September Reading List

With the school year now in full swing, we know it’s a challenge to stay on top of your professional reading. Here are a few hot assignments you won’t want to miss:

1. Journal of Teacher Education

The latest issue of AACTE’s journal offers fascinating insights into the professional development and practice of teacher educators. Based on the premise that “while research on teaching informs research on teacher education, the latter needs a specialized knowledge base of its own” (see the issue’s editorial), articles address general and specific elements of that knowledge base, professional identity, core practices, and more.

Extra credit:Read the latest research to be published in future issues of the journal! It’s posted on a rolling basis in Sage’s Online First system.


2. Peabody Journal of Education

The current issue explores the theme “Clinical Partnerships in Teacher Education: Perspectives, Practices, and Outcomes” and includes an afterword by AACTE’s own Sharon P.  Robinson.

Extra credit:Learn more about AACTE’s position on clinical preparation in our policy brief, and see how research is informing residencies and other models through AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight.


3. NAESP’s Principal Magazine

Sharon Robinson also has an essay in the current issue of Principal, focused on the opportunities that teacher preparation programs present to strengthen the relationships between higher education and PK-12 schools. Special shout-outs go to the University of Memphis (TN), Towson University (MD), and Washington State University.


4. Kappan

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards President and CEO Ronald Thorpe outlines his vision for a preservice residency model in the September issue of Kappan. Inspired by a conversation among board-certified teachers and board-certified physicians about preparation in their respective professions, Thorpe lays out specific lessons from the medical model to improve teachers’ clinical training.

Extra credit: Read the unions’ views on robust teacher preparation in the National Education Association’s 2014 report on residencies and the American Federation of Teachers’ 2013 “Raising the Bar” report.


5. “Think Again” from the American Institutes for Research

Dan Goldhaber has a new commentary disputing the belief that high performers on the SAT choose professions other than teaching. “Recent college graduates with median and high (90th percentile) SAT scores were more likely to enter the teaching profession than other occupations in 2008 than in 2000 and 1993,” he writes.

Extra credit:Read the “Gains in Teacher Quality” study behind the numbers.


6. Don’t have time to read? How about listening to a podcast:

Linda Darling-Hammond discusses the benefits for both teachers and learners using college- and career-ready standards—and, of course, performance assessments. This podcast is part of a series produced by the Learning First Alliance for its campaign “Get It Right: Common Sense on the Common Core.”


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