Check out the September/October 2018 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE). It is now available online and hitting desks around the country. See what Volume 69 Number 4 has to offer!
The deadline to apply for a 2019 AACTE Best Practice or Professional Achievement Award is quickly approaching. Submit your application by Wednesday, October 10, to recognize your program or colleagues and contribute to “Sustaining and Advancing the Profession” at the 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky!
Do you have a global and linguistically diverse program like Rutgers University (NJ)? An innovative approach for using robotics technology to facilitate teacher candidates’ critical thinking and problem solving like recent winner Northeastern State University (OK)? Or perhaps a sustainable pathway to advocate for educational equity like recent winner University of Colorado Denver? Any AACTE member institution may apply for a Best Practice Award (unless you’ve won it in the past 3 years) in one of the following three categories:
Rowan University’s College of Education is the founding college on campus but that doesn’t stop it from continually innovating its practice and creating forward-thinking opportunities for teaching and learning. And so, this year, the oldest college on campus is offering an innovative new degree: the Bachelor of Arts in Inclusive Education.
The concept of inclusive education is simple, yet profound: teachers must be prepared to meet the needs of ALL the learners in their classroom, regardless of differences in race, language, culture, and physical ability.
As students and educators head back to school this month, there is a growing concern about school safety. One in 3 parents fear for their child’s physical safety in school, according to the 2018 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.To help education leaders navigate disruptive and potentially traumatic events in schools, The School Superintendents Association (AASA) released in July the School Safety and Crisis Planning toolkit. The online resource features a select group of safety leaders throughout the country who are ready to provide guidance about a variety of crises that come without notice. AASA has also set up a crisis hotline that education leaders can call with questions and concerns about school safety. The 24-hour hotline gives access to mentors with experience dealing with floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and school shootings.
The 2019 AACTE Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, is packed full of professional development opportunities designed to expand your knowledge base and engage you in conversations with fellow attendees. But when the meeting is not in session, you will want to venture out and explore the sights that will both energize and inspire you, many of which are just steps away from the hub of the AACTE Annual Meeting.
Learning Lab Sessions will take place in both the Omni Louisville and the Louisville Marriott Downtown, with the Deeper Dives and General Sessions taking place at the brand new ballroom in the Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC). AACTE has blocks of sleeping rooms in four hotels that are either connected to or just a short walk from the KICC:
While most Americans have high trust and confidence in teachers, a majority also draw the line at wanting their own children to join a profession they see as undervalued and low-paid, according to a report released August 27 on the 50th annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. For the first time since 1969, a majority of respondents (54%) indicate they would not like their children to take up teaching in public schools as a career.
AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone and the AACTE Board of Directors issued the following statement today regarding the Trump administration’s proposal to use federal funds for placing guns in schools:
“AACTE strongly opposes U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s consideration to arm teachers in the classroom as this will endanger the safety of both students and educators. Teacher preparation programs across the nation ensure profession-ready educators are prepared to create safe learning communities where children can learn without fear.
Join AACTE for two members-only webinars detailing the findings of its newest report Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, released August 9. The research highlights key issues affecting the colleges, schools, departments, and programs that prepare teachers, school administrators, and a wide array of other education professionals. As the National Portrait author, I will present on two key issues highlighted in the report—enrollment/degree and student diversity trends:
Registration is now available for the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting, coming to Louisville, Kentucky, February 22-24, 2019. Sign up by October 24 to secure the Early Bird registration discount!
The 2019 Annual Meeting is themed “Sustaining and Advancing the Profession,” conceptualized as follows in the call for proposals:
Is your institution one of the nearly 800 members of AACTE? As your membership director, I’d like to thank you for being part of this community of postsecondary institutions, PK-12 and state affiliates, and strategic partners who are dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures educators are ready to teach all learners. As AACTE opens renewal season for the coming year, I’d also like to remind you of the network of tools and resources at your disposal – all to help you prepare profession-ready educators.
You can discover how to take advantage of a wide range of AACTE member benefits at https://aacte.org/membership/benefits. Let me call your attention to just a few here:
The North Dakota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education received a 2017-2018 AACTE State Chapter Support Grant for work on supervisor training modules to enhance the reliability and utility of the state’s new student teacher observation tool. Other AACTE chapters have also recently pursued collaborative work around assessment instruments, including those in Kansas and Ohio.
In 2016, the 12 member institutions of the North Dakota state chapter of AACTE collaborated to develop a student teacher observation tool (STOT). We were seeking a high-quality instrument to facilitate program improvement through meaningful, valid, and reliable data. We also knew that working together decreased the workload for all and leveraged resources and expertise across campuses. Finally, we were interested in adding to the common metrics used statewide to enable continued collaboration to improve teacher preparation in North Dakota.
The start of the fall term can be an ideal time to restock supplies and gather fresh resources for the year ahead. If your work includes preparing and supporting school leaders, here are some helpful links to visit, bookmark, and share as you head back to campus.
The AACTE Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) seeks nominations by October 12 of state chapter leaders to run in an election for the ACSR Executive Committee. The positions open for election are the West Region representative, Northeast Region representative, and ACSR chair-elect, all to take office in March 2019.
Terms and Roles
As leaders of AACTE’s Coteaching in Clinical Practice Topical Action Group (TAG), we are pleased to invite applications from PK-12 personnel to secure funding to attend the National Conference on Coteaching in Bloomington, Minnesota, October 24-26. Applications are due September 1 so don’t delay!
About the National Conference on Coteaching
Teacher shortages are a critical concern across the United States, and the University of South Carolina is tackling the crisis head-on with an innovative response to teacher retention. While recruiting new teachers into the profession is vitally important, reducing the alarming rate at which novice teachers leave the profession must be a central focus in addressing the teacher shortage, as shared in a recent op-ed by University of South Carolina College of Education Dean Jon Pedersen.
“If you add the belief that teacher preparation and support should not end at graduation, a desire to gather data to inform programmatic improvement, and a teacher retention issue to new accreditation standards and a college leadership team determined to make a positive impact on the profession, beyond the walls of the university, you arrive at the impetus for the Carolina Teacher Induction Program (CarolinaTIP),” said Cindy Van Buren, assistant dean and one of the developers of the college’s induction program.
