With Larry Ferlazzo

Summertime is when we teachers can de-clutter our minds and decompress from the school year.

It can also be a time for us to reflect on the bigger questions facing our profession.

Today’s post is the latest in a series exploring what some of those questions might be ...

Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is the chief learning officer at the Possible Zone, a youth entrepreneurship and work-based learning program with a mission to advance economic equity. She has been in the field of education for almost 30 years as a middle, high school, and college teacher, researcher, leadership coach and school designer, and director for a network of schools:

“Knowledge emerges only through … the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator who viewed education as a practice of freedom, suggests that questions are “the roots of change.” They involve creativity, risk, and connection to action; they are fundamental to being in the world and with others. In the spirit of Freire, I unpack one question I’ve been pondering and I offer, through curiosity and searching, pathways to possible solutions.

How do we prepare students in American schools for the future economy?

Our world today and the world of the future is marked by digitalization and rapid change: Technology is prolific and advancing; jobs in artificial intelligence and STEM are growing, and in our post-COVID landscape, entrepreneurial and agile learners are in demand. In addition to collaboration and communication, employers seek skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and the ability to manage emotions and persist.

Yet, the educational system young people are immersed in every day is largely disconnected from the world of work. High school diploma requirements vary from state to state, as does the quality of teaching and learning. The latest report from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that high school students at private schools are more likely than public school students to complete advanced mathematics and science courses, positioning them to seize future career opportunities.

While there’s general agreement that core subjects like science are important, there’s less consensus on how to integrate social-emotional learning like growth mindset or relationship skills into students’ experiences. Plus, many young people, particularly students of color and those from financially underresourced communities, lack networks or social capital to access and navigate the future workforce. They get left out and are left with fewer opportunities.

What happens as these truths converge? One vision outlines skills and social capital required to access postsecondary and workforce pathways. The other illuminates disparities hard-wired into educational systems that thwart young people’s access to thrive in the future workforce and achieve economic mobility. What does it take to prepare all young people, including those with historically the least opportunity, to enter the future economy with the skills, confidence, and readiness to shape their own futures? I explore ideas to rethink education that moves us closer to answering this question:

As Friere’s opening reminds us, knowledge and action emerge from inquiry. Though structures, pace, and channels have evolved, the core holds: We need to meet students and teachers where technology and communication intersect and design experiences that build skills to navigate an increasingly complex world.

Keenan W. Lee, M.Ed., is an urban English-language-development (ELD) teacher in central Pennsylvania. Lee specializes in curriculum and instruction in early-childhood education and English-language development of multilingual learners:

One question that I ponder all the time is if we want our schools to be a culturally responsive environment and want teachers to use culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms, why don’t we make the change in the college and university teacher-preparation programs?

This question weighs heavily on me because in today’s society it is important that we teachers have a classroom that celebrates and honors all cultural identities that make up the classroom environment. However, oftentimes, many teachers—new and veteran—do not understand what culturally responsive teaching is and the changes that are necessary to be made to be culturally responsive.

It seems as if there is a disconnect between what happens in the classroom versus what is being taught in teacher-prep programs. There has to be a way to bridge the gap between the two entities and have some sort of cohesion in what teachers are being taught and what the expectations are in the school districts across the country.

An idea that I would propose to policymakers would be to create a task force or committee that consists of students, parents, teachers, and college faculty. This committee would be the ones to actually examine college and university practices and help develop curricula for teacher-preparation programs that reflect real-world applications of culturally responsive pedagogy in the classroom and how it can be implemented.

One day my hope is that all stakeholders in education will see the importance of culturally responsive pedagogy and how it allows for teachers to put the students’ cultural and linguistic heritage to the forefront of learning and how this will create a more sound learning community for all involved in the learning process.

Amber Chandler is the author of The Flexible SEL Classroom and a contributor to many education blogs. She teaches 8th grade ELA in Hamburg, N.Y. Amber is the president of her union of 400 teachers. Follow her @MsAmberChandler and check out her website :

I’m obsessed with creating optimal work environments, efficient ways of getting the results I want, and producing as many states of “flow” as possible for both my students and myself. The one question I ponder—at least monthly—is this: How should schools structure time to be the most beneficial for students and teachers, and is that even possible?

I began my career teaching high school with an hour and a half block scheduling. I taught three blocks and I had a block free for planning each day, and the entire school had a half hour lunch at the same time. I saw my students every other day. I loved the type of block scheduling, but there were obvious drawbacks, too. If you missed one class, it was definitely hard to catch up. Some students struggled to stay focused. For me, though, it allowed the best mix of direct instruction and independent practice, and I loved the way I had time to do project-based learning in meaningful ways.

Fast forward, and in my fifth year of teaching, I moved to a new state with 42-minute classes every day. I was constantly running out of time, and it took years to adjust to this pace and the intensity of seeing my students every single day. I stopped assigning homework altogether, as it didn’t seem fair to me that students didn’t have down time before they were back in class again. This time, I was at a middle school, and the entire experience is so vastly different that I didn’t think much about time, as I had to rethink everything.

However, over the last few years of pandemic teaching, we’ve been forced to try on several learning configurations. First, we had all virtual. Then, we had hybrid, with every other day independent and the opposite day in person. The benefit to this was classes of 12 to 14 students. We returned this year with 38-minute classes to accommodate a longer homeroom, which was required because of busing issues. I was so happy to be in person with my students that I didn’t care we’d lost a few minutes.

Yet, I’ve been saying a lot that “things shouldn’t go back to normal since normal wasn’t working either,” but I’m still pondering what an effective schedule would be to maximize learning. As I said, I think about this at least once a month and, more recently, because my district sent out a survey about flipping elementary and high school start times to better follow the research about sleep. The staff was nearly 50/50, but the community was strongly against a switch. This all brings me back to my original “pondering”—how should schools structure learning that is optimal for students and teachers, and is that even possible? The additional factor that will keep me pondering this question is how should schools be structured that will be best for families, too? Clearly, this isn’t a topic that will be resolved, and I can bet come fall I’ll be thinking about this all over again.

As with all of my educational philosophies, I believe the optimal situation would need to be flexible, and that is the root of the problem. We’d need solutions that addressed transportation, child care, and the science of learning, in addition to the social and emotional implications. In order to best develop a system that is best, the obstacles would need to be removed that cause us to make educational decisions based on available resources and convenience. School is a structure that is rigid, and if we are to optimize learning for students, teachers, and families, that would have to change dramatically.

Thanks to Meg, Keenan, and Amber for contributing their thoughts.

This post is the third in multipart series. You can see Part One here and Part Two here .

The question of the week is:

What questions related to education do you periodically “ponder” and don’t feel like you—or others you are familiar with—have a good answer for? Do you have ideas for what would be required to get those answers?

In Part One , Matt Renwick, July Hill-Wilkinson, and Ann Stiltner contributed their reflections.

Matt, July, and Ann were also guests onmy 10-minute BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

In Part Two , Vernita Mayfield , Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, and Michael Pershan shared their ideas.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign—new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 11 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below.

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column .

State Supreme Court rules in favor of NJ teacher who lost tenure after child was born

TRENTON – The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday that a former tenured teacher at Van Derveer School in Somerville should have gotten her full-time job back after she switched to a part-time position to spend more time with her newborn son.

The state's highest court agreed with rulings by the commissioner of the state Department of Education and an Appellate Court that Catherine Parsells, now principal of Immaculate Conception School, did not waive her tenure rights when she requested the part-time position and was entitled to a full-time job.

Parsells, who earned her tenure in 2013, applied for full-time positions when she wanted to leave the part-time job in 2018, but the Somerville school board rejected her applications for "at least" six jobs, court papers say.

For some of those positions, according to court papers, the school board hired non-tenured teachers from outside the district.

Because she was not getting health benefits and all the full-time positions were filled, Parsells found employment elsewhere.

Both the Department of Education and the Appellate Court had ruled that the school district should return Parsells to her full-time position at Van Derveer School and reward her back pay.

Parsells argued that she was entitled to a full-time job because she had not "knowingly and voluntarily" given up her tenure rights.

The Supreme Court wrote that the Somerville School District had "presented no proofs" that Parsells had given up her tenure rights and that her applications for the full-time jobs "clearly show that she believed she had a right, as a tenured teacher, to return to work full-time."

But, the Court ruled, school districts do not have to notify tenured teachers in advance that if they work part-time after working full-time, they might not have a right to return to the full-time position. The Court, however, "encourages" school districts to address the issue at the time the request for part-time work is made.

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"Any waiver of a teacher's tenure rights must be clear, knowing and unequivocal," the Court wrote in its unanimous decision.

In February 2020, the state Department of Education overturned an administrative law judge's ruling that Parsells had relinquished her tenure rights after a maternity leave.

'A huge sense of relief': Business now booming for Somerville home baker

But the Somerville school board appealed that decision in the courts, saying the state's decision was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

But the Appellate Court disagreed, saying that the school district failed to disclose to Parsells the consequences of full-time teachers accepting part-time positions

According to the Department of Education's ruling, Parsells was a full-time preschool teacher for six years, who had earned tenure, before voluntarily taking a part-time position with health benefits for the 2016-17 school year.

In February 2017, just before beginning a maternity and child care leave of absence, she expressed interest in continuing as a part-time teacher for the next school year if she could still receive health benefits, court papers say.

But in July 2017, according to court papers, Parsells was told by former Superintendent Tim Purnell, who is now executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, that the part-time position no longer carried health benefits, so she had to choose between a full-time job with benefits or a part-time job with no benefits.

Parsells decided to extend her maternity leave.

In April 2018, the new superintendent, Tim Teehan, who is retiring, told Parsells she could return for the 2018-19 school year to a part-time position with no benefits. If a full-time position became available, she would have to apply for it, court papers say.

Parsells applied for full-time positions, but the district did not select her.

Parsells appealed the school district's action, arguing that the board denied her tenure rights by hiring untenured people for the full-time positions. She also argued that she had not voluntarily relinquished her tenure rights by accepting a temporary placement in a part-time position.

Parsells contended that she did not know that changing from a full-time to a part-time position would affect her tenure rights and the district never informed her of the possible consequences.

The Department of Education found that Parsells did not knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to a full-time position. The waiver of the tenure, the Department of Education wrote, "can only be waived knowingly and voluntarily through a clear, unequivocal and decisive act."

The department also wrote that the district "had all the information and nonetheless kept (Parsells) in the dark."

The state also ruled that Parsells' request to continue her maternity leave also was not a waiver of her tenure rights.

The Appellate Court agreed, writing in the 14-page decision, that a teacher "should be notified of the risks to her full-time job before making that fateful decision."

"It also ensures teachers are armed with the knowledge they need to make an informed career choice," the court continued.

In addition, the court wrote that the school board's argument "misses the mark" because "it suggests that an employer's lack of transparency with its own employees is somehow good operational policy."

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Supreme Court rules for teacher who lost tenure after child birth

How To Earn A Public Health Nursing Certification

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Nurses change lives every day in hospitals and clinics. Public health nurses take their practice beyond individual care to create change at a larger level—anything from local vaccine initiatives to national policies.

Public health nurses may provide some direct patient care, but their job also incorporates advocacy and education. They promote and protect their communities’ health using their clinical training and an understanding of social and political sciences.

You don’t need a public health nursing certification to get into this field. But earning a professional distinction can supplement your nursing education and demonstrate your commitment to constant learning.

The only dedicated certification for public health nurses, the Advanced Public Health Nursing Certification, has been retired and is now only available for renewal. However, other relevant certifications can help you build your skills and advance your public health career.

For example, the nationally recognized Certified in Public Health credential doesn’t specifically cover nursing, but it’s available for nurses with public health work experience. Public health nurses with relevant academic histories may qualify to become Certified Health Education Specialists as well.

Find more information about these certifications, how much they cost and their eligibility requirements below.

Public health nurses incorporate social and political sciences into their nursing practice. With a focus on population health rather than individual care, these professionals create and implement programs that promote wellness. They protect community health and work to prevent disease, illness, disability and death.

In general, public health professionals focus on prevention. They create educational programs, conduct research and recommend policies to promote the health of vulnerable populations. Public health nurses also identify and direct care for individuals whose conditions may put others at risk, such as those with infectious diseases.

Public health nurses work in all levels of government—including local, state and federal—and community-focused organizations. Schools, health departments, correctional facilities and community health clinics all employ public health nurses. Public health nurses are well-suited for leadership positions in these settings as well.

The PHNA-BC is the only certification specifically for public health nursing, but it’s been retired by the American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC). This credential is only available for already-certified nurses to maintain or renew. Nurses whose certifications expired more than two years ago are no longer eligible for renewal.

Renewal costs $350 for nonmembers of nursing associations, with discounts available for members.

This certification must be renewed every five years. Maintaining certification involves three components: an active nursing license, continued education and professional development activities. All nurses must complete 75 hours of education related to their certification.

You can fulfill the professional development requirement by completing academic credits, giving presentations, publishing peer-reviewed articles or volunteering. Practice hours count toward this requirement, but they are not mandatory for renewal.

The ANCC recommends creating a five-year plan for completing renewal requirements and tracking your progress on its website. When it’s time to renew, any tracked proof of professional development will transfer to your application.

The PHNA-BC may be the only certification dedicated to public health nurses, but don’t worry if you don’t already have it. Other options can showcase your training in public health. Maintaining any relevant certification demonstrates your commitment to continued education, professional growth and ethical practices.

The CPH distinction isn’t specifically for nursing, but it’s a great fit for any public health professional. Created by the National Board of Public Health Examiners, this certification demonstrates both professional and personal skills related to the field. The CPH is recognized as the national standard for public health professionals.

You don’t need a public health degree to earn this certification; nurses can qualify with a bachelor’s in nursing and five years of public health work experience.

CPH exam topics include leadership, communication, law and ethics, policy issues, health equity and social justice. The exam comprises 200 questions with a four-hour time limit. Members of some organizations qualify for discounts, but the regular fee is $385.

Similar to the PHNA-BC, you must complete professional development activities to maintain CPH certification. Renewal costs $95 every two years.

Public health nurses and health education specialists may have different job titles, but their roles overlap. Public health educators promote wellness by collecting data, creating programs, training providers and advocating for policies that support health.

Academic history impacts eligibility for the CHES credential. Health education degree graduates qualify easily. Nurses may be eligible if they have at least a bachelor’s in nursing and 25 semester hours of courses related to health education. Topics include evaluation and research, planning, implementation, advocacy and ethics.

If you have any questions about your eligibility, the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing offers a prescreening service for $25. If you don’t qualify, the commission provides an explanation and guidance for eligibility.

Once approved, you can sit for the 165-question exam. The exam fee ranges from $230 to $400, depending on your student status and registration date.

To become a public health nurse, first earn a nursing degree and pass the NCLEX-RN® exam. You don’t need a public health degree, but public health nurses do need to maintain their nursing license.

Public health nursing focuses on population-level health rather than individual care. Public health nurses work in government and community organizations to conduct research, create and implement programs, and advocate for policy changes that promote health.