CAEP Q&A With Mary Brabeck (Video)

By Sharon Robinson

When Mary Brabeck, dean of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, agreed to grant me a recorded in-person interview (see link below) regarding her new role as board chair of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), I was thrilled.

It is fair to say that I have a long-standing relationship with Mary Brabeck. In 2005, Dean Brabeck chaired the Board of AACTE when I was selected to be the president and chief executive officer.

A Role for Anthropology in Teacher Preparation

By Catherine Emihovich

In addition to my work in educator preparation at the University of Florida, I am a member of the Anthropology Education Task Force (AETF) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Among other things, our task force is charged with examining the potential role of anthropology in teacher education programs to prepare teachers for working in culturally and linguistically diverse schools. We would greatly appreciate AACTE members’ input on this work, if you are able to take 15-20 minutes from your busy schedule to respond to our survey (see below).

As readers of this blog are aware, the rapid demographic changes sweeping across the United States bring increasing importance to ensuring that teachers are well prepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students. AAA is eager to partner with AACTE members in this endeavor, and to demonstrate that key anthropological concepts can play a significant role in helping teachers develop more effective strategies for addressing diverse students’ needs. For example, through its award-winning RACE Project exhibit (http://www.understandingrace.org/), AAA has enabled thousands of teachers and students across the country to deconstruct destructive myths surrounding racial differences. The web site provides numerous thought-provoking activities and curricular materials to engage students in more meaningful classroom dialogues about a topic that has long ruptured our social fabric.

New Partnership to Broaden Inclusion of LGBT Awareness in Teacher Preparation

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) have announced a partnership to support teacher preparation programs in including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues in their curriculum.

Research suggests that positive, supportive, and inclusive classroom environments lead to better academic and psychosocial outcomes for students. While some teacher preparation programs incorporate LGBT-inclusive content and awareness into their curriculum, there has been no deliberate, comprehensive effort to expand the practice throughout the profession.

2014 Washington Week Registration Now Open

By Zachary VanHouten

Next week’s AACTE Annual Meeting calls on us to “take charge of change.” Heed the call by signing up now to join your peers this June in Washington, DC, for action in advocacy!

With federal education programs facing budget cuts, potential teacher preparation regulations on the horizon, reauthorization looming for the Higher Education Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and partisan gridlock, now is a crucial time to learn how you can become an effective advocate for the profession. AACTE’s signature advocacy conference, Washington Week, offers three key events to assist in building members’ capacity for advocacy: Day on the Hill, the State Leaders Institute, and the Holmes Scholars Summer Policy Institute.

Join AACTE’s New Group for Educators of English Learners

By Joyce Nutta

The author is a member of AACTE’s topical action group on Preparing Educators of English Learners. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

Are you interested in meeting other educators who address teaching English learners in their teacher preparation programs? Would you like to discover new ways your colleagues are preparing all candidates to support the success of these students? Come to the inaugural meeting of AACTE’s Preparing Educators of English Learners (PEEL) Topical Action Group to learn about joining our current projects—and help brainstorm future projects and opportunities for advocacy by our group.

AACTE New-Member Incentive

By Gloriatine Jones

Have you heard about AACTE’s incentive for new members? Institutions that join AACTE by March 31, 2014, can save 50% off their regular AACTE dues for 2014, giving these institutions a chance to experience all of AACTE’s many benefits and services at a significantly reduced cost.

Under this membership incentive program, participating institutions will have full access to all AACTE benefits and services such as these:

• The Journal of Teacher Education – AACTE’s highly regarded, peer-reviewed journal on policy, practice, and research in teacher education, mailed to all AACTE Institutional Representatives five times a year, plus free online access to each issue and the complete archives.

A Call to Action: Education for Sustainability

By Victor Nolet

The author is a member of AACTE’s topical action group on Education for Sustainability. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

Does your teacher preparation program include course content or field experiences related to education for sustainability? If you are a typical teacher educator in the United States, you probably answered either “No” or “I don’t know.” Sustainability may be the defining issue of our time, yet very few teacher preparation programs in this country address education for sustainability.

Teacher educators: this is a call to action. If your program does not currently include course content or field experiences related to education for sustainability, make it your personal mission during this coming year to change this situation! You’ll have two opportunities at the upcoming AACTE Annual Meeting to get started. First, join the Education for Sustainability Topical Action Group (TAG) for a reception Sunday, March 2, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Lincoln Room of Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. Then on Monday, March 3, attend this TAG’s annual meeting to become directly involved.

March Vote Planned for Changes to AACTE Bylaws, Resolutions

By Lucy Berrier

The annual vote by AACTE members on changes to the Association’s bylaws and resolutions will occur March 10-24 via online ballot. The proposed changes, to be approved by the AACTE Board of Directors at its February 28 meeting, will be published March 1 via blog post.

Amendments to the bylaws will update Article II, Section 2 (Member Meetings/Quorum), and Article VI, Section 1 (Appointments to NCATE). Click here for current bylaws language.

The resolutions up for renewal or amendment this year are numbers 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 55, and 58. Click here for current resolutions language.

Announcing AACTE’s 2014 Award Winners

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE is delighted to announce the winners of our 2014 awards!

The following awards will be presented during the Welcoming Session (March 1) and the Speaker Spotlight Session (March 3) at AACTE’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis:

• Outstanding Dissertation Award: Empathic Interaction: White Female Teachers and Their Black Male Students, by Chezare A. Warren (University of Illinois at Chicago; Steven E. Tozer, adviser)

Annual Meeting Program Book Now Available

By Aimee Hall

AACTE’s 66th Annual Meeting is almost here. Have you thought about which of the almost 300 sessions to attend in Indianapolis? Take a look at the 2014 Annual Meeting program book, now available online.

After flipping through the program book, log in to AACTE’s Event Planner to build an itinerary (or add to your existing one) of the sessions you can’t miss. Export the itinerary to your Outlook calendar, or print a copy to keep handy.

See you in just 10 days!

Proposals Sought for Conference on Postsecondary Ed for Students With Disabilities

By Elizabeth Ross

A call for proposals is now available for the 2014 State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities. The conference, to be held in Virginia in November, is cosponsored by the Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disabilities at George Mason University (VA) and the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education at Syracuse University (NY).

Meet AACTE Holmes Scholars® in Indianapolis

By Alicia Ardila-Rey

For more than a decade now, I’ve had the privilege to work closely with a wonderful group of diverse doctoral students during the AACTE Annual Meeting. Each year I am reenergized by their passion, ideas, and determination to succeed. I’m proud to see more and more of these bright scholars diversifying the makeup of the conference and of the profession, with hundreds of them now leading successful careers in academia and other education-related posts.

Close to 50 current AACTE Holmes Scholars® and many alumni will be joining Annual Meeting participants in Indianapolis this year. Look for the purple ribbon on their name tags, attend their poster session March 2 at 9:00 a.m. to learn about their research, and talk to them individually about your institution in our Holmes Scholars Job Fair March 2 at 3:45 p.m. You may find among them your next hire for that open position—or strong candidates for future ones.

Teacher Educators Among ‘Who’s Who’ in NBPTS Conference Lineup

By Kristin McCabe

A March conference being hosted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) includes a veritable “who’s who” of speakers in its ambitious program that includes several faculty from AACTE member institutions.

Deborah Loewenberg Ball of the University of Michigan, Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University (CA), Andy Hargreaves of Boston College (MA), Mark Ginsberg of George Mason University (VA), James Hennessy of Fordham University (NY), Pedro Noguera of New York University, Robert Pianta of the University of Virginia, and other teacher educators will join dozens of other representatives from various education circles at “Teaching & Learning 2014” in Washington, DC.

Toward an Ever More Data-Literate Future

By Mary Harrill

Data literacy is not a new concept in education. Teachers and school leaders are constantly processing data—on student behavior, attendance, performance on assessments, district- and state-level data, etc.—and utilizing it to improve student and school outcomes. What is new, though, is the burgeoning amount of data now generated by district- and state-wide data systems, think tanks, research and policy organizations, and multiple other sources including schools themselves. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has been leading the push for equitable access to this information—and the push to develop educators who can filter out the “white noise” and home in on the data that are relevant to their classrooms and schools.

Join Us in Supporting ‘School on Wheels’ at Annual Meeting

By Aimee Hall

This post also appears on the AACTE Annual Meeting site.

Once again, AACTE has partnered with a local charity to give back to our Annual Meeting host community. Indianapolis’ School on Wheels will be collecting donations outside the Conference Community Center at the 2014 AACTE Annual Meeting.

School on Wheels works to break the cycle of homelessness by providing one-on-one tutoring and educational advocacy for school-aged children impacted by homelessness. Since its founding in 2001, it has trained over 2,200 community volunteers as tutors, provided tutoring to 3,913 school-aged homeless children, and distributed 2,148 backpacks filled with school supplies and 11,351 school uniforms to homeless children. In 2013, School on Wheels was named nonprofit volunteer program of the year by the United Way of Central Indiana.