Archive for 2018

JTE Author Interview: Analyzing Historical Intersections Between General and Special Education to Support More Inclusive Practice

Check out the latest the JTE Insider blog interview by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles in the JTE online archives—just log in with your AACTE profile.

This interview features insights from the JTE article, “Interrogating the Intersections Between General and Special Education in the History of Teacher Education Reform” by Linda P. Blanton, Marleen C. Pugach, and Mildred Boveda. The article appears in the Sept/Oct 2018 issue of JTE.

Rich Milner Delivers Brown Lecture Centered on Disrupting Punitive Practices and Policies

AACTE member H. Richard (Rich) Milner, IV, a leading scholar of urban education and teacher education, recently delivered the 15th Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research sponsored by the American Educational Research Association. The Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research is designed to feature the important role of research in advancing understanding of equality and equity in education. Each year, a distinguished scholar notable for producing significant research related to equality in education is invited to give a public lecture in Washington, D.C.

Milner is currently the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Education and professor of education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. His lecture, “Disrupting Punitive Practices and Policies: Rac(e)ing Back to Teaching, Teacher Preparation, and Brown,” focused on research on the practices and policies that implicitly or overtly punish rather than support the development of students of color.

Richmond Teacher Residency Receives Nearly $5M Grant to Expand, Provide STEM Training

This article originally appeared online at news.vcu.edu and is reposted with permission.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $4.97 million grant to expand Richmond Teacher Residency, help provisionally licensed science, technology, engineering and math teachers move toward full licensure, and provide math and science training to hundreds of local elementary and special education teachers.

Richmond Teacher Residency, a program in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education, is an intensive, school-based teacher preparation program that integrates a research-supported approach for effective teaching with real-world classroom experience. Residents teach in local schools under the mentorship of a veteran teacher, while also earning a graduate degree in either education or teaching from VCU.

Discover Louisville at #AACTE19

The 2019 AACTE Annual Meeting in Louisville is an opportunity for you to not only invest in your own professional development but also come away feeling both energized and refreshed. Chief executive officer of Louisville Tourism, Karen Williams, took time to share what Louisville has to offer Annual Meeting attendees in a short Q&A session. Here is what she had to say:

How has Louisville grown beyond being known solely for its bourbon to The Spirited City?

Radio Show Highlights Efforts to Retain, Recruit Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers

AACTE members Ernest Black and John Kuykendal joined AACTE consultant Amanda Lester on a recent episode of Education Talk Radio to discuss the networked improvement community’s (NIC’s) study on the challenges and opportunities to increase Black, Hispanic, and Latino male teachers nationwide.

“Using a NIC is part of an ‘improvement science’ approach to looking at a problem of practice that persists in education,” explained Lester. The NIC involved a study of 10 institutions that shared their own experiences in recruiting and retaining teacher candidates in this population. Black and Kuykendal represent two of the college preparation programs that participated in the study, which began in 2014.

The premise of the research is that Black and Hispanic/Latino male students underperform in schools but when paired with Black and Hispanic/Latino male teachers for as little as one year, their success improves.

AACTE Welcomes New Hires to National Office

I am thrilled to announce a series of hires within the National Office. I invite you to join me in welcoming these new AACTE team members as they join us in our goal to exceed expectations for distinctive, member-centered work that continues to move our profession forward in a multitude of ways.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Rodriguez is the AACTE assistant vice president, programs and professional learning. She has a Ph.D. in education with a focus on exceptional education from the University of Central Florida and an M.A. in special education with a learning disabilities specialization from American University. She earned her B.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University. Prior to joining AACTE, Jackie served the College of William & Mary in many capacities, including as assistant professor in the School of Education (areas of teaching and research: inclusive education, culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional learners, teacher preparation, special education, education policy, and education policy to practice). A Holmes Scholars alumna, Jackie established the Holmes Scholars Program during her tenure at the college. Jackie began her career as a special education teacher. She is the secretary to the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education and active in the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. She serves on several editorial boards and was a McKnight Doctoral Fellow.

LeTrecia Gloster Named October Holmes Scholar of the Month

Congratulations to LeTrecia Gloster, the October 2018 Holmes Scholar of the month.

Gloster is currently a doctoral candidate studying educational leadership at Bowie State University. Her research topic is a case study on the impact of mentorship on the trajectory and sustainability of African American women superintendents.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Bowie State University where she received her B.S. in mathematics education and her master’s degree at Trinity University in Washington, D.C.

Colorado Gives Grants to AACTE Member Institutions to Combat Teacher Shortage

The Colorado Department of Higher Education announced this month that it has awarded nearly $2 million to 17 collaborative projects designed to recruit and retain more educators as part of the Plan Into Action grant established in partnership with the Colorado Center for Rural Education. Of the recipients, nine are AACTE member institutions, which have developed initiatives to combat teacher shortages. The other grantees include school districts, boards of cooperative educational services, and traditional and alternative educator training programs from across the state. The projects will establish teacher residency programs, leverage technology for improved professional support, and encourage more teacher candidates to specialize in high-need content areas.

“Teachers are the backbone of our education system and critical to our state’s long-term success,” CDHE executive director Dan Baer said. “These funds will strengthen the relationships among our institutions, alternative programs and the schools in their backyard, helping communities cultivate their own teacher corps and better support those already in the classroom.”

Take a Deeper Dive into Education in Louisville at #AACTE19

As AACTE plans a lineup of dynamic presenters and content for its 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville, local school officials from Jefferson County took time to share insights about what’s happening in education in the city and throughout Kentucky on topics related to AACTE’s Deeper Dive sessions. In response to questions regarding social justice issues and shaping the future of education in Louisville, Jimmy Adams, Chief of Human Resources for Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), provided the following comments:

What does Louisville have to offer education leaders from across the country in their work to shape the future of education in America?

Radio Interview Highlights Emerging Technologies in Educator Preparation

AACTE members Vanessa Anton and Barbara Fuller of Northeastern State University’s (NSU) College of Education were recently featured on the EduTalk radio show to highlight their Robotics Academy of Critical Engagement (R.A.C.E.) program, which won the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology. During the interview, Anton and Fuller shared that NSU’s R.A.C.E. program is the only one of its kind housed in a college of education in the U.S. and around the world.

After a successful pilot of the program, NSU opened its first robotics lab in 2012 on its Tahlequah campus, followed by a second lab on its Broken Arrow campus—which both have educator preparation programs. Every pre-service teacher at NSU is required to take an emerging technologies course that includes the robotics unit where the candidates build and program their own robot. The course prepares teacher candidates of every subject to enter the classroom ready to use robotics as part of their curriculum if they choose to do so. Most importantly, the process of learning how to work together well and improve critical thinking provides a gateway for the candidates to teach those same skills to their students.

New Webinar Focuses on Helping Principals Balance Work Home Life

Meeting the demands of a career and home life can be challenging, especially when the job is school administration. Join us as we discuss how demanding responsibilities test new leaders’ ability to unplug from the school world. AACTE will host a free webinar on principal leadership on Wednesday, October 24, from 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT. Please tune in to attend the Supporting Novice Principals on the Job: Balancing Work Home Life webinar, part of a series on principal leadership sponsored by The Wallace Foundation.

WACTE Builds Momentum for Its Next Day on the Hill

Members of the Washington Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (WACTE) met with Washington state lawmakers during WACTE’s inaugural “Day on the Hill” earlier this year—an effort to familiarize legislators with teacher preparation programs across the state, present ourselves as resources to legislators on teacher preparation and K-12 education, and articulate the WACTE agenda/priorities.

In the state of Washington, the legislative process is nothing like academia, where it can take a year from proposal to approval for a new program or process. The legislative sessions move at a furious pace. A bill can be amended to do something completely different than the original intent, and a legislative lobbyist can prevent the legislative process from “getting away from you before you know it.”

Research Empowers Principals

This article originally appeared online at news.ecu.edu and is reposted with permission.

ECU research group studying effects of school leadership secures $9.7M grant

A group of East Carolina University researchers studying the effects of school leadership has secured a five-year, $9.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

AACTE Announces 2018-19 State Chapter Award Recipients

AACTE has awarded five state chapters the 2018-19 AACTE State Chapter Support Grant. The recipients are as follows:

  • Arizona
  • Colorado
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • New Jersey

Each year, AACTE and the Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) Executive Committee select recipients of the State Chapter Support Grants to help strengthen the capacity of the chapters on various levels, including advocacy and statewide collaboration to meet key challenges, as well as strengthen AACTE’s relationship with state chapters.