ECS Profiles the School Funding Allocations of States

By Ward Cummings

As states work to allocate funding for school districts, they must take into account the various needs and populations of the students they serve. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has developed a resource, “50-State Comparison: K-12 Funding” that helps clarify and compare each state’s school funding mechanisms, organized by method and category. 

Visit the ECS webpage to review data describing the funding mechanisms of the states as well as the specific funding allocations for a list of funding priorities, including special education, English language learning and at-risk and low-income students. 

As elementary and secondary teachers head back into their classrooms, conversations on teacher shortages, teacher salaries, and teacher strikes continue. Having an understanding of how your state funds its K-12 schools can help you support the schools in which your graduates will teach and engage in democracy on this critical issue. 

Register Today: September 2019 Federal Update Webinars

By Deborah Koolbeck

As AACTE members and their colleagues return to the classroom, Congress returns to Washington, D.C., after the August recess. It is a crowded agenda for the fall as discussions heat up around the 2020 Census and the election. The U.S. House of Representatives (House) has passed nearly all 12 of its appropriations bills, and the U.S. Senate (Senate) is poised to start the week of September 9, 2019.

This leaves us with several questions:

• With 15 legislative days before the September 30 deadline, will any of the Senate bills be completed?
• With a Continuing Resolution expected, will it go through November or December?
• While the caps were raised for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021, will the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies bill receive a sufficient increase to not only raise the NIH budget by $2b, but also maintain the increases the House appropriated to key programs that support the profession?
• Beyond funding, what is the status of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act?

These questions and more will be covered in the AACTE September 2019 Federal Update webinars. To accommodate teaching schedules and time zones, this member exclusive update is offered on two different days and at two different times. In addition, the webinar is recorded and will be posted on AACTE’s Advocacy Center’s federal page. Use the links below to register today for the time that works best for you!

Tuesday, September 24, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. EDT

Wednesday, September 25, 11:00 a.m. – 12 noon EDT

The Importance of Teacher Leaders

By Lynn M. Gangone

Earlier this week, I published an article about the recent PDK Poll results, which depict teachers’ opinions and the realities of what is happening in our public schools. In the face of challenging times, AACTE members remain committed to educating students to become teachers, as well as change agents, wherever they serve. Our work includes developing teacher leaders to be role models and mentors so they can affect the change we need in our schools and communities.

Please take a few minutes to watch the video below (or read the transcript) and discover more about AACTE’s work to promote teacher leaders. We would like to hear from you! I invite you to share how your educator preparation program is working to produce teacher leaders. Email us at communications@aacte.org.

AACTE Awards Program Recognizes Exemplary Books

By Katrina Norfleet

Each year, the AACTE Awards program honors individual members for their significant contributions to the profession in nine categories, which includes the Outstanding Book Award. This award recognizes exemplary books that make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. The AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination oversees the award process and selects the winning book and its author/editor(s). This year’s awardee(s) will receive special recognition at AACTE’s 72nd Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, February 28 – March 1, 2020.

The video above features the 2018 AACTE Outstanding Book Award recipient, Marcelle Haddix, Dean’s Professor and chair of the Reading and Language Arts department in the Syracuse University School of Education, where she is an inaugural co-director of the Lender Center for Social Justice. Haddix was recognized for her book, Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me. The book examines how English and literacy teacher education—