Congratulations to the following individuals who will join the AACTE Board of Directors effective March 1, 2019.
Patricia Alvarez-McHatton, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Representative
Jennie Carr, Bridgewater College (VA)
Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education Representative
In our last blog, we invited you to contribute to the strategic planning process by reacting to a draft of the plan that outlined the vision, mission, strategic priorities and core values of our Association. Thanks to all of you who provided your insights. In today’s update, we’ll share some of what we heard and how we plan to incorporate your ideas going forward.
In addition to providing concrete feedback on the draft text, many of you also asked for a plan that is more forward-thinking and that outlines how AACTE can help shape the future as well as navigate the challenges and opportunities that it presents. For example, how will trends such as competency-based and technology-enabled instruction influence both the daily work of the educators we prepare and our own programs? How can we best confront the teacher shortage in partnership with PK-12 leaders and state policy makers, while also ensuring the quality of the education workforce? What more can we and the same partners do to ensure that the profession is diverse and that educators are prepared to effectively instruct all learners?
In July 2018, AACTE and the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) entered into an 18-month pilot partnership program to foster collaboration through the common goals of advocating for, advancing, and diversifying educator preparation programs. Since then, the partnership has grown with community colleges from seven states: California, Oregon, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. If you are part of a community college educator preparation program interested in connecting with 4-year degree-granting institutions, then you can join the partnership too!
The partnership helps strengthen the teacher pipeline, bring diversity to the field, and advance the preparation of educators. In addition to receiving NACCTEP benefits, all partners receive AACTE benefits, including the following:
The draft of the AACTE 2019-2022 strategic plan is now available for members–only review. You can access the plan on the AACTE strategic planning web page.
The draft plan is a two-page document, which consists of the following sections:
The election for the 2018 AACTE Board of Directors is now under way through November 30. Seven seats will be decided via online voting: one representing the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE), one representing the Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities, one representing the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), and one representing the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), and three at-large seats.
The slate is as follows:
There is more than one important election happening this November. The annual election for the AACTE Board of Directors is now open and will run through November 30.
The ballot includes
I am thrilled to announce a series of hires within the National Office. I invite you to join me in welcoming these new AACTE team members as they join us in our goal to exceed expectations for distinctive, member-centered work that continues to move our profession forward in a multitude of ways.
Jacqueline (Jackie) Rodriguez is the AACTE assistant vice president, programs and professional learning. She has a Ph.D. in education with a focus on exceptional education from the University of Central Florida and an M.A. in special education with a learning disabilities specialization from American University. She earned her B.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University. Prior to joining AACTE, Jackie served the College of William & Mary in many capacities, including as assistant professor in the School of Education (areas of teaching and research: inclusive education, culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional learners, teacher preparation, special education, education policy, and education policy to practice). A Holmes Scholars alumna, Jackie established the Holmes Scholars Program during her tenure at the college. Jackie began her career as a special education teacher. She is the secretary to the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education and active in the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. She serves on several editorial boards and was a McKnight Doctoral Fellow.
Are you an AACTE member? If yes, then the Association needs to hear your voice! The Strategic Planning Task Force would like you to tell them about your professional needs and priorities by taking the Member Flash Poll (member login required) before October 19.
You might wonder, why is AACTE going through all of this work? The simple answer is because it leads to better decisions, better engagement, and better execution. Member engagement has become critical to associations’ success and the AACTE strategic planning process is designed to be interactive and iterative for all members. I encourage you to participate in the member flash poll, which is the first of several opportunities to weigh-in and share your insights. This is an important way to help ensure that AACTE remains relevant to you, your institution, and your students.
The AACTE Co-Teaching in Clinical Practice Topical Action Group (TAG) has awarded two scholars with funds to attend the 2018 National Conference on Co-Teaching, which is being held at St. Cloud State University in Bloomington, MN, October 24-26. The awardees, Brenda Harrison and Rhonda Mannon, are education professionals at the Ceredo-Kenova Elementary School in Wayne County, WV, who have collaborated with Marshall University over the years to implement a Professional Development School (PDS) model of educator preparation that incorporates co-teaching in clinical practice. The funding was made available from an AACTE grant to support the activities and projects of the TAG.
To learn more about the work of the TAG awardees, I invite you to attend the National Conference on Co-Teaching. The conference will examine co-teaching between pre-service and in-service teachers during the student teaching experience and how it enhances the induction and mentoring of teacher candidates, as well as enriches the practice of veteran teachers who have found new energy in teaching and working with students.
One of the most important—and sobering—findings of AACTE’s recent report, Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, is that those studying education at the undergraduate and graduate levels are not nearly as diverse as the students they will serve. Indeed, the only other large professional field with less diverse bachelor’s degree recipients is agriculture.
As the author of the report, I invite you to join me and your colleagues for a close examination of education students’ characteristics during the webinar, National Portrait Deep Dive on Student Diversity, on October 18, 2:00–3:00 p.m. You will find answers to questions such as:
Greetings, colleagues. In our first blog on the strategic planning process, we noted that a Task Force would be meeting to draft revisions to the organization’s vision and mission and to outline strategic priorities for 2019 to 2022. That meeting just concluded and we are pleased to report that the Task Force is on track to deliver a draft to the full membership for review next month.
Over two days, the Task Force, which is composed of terrific members of the AACTE Board of Directors and National Office staff, wrestled with the challenges and opportunities confronting AACTE and its members and reached consensus on a set of strategic priorities that can guide the association’s work during the next 3 years. These priorities, with their associated objectives and progress metrics, will guide the staff as they experiment with new member programs and services and will help the board to track the association’s progress.
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Manchester launched its new clinical master’s degree program during the 2018-19 academic year. The program offers dual certification in elementary and special education or early childhood and early childhood special education. It is designed to prepare teacher candidates for certification and to ensure that new educators have the required skills, competencies, knowledge, and dispositions specifically needed to support the development and learning of students in elementary grades (K-8) and general special education (K-12).
“It’s an accelerated 15-month clinical program that enables teacher candidates to work clinically with students during 11 of those months,” said Mary Ford, Interim Dean in the School of Education at SNHU. “They are [working] in supervised clinical experiences learning the craft and skill of teaching as well as monitoring the learning progress of their K-12 students.”
Our educator preparation community lost one of its strongest advocates for teacher quality on Friday, September 14, when Frank B. Murray passed away after a sudden illness. He was 79.
Frank played a vital role in advancing national accreditation in educator preparation. He was the founding president of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) and served as chair of its board of directors and for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). He also worked closely with AACTE as editor of The Teacher Educator’s Handbook and a leader of the Holmes Partnership. He served in various capacities on the editorial boards of several journals in developmental and educational psychology and was a fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association.
Do you know a deserving individual who has contributed greatly to the profession of teacher preparation? Submit a nomination today for an annual AACTE professional achievement award. Nominations are open through October 10.
The AACTE Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability looks forward to receiving your nominations for the following three awards:
Greetings, colleagues. We are honored and excited to be co-chairing AACTE’s Strategic Planning Task Force. The task force is charged with creating a plan to guide AACTE’s activities through 2022. We had our first meeting on September 12, and we will be working hard over the next several months to produce a final plan in time for the 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville.
We are embarking on this effort at a pivotal moment in the Association’s history. Colleges, schools, and departments of education have fewer resources to spend on representation and professional development, and there are more competitors for those scarce resources. AACTE has to constantly demonstrate its value and rapidly evolve to meet the changing needs of our profession.
