Flynn Ross
Associate Professor of Teacher Education; and Faculty Coordinator, Newcomer Extended Teach Education Program, University of Southern Maine
Areas of Expertise:
- Training Programs
- School Reform
- Immigration
- Race & Ethnicity
Connect with Flynn
About Flynn
Ross has been conducting and speaking about Equity Audits in schools to promote Equity and Excellence. She has been involved with Professional Development School Partnerships for the preparation of new teachers since her dissertation at Teachers College Columbia University. Through these school university partnerships she has served as the faculty coordinator of Newcomer Extended Teacher Education Program, a graduate level teacher preparation program designed to recruit, support, and prepare recent immigrants and refugees to be certified teachers. She is the campus liaison for the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Foundation Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color. As a mother and community member, she is a key leader on the United Way Westbrook Children’s Cabinet and serves on the program evaluation committee.
Briefs
How to Fix America's Teacher Shortage
SSN Basic Facts,
Why Equity is the Key to Excellence for American Schools
SSN Basic Facts,
Podcast
Publications
"Helping Immigrants Become Teachers" Educational Leadership 58, no. 8 (2001): 68-71.
Offers brief profiles of graduate students in a high quality, school and university partnership teacher preparation program designed to prepare culturally and linguistically diverse teachers.
"Newcomers Entering Teaching: Successes and Challenges of Preparing Recent Immigrants and Refugees for Teaching in Public Schools" in Teacher Education Yearbook XII: Research on Alternative and Non-traditional Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators: Kendall Hunt, 2001).
Describes the challenges and successes of the Newcomer ETEP program, a successful ten-year school and university partnership pipeline to prepare culturally and linguistically diverse teachers.
"Creating Flexibility in Teacher Certification Policy to Ensure Quality and Equity" Maine Policy Review 14, no. 1 (2005): 56-63.
Describes the coalition to effectively lobby state board of education regulations to provide greater equity of access by allowing a composite score on standardized test scores required for certification.
"Changing the Field: Graduates of Cohort Programs Move into Leadership Positions" (with ), in Addressing the Demographic Imperative: Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining a Diverse and Highly Effective Teaching Force, edited by Christine Sleeter, La Vonne Neal, and Kevin Kumashiro (Routledge, 2015).
Demonstrates that alumni provide critical examination of school structures and minority teacher recruitment programs with descriptions of how they have influenced their schools and students as they move into leadership positions.
"Newcomers Entering Teaching: The Possibilities of a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Teaching Force" in Addressing the Demographic Imperative: Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining a Diverse and Highly Effective Teaching Force, edited by Christine Sleeter, La Vonne Neal, and Kevin Kumashiro (Routledge, 2015).
Examines successes and challenges of culturally and linguistically diverse teachers working in historically white communities with implications for future recruitment efforts in teacher preparation pathways.
In the News
Flynn Ross quoted in Nell Gluckman, "Red, Yellow, or Green? A University System Color-Codes Its Presidents’ Political Speech to Try to Regulate It" The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 3, 2018.
Flynn Ross quoted in Robbie Feinberg, "State Department of Education Proposes New Pathway to Teaching" Maine Public Radio, March 7, 2018.
"Maine Misses Out When Higher Education Remains Unaffordable," Flynn Ross (with ), Bangor Daily News, September 28, 2016.
"The Consequences of Paying Our Teachers Poverty-Level Wages," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, March 15, 2016.
"We Can’t Abandon Future Generations of Maine Teachers," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, September 1, 2015.
"Build a Better Standardized Test, but Beware Its Consequences," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, March 31, 2015.
"Don’t Misuse Standardized Tests — Lest They Become Meaningless," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, February 17, 2015.
"We Have Reason to Celebrate Maine’s Public Schools — And Much to Protect," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, September 2, 2014.
"Off Campus: Newly Graduated Teachers Can Expect Challenges, Joys," Flynn Ross, Portland Press Herald, May 12, 2014.
"Should Parents Opt Their Children Out of High-Stakes Testing?," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, October 15, 2013.
"Why the National Council Review of Teacher Preparation Programs is Wrong," Flynn Ross, Bangor Daily News, June 20, 2013.
Guest to discuss Equity and Excellence in Maine Schools on Biddeford Public Access TV’s The Richard Rhames Show, Flynn Ross, March 2013.
"Equity Ensures Excellence of Schools in Maine, Nationwide," Flynn Ross, Portland Press Herald, March 11, 2013.