Residency/Apprenticeship Programs: A Guide To Estimating Costs, Emily Sharrock, Courtney Parkerson

Bank Street Education Center

This guide was created to support states, cities, and communities in understanding the design and cost considerations associated with establishing high-quality residency or apprenticeship programs for early childhood educators.

Using Esser Funds To Support Teacher Residencies, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

This document details the opportunity that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) have to leverage Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) to develop teacher residency programs at their school sites. It is not only allowable, but also advisable under Federal guidance that these funds can support teacher candidates working for a full year, co-teaching within classrooms with accomplished mentor teachers, helping lead to a more diverse teacher workforce, reducing teacher turnover, and improving instructional outcomes.

The Name Curriculum: Exploring Names, Naming, And Identity, Isabel Taswell

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The act of naming, or using and respecting one’s name, is a humanizing act: it is foundational to one’s sense of identity and belonging. Conversely, the act of ‘de-naming,’ or changing, forgetting, or erasing one’s name, is an act of dehumanization: it denies one’s sense of identity and belonging. The Name Curriculum provides an opportunity for third grade students to explore the role of names and naming as they relate to one’s sense of self and community. It draws on the role of developmental psychology, the urgency of historical context, and the power of children’s literature. Specifically, it explores how …

The Role Of The Father In The Young Child’S Life And Development: What Do Early Childhood Teachers Need To Know?, Charlotte Silver

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The contribution of the father to the young child’s life and development has been looked at far less than that of the mother. This paper analyzes how fathers impact the development of growing children and why this issue matters to early childhood educators. By extension, it analyzes the impact of a father’s absence. In today’s society of increasingly diverse parenting structures, many children are growing up in fatherless households. For such children, teachers may prove to be significant figures in the hierarchy of attachment. This paper begins with a brief history of attachment theory. It then provides an overview of …

The Effect Of School Choice On Multilingual Learners In New York City, Grace Bianchetti

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The New York City Department of Education has the responsibility of educating more than one million students from diverse backgrounds and various economic statuses. The department boasts school choice- allowing its public school students and their families to choose between magnet schools, charter schools, and their local neighborhood zoned schools. This paper uncovers how the multitude of school choices came to be in NYC, how it affects multilingual families, and potential solutions to the effects of school choice on multilingual families. This paper investigates why only 7% of charter school students are Multilingual Learners, while 15% of NYC Public School …

Preparation Program And District Partnership Agreement Considerations, Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

Prepared to Teach

This document outlines key considerations to keep in mind when building a residency partnership. Articulating agreements can help clarify the responsibilities of each party—programs and schools or districts—as well as foster a shared understandings of the mutual goals and responsibilities the partnership wishes to embrace. Agreements can remain informal or can form the basis for a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).