13 Oct2015
By Guneev Sharma
Twitter can be used in a variety of ways, from celebrity stalking to news tracking to simply sharing life’s events with friends. As more and more people create accounts and become active users, Twitter’s application in teaching and learning also is growing. On September 29, Jeff Carpenter and Scott Morrison of Elon University (NC) and Michael Maher of North Carolina State University presented the second in their series of three free webinars for AACTE members on Twitter’s potential for use in teacher preparation programs.
13 Oct2015
By Jerrica Thurman
Only 1 day is left to take advantage of the Early Bird Registration rate for AACTE’s 68th Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada! This special offer expires October 14 at midnight EDT.
At the Annual Meeting, you’ll gain access to cutting-edge research and initiatives for “meeting the demands of professional practice” in educator preparation. Experience some of the most popular offerings of the conference in our six major forums for 2016.
13 Oct2015
By Jerrica Thurman
Many educator preparation providers are highly engaged in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and are actively working alongside PK-12 administrators, teachers, and parents to prepare students. Learn how AACTE member institutions in Kentucky are successfully implementing the standards in a free AACTE webinar, “Is Common Core Impossible?” Tuesday, October 20, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
Thanks to a grant from the Learning First Alliance’s Get It Right campaign, AACTE will host this webinar as the first in a two-part series on CCSS implementation in educator preparation programs. This webinar focuses on the successful work of the Kentucky Association of Colleges for Teacher Education in facilitating its members’ work to align their educator preparation programs with CCSS after Kentucky became the first state to adopt the standards. Presenters will discuss how a communication strategy, community involvement, policy advancement and alignment, and professional development and capacity building were used for successful implementation.
13 Oct2015
By Amanda Lester and Omar Davis
Participants in the inaugural Project LEAD Summit of the Associated Colleges of Illinois
On September 25, AACTE staff had the privilege of taking part in the inaugural Project LEAD (Leaders in Education Advocating for Diversity) Summit in Chicago, Illinois. The summit was a daylong conference conducted by the Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High-Need Schools to engage teacher candidates and faculty in interactive discussions focused on increasing diversity in the teacher workforce.
06 Oct2015
By Sharon Robinson
Participants in the 2015 National Technology Leadership Summit included the heads of educator preparation associations for literacy, English, special education, engineering, science, mathematics, and more.
Last week, AACTE hosted an annual technology summit for the leaders of 10 teacher educator associations that formed a coalition in 2000 around educational technology and educator preparation. This 2-day event has witnessed or directly led to some amazing developments over the years, ranging from research to tools to entirely new technologies, as coalition members serve as a unique focus group and visionary working network bridging education and industry.
06 Oct2015
By Deborah Koolbeck
The fall is ushering in more than a change in the weather in Washington this year. Multiple unpredicted changes in leadership have D.C. buzzing about what it all means.
- U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) resigned from Congress as of October 30, 2015.
- U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan resigned as of December 2015.
- Chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Rep. John Kline (R-MN) will not seek re-election next year.
06 Oct2015
By Michelle Kotek
A new video in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series focuses on a thriving partnership in Colorado from the perspectives of novice teachers prepared in a professional development school model. This blog highlights one teacher’s experience and offers insights from his assistant principal about the program’s success.
The forward-thinking partnership between Colorado State University (CSU) and the local Poudre School District employs a professional development school (PDS) model to prepare teachers who are ready to teach on Day 1. Their classroom is the classroom: Instead of taking their classes off site at the university, prospective teachers receive their lessons and then put them into practice in the same school building—with real kids and under the tutelage of a real teacher. While the program’s elements are fairly typical, its particular success comes from each course’s clinical component and support from a robust professional community.
06 Oct2015
By Angela Maynard Sewall
In his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker advised, “Don’t try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present.” How helpful this wisdom is for everyone in the education field, whether PK-12 or higher education! For our students and our society, the future is now. Participants in the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative have taken that advice to heart as they have worked on practical, deployable strategies to improve how principals are recruited, prepared, and supported in urban schools, right now. The six districts and multiple higher education partners already are seeing improvement in student learning as a result of their work over the past few years.
On Thursday, October 15, the second webinar in AACTE’s free series on the Principal Pipeline Initiative will explore “Building the Partnerships” to bridge the differences among institutions and programs in the pursuit of their common goals. Like the first webinar, which discussed “Laying the Foundation,” this event will feature a panel of school and university leaders who’ve participated in the initiative. Panelists will discuss inputs needed, agreements and protocols, and the impact and outcomes of building new and stronger partnerships among the key groups.
06 Oct2015
By Hannah Maes
The first webinar in AACTE’s series on the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative drew some 110 participants last month. (The second, which will also be free of charge, will be held October 15; read Angela Sewall’s post about it here.) As they heard from the initiative’s panelists about their ongoing work to reform principal preparation through collaborations among higher education institutions and school districts, the webinar participants began to echo the presenters’ enthusiasm for the model’s potential if brought to a larger scale.
06 Oct2015
By James O’Meara and Sharon Robinson
On September 25, 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon launched the UN Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) for making quality education available to all children, young people, and adults. This year, on the third anniversary of the GEFI launch, leaders from AACTE answered his call for assistance by committing to revive a longstanding partnership with the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET). But why ICET, and why now?
What Is ICET?
ICET is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) working with educator preparation providers (EPPs) globally to ensure all learners will have access to a high-quality education in which educators are appropriately qualified and recognized as motivated and committed professionals and practitioners.
05 Oct2015
By Guneev Sharma
This is the final week to submit applications for the AACTE Awards Program. All entries for Best Practice Awards and Professional Achievement Awards must be submitted online by Friday, October 9, at midnight EDT.
The selection process for the awards is by peer review, led by AACTE’s standing committees. I asked one committee chair, Kevin J. Graziano of Nevada State College, how the awards program contributes to the profession. (Graziano chairs AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology, which is responsible for reviewing applications for the Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology.)
05 Oct2015
By Hannah Maes
What constitutes “quality” in assessment? Educators have to know how to design assessments and scoring rubrics that are appropriate to their students’ specific situations as well as fair, valid, and reliable.
AACTE’s Online Professional Seminar (OPS) #1: Building Quality Assessments addresses this question in a 3- to 4-week introductory course that is free and open to all educators. By connecting simultaneously with experts and their peers in the field, OPS participants get the chance to compare their experiences, learn from each other, and discover best practices for assessment design.
05 Oct2015
By Judy Boisen
Illinois has moved beyond the trial phase with edTPA, which became consequential here as of September 1, 2015. That’s why the recent state conference of the Illinois Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC) was aptly named Moving Forward.
The event convened 131 educator preparation experts from 45 institutions and education organizations from across the state September 11-12 to discuss this next phase in our state’s edTPA journey.
05 Oct2015
By Elisa Palmer
Elisa Palmer, edTPA coordinator at Illinois State University, shares five takeaways from a panel on edTPA implementation during the Illinois Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium conference Sept. 11.
edTPA implementation can be overwhelming. But after 5 years of experience with more than 1,800 teacher candidates to complete the process, faculty and administrators from across our campus have helped us identify five key areas that, if addressed thoughtfully, might also lead to successful edTPA implementation on your campus.
02 Oct2015
By Whitney Watkins
Congratulations to September 2015 Holmes Scholar of the Month LaMarcus Hall!
Hall is a second-year doctoral candidate in the curriculum and instruction program at Purdue University. His research interest is cultural spaces for underrepresented minorities in higher education.
Since joining the Holmes Scholars Program at the beginning of this summer, Hall has made a breakout performance in his role as a Holmes Scholar at his institution. His nominator was incredibly impressed with his contributions to the field, as well as his array of other accomplishments.
