16 Aug2019
By Kate Robertson
This article originally appeared in on the University of Tulsa Appalachian website and is reprinted with permission.
Oklahoma is facing a troubling teacher shortage. To ensure public school students have instructors in classrooms this fall, the state has issued 3,000 emergency teacher certifications. The Oklahoma Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (OACTE) analyzed data to uncover the ramifications of an increased number of emergency certificates, and on Monday, Aug. 12, The University of Tulsa hosted the Oklahoma Teacher Pipeline Summit to share their findings and discuss possible solutions to the crisis.
16 Aug2019
By Lynn M. Gangone
Educators and students are facing unprecedented times. The challenges both students and their teachers confront today vastly affects the efficacy of even the best educator’s efforts to create and foster students’ zeal for learning and to contribute to the society they will one day shape. Yet, educators must stay committed to fulfilling their social responsibility now more than ever before.
What Should Social Responsibility Look Like in the Teaching Profession?
This varies from educator to educator, so the answer to this question is complicated and multi-faceted.
Education is about opening minds, creating new knowledge. It is an expansive endeavor. In theory, education should provide us with the understanding and capacity of what it means to be a citizen of this nation and the world. Our nation’s founders understood the importance of an educated citizenry. Today, I believe that we need educators to support both a students’ academic development and citizen development.
16 Aug2019
By Amanda Wilkerson and Deshawn Chapman
In the fall of 2019, educational leaders of AACTE will have another opportunity to access and join a meaningful Topical Action Group (TAG). The Urban Education TAG is brand new and serves as a special work group committed to establishing a storehouse of information with reliable resources to bolster and practically support urban educators. Additionally, exciting programming is already underway in the form of webinars, podcasts, research dissemination, and professional networking opportunities.
The timing of the group’s formation is significant. The TAG is launching during a period in our profession wherein education is rife with concerns. It is no secret that within our field there is growing inequality experienced by
16 Aug2019
By Lynn M. Gangone
As today’s leaders in educator preparation, we must address the persistent problems and inequities of access, discrimination, and bias that plague our schools and communities. It has long been the work of educators to embrace their social responsibility and instill in children the importance of making a difference in the world. We must continue to tackle social justice issues, including the underrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse populations among educators. Please take a few minutes to watch the video below (or read the transcript) to learn how you can engage with AACTE to promote the social responsibility of educators.
14 Aug2019
By Madeline Will
The excerpt below is taken from an article originally published in Ed Week and is reprinted with permission. The article explores the historic decision that ended segregation in U.S. public schools and the unintended consequences that led to thousands of Black teachers and principals losing their jobs. Several AACTE members are quoted in the article, including the new AACTE Dean in Residence Leslie Fenwick.
“We decimated the black principal and teacher pipeline, and we’ve never rectified that,” said Leslie Fenwick, the dean emeritus and a professor at the Howard University School of Education. “It is the unfinished promise of Brown that we have not integrated our faculty and school leadership.”
Prior to Brown, in the 17 states that had segregated school systems, 35 to 50 percent of the teaching force was black, said Fenwick, who has researched the displacement of black educators for her upcoming book, Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: Public Policy and the Near Decimation of Black Educational Leadership After Brown.
Now, no state has anywhere close to those percentages of black teachers or principals, she said. According to the most recent federal data, about 7 percent of public school teachers, and 11 percent of public school principals, are black.
“Not having these models of intellectual authority and leadership in schools is detrimental to children,” Fenwick said. “All children deserve to have diverse models of intellectual authority in the classroom via their teacher, or diverse models of leadership in schools.”
Read the full article.
14 Aug2019
By Arlene Borthwick, Jon Clausen, Teresa Foulger and David Slykhuis
This article and photo originally appeared on the Advancing Research & Innovation in the STEM Education of Preservice Teachers in High-Need School Districts (ARISE) website and are reprinted with permission.
Despite heavy investment in STEM (e.g., STEM for ALL), most PK-20 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instruction remains heavily siloed. To date, educators have not agreed on a clear definition of STEM. Is it curriculum or a teaching technique/pedagogy? Can a science lesson be called STEM, even if the other domains are not fully represented? As technology advocates, we think STEM curricula should have a strong representation from all four domains.
The STEM movement was intended to address science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in order to produce students who are prepared for the unique needs of today’s workforce. With regard to the “T” component of STEM, the only way to develop teacher candidates who fully embrace the power of technology for P12 is to infuse technology throughout their preparation.
A “technology infusion” approach
14 Aug2019
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
As the student population has diversified so has our understanding of the general education classroom, specifically who we serve in an inclusive setting. Our students with special education services are learning the majority of their grade level curriculum in general education classrooms. This paradigm shift requires effective collaboration between service providers and teachers as well as a deep understanding and application of differentiation to meet the needs of all students.
For years, the two fields of general education and special education have been siloed. Persistence and partnership is how
13 Aug2019
By Katrina Norfleet
The September/October 2019 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) is now available online, while printed copies are arriving in the mail to subscribers around the country. Below is a summary of the articles included in Vol. 70, Issue 4, 2019:
In “Teacher Agency and Resilience in the Age of Neoliberalism,” members of the JTE editorial team, Tonya Bartell, Christine Cho, Corey Drake, Emery Petchauer, and Gail Richmond, address how the articles in this issue provide insights into ways educator preparation programs can support teachers in developing and enacting agency. They discuss how making small shifts or adaptations in everyday teaching practices can create more just and equitable teaching and learning.
In the paper, “Whiteness as a Dissonant State: Exploring One White Male Student Teacher’s Experiences in Urban Contexts,” Stephanie Behm Cross of Georgia State University, Nermin Tosmur-Bayazit of Fitchburg State University, and Alyssa Hadley Dunn of Michigan State University, suggest that Whiteness itself is a dissonant state. The authors argue that
12 Aug2019
By Kimberly White Smith
AACTE’s Committee on Meetings & Professional Development met in the national office, July 29-31, to plan the 2020 Annual Meeting. During the busy three days, members of the committee utilized feedback from AACTE’s pool of reviewers to create a rich and diverse program from submissions received through AACTE’s Call for Proposals. We asked Committee Chair Kimberly White-Smith to tell us more about the power and timeliness of the upcoming conference:
“In the wake of the murderous attacks, rooted in white supremacist ideology, against communities of color in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton, the theme of ‘Disrupting Inequities: Educating for Change’ is even more relevant today than a year ago when AACTE’s Meetings & Professional Development Committee first assumed the charge and created space for research and practice that promotes systemic change. Accepting the title of educator imbues each of us with a responsibility to use our knowledge, skills, minds, and hearts to walk beside the communities that we serve. It is imperative to support and uplift these communities during such tragic times.
Education is one of many tools used to transform the status quo. The 2020 Annual Meeting strands were specifically developed to explore the ways that education can be used alongside other key strategies to move the needle on equity. The intention is to demonstrate how advocacy, practice, and research can co-exist and support the movement of re-envisioning education in our country. Content presented at the Annual Meeting will further support our work in each of these areas:
09 Aug2019
By Conra Gist
At the 2019 AACTE Annual Meeting, the third annual Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Institute convened teacher educators, aspiring teachers, school leaders, and deans from across the nation to address one of the most pressing teacher education issues—diversifying the teacher workforce. Leaders of the DTW Topical Action Group (TAG), with the support of AACTE’s Member Engagement and Support team, organized the Institute. The event began with a welcome by AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone and a presentation by AACTE consultant Jane West on the state of teacher diversity in educator preparation. Marvin Lynn, College of Education dean at Portland State University, followed with opening remarks that contextualized the critical challenges facing the educator workforce as it relates toteacher diversity.
The morning plenary featured a panel facilitated by Delisa Saunders and Dyan Smiley of the American Federation of Teachers that examined
09 Aug2019
By Jerrica Thurman
In the most recent AACTE member video, participants share their perspectives on how they value the benefits and engagement the Association offers. Here’s what they had to say:
09 Aug2019
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
The key to developing the Bowling Green State University (BGSU) dual licensure program is reaching out to the local area to ensure the program is built with the local needs at the forefront. “The local data is how the university can drive change,” recalls a district leader. Faculty also believe collaboration with the district is central to their mission and their success with candidates. Making connections with the field office and the supervising teachers ensured faculty could relate what candidates were seeing in the field to what they were learning in their coursework.
University systems must also be taken into consideration, especially when working across colleges and across departments. Two questions drove the BGSU program leadership as they developed their dual licensure program: What is best for our students in this program? An what is best for this program? One significant concern was finding strong clinical placements for each teacher candidate. The success of a program with hundreds of teacher candidates rested with strong clinical partnerships.
Finally, serving all students that walk into the classroom was the priority when developing the dual licensure program at BGSU. “This wasn’t an experiment, this is the way BGSU does business,” reflected a faculty member. It was a choice to move away from single licensure that, over time, changes the makeup of the district teaching population, which is why district leaders were involved at every step in the program development.
To learn more, watch the Advice to Others video highlighting BGSU’s Models of Inclusive Clinical Teacher Preparation, part of AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series.
09 Aug2019
By Rebekah Saylors
This article
and photo originally appeared in Appalachian Today and are reprinted with permission.
It began with a curiosity of wanting to know more about the human body and culminated with a poster presentation. No, this is not a research project designed by one of Appalachian State University’s senior science majors. The 3D project was completed by some of the university’s youngest Mountaineers at the Lucy Brock Child Development Lab School (LBCDLS).
In late June, the LBCDLS preschool class shared with Appalachian faculty, staff, students and practicum students, as well as family and friends, the knowledge they gained about the human body through the project. Some examples of what they shared:
- A song they wrote with Emily Wills ’19, a graduate student in Appalachian’s master’s music therapy program from Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Life-size tracings of their own bodies, which included their drawings of bones and organs.
- A large, mixed media sculpture of the human body consisting of recycled materials, which was created by the class as a collaborative project.
The health science project provided a reciprocal learning opportunity — broadening the inquiring minds of young scientists while giving Appalachian’s budding educators a front-row seat from which to study
09 Aug2019
By Lindsay Tuman
This article originally appeared on Fox 8 News and is reprinted with permission.
The Guilford County School District is getting more teachers with the help of a new program.
Guilford County Schools, High Point University and North Carolina A & T State University partnered together for the Teacher Quality Partnership. It’s a federal grant that helps get highly qualified teachers into high-needs schools.
The grant awards more than $4 million to get 25 participants into an accelerated program. In this program, they will learn what they need to be an effective teacher while applying the skills simultaneously in their own classroom with the help of a mentor.
“I never thought I would be in the classroom. People have been telling me for years, ‘Oh, you’d be a great teacher,’” Rashida Queen, one of the
09 Aug2019
By Deborah Koolbeck
The U.S. Department of Education launched an Experimental Sites Initiative focused on the Federal Work Study (FWS) program. FWS is a need-based federal program that provides part-time jobs to students to supplement the financial assistance received from the Federal Pell Grant program and other aid sources. The Experimental Site Initiative for FWS waives several of the statutory and regulatory provisions, including that which would limit the number of hours a student could work, permitting full-time opportunities.
