The AACTE National Office Has Moved!

By Lynn M. Gangone

Call for Applications: Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments

By Weade James

AACTE is pleased to announce the Call for Applications for the Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA). Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the purpose of the Consortium is to convene stakeholders across various states to (1) examine how cut scores for entrance into educator preparation programs are currently set, (2) identify guidelines and recommendations for setting equitable cut scores for Praxis I and similar assessments, and (3) develop model state policies that seek to attract and prepare diverse teacher candidates for the profession. 

The Consortium of state teams shall be comprised of educator preparation programs and representatives from state and local education agencies. Participants must commit to one full year of participation, which will include quarterly meetings and pre-work between meetings to accomplish the goals of the Consortium.

AACTE Welcomes New Scholars

By Weade James

AACTE is proud to welcome new Holmes Scholars from the University of Portland. The program, led by Assistant Professor Benjamin Gallegos, launched last winter with three outstanding scholars that AACTE is pleased to welcome to the Holmes Community: Kiko Garcia, Yvonne Ayesiga, and Ana Lia Oliva.

Kiko Garcia

Garcia is pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership and neuroeducation at the University of Portland. His family showed him the value of education at a very young age. Coming from an immigrant family who has strived to be a meaningful part of its community while growing up in California, he vows to do the same in Oregon. As a nonprofit administrator and educator in the greater Portland area, Garcia’s goal is to help communities to be empowered by creating meaning within their own journeys.  Educational leadership and neuroeducation have helped him to forge an understanding about how we learn. His philosophy is that the world outside is the classroom and there are always opportunities to improve upon this classroom through social justice, equity, and recognition that our neurodiversity, as well as different abilities, are the true path to authentic learning and community-making.    

Talisa Jackson Named Holmes Scholar of the Month

By Azaria Cunningham

Congratulations to Talisa Jackson, the January Holmes Scholar of the Month. Originally from Natchez, Mississippi, Jackson is a doctoral candidate at George Mason University where she is studying science education research. Through her research, Jackson seeks to examine the representation of girls of color in STEM-related picture books with the goal of increasing the number of underrepresented populations in the STEM field. Since 2019, Jackson has worked at the National Science Foundation as a program assistant.  Additionally, she is recipient of a 2020 College of Education and Human Development Completion Fellowship from George Mason University.

Prior to pursuing her doctoral studies, Jackson taught kindergarten and fourth grade in Title I schools in North Carolina and Virginia. Her experience in Title I schools, where 70% or more students receive free or reduced lunch, opened Jackson’s eyes to STEM education inequalities. This led her to research the various ways girls and people of color can be encouraged to participate in the STEM field. 

Get Inspired to Take Action During #AACTE21 Opening Keynote

By Jerrica Thurman

• What does it mean to “build back better” from a national landscape, as well as within the education field?
• How do we raise awareness to the important role educators play in redefining our national and global future?
• What reform can be enacted to ensure a more equitable education for all students?
• What policies are on the horizon that will address low pay as a barrier to attracting and retaining teachers?
• How will leaders address the affordability of college education and its impact on recruiting students to become teachers?

Looking Ahead to the Biden Administration and the 117th Congress

By Jane E. West

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.

Yesterday, President-Elect Biden revealed his massive $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan, hoping to jump start consideration in Congress. The goal of the education portion of the bill is to provide enough support for a robust vaccination plan, treatment, and funding to reopen a majority of K-8 schools safely within 100 days.  The proposal provides $170 billion for K-12 and higher education. To date, the Congress has enacted almost $113 billion for the Department of Education in COVID relief funds. 

Of the $170 billion in education funds, $130 billion would be for K-12 relief intended to cover technology needs; counseling, support for social, emotional, and academic needs of students; provision of smaller classes’ PPE, extra transportation; cleaning costs; and more. The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund includes $35 billion for public colleges, public and private HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions to provide online learning and emergency grants to students. A Governors’ fund is allocated $5 billion to support education for areas that have been the hardest hit by COVID, from pre-K through higher education. In addition, $350 billion is made available for state and local fiscal relief, a portion of which may be used for education. Funds are provided for regular testing for teachers and students, per recommendations from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Districts Advancing Racial Equity (DARE) Tool

By Maria Hyler

This article originally appeared on the Learning Policy Institute website an is reprinted with permission. The article was written by Maria E. Hyler, Desiree Carver-Thomas, Marjorie Wechsler, and Larkin Willis.

Decades of reforms have proven insufficient to address persistent racial disparities in educational opportunities. In school systems across the United States, meaningful efforts to ensure access to strong educational opportunities require a bold and significant shift. Policies and practice must not only prevent discrimination; they must move beyond simple notions of equality—in which every student gets the same—to equity—in which all students get what they need to develop academically, socially, emotionally, and physically.

School leaders who have been committed to racial equity understand the historical legacy of structural racism that reaches to our present context and that results in the educational opportunity gaps that students still experience. District staff who have focused on racial equity recognize that students’ individualized experiences, opportunities, and successes in school are deeply contextualized in the social reality of institutionalized racism across the United States. They seek to educate the individuals and ameliorate the systems that perpetuate inequitable opportunities and resulting outcomes for students.

Complete 2020-2021 Educator Supply and Demand Survey

By Meg Kamman and Tim Neubert

The American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE) is requesting AACTE members’ participation in the 2020-2021 Educator Supply and Demand Survey, conducted in conjunction with the Center for Marketing & Opinion Research, LLC (CMOR). Both AAEE members and non-members are invited and encouraged to participate.

With data and perceptions gathered from colleges, universities, and school systems over several decades, the report generated will provide you and your institution with valuable regional and national insights and trends in PK-12 educator supply and demand. An electronic version of this report will be provided to all respondents in Spring 2021 at no cost.

Completion of the survey should take about 15 minutes and all responses will remain confidential. 

Preview questions (in PDF format) prior to survey completion.

College or University? Complete this survey.

School District? Complete this survey.

Member Spotlight: Will Coghill-Behrends

By Meghan Grenda

AACTE’s new Member Spotlight features an individual from a member institution, highlighting how their work makes a difference in classrooms across the country. Nominate yourself or another member by providing a response to the following questions and sending to mgrenda@aacte.org. 

Get to know Will Coghill-Behrends …

Current position: Clinical Associate Professor, Multilingual Education; Co-Director, Baker Teacher Leader Center (Global Education Initiatives)
Number of years in position: 6
Alma Mater(s): University of Northern Iowa; University of Iowa
Hometown: Bettendorf, Iowa

1. How long have you been a member of AACTE?
   I’ve been a member of AACTE since 2015, though our institution has been a member for much longer, so by association, I’ve been a member for longer than that, I suppose.

2. Why did you join AACTE?
   I started taking a more active role in AACTE when we decided to adopt edTPA as our Program Completion Assessment.

3. Why did you decide to enter the field of educator preparation?
   I was teaching German at the local high school and was asked to teach a course in the teacher preparation program that I had also taught in graduate school. The course was focused on technology in the classroom and that opportunity led to additional teaching opportunities and eventually some grant work on teacher portfolio assessment that pulled me full time into the College of Education and that was all she wrote.

Engage in AACTE’s Learning Labs at #AACTE21

By Jerrica Thurman

AACTE’s engaging concurrent sessions, known as Learning Labs, will offer attendees hundreds of topic options during the virtual 2021 Annual Meeting. Come experience these enhanced sessions, categorized by these types:

• Case Stories sessions feature quality storytelling designed to illuminate real world case studies that demonstrate innovation or breakthrough practices.
• Data to Action sessions release recent data in ways that encourage attendees to discuss its relevance and practicality in everyday settings.
• Future Casting sessions explore the creation of “next practices” as opposed to and/or in addition to exploring current best practices.
• Paper Sessions feature two presentations focused on a similar topic centered around the event strands.
• Perspectives sessions address a current topic or concern that is germane to educator preparation framed as a research, policy, or program question.
• Roundtables sessions focus on a particular topic and are led by an individual or a small group.
• Scenario Planning sessions help attendees consider and discuss a variety of actions that might take place because of changing conditions.

A New Year, Administration and Congress: Join the AACTE Federal Update Discussion on Jan. 21

By Michael Rose

The events of January 6 shocked the nation. We witnessed a challenge to our democracy that none of us could ever have imagined. 

Just days before, senators and representatives were peacefully sworn in to the 117^th Congress.  On Wednesday, the joint session of the United States Congress was just beginning to count the electoral college votes for president and vice president when rioters stormed into the United States Capital, one of the nation’s most treasured buildings.

Fortunately, order was eventually established, and the joint session continued its work.  This was the final step before Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in as the U.S. president and vice president, respectively, on January 20. It also means that Democrats will control the House of Representatives, Senate and White House and give them significant leverage to implement their legislative priorities. 

What does all this mean for AACTE, its members, and the students they work with?

AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting Moves Ed Prep in the Right Direction

By John Henning

As a member of AACTE’s Meetings and Professional Development Committee, it has been exciting to see this year’s Annual Meeting come together. Given the tragic events of the past few weeks, the conference theme of “Resisting Hate, Restoring Hope: Engaging in Courageous Action” is even more relevant today than a year ago. It is an affirmation that we truly live in a time that calls upon each and every one of us to restore hope through courageous action.

This year’s keynote speakers embody this mission. Award-winning author and professor, Bettina L. Love, will show us how to build communal, civically-engaged schools that love and affirm Black and Brown children. Our need for a healthier political climate, one that honors democracy through integrity and public service will be addressed by acclaimed, presidential historian Michael Beschloss.

Time is Running Out for the Early Bird Discount

By Jerrica Thurman

Tuesday, January 19, is the Early Bird registration deadline for th AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting, February 24-26. Get the lowest registration rate when you register by 12 midnight. Secure your spot for the conference in just a few seconds!
 
Engage with colleagues around imperative issues in education during AACTE’s Deeper Dives. This year’s sessions will explore:

• Leading in the Time of Crisis: Responding to COVID-19 and Social Justice Movements
• Effective Online Pedagogy and Learning: Applying Technology-Enhanced Teaching Strategies to the New Normal in 2021 and Beyond
• The 1619 Project
• Critical-Race Theory and Countering Political Culture
• Advancing Equity through Social Emotional Learning
• Teacher Performance Assessments as a Tool For Teacher Learning, Program Improvement, and Accountability 

New AACTE Webinar Series Launches with ‘Discussing Race in PK-12 Classrooms’

By Nicole Dunn

In this new year, AACTE is recommitting its efforts to support the field in combating the racism that permeates throughout our education system. As a part of these efforts, AACTE will host a webinar each month that is centered on naming, learning, addressing, reforming, and promoting antiracist culture and policies throughout the education system. During these one-hour virtual sessions, you will hear from members and leaders in the field who have been doing the research and work to ensure PK-12 students receive a truly inclusive education. Our goal is for all participants, whether you are an administrator, faculty member, candidate, or current practitioner, to walk away with actionable steps to address internal, interpersonal, and systemic racism.

Racism is a broad and entrenched system of discrimination that has been largely ignored in our history, and every individual in our education system has a part to play in correcting it. Therefore, to begin this series, we want to focus on Discussing Race in Classrooms. In addition to learning how to prepare candidates to discuss racism in PK-12 classrooms, the webinar will address how educator preparation programs and other education field leaders can do the internal, interpersonal, and system-wide work to effectively support and prepare candidates to do so within those programs.

Register Today to join AACTE and the esteemed panel for or its first webinar: Discussing Race in PK-12 Classrooms, Why it’s an Essential Skill, on January 25, 2:00 p.m. EST. We exist in a world of relationships, and therefore, it is imperative that we examine our country’s and our education system’s historic relationship with racism and students of color before we endeavor to implement antiracist policies in our programs. In this session, we will take a look back at the central historic systemic inequities that have created an environment in which a majority of educators are ill-prepared and unwilling to name and discuss race and racism in classrooms. From that historical perspective, we will look at its effects on discipline and special education systems, both of which maintain systemic inequities and exacerbate racial discrimination for students with intersectional identities. 

Register for Discussing Race in PK-12 Classrooms, Why It’s an Essential Skill

VCU School of Education Dean to Co-Chair State Advisory Committee on Inclusive Education Practices

By Brian McNeill

This article originally appeared in VCU News and is reprinted with permission.

Andrew P. Daire, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, was appointed Wednesday as a co-chair of Virginia’s new advisory committee charged with making recommendations on culturally relevant and inclusive education practices in Virginia’s public schools.

The Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Education Practices Advisory Committee, which was established by the General Assembly during the 2020 session, held its inaugural virtual meeting Wednesday and Gov. Ralph Northam announced its leadership and members.

“Inclusive and culturally relevant learning environments are vital to creating equitable pathways to success for all Virginians,” Northam said in a news release. “The work of this committee will advance our ongoing efforts to tell the complete and accurate story of Virginia’s complex past, improve our history standards, and give educators opportunities to engage in important conversations and lessons with their students.”