06 Dec2019
By Katrina Norfleet
The new Data Quality Campaign (DQC) annual report, Time to Act 2019, underscores that the most effective state efforts to improve student outcomes don’t exist in a silo; they cut across multiple policy priorities to make data work for students. The report, released this week, highlights that state policymakers—state education agency leaders, state boards, legislators, and executive leadership—must prioritize investments in data access and use.
DQC’s policy priorities provide a framework to organize action that supports K-12 student achievement and emphasize that people must have the data they need to answer questions and take action. DQC outlines the following four priorities for states:
- Measure What Matters. Be clear about what students must achieve and have the data to ensure that all students are on track to succeed.
- Make Data Use Possible. Provide teachers and leaders the flexibility, training, and support they need to answer their questions and take action.
- Be Transparent and Earn Trust. Ensure that every community understands how its schools and students are doing, why data is valuable, and how it is protected and used.
- Guarantee Access and Protect Privacy. Provide teachers and parents timely information on their students and make sure it is kept safe.
06 Dec2019
By Caitlin Wilson
Faculty from 10 of AACTE’s member institutions convened in Washington, DC on November 22-23 for the first in-person meeting of the Networked Improvement Community (NIC) focused on reducing the shortage of the special education teachers. During the 2-day convening, nearly 40 NIC members came together to share and discuss the work happening at their institutions and their goals for recruiting more teacher candidates into their special education programs in the next 6 months.
Following the NIC model of the Carnegie Foundation’s for Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the institutions set individual targets connected to the network’s collective aim statement and driver diagram, which serves as the NIC’s working theory of action. Over the summer, faculty from each institution were invited to participate in a book club lead by AACTE staff: Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. This book serves as a foundational text for the NIC members in understanding improvement science and how to apply it to their work at their institutions.
05 Dec2019
By Jerrica Thurman
Registration is open for the AACTE 2020 preconference workshops taking place February 27 in Atlanta. AACTE offers five workshops plus the Holmes preconference prior to the start of its 2020 Annual Meeting, providing a deeper dive into complex education issues and equipping attendees with practical skills for advancing programs and institutions.
Get an early start on planning your learning experience at this year’s conference. Preconference workshops are interactive, and allow ample time to share ideas and engage with peers. Secure your spot today for one of these preconference workshops:
05 Dec2019
By Caitlin Wilson
The role of today’s principal is changing. Now, more than ever, school leaders need to be prepared from day one to succeed in a complex and ever-evolving school context. But what does quality principal preparation look like? How can principal preparation programs ensure that school leaders are ready to meet the demands of the job? Join us for our final webinar in the four-part series on principal preparation, a collaboration with the Wallace Foundation, to hear a panel of researchers and practitioners dig into the answers to both of these questions.
05 Dec2019
By Katrina Norfleet
To show support and help advocate for public schools in the United States, AACTE is inviting members to add your voice to the thousands of others vowing to stand up for students and schools. The Learning First Alliance (LFA) has launched the Pledge for Public Schools in preparation for Public Schools Week 2020, a national celebration for educators and parents to spotlight the successes of their students and local schools in communities across the nation, and to bring attention to the critical issues facing schools, students, and educators.
LFA reports that U.S. public schools educate 50.8 million students (nine of 10), regardless of ability, race, wealth, language, religion or country of origin. During Public Schools Week 2020, to be held February 24-28, 2020, advocates will take the thousands of pledges to Capitol Hill and state capitals across the country to illustrate to lawmakers how many people are supporting America’s public schools.
Once you take the pledge, LFA asks that you share on social media using the hashtag #PublicSchoolProud. More updates and events leading up to Public Schools Week will be announced at learningfirst.org/publicschoolsweek.
To learn more about LFA, visit learningfirst.org.
03 Dec2019
AACTE’s DEI Video Highlights Promising Practices to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color
By Jerrica Thurman
Ed Prep Matters features the “Revolutionizing Education” column to spotlight the many ways AACTE, member institutions, and partners are pioneering leading-edge research, models, strategies and programs that focus on the three core values outlined in the current AACTE strategic plan: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Quality and impact; and Inquiry and Innovation.
AACTE is focusing on ways that education leaders and colleges of education can employ to address the national shortage of educators of color more effectively. “AACTE’s new mission is to revolutionize education for all learners,” said AACTE Board Chair Kim Metcalf, dean of the college of education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “We are shifting our efforts to provide members support and encouragement to be innovative in ways that address not just today’s needs in their local communities, but the needs that those communities will have in years to come.”
03 Dec2019
By Lynn M. Gangone
On November 21, the U.S. Department of Education announced that new data on federal student loan debt and earnings of recent graduates by institution, degree program, and field of study had been added to the College Scorecard consumer website. In addition, the Department of Education made these data available to the public at collegescorecard.ed.gov/data.
As a service to members, AACTE has excerpted the data on education graduates, along with documentation about the data, and provided instructions on how to search for your institution in this large database. Log in and access these resources.
The Department of Education Data suppressed results for smaller programs to safeguard the privacy of graduates. Our review of the data revealed that privacy suppression affects a considerable portion of the database. At larger institutions, data are only available for sizable programs and at smaller institutions, no information may be available. Despite this considerable limitation, AACTE is sharing these data because it is rare to have access to student loan debt and earnings information for recent graduates by field of study.
To provide members with a much richer understanding of how students in education programs are paying for college—and the potential implications for recruiting students to become teachers—we are also preparing a new data brief that will be available at the upcoming Annual Meeting. This report is one in a series of briefs summarizing important data on our profession that we will be releasing early next year. More to come as the AACTE 2020 Annual Meeting approaches!
If you have questions about the College Scorecard data, please contact Jacqueline King at jking@aacte.org.
03 Dec2019
By Michael Dantley
Why are schools still segregated in 2019? The answer to this question is a complicated one. One with roots deep in the history of our educational system. The surface answer has to do with the fact that racist curricula and prejudice within our society still exist. Where you live determines where you go to school. Many times, the poorer, minority students live in lower income neighborhoods. And as children become racially isolated, it then trickles into our schools, resulting in segregation.
In fact, segregation is even evident in schools that are racially diverse. You’ll notice that most students in advanced placement classes are Caucasian or Asian. Who do we see in remedial classes? We see African American students, particularly African American males. Even with a diverse student population, the evidence of systemic segregation is scarily rampant. The deep vestiges of racism and segregation subtly permeate through our schools and it sets dangerous precedents.
