Archive for 2020

Teaching Online: Moving from Emergency to Planned

AACTE Responds to COVID-19

This past March, face-to-face instruction was canceled as universities began to implement emergency procedures for remote teaching due to COVID-19. In response, AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology (ITC) presented a webinar with guidelines for emergency remote teaching. Constituents can view that webinar and access additional resources.

The purpose of this blog post is to revisit the webinar guidelines with suggestions that can be incorporated into planning for 2020-21 blended or online instructional implementation plans: 

Needs Assessment 

Survey faculty and students to identify digital inequities and access needs. Develop easy to use support system for devices, reliable Internet access, and technical support. 

Use Your Current Tools

If face-to-face instruction is not an option, now is not the time to revamp the current learning systems. Universities should encourage faculty to use the same tools (e.g., your Learning Management System) prior to and during COVID-19. Encourage instructors not to overwhelm students with too many new tools. Select a few versatile tools (e.g., Google Suite) and encourage innovative integration throughout a course or program.

Register: May 27 Webinar on Member Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Member Survey on Impact of the CoronavirusAACTE conducted a survey in April to better understand and assist members as they respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The survey yielded valuable insights about how the pandemic is affecting educator preparation now and the concerns that leaders anticipate as they look ahead to the 2020-21 academic year.

On May 27 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET, AACTE is hosting a webinar on the survey results. During this session, you will be able to

  • review the survey results
  • benchmark your experience against that of your colleagues
  • discuss the challenges you are facing—and how you are overcoming them—with your colleagues

U.S. Department of Ed Call for Peer Reviewers: May 29 Deadline

The U.S. Department of Education has released a call for peer reviewers for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Effective Educator Development (EED) Division for upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 grant cycles. The following programs grant competitions are seeking reviewers:

  • Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program (TQP)
  • Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED)
  • Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program (TSL)

The Department is looking for reviewers from various professions and background, preferably with education background and experience in various areas including (but not limited to)  PK-12 teaching, preparing teachers, teacher residency programs, social and emotional learning, and preparing STEM teachers. Please see the Department’s 2020 Call for Peer Reviewers for all areas of experience and other requirements including availability, tools, and expected quality of review.

Teacher Prep, Interrupted: Licensing Educators During Coronavirus

Experts discuss emergency waivers and their potential impact

This article originally appeared on the Education Writers Association website and is reprinted with permission.

Teacher candidates engaging in online licensing program

Each year, hundreds of thousands of new teachers are licensed in the United States. With the shuttering of schools and colleges due to the coronavirus pandemic, states are using emergency waivers to certify teacher candidates who are unable to complete preparation requirements such as coursework, student teaching, and certification exams.

Along with these swift changes come new questions about the teacher workforce and what will happen to the educator pipeline in the midst of a public health emergency and economic recession.

Amidst School Closures, University of Washington Welcomes New Cohort of Aspiring Secondary Teachers

AACTE Responds to COVID-19

This article original appeared on the University of Washington website and is reprinted with permission.

 For future teachers, the beginning of their preparation program is marked by trepidation in the best of times. Even as teacher candidates learn the skills of effective teaching, how to attend to the overall wellbeing of students and much more, many are getting their first real experience leading a classroom.

When the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated the closing of all schools across Washington state in early March, that trepidation became even more acute for teacher candidates starting their studies in the University of Washington College of Education’s Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) later that month.

STEP Director Anne Beitlers said the first priority for the program was creating a sense of community.

Join AACTE and Mursion for a Roundtable Discussion and Live Virtual Classroom Simulation: May 19

AACTE Responds to COVID-19

Virtual Classrooms Roundtable Series

As part of our Education Roundtable Series, Mursion will host three leaders for a conversation on the current state of upheaval that is bringing about a transformation in teacher preparation. Join hundreds of your colleagues tomorrow, Tuesday, May 19, 1:00 p.m. ET to engage in conversation with amazing, pioneering women in education. Plus see a simulation of a virtual classroom between a teacher and avatar students. Register to attend (or to receive the link to the recording of the event). Here’s the agenda for the hour:

Jacqueline Rodriguez, assistant vice president for programs and professional learning at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), will speak about the following:

Deadlines Extended for AACTE’s Call to Serve

AACTE's Call to Serve

Will you answer the call to serve the profession? AACTE needs you and has extended the deadlines to volunteer. Be sure to mark your calendar and click on the links below for more information:

  • Submission Deadline: May 22, 2020 – If you are a chief representative, please take a few minutes to cast your vote on the recent revisions to the AACTE Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.
  • Submission Deadline Extended: May 27, 2020 – The Call for Reviewers seeks qualified individuals (from AACTE member institutions) interested in reviewing proposals this coming June and July for the 2021 Annual Meeting.
  • Submission Deadline: May 29, 2020 – The Call for Standing Committee Nominations invites applications from members with broad and deep experience in educator preparation to serve on an AACTE standing committee for a 3-year term starting March 1, 2021.
  • Submission Deadline Extended: June 10, 2020 – The Call for Proposals (open to both members and nonmembers) invites proposals for sessions at the 2021 AACTE Annual Meeting. Acceptance notifications will be sent in late August, and individuals with accepted proposals will be expected to register and attend AACTE’s 73rd Annual Meeting in Seattle, February 26-28, 2021.
  • Submission Deadline: June 15, 2020 (for 2021 Outstanding Book Award) – The 2021 AACTE Awards Call for Entries (open to both members and nonmembers) is now open. Applications for the 2021 Outstanding Book Award are currently being accepted.

Simply log in to AACTE’s online submissions site to get started!

Education Funding and Next COVID-19 Relief Bill: The HEROES Act

AACTE Responds to COVID-19

This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

Speaker Pelosi Unveils Next COVID-19 Relief Bill with a $3 Trillion Price Tag

The House of Representatives is in town and scheduled to vote late today on the next COVID-19 relief bill—dubbed the HEROES Act. Considered by many to be a messaging bill and the wish list of Speaker Pelosi (D-CA), it is not expected to receive Republican support.  Even so, a number of progressive Democrats believe it does not have enough relief and may vote no.  Likewise, there may well be a few Republicans who cross over to support it. 

The 1815 page bill includes almost $1 trillion to support state and local governments and another $100 billion for education. Key features include the following:

AACTE Responds with Mental Health Resources During COVID-19

AACTE Responds to COVID-19

Pandemic Fear PsychologyAs a society, we have grappled with separation, tragedy, and trauma during the last few months at an increased volume. We are managing our challenges in isolation, which has exacerbated them in tangible and emotionally exhausting ways. Within educator preparation programs, your candidates have transitioned their coursework, their living circumstances, their peer relationships and learning communities. In addition, many of your candidates have continued to support their local school community in an online format to address the needs of their PK-12 students. Candidates have been asked to make these transitions and many have continued to engage with their classroom students while adjusting their expectations for their own future.

AACTE recognizes the immense effort required to advocate and care for the emotional and mental health of oneself during our current circumstances. To that end, we have added a new Mental Health section on our COVID-19 Resource Hub. This section is focused on EPP students—our future educators across the country. We have included free resources and tools to support mindfulness, meditation, peer support, and self-care. We hope these resources provide a supportive start to giving yourself grace, consideration, and gratitude for your contribution to the field of education. 

Home/School: Research Imperatives, Learning Settings and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has made home settings an essential and, in many cases, the only place of formal learning for students. This shift has pulled parents, caretakers, and other family members even closer to the education of young people as they assume the work of schooling that has been substantially reconfigured by both the pandemic and online platforms. However, in faculties of education, homeschooling is often marginalized with limited funded research (Howell, 2013). Additionally, as Kennedy and Archambault (2012) argue, teacher education programs should have been taking a more proactive role in terms of K-12 online learning with a focus not simply on the technology (Ko & Rossen, 2017), but on the unique aspects of the pedagogy associated with this mode of instruction. Teachers may be ill-prepared to deliver online content, and many families are overwhelmed by the shift in the learning environment. The long-term impacts of this shift are unknown. Yet this uncertainty reasserts opportunities to both (1) leverage home and community settings as reservoirs of knowledge deserving greater attention for teachers and teacher educators and (2) consider how educational technology can be used to support pedagogies that are more centered on students’ interests, assets, and needs (Means et al, 2013).

JTE Author Interview: Understanding the Work of Mentor Teachers

Check out a recent 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 Rachel Roegman and Joni S. Kolman, co-authors of the JTE article “Cascading, Colliding, and Mediating: How Teacher Preparation and K-12 Education Contexts Influence Mentor Teachers’ Work.” You may read the full article in the January/February 2020 issue of JTE.

Article Abstract: In this conceptual article, we present a theoretical framework designed to illustrate the many contexts and factors that interact and shape the work of mentor teachers. Drawing on the literature on K-12 teaching and on teacher preparation, we argue for greater acknowledgment of the complex work of mentor teachers as they navigate multiple contexts. We conclude by considering how this framework helps us to better understand the work of mentor teachers and by offering suggestions for teacher preparation programs and K-12 schools to better support mentor teachers and best prepare teacher candidates.

JTE Author Interview: Analyzing edTPA implementation

This interview features insights on the article, “Sense Making and Professional Identity in the Implementation of edTPA,” by Julie Cohen, Ethan Hutt, Rebekah L. Berlin, Hannah M. Mathews, Jillian P. McGraw, and Jessica Gottlieb. The article was published in the January/February 2020 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education.

Article Abstract

edTPA is designed to strengthen teacher professionalization and provide a framework for program redesign. However, using a national assessment to shift the content of local programs is challenging because of their inherent organizational complexity. In this article, we focus on this complexity, using a systems lens to analyze edTPA implementation at a large, public university. Employing a mixed-methods case study design, we survey 250 teacher educators and candidates to understand how they interpret the demands of edTPA and how their varied perspectives impact each other. We interview a stratified, purposive subset of participants to explore mechanisms underlying quantitative findings. We find substantial internal variation in edTPA implementation that translates into differential support for candidates. This variation could not be explained by duration of implementation of edTPA. Varied perspectives may stem from distinct perceptions of teacher educators’ professional roles and the role they see edTPA playing in teacher professionalization.

How the Center for Urban Education in Denver is Reimagining Teacher Preparation Programs

Revolutionizing Education

Earlier this year, Colorado lawmakers proposed a bill that would task their state’s Department of Education and Department of Higher Education with devising strategies for recruiting more teachers of color. Almost half of Colorado students are students of color, while teachers of color comprise about 10 % of all teachers. This mismatch is even wider in Denver Public Schools, the largest district in the state, where 75 % of students are students of color but the share of teachers of color is a mere 27%.

Worse still, enrollment data from Colorado’s teacher preparation programs suggests these numbers are unlikely to inch up anytime soon: The state has not seen growth in the number of Black candidates enrolling in teacher programs in almost a decade, and its seen only a modest increase in the number of Latinx candidates. In the 2017–18 school year, only about 28 % of those enrolled in teacher preparation programs identified as people of color.

Research shows that teachers of color can boost the achievement of students of color—a needed skill in a state where these students face wide gaps in academic performance. However, it is increasingly clear that preparation programs will need to be more forward-thinking if they are going to usher more aspiring teachers of color into the profession.

AACTE Board Chair Ann Larson Discusses Leading in Difficult Times

AACTE Responds to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Ann Larson

AACTE is spotlighting interviews with its member leaders on effective ways for educator preparation programs to navigate through COVID-19. AACTE Board Chair Ann Larson took time to share important tips in this video on leading in difficult times. She also discusses the leadership role all educators have during the coronavirus crisis.