Archive for 2019

New DQC Report Shows How States Are Connecting Policy to Practice

Time To ACT

The new Data Quality Campaign (DQC) annual report, Time to Act 2019, underscores that the most effective state efforts to improve student outcomes don’t exist in a silo; they cut across multiple policy priorities to make data work for students. The report, released this week, highlights that state policymakers—state education agency leaders, state boards, legislators, and executive leadership—must prioritize investments in data access and use.

DQC’s policy priorities provide a framework to organize action that supports K-12 student achievement and emphasize that people must have the data they need to answer questions and take action. DQC outlines the following four priorities for states:

  • Measure What Matters. Be clear about what students must achieve and have the data to ensure that all students are on track to succeed.
  • Make Data Use Possible. Provide teachers and leaders the flexibility, training, and support they need to answer their questions and take action.
  • Be Transparent and Earn Trust. Ensure that every community understands how its schools and students are doing, why data is valuable, and how it is protected and used.
  • Guarantee Access and Protect Privacy. Provide teachers and parents timely information on their students and make sure it is kept safe.

AACTE Convenes First Special Education Teacher Shortage NIC

Teacher helping a disabled pupil at the elementary school

Faculty from 10 of AACTE’s member institutions convened in Washington, DC on November 22-23 for the first in-person meeting of the Networked Improvement Community (NIC) focused on reducing the shortage of the special education teachers. During the 2-day convening, nearly 40 NIC members came together to share and discuss the work happening at their institutions and their goals for recruiting more teacher candidates into their special education programs in the next 6 months.

Following the NIC model of the Carnegie Foundation’s for Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the institutions set individual targets connected to the network’s collective aim statement and driver diagram, which serves as the NIC’s working theory of action. Over the summer, faculty from each institution were invited to participate in a book club lead by AACTE staff: Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. This book serves as a foundational text for the NIC members in understanding improvement science and how to apply it to their work at their institutions.

Register Now for AACTE 2020 Preconference Workshops

Attendees of pre-conference sessions

Registration is open for the AACTE 2020 preconference workshops taking place February 27 in Atlanta. AACTE offers five workshops plus the Holmes preconference prior to the start of its 2020 Annual Meeting, providing a deeper dive into complex education issues and equipping attendees with practical skills for advancing programs and institutions.

Get an early start on planning your learning experience at this year’s conference. Preconference workshops are interactive, and allow ample time to share ideas and engage with peers. Secure your spot today for one of these preconference workshops:

Join Us for AACTE’s Upcoming Webinar on High-Quality Principal Preparation

What Should High-Quality Principal Preparation Programs Look Like?The role of today’s principal is changing. Now, more than ever, school leaders need to be prepared from day one to succeed in a complex and ever-evolving school context. But what does quality principal preparation look like? How can principal preparation programs ensure that school leaders are ready to meet the demands of the job? Join us for our final webinar in the four-part series on principal preparation, a collaboration with the Wallace Foundation, to hear a panel of researchers and practitioners dig into the answers to both of these questions.

Take the Pledge for Public Schools

Public Schools Week | Feb 24-28, 2020 | www.publicschoolsweek2020.comTo show support and help advocate for public schools in the United States, AACTE is inviting members to add your voice to the thousands of others vowing to stand up for students and schools. The Learning First Alliance (LFA) has launched the Pledge for Public Schools in preparation for Public Schools Week 2020, a national celebration for educators and parents to spotlight the successes of their students and local schools in communities across the nation, and to bring attention to the critical issues facing schools, students, and educators.

LFA reports that U.S. public schools educate 50.8 million students (nine of 10), regardless of ability, race, wealth, language, religion or country of origin. During Public Schools Week 2020, to be held February 24-28, 2020, advocates will take the thousands of pledges to Capitol Hill and state capitals across the country to illustrate to lawmakers how many people are supporting America’s public schools.

Once you take the pledge, LFA asks that you share on social media using the hashtag #PublicSchoolProud. More updates and events leading up to Public Schools Week will be announced at learningfirst.org/publicschoolsweek.

To learn more about LFA, visit learningfirst.org.

Revolutionizing Education

AACTE’s DEI Video Highlights Promising Practices to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color

Ed Prep Matters features the “Revolutionizing Education” column to spotlight the many ways AACTE, member institutions, and partners are pioneering leading-edge research, models, strategies and programs that focus on the three core values outlined in the current AACTE strategic plan: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Quality and impact; and Inquiry and Innovation.

Promising Practices to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color

AACTE is focusing on ways that education leaders and colleges of education can employ to address the national shortage of educators of color more effectively. “AACTE’s new mission is to revolutionize education for all learners,” said AACTE Board Chair Kim Metcalf, dean of the college of education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “We are shifting our efforts to provide members support and encouragement to be innovative in ways that address not just today’s needs in their local communities, but the needs that those communities will have in years to come.”

U.S. Department of Ed Reports Student Load Debt and Earnings of Education Majors

USDoE - College Scorecard

On November 21, the U.S. Department of Education announced that new data on federal student loan debt and earnings of recent graduates by institution, degree program, and field of study had been added to the College Scorecard consumer website. In addition, the Department of Education made these data available to the public at collegescorecard.ed.gov/data.

As a service to members, AACTE has excerpted the data on education graduates, along with documentation about the data, and provided instructions on how to search for your institution in this large database. Log in and access these resources.

The Department of Education Data suppressed results for smaller programs to safeguard the privacy of graduates. Our review of the data revealed that privacy suppression affects a considerable portion of the database. At larger institutions, data are only available for sizable programs and at smaller institutions, no information may be available. Despite this considerable limitation, AACTE is sharing these data because it is rare to have access to student loan debt and earnings information for recent graduates by field of study. 

To provide members with a much richer understanding of how students in education programs are paying for college—and the potential implications for recruiting students to become teachers—we are also preparing a new data brief that will be available at the upcoming Annual Meeting. This report is one in a series of briefs summarizing important data on our profession that we will be releasing early next year. More to come as the AACTE 2020 Annual Meeting approaches!

If you have questions about the College Scorecard data, please contact Jacqueline King at jking@aacte.org.

The Reality of Segregation in Public Schools

Segregation Concept

Why are schools still segregated in 2019? The answer to this question is a complicated one. One with roots deep in the history of our educational system. The surface answer has to do with the fact that racist curricula and prejudice within our society still exist. Where you live determines where you go to school. Many times, the poorer, minority students live in lower income neighborhoods. And as children become racially isolated, it then trickles into our schools, resulting in segregation.

In fact, segregation is even evident in schools that are racially diverse. You’ll notice that most students in advanced placement classes are Caucasian or Asian. Who do we see in remedial classes? We see African American students, particularly African American males. Even with a diverse student population, the evidence of systemic segregation is scarily rampant. The deep vestiges of racism and segregation subtly permeate through our schools and it sets dangerous precedents.

A Move Toward Greater Diversity in Deanships

Valarie Kinlock In an article that originally appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, author Julia Piper explores the experiences of Valarie Kinlock as the first black female dean at the University of Pittsburgh. Kinlock, the dean of the School of Education, didn’t realize she was the first when she was hired. Since her appointment, she has gone from being the only black female dean at the university to being one of two.  She emphasizes the need for more conversations about racism as more people of color progress to leadership roles.

The article highlights data on the gender of university deans, including the AACTE report published last year: Colleges of Education: A National Portrait. According to the AACTE research, the “average” dean of a college of education is a white woman.

Crowdsourcing and Research Accelerators

There is a paucity of adequately powered studies; experimental research; independent replications; and studies with diverse and representative samples, settings, and contexts in the teacher-preparation research base. As such, it is difficult to identify generalizable, evidence-based practices for teacher preparation. One potential way to address these challenges is through crowdsourcing.

In contrast to the traditional research paradigm, in which individuals or small teams conduct many small studies, crowdsourcing leverages the broad scientific community to conduct studies on a scale not otherwise possible (Makel et al., 2019). “Crowdsourcing flips research planning from ‘what is the best we can do with the resources we have to investigate our question,’ to ‘what is the best way to investigate our question, so that we can decide what resources to recruit’” (Uhlmann et al., 2019, p. 713).

The Looming Changes In Student Teaching

J.C, BowmanThis article originally appeared in the Chatanoogan.com and is reprinted with permission.

As educators, we are concerned about the quality and quantity of applicants entering the field of education. Our members have often been catalysts for innovative solutions to the many challenges facing education. This is why we take an interest in the next generation of educators and why we strive to improve their experience and support as they transition from teacher candidate to classroom teacher.

 In 1986, education school deans from the top universities developed a critical report that attributed much of the blame for struggling public schools on the training teachers were receiving in college.

Research reminds us that although we spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours on teacher preparation courses, we do not have much evidence justifying some of those requirements in Colleges of Education. Nor do policymakers really know how to measure and define a successful teacher training program.

Frostburg State Receives $4 Million Grant From U.S. Department Of Education

Department of Education logo

This article originally appeared in the Bottom Line and is reprinted with permission.

Frostburg State University was recently awarded a $4 million grant through the Maryland Accelerates Teacher Education Program. The grant, which is in partnership with Garrett County and Frederick County public schools as well as FSU’s Master of Arts in Teaching, will serve to raise the number of certified teachers in Maryland schools. It will also provide a professional development path in which teachers will have the ability to mentor new education professionals.

The program is estimated to make a substantial impact on the community, with 40 new teachers joining the program and over 130 established educators becoming mentors. The grant will also aid approximately 4,500 students in rural communities. The program is aimed at subjects where there is a critical need for teachers.

‘Grow-Your-Own’ Efforts Continue at University of Central Florida

University of Central Florida (UCF) Consortium for Future Educators

Now in its third year, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Consortium for Future Educators is growing by leaps and bounds! On November 1, 2019, UCF hosted the third convening of the Consortium for Future Educators, including 16 Districts of Education in Florida, and over 80 participants. District leaders, lead teachers, high school students, and university faculty who partner with them came together to share knowledge and best practices as it relates to the creation, growth, and results of High School Teaching Academies and “grow-your-own” pathways.

Thrive! Rural America Initiative Addresses Challenges Facing Rural Communities

Teacher working with student in a rural schoolThis post is an excerpt from an article that originally appeared in Texas Tech Today and is reprinted with permission.

Situated within rural America, Texas Tech University is responding to rural challenges, with researchers in many specialties coming together to partner with rural communities, civic organizations and industries to develop models for change.

Texas Tech and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) researchers are working to address the challenges facing rural Americans, including water supply, energy costs, national teacher shortage, obesity rates, suicide rates, and fewer mental health workers.

Congress Postpones Funding Showdown, Heads to Thanksgiving Recess

Colorful waving national flag of united states of america on a american dollar money background. finance conceptThis blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

Last Thursday, Congress postponed the showdown over government funding until Dec. 20 and hit the road for Thanksgiving. They are planning some fancy footwork upon return as the impeachment process steams forward and a government shutdown remains a possibility.

Showdown over Government Funding Postponed until Dec. 20

Once again, the Congress has punted on funding the government. December 20 is the new deadline for determining overall spending levels for each of the 12 funding bills and completing them. Funding for education hangs in the balance with the House passed bill including a $5 billion increase, but no such increase in the Senate bill. The budget agreement adopted earlier in the year provides for an increase of about $100 billion for defense and domestic spending for this fiscal year. If Congress cannot agree on new funding levels, this new infusion of funds will be left on the drawing table.