Explore Continuous Improvement at AACTE’s 2021 Annual Meeting

Putting in the missing puzzle piece
 
Tackle problems of practice with experts from the field during AACTE’s virtual 2021 Annual Meeting, February 24-26. Share your experiences and converse with peers and partners to advance your own work and drive innovation in educator preparation. AACTE-sponsored Learning Labs will present effective strategies for continuous improvement in areas such as: 
  • Navigating Student Supports in a Financial Crisis
  • Identifying, Understanding, and Replacing Racist Curricula
  • Future-casting: What does the Future of Education Look Like? How Can AACTE and it’s Partners Help to Advance the Field?
  • What are the Latest Developments with the Biden Administration and the New Congress?
  • Publishing in JTE
  • Preparing Educators for Equitable Family, School, and Community Engagement
  • Disrupting Inequities: Local and Global initiatives for Shared Responsibility in Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice
  • Advocacy Talks and Town Hall—Your Voice in Advocating for the Profession

Who are the Candidates for the Biden Secretary of Education?

Welcome to Washington’s “end of the semester” sprint. Will that FY 2021 spending bill cross the finish line by the end of the year or be pushed into next year for the new Congress to grapple with?  Will the President refuse to sign the bill and cause a government shutdown? Will there be another COVID relief bill any time soon? And how about the Biden Secretary of Education?

Congress Punts FY 2021 Funding Bill and COVID Relief Package until Next Week

They say there is nothing that focuses the mind like a deadline. In Washington, that means moving the deadline to the edge of the cliff before acting. This week, the House and Senate agreed to extend the December 11 deadline for funding the government to next Friday, December 18, giving them an additional week to negotiate and finalize the $1.4 trillion bill.  President Trump is expected to sign the bill, called a continuing resolution, but he is a hard one to predict. 

Consensus on a bi-partisan COVID relief bill seems to be growing on one day and shrinking the next. Many appear hopeful that another week could bring them to closure so that the COVID relief bill and the FY 2021 spending bill could be packaged together and delivered to the White House as an early Christmas present.  There could also be a further extension of the deadline, even through Christmas. Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) has said she is not leaving town without a deal on both. 

JTE Author Interview: Using Classroom Video Helps Students Understand History

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Read the recent JTE Insider blog interview by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles in the JTE online archives—just log in with your AACTE profile.

This interview features insights on the article entitled, “Using Video to Highlight Curriculum-Embedded Opportunities for Student Discourse” by Abby Reisman and Lisette Enumah. The article was published in the November/December 2020 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education.

Article Abstract: History classrooms remain stubbornly resistant to instructional change. We explored whether using classroom video to help teachers identify curriculum-embedded opportunities for student discourse improved their understanding and facilitation of document-based historical discussions. We observed a relationship between teachers’ capacity to notice curriculum-embedded opportunities for student discourse in classroom videos and their growth in enacting document-based history discussions. For three of four teachers, the intervention appeared to improve both their analysis of document-based discussion facilitation and their enactment of the practice. Teachers’ incoming proficiency and familiarity with document-based history instruction appeared to inform their experience throughout the intervention. We discuss implications for practice and future research on professional development for history teachers.

AACTE Announces 2020 Technology Implementation Grant Recipients

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AACTE is pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of the new AACTE Video Observation Technology Implementation Grant. AACTE offered the grant in partnership with Edthena to help educator preparation programs enhance training for future teachers in methods courses, field observations, skill building, and group learning via advanced technology.

“Both AACTE and Edthena understand that video observation technology has the potential to positively impact candidates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lynn M. Gangone, AACTE president and CEO. “AACTE is proud to collaborate with partners like Edthena to promote technology growth in schools and colleges of education.”

Over 1,000 Strong and Growing: A look at AACTE’s Holmes Scholar Program

Holmes Program Alumni

Did you know that over 1,000 traditionally underrepresented doctoral students have benefitted from the AACTE Holmes Scholars Program? Through networking, collaboration, mentoring, leadership opportunities, and research activities, the program provides high-achieving minority students with rich professional development. In fact, you probably know a former scholar, as many are now in tenured faculty and leadership positions at institutions across the United States.

Educator preparation programs (EPPs) are keenly focused on developing strategies to advance the field of education, close the equity gap, and make a more diverse teacher workforce a reality, and the Holmes Scholar Program is an essential component to achieving those goals. To promote diversity of the education profession and to prepare educators who can serve diverse learners, the program provides EEPs with the opportunity to attract students from historically underrepresented communities, increase the retention and graduation rates of doctoral students of color, and strengthen the institution’s role as a leader in supporting diversity.

AACTE Urges Federal, State and University Leaders to Strengthen EPPs in Challenging Times

These are indeed difficult times for all levels of education, yet AACTE member institutions remain dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures educators are ready to teach all learners. AACTE continues to advocate for and support schools and colleges of education in their efforts to navigate the teacher shortage and COVID-19 related financial challenges, and their work to identify viable solutions to the multiple challenges that currently impact education.

The global pandemic has deepened the national teacher shortage crisis. College and university programs that prepare our teachers, principals, school counselors, and other essential education professionals are experiencing a debilitating wave of closures and faculty layoffs. The rising demand for high-quality education in the 21st century and achieving a prosperous quality of life for themselves and their families. It is critical now more than ever to recruit diverse, talented people into the education profession, which requires our nation’s leaders allocating funds to aid colleges and universities in their recovery from the significant financial challenges caused by the pandemic. It is also critical for legislators to revamp policies and practices to support a diverse education workforce.

Member Spotlight: Paul Massy

AACTE’s new Member Spotlight features an individual from a member institution, highlighting how their work makes a difference in classrooms across the country.  Nominate yourself or another member by providing a response to the following questions and sending to mgrenda@aacte.org.Paul Massy 

Get to know Paul Massy …

Current position: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Florida Atlantic University
Expected Graduate Year: 2024
Alma Mater(s): Corinth Teachers College; University of the West Indies (U.W.I.), St. Augustine
Hometown: Arima (Trinidad and Tobago); Boca Raton, Florida

Desperate Circumstances Prompt a Desperate Call on Congress

COVID-19 outbreak impact This month, AACTE joined like-minded institutions in writing a letter to congressional leaders in updating their earlier findings regarding four key COVID-19-related economic indicators that are placing significant financial burdens on higher educational institutions. The emergence of more detailed data regarding these four categories (enrollment, student financial need, auxiliary revenues, and new expenditures) revealed the troubling truth that our prior estimates about the impact of COVID-19 on the economic health of educational institutions was significantly underestimated and that the challenges students and schools are facing are far more severe than initially thought.  

As a consequence of these updated findings, AACTE signed on to a new letter urging Congress and the Administration to finalize negotiations as quickly as possible on a supplemental spending bill of sufficient size to provide at least $120 billion in needed support to students and campuses across the country. The detailed new findings described in the letter, while suggesting a potentially long, painful economic road ahead for some higher ed, provides a detailed and illuminating accounting of the many ways COVID-19 is burdening enrollment, student aid, and revenues at institutions of higher learning around the country.

Call for Nominations: 2021-22 Holmes Council

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Current participants of the AACTE Holmes Program are encouraged to submit an application to serve on the 2021-22 Holmes Council. The Holmes Council is comprised of Holmes students who serve in a leadership capacity to support AACTE with implementation of the Holmes Program, specifically in areas of scholar engagement and retention.

The Call for Nominations will open December 18 and end January 15, 2021. The following officer positions are vacant for nominations:

  • President
  • Vice President
  • Secretary
  • Historian
  • Sergeant at Arms
  • Research Coordinator
  • Social Media Coordinator
  • Master’s Representative
  • General Alternate I
  • General Alternate II

Interested scholars are encouraged to learn more about these positions prior to completing the nomination process. Self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. Scholars may also be nominated by their program coordinators, peers or other individuals.

Following the nominations, Holmes institutions will be invited to elect officers to serve on the 2021-22 Holmes Council. The voting window will occur starting January 28 through February 12, 2021. Elected officers will be announced during the Holmes Program event at the 73rd AACTE Annual Meeting on February 23, 2021.

For more information about the AACTE Holmes Program, please contact me at wjames@aacte.org.

2020 ACSR Election Results Are In

Congratulations to the newly elected ACSR officers Anne Tapp of Michigan, Christine Gorowara of Delaware, and Keith Lambert of Washington. 

Anne Tapp, Christine Gorowara, Keith Lambert

Anne Tapp, ACSR chair-elect, is a professor and program director at Saginaw Valley State University.  She is a former president of Michigan state chapter of AACTE and currently serves as ACSR Midwest Region representative. Christine Gorowara, ACSR Northeast Region representative, is the senior associate director of the Delaware Center for Teacher Education at the University of Delaware and currently serves as president of the Delaware state chapter of AACTE. Keith Lambert, ACSR West Region representative is an associate professor at Whitworth University and the current president of the Washington state chapter of AACTE. Each new office holder will begin serving their term in February, at the close of the AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting.

Webinar Recap: How Do Students Pay for College

A growing body of research suggests that concerns about compensation generally—and about being able to repay student loans in particular—are dissuading college students from choosing teaching as a career. To help AACTE members better understand the financial pressures impacting education students, a new issue brief takes a detailed look at how students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in education pay for college, including the costs they face and the financial sources they tap to meet those expenses. 

During AACTE’s webinar “How Do Students Pay for College,” author Jacqueline King and Jane West discussed the implications of these findings, as well as recommendations for campus practice and federal policy.

King began the webinar by explaining, “Student financing of education feels archaic and arcane … can be kind of intimidating.” To help those who were unable to join this webinar, outlined below are specific parts of the online discussion that may address some of your most pressing concerns around financing teacher candidate education. Access the recording at aacte.org. 

Register for Webinar Focused on the Role of Deans in Leading Teacher Preparation Reform

AACTE and CEEDAR (Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform) Center are partnering together to present a webinar centered on a special issue brief, Leading and Engaging Faculty in Teacher Preparation Reform: The Role of Deans. The issue brief summarizes the experiences in leadership of six current and former deans who have been identified as engaging in successful collaborative reform efforts within their colleges.

During the one-hour event, Mary Brownwell will talk with Marquita Grenot-Scheyer and Kandi Hill-Clarke about the issue brief and their experiences of cultivating collaboration and supporting innovation among general and special education faculty who share responsibility to support students in diverse and inclusive classrooms. Since few resources exist to support deans in their efforts to work with faculty to engage in this work, AACTE and CEEDAR believe the experiences of these leaders will be useful to other deans as they work toward similar outcomes.

Register for the webinar, which will take place December 16 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (ET). Learn more about the panelists:

AACTE Sends Policy Priorities to Biden-Harris Education Transition Team

Hand writing Policy List with red markerThe nation’s transition to the 46th presidential administration are underway. AACTE provided the Biden-Harris Administration’s Education Transition Team with its policy priorities for the coming year. Much of AACTE’s priorities stem from its advocacy throughout the year to increase the federal investment in education in PK-20, with a specific focus on recruiting and sustaining candidates in its education preparation programs.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educator preparation stands at a dangerous crossroad. The college and university programs that prepare our teachers, principals, school counselors, and other essential education professionals are experiencing a debilitating wave of closures and faculty layoffs.

Mark the Date: Public Schools Week 2021

Public Schools Week 2021 logoAACTE is joining its partner Learning First Alliance in celebrating Public Schools Week, February 22-26, 2021, to bring attention to the great accomplishments and great needs of public education. While schools are a place for nurture and learning, the global pandemic has created massive challenges for public schools. Still, public schools across the country have kept 50.7 million schoolchildren, 3.2 million teachers, and many other school staff and parents safe.

According to Learning First Alliance, public schools are emphasizing new goals this year:

  • Keep children healthy by creating new educational practices, including cleaning, maintaining social distance, and screening those who need to be treated;
  • Feed millions of students outside of school;
  • Expand internet connectivity of students;
  • Teach more effectively online by adapting existing curriculums; and,
  • Increase awareness of racial justice and mental health and seek ways to connect to students who are grieving or traumatized.

JTE Podcast Interview Spotlights Race-Focused Teacher Education

JTE CoverCheck out a recent JTE Insider podcast by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles in the JTE online archives—just log in with your AACTE profile.

This podcast interview features insights from the article, “Preparing Teachers to Notice Race in Classrooms: Contextualizing the Competencies of Preservice Teachers With Antiracist Inclinations,” by Niral Shah and Justin A. Coles. The article is published in the November/December 2020 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education

Article Abstract: Race-focused teacher education has centered on changing preservice teachers’ racial beliefs and attitudes. In this article, we build on this work by exploring how preservice teachers identify and address issues of race and racism in the everyday work of teaching and learning. To conceptualize these processes, we propose the theoretical framework of “racial noticing,” which extends the literature on teacher noticing to the consideration of racial phenomena. Using a comparative case study design, this study focuses on three elementary preservice teachers (two identifying as White, one identifying as Black) with antiracist inclinations. Findings show that they demonstrated generally strong competencies with racial noticing during a mathematics methods course, but that contextual factors influenced shifts in racial noticing during student teaching. We argue that race-focused teacher education centered on noticing the impact of race and racism in learning settings can make the practice of antiracist teaching more tractable for preservice teachers.

Listen Now.