21 Jun2021
By Margaret Caspe and Weade James
“Teacher education programs need more guidance on how to include family engagement.” Department Chair, Early Childhood/Elementary Education, Public University
“We have recently hired faculty for whom family engagement is a focus. We will be incorporating more family engagement activities and opportunities for learning more about how to engage families.” Department Chair, General Education, Public University
“Graduates feel moderately prepared [for family engagement]. They remark that more focus in this area would be useful. Employer surveys confirm this.” Department Chair, Early Childhood and Special Education, Private University
These are just some of the many ideas and insights that higher education faculty and department chairs shared with the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) via its National Survey of Colleges and Universities Preparing Educators for Family Engagement. Our thanks to everyone who completed the survey, which was designed to understand how educator preparation programs are preparing education candidates to engage and work with families and communities. The survey was conducted in partnership with AACTE, CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation), MAEC (Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium), NEA (National Education Association), and faculty and state leaders who are part of NAFSCE’s Pre-service Family Engagement Consortium.
21 Jun2021
By Jane E. West and Kaitlyn Brennan
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.
Congress Cranks into Gear to Move Budget and Appropriations Bills
This week, education advocates were pleased to learn that the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee in the House will be marking up their FY 2022 spending bill on July 12. This represents the first significant move toward the September 30 finish line when new funding levels need to be determined. Education advocates are holding their breath, hoping to see the massive education spending investments requested by President Biden reflected in the House bill. His request includes a 41% increase for the Department of Education and significant new investments to address issues in the teacher pipeline, including unprecedented increases in funding for educator preparation programs.
21 Jun2021
By Linda Minor
Registration is now open for the 2022 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, March 4-6, 2022. The AACTE Annual Meeting is an opportunity to gather together each year to advance the profession through education, networking, exhibitor interaction, and much more. Register now to receive discounted rates.
17 Jun2021
By Leslie Ekpe
Congratulations to Nakisha Whittington, Holmes Scholar of the Month for June 2021. Whittington is a scholar at Pennsylvania State University and recently defended her dissertation, “Exploring the Digital Literacy Practices of Black Elementary Students in a New Orleans Charter School.”
As an educator, Whittington has experience in K-12 classrooms and instructing undergraduate students in the Elementary Education program at Penn State.
Whittington’s research interests are centered around digital literacy practices of urban youth. She has published several articles on effective instructional practices to meet the needs of diverse learners, including Scaffolding inclusivity through making: A preliminary analysis of diverse learners’ meaning making through complex systems. Whittington also serves as a reading specialist and editorial assistant for an educational research journal.
17 Jun2021
By James Loy
Ed Prep Matters features the “AACTE Teacher Stories,” series to spotlight the experiences of K-12 educators who are attending or are alumni of AACTE member institutions. AACTE invites preservice and in-service school teachers to reflect on how they are applying the practices, frameworks, and strategies they acquired during their educator preparation program (EPP) studies to assure student success. Email stories to knorfleet@aacte.org.
In this article, Miami University’s James Loy profiles Alli Huff, an alumna of the university’s teacher education program, who shares how she applied concepts like “inverting the curriculum” that propelled students to become co-curriculum creators. Huff was introduced to the student-centered approach by her teacher preparation program educators. The article originally appeared on the University of Miami website and is reprinted with permission.
17 Jun2021
By Ward Cummings
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARP), a law providing $122 billion for the ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER), was established to help state educational agencies and school districts address safety and sustainability concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, the funding provided by the measure is being used by state education systems to accelerate and sustain a safe return to in-person instruction, to expand access to vaccination for staff and students, to fund summer school and to help students cope with the loss of classroom time.
In June of 2021, the U.S. Department of Education made public an online resource detailing how states plan to use the ARP ESSER funding. The online resource describes, for example, how New Jersey will use the funds to provide state-level support for school nurses and how New Mexico is setting up a $6 million joint program with local municipalities to provide summer internships for middle and high school students. Massachusetts will use the funds to offer summer school matching grants for school districts, and Oklahoma will use approximately $35 million to hire new school counselors, licensed mental health professionals and licensed recreational therapists.
17 Jun2021
By Michael Rose
AACTE will close its offices tomorrow in recognition of Juneteenth, which honors the day when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to enforce the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Until that day, June 19, 1865, Black men, women, and children in Texas remained enslaved, despite the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth, as named by the newly freed citizens, is celebrated annually on June 19. Congress voted this week to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
AACTE staff pauses its work to reflect on the violence, including murder, that our Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian-American Pacific-Islander, and Transgendered populations are particularly experiencing, in addition to the long history of violence against these groups of people. AACTE condemns, in the strongest terms, this violence and invites all its colleagues to work together to create a society in which no one should fear for their lives based on the color of their skin or gender identity.
15 Jun2021
By Katrina Norfleet
Ed Prep Matters is featuring a new series, “AACTE Teacher Stories,” to spotlight the experiences of K-12 educators who are attending or are alumni of AACTE member institutions. AACTE invites preservice and in-service school teachers to reflect on how they are applying the practices, frameworks, and strategies they acquired during their educator preparation program (EPP) studies to assure student success.
This series is an opportunity to showcase how EPP students successfully translate theory into practice. AACTE is currently seeking article submissions that address questions such as the following:
15 Jun2021
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is excited to announce its first ever podcast will debut this month. The new podcast entitled, Revolutionizing Education, examines ways to innovate educator preparation and education for all learners. The first podcast series highlights case stories shared by AACTE members during the 2021 Annual Meeting. New episodes from the first series will be released throughout the summer. In the fall, the AACTE podcast will feature live interviews with members, national education leaders, students, and other influencers in the education industry.
AACTE has partnered with Resonate Recordings for high-quality podcast production that will expand the reach of members’ work in educator preparation throughout the world. AACTE’s podcast episodes are available on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Spotify. On these platforms, you can search for and access the podcast, learn about it, listen to the episodes as well as leave ratings and reviews.
Follow the AACTE Podcast on Twitter at #AACTEPodcast and #RevolutionizingEd. Be sure to tune in and spread the word!
15 Jun2021
By Nicole Dunn
AACTE’s “Combating Racism is Educator Preparation Series” began in 2021 with three specific objectives for our membership, audience, and the field at large:
- Contextualize the role of racism in structural oppression and how the education system at large maintains and promulgates these oppressive systems.
- Engage with you, the audience, to understand you and your organization’s understanding and capacity to address racism using antiracist, abolitionist, inclusive, and intersectional policies.
- Normalize and humanize critical conversations around racism within the field that will lead to collaborative action around structural oppression in education.
14 Jun2021
By Ward Cummings
On behalf of AACTE and the Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR), I am happy to announce the winners of the 2020-21 State Chapter Support Award: The three recipients are Nebraska, California and Kentucky.
It is the mission of AACTE to elevate education and educator preparation through high-quality research, professional practice, and advocacy for all learners in ways that are collaborative and that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each year, AACTE awards funding to a handful of projects organized by state chapters in these areas.
14 Jun2021
By Jayme Blaschke
This article originally appeared in the Texas State University Online Newroom and is reprinted with permission.
Michael P. O’Malley, dean of the College of Education at Texas State University, has been elected by his peers as president-elect of the Texas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (TACTE).
O’Malley will serve in officer roles as president-elect for 2021-22, president in 2022-23, and past-president in 2023-25. He has been a member of the TACTE legislative committee since 2018.
TACTE is an organization for deans and associate deans of education in Texas and is sometimes referred to as the Council of Deans of Education. Its purpose is to stimulate improvement in the education of professional school personnel in Texas.
14 Jun2021
By Jane E. West and Kaitlyn Brennan
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.
The Attack on Critical Race Theory Continues
In a Washington Update last month, we offered a distressing summary of how the teaching of our nation’s racial history has been thrown into the heart of the political arena. Unfortunately, the trend is continuing and gaining traction. Last week, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, announced her support for two bills intended to block the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 schools. This week Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN) and Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced a resolution condemning the use of critical race theory in K-12 schools and teacher preparation programs. “Critical race theory has no place in American schools,” Blackburn said in a statement. “This resolution is an important step to prevent the far left from pushing their radical political agenda in our classrooms.”
14 Jun2021
By Kristine Schutz
Video is a powerful tool—for teacher candidates and teacher educators alike—to engage in reflective practice and accelerate professional growth. And I can say this from personal experience as it has helped me grow as an educator.
As a proponent of video, I believed this innovative professional learning approach would be an asset to the undergraduate elementary teacher preparation program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Our preparation program is organized around a decolonizing framework that recognizes that schools are designed for acculturation and colonization. And, as such, we prepare teachers who simultaneously teach in—and resist—that context (Trinder, 2021).
As my colleagues and I were talking about bringing video coaching to our program, questions were raised about how to make sure that we do not lose the context-driven aspects of our program that are attended to as our faculty come to know the children, schools, and communities in which our students learn to teach. Questions often associated with any new technology implementation were also brought up: How hard is this going to be to implement? How am I going to use it? Is it going to take too much time?
14 Jun2021
By Linda Minor
Why wait to submit your application for the 2022 AACTE Awards? Avoid the stress of a last-minute rush and submit your entry early. AACTE Awards can be either self-nominated or nominated by a third party. To submit your nomination, visit AACTE’s online submission site.
Winning entries will be selected by AACTE’s Programmatic Advisory Committees and recognized formally at the 2022 Annual Meeting, March 4-6, in New Orleans, LA.
This is the 26th year AACTE’s awards program has been recognizing member institutions’ exemplary programs as well as individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to education preparation. For an overview of the 2021 award winners, see this press release.
