02 Feb2017
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE’s Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability has selected James Hiebert, Robert J. Barkley Professor in the University of Delaware School of Education, to receive the 2017 AACTE Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education. The award will be presented at the 69th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Saturday, March 4, at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.
“Dr. Hiebert has invested a major portion of his scholarship in the process of improving teacher preparation,” said Carol Vukelich, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, University of Delaware. “He is recognized as an important scholar who has moved the field of mathematics education forward in significant ways. His work provides a model for how education faculty can design programs that have a positive impact not only on teacher education candidates’ learning but also on the learning of their students when they begin teaching. This is exactly the kind of work our field needs.”
02 Feb2017
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has selected the Ball State University Teachers College (IN) “Schools Within the Context of Community” (SCC) program to receive the 2017 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity. The award will be presented at the 69th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Thursday, March 2, at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.
SCC takes an innovative approach to preparing culturally responsive, community-engaged candidates. In partnership with a local neighborhood and the Muncie Community School District, the university’s Department of Elementary Education immerses both teacher candidates and faculty into the community and provides opportunities for unique mentoring relationships, service-learning projects, family engagement, and more. Both the community and the university students have benefited in numerous ways since the program started in 2009, ranging from higher elementary student achievement to cultural immersion for teacher candidates to grant funding for community improvements, such as a shared walking path on the grounds of the elementary school.
02 Feb2017
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has chosen Anna Lees of Western Washington University to receive the 2017 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) Article Award for her article “The Roles of Urban Indigenous Community Members in Collaborative Field-Based Teacher Preparation,” published in the November/December 2016 issue of the journal. The award will be presented at the 69th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Saturday, March 4, at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.
The qualitative case study presented in this article used Indigenous Postcolonial Theory as a lens to explore the process and outcomes of a partnership between Indigenous community members and a teacher preparation program. The article offers scholarly insights and a model for the design and implementation of community-university partnerships in the support of preparing novice teachers to effectively work with Indigenous children and their families in urban environments.
02 Feb2017
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology has selected the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University to receive the 2017 AACTE Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology. The award will be presented during the Speaker Spotlight Session on Saturday, March 4, at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
About 5 years ago, the college eliminated its stand-alone educational technology course and instead began infusing the tech content into methods courses. Because of the college’s large size, this undertaking required massive support and commitment among dozens of faculty and administrators. Their infusion initiative was based on a vision to prepare students to teach and learn with technology, achieved through four components:
31 Jan2017
By Tony Meale
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Last month, faculty from Ohio University’s Patton College of Education joined with teachers from a partner school to participate in an equity-focused leadership summit in Chicago. Two Federal Hocking (OH) Middle School teachers – Robin Hawk, an eighth-grade social studies teacher who led the team, and Tessa Molina, a seventh-grade math teacher – took part in the Inclusion, Equity, and Opportunity Teacher Leadership Summit December 2-4, along with Patton College faculty Bill Elasky, instructor of teacher education and a board of education member at Federal Hocking Local Schools; Mathew Felton, assistant professor of teacher education; and Lisa Harrison, associate professor of teacher education.
31 Jan2017
By Aaron Goldstein
Ed Prep Matters is pleased to bring you this special feature on state policy and AACTE state chapter activity. For a recap of all state policy and state chapter in 2016, check out this blog.
Overview of State Policy Activity
This month has seen a landslide of state legislative action as the vast majority of state legislatures have convened for their 2017 legislative session. Since January 1, at least 164 state bills have been introduced that could impact various aspects of educator preparation.
30 Jan2017
By Kristin McCabe
Are you looking for assistance in preparing your programs for accreditation or state review? Or maybe you’re in need of guidance on refining your internal quality assurance system, or using performance assessments with your teacher candidates, or just making sense of all the data and other evidence you’re collecting?
AACTE is ready to help you with these and other needs. In fact, you have several options to choose from just this semester, with more being rolled out later in 2017. Whether you prefer to take a convenient online course, hire a trained consultant, or bring your colleagues together for hand-on, facilitated planning, we aim to provide the support you need.
27 Jan2017
By Christine Tambini and Sara Hiller
A preliminary schedule of sessions is now available for AACTE’s regional Quality Support Workshop in Texas. From April 24 through 26, you can engage in your choice of facilitated workshop sessions, plan with your team, take part in roundtable discussions, and connect with peers at the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel.
Whether you are an accreditation or assessment coordinator, clinical faculty member, dean or department chair, or even a state agency official, this workshop will offer you valuable resources and custom support for your quality assurance challenges. During the four 90-minute main session blocks, you’ll choose from topics covering both broad and specific aspects of performance measurement, approaches to preparing for accreditation, diversity and equity concerns, program improvement, and more.
27 Jan2017
By Melanie Agnew
This article appeared in the “Regional Roundup” newsletter of the Council of State Governments West and is reprinted with permission. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Utah is grappling with many of the same education challenges plaguing other states: high teacher turnover; persistent staffing shortages in key fields, demographic areas, and districts; inadequate access to performance data; and the list goes on. As legislators work to address these challenges, they stand the best chance of success if they develop solutions in collaboration with professional educators. Without the benefit of educator perspectives, well-meaning legislators risk developing and implementing policy that will not adequately address these challenges, and may even contribute to them.
27 Jan2017
By Jerrica Thurman
Do you follow AACTE on Twitter? Do you tag @AACTE in Tweets about your program’s exciting news so we can retweet it? We want to engage with you on social media – and that’s why we invite you to join us on Twitter during the 2017 Annual Meeting. By using the hashtag #AACTE17, you can spread the word about dynamic presenters or interesting research, contribute to the event’s narrative, and even win a prize!
As an incentive for attendees to connect with AACTE on Twitter, we are running a contest for registrants who tweet a group selfie tagged with #AACTE17 during the Annual Meeting. Between March 1 at 7:00 a.m. EST and ends March 3 at 11:59 p.m. EST, just take a photo of yourself with at least one other attendee at the Annual Meeting and post the image to Twitter using #AACTE17.
24 Jan2017
By Jerrica Thurman
A new set of brief videos in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series focuses on implementing clinical practice at the George Mason University (VA) College of Education and Human Development; see this article introducing the series and the first video segment. Today’s article highlights messages from the next two videos, which discuss the team-building approach used by Mason’s education faculty to create strong relationships with partner schools for supporting teacher candidates.
The College of Education and Human Development at Virginia’s George Mason University (GMU) and its professional development school (PDS) partners have established leadership teams to plan robust and personalized training programs for teacher candidates. The teams at the university and school sites work together to engage interns in well-rounded experiences, such as by involving them in local school activities, to help fulfill their individualized professional development plans.
24 Jan2017
By Kristin McCabe
As part of the Quality Support Center, AACTE is partnering with Educational Testing Service (ETS) to support members’ use of teacher performance assessments. The new NOTE assessment developed by ETS in collaboration with TeachingWorks (see this video interview with Deborah Ball) is now in a pilot phase. AACTE members in eligible states may wish to participate in the pilot with their students and/or recent alumni, as noted in the following announcement from ETS.
Elementary education teacher candidates can earn $750 by participating in a multistate pilot of the ETS® NOTE Assessment Series, a new simulation-based licensure test. Qualified teachers are encouraged to apply for the pilot study in selected states.
24 Jan2017
By Whitney Watkins
Congratulations to January Holmes Scholar of the Month Shalander Samuels of the University of Central Florida!
With her passion for education, Samuels consistently advocates for student success and achievement, especially in the areas of reading and language arts. Her research interests include reading achievement gaps and teaching motivation methods in Title I schools.
With over 8 years of experience in a formal teaching capacity, Samuels has a reputation for the exciting and motivating atmosphere she created in her middle school classroom. She continues to bring this positivity to her graduate studies, building and maintaining relationships and empowering her colleagues and fellow scholars with unmatched encouragement. Samuels’ dynamic presence and passion indicate that her legacy in the field of education is likely to endure.
24 Jan2017
By Zachary VanHouten
A recent blog by the U.S. Department of Education highlighted three federal loan-forgiveness programs available to teachers, in addition to programs available at the state level. Make sure your students (and prospective students) know about these programs:
24 Jan2017
By Mark LaCelle-Peterson
The demographic diversity of the teachers in America’s classrooms does not reflect that of the students they are teaching. In light of this persistent gap, many teacher preparation programs have bolstered their efforts – or developed new strategies – to recruit, admit, and support teacher candidates from underrepresented groups. Several AACTE member institutions are participating in a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) to boost the number of Black and Latino men in their teacher preparation programs, for example, and many others are at work in other national efforts and local partnerships.
Earlier this month, I was interested to learn of a related research project under way at Educational Testing Service (ETS) to explore efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline. As one part of this research, ETS hopes to identify successful strategies in postsecondary educator preparation programs and to help disseminate information to others. (AACTE is partnering with ETS to help support our members using performance assessments, but this research is not related to our partnership.)
