This is embarrassing. I am on the faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of Education as a Reseach Professor. But I did not know that the university would be preparing teachers online. However, the Center for Education Reform knew. It is one of the foremost advocates for privatization in the nation. It supports charters, vouchers, for-profit schooling, and every other form of schooling that is not a democratically-controlled public school.
Here is the press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2015
EXCITING INNOVATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION LAUNCHED AT NYU
Education School to Create School-Embedded Masters
A field marked by continual challenges in delivering rigorous programs to ensure quality teaching for every child is about to undergo a major transformation as the nation’s oldest university-based school of teaching, NYU Steinhardt, launches a path-breaking residency-based online teacher education program.
The yearlong graduate residency program aims to increase the number of teachers prepared for educating students in urban, high-needs public schools. Similar to residency programs in well-respected fields such as medicine, teacher residency programs combine a full-time immersive classroom experience with exhaustive coursework, with resident students gaining more responsibility as they build their expertise.
“We know that teachers, especially teachers going into high-needs schools, need better preparation,” said CER Founder and President Emeritus Jeanne Allen. “Harnessing the power of technology to not only create innovative ways of enhancing teacher development but to do so through such a prestigious institution is incredibly promising on so many fronts. The advent of blended learning programs to enhance both student learning and teacher preparation program is precisely where our nation’s leaders should be moving with policy and practice,” said Allen, who has worked on the program development.
“Now more than ever teachers matter,” said HotChalk CEO and CER board member Edward Fields, whose company has partnered with NYU to create the new school-embedded masters in education. “We are proud to support an outstanding institution with such a clear vision and commitment to educational outcomes.”
Partnering with HotChalk enables Steinhardt to conduct online video observations for teacher residents that provide invaluable real-time feedback, offering a continuous cycle of learning, measuring, and adjusting so that education outcomes are improved not just for teacher residents but their students as well.
The Center for Education Reform
cer@edreform.com ~ http://www.edreform.com
ABOUT CER: The Center for Education Reform (CER), since 1993, aggressively pursues laws that demand flexibility, freedom and innovation, without delay. Visit http://www.edreform.com for more information.
For More Information Contact: Michelle Tigani, 202-750-0016, michelle@edreform.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sad state of affairs and part of continuing the assault on Schools of Education. Add to this the ridiculous demands of CAEP accreditation and soon university based teacher training will be a thing of the past.
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Why only urban and high needs areas. If they are really good after this year-long training, I am sure the more prestigious schools including the suburban areas will be very happy to sweep them up.
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You know why. They are fooling no one with the cheap emergency ed plan, and the only thing missing is an honest sales pitch.
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Because micromanaging always works so well…
From the press release: “Partnering with HotChalk enables Steinhardt to conduct online video observations for teacher residents that provide invaluable real-time feedback, offering a continuous cycle of learning, measuring, and adjusting so that education outcomes are improved not just for teacher residents but their students as well.”
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When did physicians start online preparation and video-based feedback?
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Right, shouldn’t our future doctors be exposed to this wonderful, cutting edge opportunity? They could “operate” in high needs communities as well. Just think. Their bungled attempts to serve a struggling population would be recorded, so they could learn from their mistakes. After all, practice makes perfect.
I know that medical training and teacher training are not quite the same, but both serve critical needs that deserve quality programs that are dependent on instruction and supervision by live on-site instructors. I would not want nurses or social workers receiving degrees that rely on online instruction either.
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2old2teach,
doctors, cutting-edge opportunity? Clever!!
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I hate to admit it, but it was totally unconscious. 🙂
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“Partnering with HotChalk enables Steinhardt to conduct online video observations for teacher residents that provide invaluable real-time feedback, offering a continuous cycle of learning, measuring, and adjusting so that education outcomes are improved not just for teacher residents but their students as well.”
That sounds like surveillance system in place at all of the sites where teachers are residents. That feedback from Steinhart is not likely to be given by senior faculty. It is more likely a job for graduate students. Or it could be a version of Watson who listens for key words and sounds, then pulls up a recommendation from a vast system of —tricks of the trade, in code.
I have not looked at the NYU site but the use of HotChalk and versions thereof are introducing a trade school model of teacher preparation while “marketing” the changes as if these are closely aligned to professional preparation in medicine, law, and engineering.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust are among others funding these “transformations” in teacher preparation.
The aim is to do away with current preparation and accreditation systems in favor of developing a taxonomy of “high-value skill sets” that so that beginning teachers are ready to work without any problems on day one. Some of the Gates grants went to outfits that promised beginning teachers would be better, on day one, than third year teachers. The hype is thick, bold, and right out of that race to the top ethos of we can do more, better, faster, and always with continuous improvement.
Recent grants from Gates show that he has absolutely no problem with installing Doug Lemov’s “Teach like a Champion” in his ventures into teacher to education—as if that command-and-control mentality is perfectly normal, great for every grade and subject.
Gates is also funding Relay Graduate School of Education so those “do as I say” practices and values go into an expanded network he is funding..
Or consider the variant at TeachingWorks, an organization within the University of Michigan School of Education, started in 2013, funded in 2014 with a $1.1 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust “to implement more rigorous uniform standards for aspiring educators and enable schools of education to support students in meeting these higher benchmarks.” Gates added $6.875 million to the same program late this year .
What’s up at TeachingWorks?
“In partnership with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), TeachingWorks is developing a new breed of licensure assessment for teaching – the National Observational Teaching Examination NOTE.
The elementary NOTE includes four components:
1. a computer-based test of content knowledge for teaching;
2. an on-demand performance assessment of the ability to lead a group discussion of academic content;
3. an on-demand performance assessment of the ability to elicit and interpret a student’s thinking about specific academic content;
4. an on-demand performance assessment of the ability to model and explain specific academic content.
Here is the kicker:
“The assessments of leading a group discussion and eliciting and interpreting student thinking are carried out in virtual classrooms using avatars.”
Here is the reasoning:
“The use of avatars permits standardized measures of teaching competency and avoids the problems associated with carrying out assessment in live classrooms, which often vary significantly and can complicate efforts to arrive at a fair evaluation of a teacher’s capability.”
(Notice the appeal to “fairness” and desire to avoid the complications of real variability in classrooms. Sounds like educational prep “lite.”)
“At present, the plan is to develop both the elementary and secondary NOTE in English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science, at minimum; quite likely, additional assessments will be developed at the secondary level in other subject areas.”
– See more at: http://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/note#sthash.n3IEkjXg.dpuf
You can get the drift of how teacher education works when you teach students who are avatars here
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/12/15simulate_ep-2.h30.html
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“The use of avatars permits standardized measures of teaching competency and avoids the problems associated with carrying out assessment in live classrooms, which often vary significantly and can complicate efforts to arrive at a fair evaluation of a teacher’s capability.”
Heaven forbid that real kids foul up a teacher’s ability to demonstrate their competence to teach.
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This makes me wonder if Mendham, NJ (Christie’s hometown even tho wife Mary Pat preferred Catholic schools), Montclair (Chris Cerf), Glen Ridge (Cami Anderson) public districts are hiring Relay graduates.
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PS. I have a vintage (1961) MA in Education from NYU major in art education
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Thanks for post. I certainly did not know about it either. This merits closer scrutiny.
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A student of mine did a research internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this past summer. He presented his findings yesterday to fellow students and staff at our school. His internship was with a NIST group that was creating a way to monitor industrial robots. Monitoring included making sure the robots did not deviate from their prescribed motions. My student’s computer program analyzed the frames of a video stream of the robots in motion and compared them to the video of the way the robots were supposed to move. If there was any deviation, or if a human or some other “foreign” object (like a human) got in the way, his program would alert the staff. This protects too against hackers that might try to get into the software of the robots and alter what they were doing. Oh, and he also wrote a program to monitor the monitoring program.
The above deal with HotChalk doesn’t sound too far off from this. And we will be the robots making only prescribed approved moves.
Sigh.
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Go and review Mario Savio’s speech, so many years ago.
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That Diane would be surprised by this is telling of the times. Must be a “follow the money” trail that NYU is playing right into. I don’t buy into on line education. People get degrees in people-oriented fields such as education without ever actually BEING WITH PEOPLE while taking courses? I just value being in the presence of people and exchanging conversation face to face. If we live in a world where we do not have time to be with people and think it is a quality life to stay in an enclosed room looking at people via a computer screen… humanity is in deep trouble. On line education is a high profit endeavor because it involves little “real estate”. Early childhood schools are using more and more computers – 3 year olds are put on I-Pads. There is an app teachers in early childhood can use that allow children to use special print outs on paper that are used like a coloring book. For example, there is a picture of a car. Then the student scans the special picture with their I-Pad and the car appears on a screen in 3D. For what purpose is this activity? A 3 year old child needs to observe cars – real ones… and if they choose to draw what they see – great. The brain needs to develop by doing at this stage of life and by touching things in the real world – this is how the brain is able to develop. The computer has become a drug. Internet learning is a profiteers drug… high profit and little overhead expense. There are way too many individuals not qualified to teach who take coursework at money hungry on line programs that send reps to public schools to sell the programs…. Ughh.
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I am a graduate of NYU Steinhardt pre-NCLB. It was a fantastic education but even then I could hear and feel the rumblings of profiteering and ‘partnering’ with business-types in the background.
After reading this I feel that my MA in Teaching and Learning lost some of its prestige and luster.
Funny that, since I will make my final student loan payment on that long-ago degree in February of next year. Paid for and worth less. Much less under the reform regime. . . .
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Chris, Although you may not like the direction NYU School of Ed is proceeding, the 2015 direction has nothing to do with the merit of the grad degree you attained. We’ve read your perceptive comments on Dr Ravitch’s site.
You might write NYU to say you have reservations re alumni donations in lIght of current trend.
Chill some champagne for that final student loan payment!
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Will the avatars act as real students do in some classes? Meeting up with the real world will throw these avatar trained teachers for a loop if they have not experienced it as students. I heard recently of a TFA teacher who left the first day confronted by real students in a real “in need” school. There is a reason well-paid and benefitted teachers can not be found for these schools.
These teachers should be hired by elite private schools as they might be able to handle the students, but they might not make it at the charter at which I assist.
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Teaching an avatar would seem to take away students’ free will. Funny, I thought that was one of the desired goals of education.
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Makes me cry. How sad. NYU will experience KARMA, the laws of physics applies in all aspects of life here on this planet. Remember KARMA -= Laws
of Physics. This is what this country and world us such a mess … KARMA will get ya in the end.
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Meant IS.
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Certainly seems like a misapplication for teacher training.
I know an adult taking her MSW online with a respected local university. It seems to be a mixed bag of video’ lectures, live (Skype) and chat-type (typed) class discussions, some in-person classes, work submitted online graded by staff (& of course heavy reading just like in ‘real’ college). There are periodic practical segments ‘in the field’. It takes 3 yrs part-time, costs less than on-campus, & allows her to continue her part-time consulting business. This example seems to me appropriate use of online programs, filling a real need for working adults/parents.
Anyone have experience with online courses?
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