Call for Nominations: Teacher Diversity Research Award

By Conra D. Gist

AACTE’s Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group invites you to register for a free institute and to nominate individuals – by December 15 – for the 2018 DTW Teacher Diversity Research Award.

The second annual Diversified Teaching Workforce Institute will convene February 28, 2018, at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD. The institute will unite a group of national leaders at colleges and universities across the United States to spotlight and explore innovative efforts for addressing racial/ethnic teacher diversity across five key areas: recruitment and retention, teacher preparation, mentorship, induction and professional development, and advocacy.

Vote by Nov. 30 for AACTE Board, ACSR Elections

By Aaron Goldstein

The annual election for the AACTE Board of Directors opens this week and runs through November 30. This year, just two seats are up for election, both representing the Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities (although all AACTE Institutional and Chief Representatives are eligible to vote). In addition, the Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) is holding elections this month for vacancies on its Executive Committee.

The slate of candidates for the AACTE Board of Directors is as follows:

So Much to Do, So Little Time: Stay Informed With AACTE’s Federal Update Webinars

By Zachary VanHouten

Education funding is at risk of devastating cuts if Congress cannot reach a budget deal that raises the caps on federal spending for Fiscal Year 2018. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) reform, tax reform, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) are all items vying for attention on an overcrowded congressional agenda.

With so many issues facing Congress, the need for the profession to stay informed is more important than ever. To keep up to date with all the latest information, please join AACTE for one of the October Federal Update webinars.

Why Join AACTE? Members Cite Value in Advocacy, Resources, Networking

By AACTE Committee on Membership Development and Capacity Building

AACTE members and President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone enjoy a moment at the 2017 AACTE Day on the Hill. Focus group respondents cited the Association’s advocacy work and convenings among the top member benefits.

As members of the AACTE Committee on Membership Development and Capacity Building, we are eager to learn from the results of the AACTE survey currently under way – and we thank all of you who have participated! In the meantime, we would like to highlight some insights from a recent online focus group of 26 teacher educators from colleges and universities that are current, former, or prospective members of AACTE.

This group, convened on behalf of AACTE by Marketing General Incorporated (the same agency managing the current broad-market survey), reported an almost universally positive image of AACTE’s brand and belief in its mission. But what the current members of AACTE say they value most is the organization’s advocacy work, high-quality resources, and networking connections with other professionals in the field.

Creating High Teacher Quality in Teacher Prep Programs- Radio Talk With AACTE Members

By Jemima Cabedo

Rebecca West Burns

D. Mark Meyers

An online Education Talk Radio program last month featured AACTE members in a discussion of how their educator preparation programs contribute to high teacher quality. Host Larry Jacobs interviewed guests Rebecca West Burns, assistant professor at the University of South Florida, and D. Mark Meyers, director of the Educational Administration Program at Xavier University (OH).

The show began with discussion around the continuum of teacher development, from preservice preparation through stages of leadership, both formal and informal. Burns explained that teacher leaders include those who are instructional coaches or mentors as well as those acting less formally as leaders from within their classroom. Teachers can work collaboratively to share knowledge and help each other make progressive changes in their school. Meyers added that leadership principles applied by teacher leaders and administrators are often the same, although they may be implemented differently.

Congressional Activity Heats Up – Engage With AACTE Action Alerts, Webinars

By Deborah Koolbeck

As Congress returned from August recess, its agenda included a laundry list of items, and it is shaping up to be a very busy fall on Capitol Hill. Budget and appropriations, hurricane relief, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Higher Education Act reauthorization, and tax reform are just some of the issues that will fill the congressional calendar. For many of these topics, the voice of the education profession will be an important perspective for your members of Congress to hear.

Follow these three steps to ensure your constituent voice is heard:

New Annual Meeting Session Formats to Elevate Engagement Opportunities

By Jerrica Thurman

The AACTE 2018 Annual Meeting will feature new and improved sessions that will provide deeper levels of audience engagement. AACTE is committed to modeling best practices for effective learning and offering attendees contemporary approaches to pedagogy. Join AACTE in Baltimore, Maryland, for a collaborative and interactive educational experience designed to contextualize data and information, foster peer-to-peer interaction and dialogue, and apply sound principles of adult education.

All of the conference formats for Major Forums and concurrent sessions have been revamped. In fact, we will say “good-bye” to Major Forums and “hello” to Deeper Dives! In the enriched Deeper Dive sessions, still scheduled in pairs during dedicated time slots, you will get inspiring content to apply in your daily work by exploring the practices and dispositions crucial to educator preparation today. Topics at these sessions reflect work that is central to AACTE’s mission and its ongoing initiatives, including presentations from collaborating institutions, affiliate organizations, government agencies, think tanks, and thought leaders from the field.

Shared Values Catalyze Collective Impact

By Lynn M. Gangone

The greatest benefit of an association is the collective effort of its members to identify and then advance shared values. In the 2016 Harvard Business Review article “The Ecosystem of Shared Value,” the authors describe collective impact as a movement that successfully brings together various actors in their ecosystems to catalyze change. In the ecosystem of educator preparation, every individual AACTE member plays a critical role in creating a collective voice that impacts American education today and beyond. Through members’ active engagement, AACTE is empowered to achieve successes beneficial to our entire professional community and the students we serve.

Leading into this academic year, I have been highlighting AACTE’s core principles as they reflect members’ shared values and the driving force of our work. This month, I celebrate AACTE’s core values around scholarship and knowledge production, which represent your commitment to high research standards and to producing scholarship that contributes to educational practice. AACTE, its members, and its collaborative partners stand ready as a collective voice to effect educational and social change.

Congress Returns – Stay Current With AACTE’s Federal Update Webinar

By Zachary VanHouten

As classes resume at your institution, so too does the work of Congress, which returns to Washington today following its August recess. The disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey may upend the Congressional agenda, potentially shuffling a laundry list of items Congress needs to address, including funding for FY18 and where the federal dollars will flow.

With all of this going on, it has never been more important to remain informed and engaged – and AACTE’s members-only Federal Update webinars help you do just that. You can sign up now for this month’s webinars, September 19 or 20 (see below); you can also view archived webinars and presentation slides through this link.

AACTE Fall Syllabus Focuses on Core Values, Continuous Improvement

By Lynn M. Gangone

The AACTE Quality Support Workshop this month was an inspirational model of improvement in action. During my 3 days in Minneapolis, I witnessed a profound commitment among participants to ensure high levels of quality in their programs. Understanding standards and evidence more deeply, using data more strategically, and creating more effective quality assurance systems were some of the topics covered.

Dedication to continuous improvement is shared by AACTE’s members and the Association itself. To that end, the AACTE team is focusing the first part of this new academic year on an extensive review of the organization’s operations and programs, facilitated by an experienced consulting firm with assistance from a staff steering committee (see this recent article by Vice President Rod Lucero). In addition, an Association-wide member survey launches in September, and we’re counting on your participation to inform our work going forward. AACTE is always looking to improve and meet the changing needs of the membership.

AACTE Self-Study to Drive Improvements for Members

By Rodrick Lucero

The AACTE team has embarked on a new adventure and we can’t wait to share it with you!

This undertaking is engaging all of us in a significant self-study – not unlike what you do on your campuses for quality assurance and continuous improvement – using an improvement science model. Over the next few months, the team will conduct a deep audit of our operations, looking at internal protocols and processes along with membership structures, programs and services, and resources. AACTE is working with the rpk GROUP consulting firm to assist us with this project. This internal work is simultaneous with a comprehensive member survey that is being released next month. These concurrent efforts will empower AACTE as it anticipates its 70th anniversary in 2018.

Member Interview: Monika Williams Shealey on AACTE’s Value

By Shawn Karim and Kristin McCabe

During AACTE’s membership renewal season, some of our most active members are sharing what AACTE means to them. For this article, AACTE intern Shawn Karim interviewed Board of Directors member Monika Williams Shealey, who is dean of the College of Education at Rowan University (NJ). Learn more about membership here.

Monika Williams Shealey (front) poses with Holmes Scholars in front of the U.S. Capitol building during AACTE’s 2017 Washington Week.

New Advocacy Guide Facilitates Creation of ‘Leave-Behind’ Documents

By Zachary VanHouten

A new advocacy guide is now available for download in AACTE’s Advocacy Center. This guide, “Creating Leave-Behind Documents for Meetings With Elected Officials,” is part of our ongoing effort to provide opportunities to advance your advocacy capacity.

Through this AACTE members-only resource, you will learn of some best practices for developing materials to take to meetings with elected officials and other important stakeholders. As participants in AACTE’s Day on the Hill can attest, developing one-page “leave-behinds” for these meetings is important when time is short and you have much to share about your programs and their impact on your community and state. Leave-behind documents allow you to focus your meeting time on key talking points while supplying more in-depth information as a reference for elected officials or their staff. To learn more, check out the new guide!

July Federal Update Webinar Recording Available; Register Now for September’s Webinar

By Zachary VanHouten

In case you missed July’s Federal Update webinar – available exclusively to AACTE members – it is now available on demand in AACTE’s Resource Library. Just log in to view the video recording or download the slides from July or any webinar from the past year!

The Federal Update webinars are AACTE members’ go-to source to catch up on all the developments in Washington, DC. For July, AACTE Government Relations Director Deborah Koolbeck highlighted the latest action on the Fiscal Year 2018 federal appropriations process, the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, ways you can engage your members of Congress during the August recess, and more.

Dissertation Award Entries Due Aug. 18

By Kristin McCabe

Time is running out to apply for the 2018 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award! Entries must be made online by Friday, August 18. Help AACTE recognize outstanding doctoral research in educator preparation by encouraging your top recent graduates (or recent hires) to apply for this prestigious award, which includes a $1,000 cash prize.

The Committee on Research and Dissemination will review submissions this fall, and applicants will learn of their status in November (although the announcement of the winner is embargoed until February). The winner will be recognized during AACTE’s 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, March 1-3, 2018.