14 Nov2019
By Ward Cummings
This article, written by AACTE Director of Government Relations K. Ward Cummings, originally appeared in the Daily News Opinion section and is reprinted with permission.
The civil rights leader Malcolm X once famously said that the most segregated hour in American life is high noon on Sunday. If he were alive today, he might also include those weekday hours between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. when our children are in school.
This past May was the 65th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. The occasion inspired numerous panel discussions, seminars and reports about how much or how little the state of education has changed in the last half-century. Sadly, considerable attention also was paid to the subject of how segregated American schools remain 65 years later.
29 Oct2019
By Jane E. West
This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide update information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Funding Bills Move in the Senate, but Not for Education
November 21, less than a month away, is the date the government runs out of money. The ball is in the Senate court, as they have yet to pass any appropriations bills on the floor. Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has teed up passage of the first package of funding bills, which Democrats have said they will support. But that package does not include education spending, which is in the Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill.
18 Oct2019
By Ward Cummings
Around the country, regulators and legislators are demonstrating that they understand the urgent need to promote school safety. The 2019 state legislative session was an active one on the subject. Hundreds of bills were introduced covering every aspect of the matter from prevention to response. Join me as I present a wide-ranging overview and analysis of some of the most noteworthy school safety bills introduced over the year, with a particular focus on legislation impacting student and teacher mental health, in an upcoming State of the States webinar.
We encourage you to register in advance for the member-exclusive State of the States webinar, which will take place Thursday, October 31 from 11 a.m. to noon ET.
There will be time at the end of the webinar for questions and answers. The webinar will be recorded and posted on the website for future viewing.
For questions, please contact me at wcummings@aacte.org.
27 Sep2019
By Ward Cummings
Would you like to learn more about the resources AACTE has pulled together to support its members in their state level legislative research? AACTE Government Relations Committee member Allen Clarkson will host a webinar describing the features of AACTE’s new state legislative resource page on Thursday, October 3, from 11am to Noon EDT.
Attend this webinar to learn how to use the three legislative search engines and other resources found on this new page to pursue your legislative research and advocacy goals. There will be time at the end of the webinar to get your questions answered. The webinar will be recorded and posted on the website as well.
Register now for the Introducing AACTE’s New Legislative Resource Webpage webinar.
09 Sep2019
By Cyndy Crist
In recent years, the Minnesota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) has been working to engage our members throughout the legislative process so that our ideas, issues, and knowledge can help inform the development and enactment of policies in the state. Whenever possible, we tap their expertise in shaping legislative priorities; responding to legislative, agency, and executive branch requests; attending and, when possible, testifying at legislative hearings; collaborating with other educational organizations on issues of mutual interest and concern; and interacting directly with legislators and their staff.
06 Sep2019
By Ward Cummings
As states work to allocate funding for school districts, they must take into account the various needs and populations of the students they serve. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has developed a resource, “50-State Comparison: K-12 Funding” that helps clarify and compare each state’s school funding mechanisms, organized by method and category.
Visit the ECS webpage to review data describing the funding mechanisms of the states as well as the specific funding allocations for a list of funding priorities, including special education, English language learning and at-risk and low-income students.
As elementary and secondary teachers head back into their classrooms, conversations on teacher shortages, teacher salaries, and teacher strikes continue. Having an understanding of how your state funds its K-12 schools can help you support the schools in which your graduates will teach and engage in democracy on this critical issue.
22 Aug2019
By Bob Cooper
The Washington Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (WACTE) is receiving the payoff from its long-term efforts working with the Washington Legislature. WACTE first hired a contract lobbyist in 2005, and their 14 years of work have made the chapter a significant voice in state education policy.
For instance, teacher shortage has largely been defined either broadly across states or regions, or anecdotally. Now, the state of Washington will attempt to refine the definitions and locations of shortages with a “collaborative” that includes WACTE as a member, following the group’s testimony and request for the designation during the recent legislative session.
This effort is part of a large, omnibus education bill passed by Washington lawmakers this year, which also includes a number of provisions from WACTE to attract more candidates to the teaching profession (Engrossed second substitute House Bill 1139).
Those provisions include $1 million per year in “teacher shortage grants” to enable
22 Aug2019
By Ward Cummings
AACTE’s contact lists for state policy makers in each state and the District of Columbia have been updated and are now posted in the AACTE Resource Library (accessible to AACTE members only!). The links to these lists also can be found on the AACTE Advocacy Center’s State Advocacy page and on AACTE’s State Policy and Legislation page.
These resources are an AACTE member benefit to support you in your state-level advocacy work. I encourage you to use them to find key state policy officials, such as legislators for authorizing and appropriating education funds and state department of education contacts.
Of course, state officials change often. If you discover your state’s contact page needs to be updated, please email the new information to gra@aacte.org.
01 Jul2019
By Joanna Masingila
The journal of the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 
, has successfully navigated from a print journal with a subscription price to an online, open access journal that is free. Our new co-editors, Christine Ashby and Julia White have just published their first issue. The journal welcomes submissions from all interested teacher and leader educators.
Excelsior is the key outlet for publishing work in teacher preparation for the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. For over a decade, it has reported research across content disciplines, research methodologies, theoretical perspectives, and current issues in the field.
In addition to presenting authors the opportunity to publish in an open access journal, we want to increase the diversity of manuscript topics, including the diversity of research methods, and extend the range of researchers and practitioners publishing in Excelsior. To meet this goal we will routinely solicit submissions from:
24 Jun2019
By Jerrica Thurman
There was so much buzz in Washington, DC during AACTE’s 2019 Washington Week this month that we had to capture it all in a video! Check out the recap video above to view AACTE members at work for teacher education during our annual advocacy event. Then, be sure to access the variety of online resources that will help let your local elected officials know that “Your Voice Matters.”
- Ed Prep Matters continues to bring you reports from the event. Read what presenters, participants, and staff learned and what related opportunities are available.
- For photos from the event, visit our Facebook album. Feel free to tag yourself and share photos on your own page and check out the Facebook Live videos!
- Look up the hashtag #AACTEWW19 on Twitter and read through several tweets about the event.
- Visit AACTE’s Advocacy Center for the latest resources on federal and state policy issues about teacher preparation.
Plan now to join AACTE next year for the 2020 Washington Week, May 31 – June 3 at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, VA and on Capitol Hill.
24 Jun2019
By Carla Roberson
AACTE’s Holmes Scholars were busy on Twitter advocating for education policy issues using their hashtags #HolmesScholar and #Holmes19 during Washington Week this month. The students learned how to elevate their voices and research to positively impact future policies for students of color and other marginalized groups during the Holmes Summer Policy Institute, June 3. They wasted little time in implementing these best practices throughout the week’s events particularly during their participation in AACTE’s Day on the Hill. From Facebook Live interviews to Twitter posts, the Holmes Scholars made their voices heard on why it is important for education students to play an active role in advocating for the teaching profession.
The Holmes Scholars have also turned to social media to grow their community and to stay connected year round. You can follow the AACTE Holmes Program on Facebook, on Instagram at @aacteholmesscholars, and on Twitter at @HolmesScholars, and follow the hashtags: #OnceAScholarAlwaysAScholar, #HolmesScholar, and #Holmes19.
21 Jun2019
By Ward Cummings
For the first time since 1914, all but one state legislature in the U.S. is dominated by a single party. The result has been a pattern of conservative leaning legislation in Republican-held states and liberal legislation in states controlled by Democrats. This is a political dynamic that will have far-reaching consequences for education policymaking well into the future. To find more information about the types of education bills being developed and advanced around the country and how politics is playing a leading role in state policymaking, view the State of the States webinar.
Originally presented at the State Leaders Institute during the 2019 AACTE Washington Week Conference, this video and the accompanying PowerPoint presentation, helps to demystify policymaking at the state-level by focusing on the political drivers that influence policymaking.
The 2019 State of the States webinar answers questions such as: What types of education bills are advancing in Democrat and GOP dominated legislatures? What role are governors playing in the education policymaking of their states? How are political leaders in state governments working together to influence education policy? And, what are the emerging trends among states in the ed-prep arena?
With a special emphasis on how “one-party-dominated” political leadership can dictate the development and shape the progress of education bills in a state, this webinar provides both a 30,000-foot and a ground-level perspective on education legislation, and will help you to see what it takes today to pass a bill in a state with one-party rule.
17 Jun2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE’s 2019 Washington Week attendees made known their presence in the nation’s capital on Twitter using #AACTEWW19. Photos and tweets of the event’s activities were shared on social media throughout the four-day conference last week, and on June 5 the attendees took over Twitter during their advocacy visits to congressional offices.
Analytic reports reveal #AACTEWW19 received more than 650 original posts, retweets and replies, which yielded over 1 million impressions! In fact, #AACTEWW19 was recognized as trending in Washington, DC by social media monitoring services.
17 Jun2019
By Jerrica Thurman
During AACTE’s 2019 Day on the Hill, the educator preparation community united on Capitol Hill to make their voices heard about challenging issues affecting education. AACTE members, colleagues, and students employed their advocacy skills to elevate the profession in meetings with Members of Congress and their staff. AACTE is excited to have captured attendees in real-time Facebook Live Shows and to highlight their significant work in Washington, DC.
In the video interviews, participants discuss the importance of teacher educators and students from across the nation converging on Capitol Hill to advocate for educator preparation as well as ways to impact education policy in their local areas. They also share how the advocacy training from AACTE’s Day on the Hill sessions prepared them for congressional meetings and key takeaways on best strategies to promote talking points with policymakers. All of the video participants emphasize the important message in the AACTE Washington Week event theme: “Your Voice Matters!”
10 Jun2019
By Deb Lecklider
It’s all about people! Being at AACTE’s State Leaders Institute (SLI) on Day one was a true networking opportunity. Starting the day off with a chance to get to know state chapter leaders and AACTE staff members was a highlight of the day. Spending time learning about the leaders who represent educator preparation programs throughout the country is important to all of us.
The moment I walked into SLI 2019, the AACTE staff welcomed us with open arms and immediately provided us with opportunities to network. Regional teams were able to meet and talk about communication initiatives for future monthly conference calls. In addition, we shared ideas on what each chapter provided. The discussion was so robust that we ended up creating a matrix for AACTE to collect pertinent information on each of our chapters so we all have access to the data. Another example of networking was when one chapter leader from Illinois shared their legislative regional team idea where members advocate for education preparation programs at the statehouse.
