Movin' on up!

So I am moving in so many ways right now. First, I will be joining ACE - the American College of Education to help more teachers realize their full potential which means I am transitioning out of ABCTE. After 5 years of working to ensure that every child has a great teacher I am ready for a new challenge.

We are moving to Texas - and I will be closing down the Edbiz and ABCTE blogspot brands and combining into one blog to make life a little easier. Moving it all to http://www.virtulearning.blogspot.com - so please join me on that blog and we will continue to focus on the incredible opportunities that await students who venture into learning in the virtual world!Thanks for following me and please join me at the Virtual Learning blog!

Big Hairy Audacious Goal!

I know I am phasing this blog out in favor of edbizstrategy - but the BHAG we have going on at ABCTE is too good not to share right now - please take a look at track our progress on twitter and youtube as well.

Writing and Math Help

People struggle with writing and math. Our teacher candidates at ABCTE are no exception and is one of the reasons why our pass rate is so low. Recently I became aware of Straighterline - an online college course provider that finally brings these courses in at a reasonable cost - and with live online tutoring.

It will be interesting to see if it helps move the needle on our pass rate -

Cyber Monday!

ABCTE - always on the cutting edge of innovation is providing a special Cyber Monday deal of $150 off teacher certification through midnight on Monday - please help us spread the word.

Education Blogs

The time has come that I actually have to admit I have too many blogs. So this is the last post here.

• If you are interested in Teacher Certification or other Education Reform issues- please see the ABCTE blog
• If you are interested in Virtual Learning or Online Schools - please see the new Edbizstrategy blog
• If you are interested in Education Software, Test Prep and other cutting edge learning resources go to the Scholarity blog
  

And of course you can still follow Dave Saba on Twitter and Scholarity on Twitter.

THANKS LOYAL FANS!!

Charter School Resources

Having served on the board of a charter school and recently attended the NACSA meeting, it occurred to us that charter schools could use more help. Since we are a non-profit and focused on teaching, we felt like we could provide more resources to charter schools in the area of teacher quality.

So today we are launching CharterTeacher.com with the goal of working more closely with charter schools to ensure the every charter school student has a great teacher. To that end we have built this website so that it covers the various areas that impact teacher quality:

1. Teacher Recruitment: there is a job posting section so that charter schools can find the talent they need and a teacher resume posting area so that dedicated teachers can find the charter school that fits their skill-set.
2. Teacher Preparation: for the most part, charter schools can hire the talent they need and don’t have to worry about licensing. But making sure that a person is ready to teach and really knows their subject is an area where ABCTE can help.
3. Teacher Certification: some states require certification and some parents want their child to be taught by a certified teacher. ABCTE certifies teachers so why not take advantage of a rigorous program to certify your charter school teachers.
4. Professional Development: our resources, including phonics based reading instruction, classroom management, dealing with parents and subject matter workshops can help you improve your teaching workforce.
5. Charter Teacher Forum: the more you talk to charter school teachers and administrators the more you realize they really need more ways to share ideas and solutions. Our own ABCTE Teachers have a very strong online community through our forums so we know this charter school forum will get a lot of traffic.

So help us spread the word today so that all the great charter school administrators and teachers know about this new resource, provided for free, from ABCTE to build an even stronger charter school community!

Alternative Teacher Certification is part of the solution

Secretary Arne Duncanhit the one-two punch of teacher preparation this week focusing in on how poorly are teachers are prepared in general and then how they need a greater emphasis on math and science if we are to succeed as a nation.

“By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom”

So very true.

Increased subject matter expertise, more diversity in experience and culture, greater emphasis on recruiting top performers and more field based training - all point to alternative teacher certification like ABCTE as a big part of that solution.