Registration for AACTE’s second virtual Day on the Hill is now open. Day on the Hill is the Association’s premiere advocacy event and provides AACTE members with the opportunity to engage directly with their Members of Congress about the importance of teacher preparation and related legislation. Advocacy training sessions will take place September 21-22, and virtual congressional visits will be held September 23.
Join your colleagues at the first of three AACTE Leadership Academy Series sessions, “When We All Get to Together: Returning to Campus with New Opportunities” on Wednesday, August 11, 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. This virtual session, facilitated by John Kuykendall, dean, School of Education at the University of Indianapolis and John Henning, dean of Monmouth University, will discuss transitioning to online learning in 2020 that required greater flexibility and knowledge around technology integration and the missed opportunity to see each other and work within campus office locations and meetings.
As you head into the upcoming academic year, what thoughts have you had about returning to campus? As many of you prepare to return to a more normalized academic year, you may be anxious about what to expect or wonder about possible new opportunities that may exist in your academic unit. The session will focus on developing a positive transition to in-person learning and creating new opportunities in the post-COVID environment. The presenters will share ways to approach the physical space along with the faculty and campus community. Attendees will participate in open discussions about their thoughts, feelings, and concerns and participate in breakout sessions for intimate dialogue about various campus approaches for a safe return.
Register today. Space is limited.
Visit www.aacte.org for event details. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and join the conversation using #AACTELA21.
I recently had an incredible learning opportunity to be a part of the AACTE Simulations for Secondary Science Teachers conference. The goal for the convening was to introduce participants to the simulation design process and to support them to create a secondary science simulation scenario in smaller teams. Large group zoom meetings with almost 55 participants provided a valuable opportunity to listen, ask questions, and reflect on matters that concern science teacher preparation. The convening provided just the right amount of stimulation and sense of community that probably many of us were missing due to the recent pandemic. Until now, I saw myself as a user—employing simulations to help my teacher candidates understand and practice core teaching practices. However, being a part of the scenario development team afforded an insider or “behind the scenes’ perspective.” I was able to understand the complexities, affordance, and constraints of the simulation designing process.
AACTE provides interactive tools and innovative solutions to advance educator preparation. Our new initiatives in 2021 support our vision to revolutionize education for all learners. To learn about our newest offerings, please take a few minutes to watch this video.
In just a few weeks, AACTE will kick off its 2021 Leadership Academy Series on August 11, as well as its 2021 Washington Week in September. Registration is open for these events, as well as the 2022 AACTE Annual Meeting, so secure your spot today. I hope to see you there!
This article originally appeared in Diverse Issues in Higher Education and is reprinted with permission.
The “fragility of our democracy” was made evident by the events of Jan. 6 at the United States Capitol, which was incited by rhetoric around election fraud, according to Harvard University’s James Bryant Conant University Professor Dr. Danielle Allen.
As misinformation and government-related conspiracy theories continue to divide the nation, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Educating for American Democracy initiative co-hosted a webinar on Tuesday to discuss the need to promote civic readiness within the K-12 education system.
The event, “Monitoring Civic Learning Opportunities and Outcomes: State of the Field and Future Directions,” noted inadequate support for civics education from policymakers and education leaders.
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.
It’s been a week for celebration for education advocates. The House Appropriations Committee delivered on President’ Biden’s goal of a 41% increase for education for next year. This unprecedented investment is beyond gratifying. It feels like the decades of advocating that we have all been engaged in has really paid off! We still have a long way to go, but we are out of the gate with great momentum!
House Appropriations Committee Approves FY2022 Education Spending Bill
On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2022 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. The Committee voted in favor of the bill by vote of 33 to 25, a party line vote. No substantial amendments were made to any education provisions during the full committee markup.
Minnesota is home to an increasingly racially and linguistically diverse student population, yet the diversity of the state’s teacher workforce has remained stagnant. To help address this racial and linguistic match, school districts are partnering with educator preparation programs to develop and implement Grow Your Own programs that seek to recruit and prepare community-based teachers.
As outlined in a recent New America report, Minnesota is one of nine states in the country that offers a competitive GYO grant designed to promote teacher residency programs for adult community members and opportunities for high school students to gain exposure to teaching as a career. While the state provides funding, there are few directives about how GYO programs should be designed, reflecting the importance of local control and governance.
On behalf of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone issued the following statement on the House Appropriations Committee passage of the fiscal year 2022 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill:
“AACTE is deeply gratified to see such an historic investment in education, and particularly in educator preparation. While our members have advocated for years, indeed decades, for such investments, this is the first time Congress has responded with such a robust bill. These unprecedented increases will make a significant difference in addressing the long-term deficits in our nation’s education system. They will enable our nation to address the critical shortage of educators and the lack of diversity in our profession in transformative ways. AACTE urges Congress to pass this legislation and send it to President Biden for his signature as soon as possible.”
The AACTE membership team would like to extend our sincere gratitude to you, your institution, and your colleagues for your ongoing support of AACTE. This past year has been unlike any other. A global pandemic, a historic number of natural disasters, and the continuation of violence and racial injustices towards members of our community all impacted our pursuit for high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures educators are ready to teach all learners. Yet despite everything our community faced, we were still able to amplify our united voice to invest in educator preparation.
As AACTE opens the 2022 renewal season for the coming year, I’d like to remind you of the network of resources at your disposal. Below are just a few of the essential tools and initiatives AACTE has developed in the past year.
On July 1, 2021, Trenton E. Gould, dean of The University of Southern Mississippi College of Education and Human Sciences, became president of the Mississippi Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE), an affiliate of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).
During a two-year appointment, Gould will lead the statewide organization composed of faculty and administrators from all public and private institutions of higher education in Mississippi engaged in the preparation of professional school personnel.
“MACTE serves as a voice for teacher education faculty on a broad range of issues. Each of our individual institutions are working diligently to offer excellent educational opportunities that prepare K-12 teachers, and MACTE provides a hub to increase our influence,” Gould said. “In this new role, I am most excited about helping bring teacher educators together from across the state to exchange best practices and problem solve our challenges. Getting the sharpest minds around one table benefits everyone and helps develop consistency across the state in the practices we’re using to train teacher candidates.”
The initial call for chapters for the recently released Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity was published in Ed Prep Matters in 2020. Several contributing author teams are AACTE members.
While national competencies continue to define dispositional and knowledge base for teacher leaders, Bryan Zug elder, associate dean for academic affairs and partnerships in the College of Education at James Madison University (USA), saw a need to expand the body of scholarship on this topic.
He has over 15 years of experience working in education and is also currently working as an associate professor in the Department of Learning, Technology, and Leadership Education, where he serves as faculty and program director for the Graduate Certificate and Master of Education with a Concentration in Teacher Leadership programs. He explains his motivations and discoveries for his latest publication, Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity:
AACTE invites like-minded educators to attend the webinar, “Combating Racism in Education Prep: An Introduction to Authentic, Action-Oriented Allyship as Educators.” As part of AACTE’s Combating Racism in Educator Preparation series, this webinar is the first one produced for a “White Racial Justice” affinity group. The webinar takes place July 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Who should attend?
This is an opportunity for anyone who is an educator or education advocate to learn more about and/or re-energize and re-frame the conversation on creating equitable educator preparation programs that prepare teachers to enter the nation’s schools armed with not just an understanding of how we got here, but also with strategies to be advocates for themselves and their students who may have less institutional agency.
Series one, episode three of the AACTE Podcast, Revolutionizing Education, is now available.
The latest episode features The RockTEACH Program at member institution Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. It covers the efforts of the university to diversify the teacher workforce by recruiting underrepresented minority high school students to the field of teaching, providing financial assistance and mentoring support through the RockTEACH Program. AACTE members Monique Alexander, Jeremy Lynch, Christine Walsh, and Linda Zane of Slippery Rock share the story, the situation, and the results of the program. Listeners will gain insight into a burgeoning and multifaceted program to support a diverse teacher pipeline and develop an understanding of the critical elements and challenges of their story.
Listen now to Episode 3: The RockTEACH Program
This article originally appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and is reprinted with permission.
Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This sentiment resonates to many as the education of our children resurfaces from the pandemic. Teachers and schools have been challenged by this unexpected enemy and emerged remarkably strong. Looking toward the future, the education of our children has taken on great significance since COVID-19, but it also will face unexpected—in addition to the familiar—obstacles.
There are so many good things happening in education today. Front and center of all that is good is the funding that has been given to education at the federal level through the CARES Act and from other COVID-19 relief measures. Most schools are planning for face-to-face instruction in the fall, and many are providing summer sessions to help students make academic gains lost during the pandemic. Most graduations this spring proceeded in typical fashion, with some caution and adjustments, to the delight of students and families.
Have you needed to edit your member roster, update your address, or change your areas of expertise lately? If so, you have probably noticed a few changes to the AACTE Profile Manager.
From now to August 2021, AACTE is in the final stages of a database migration. As such, you will not be able to make any edits to your member profile during this time. Do not worry, you can still access all other tools. Do you need to search for a colleague, access a resource, or register for an event? The Membership Directory, Resource Library, Registration System are still accessible. Or are you planning to renew your membership for 2022? You may also still make renewal payments via the Profile Manager.
Once the migration is complete, you will have access to all AACTE resources and much more! The only difference is that when you log into the site, it will look a little different and be more user friendly.
Do you have a question, need to edit your member profile, or would like to offer feedback? Please contact the Membership Team at membership@aacte.org.
