The recently concluded 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans marked a transition in leadership for AACTE’s Board of Directors. Michael Dantley, dean emeritus of the College of Education, Health and Society at Miami University of Ohio is the new chair of the Board of Directors. He is joined on the AACTE Executive Committee by the following:
AACTE will soon release the second edition of its signature report, Colleges of Education: A National Portrait. In addition to updating information on colleges of education and their leaders, faculty, and students, this edition features a special analysis on the contributions that community colleges make to educator preparation. Topics to be covered will include:
Curtis Cain, superintendent of Wentzville School District, in Wentzville, Mo., has been named the 2022 AASA National Superintendent of the Year®. He is also an alumnus of two AACTE member institutions: He completed his B.S. degree at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and his M.S. and Ph.D. at Iowa State University.
Cain has served as superintendent of Wentzville Schools, a district with more than 17,300 students, since 2013. The school system’s performance on the state’s Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) is in the top 13% of the more than 520 school districts in the state. Prior to joining Wentzville Schools, he served as the associate superintendent for educational services in the Shawnee Mission (Kan.) School District. He has also served as the director of curriculum and professional development for the Park Hill (Mo.) School District. He’s about to seek a new adventure, having been named the next superintendent this summer of the Rockwood School District, also a St. Louis suburb.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages
This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
So much around the world has changed since our last Washington Update. While Congress was on recess all eyes were on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. We suspect Congress will respond to the President’s request and put forth a supplemental funding package that includes critical assistance for the Ukraine and additional support for addressing future variants of COVID-9. We also anticipate an FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package that has a significant increase for both defense and non-defense programs, including education, will pass sometime next week.
Congratulations to Devon Carter, Holmes Scholar of the Month, for February 2022.
Carter is originally from Cleveland, OH and earned a basketball scholarship to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. As a two-time captain of the basketball team at Lehigh, he earned both a Bachelors of Arts (‘16) and, continuing his education while on the team, a Master of Science (‘18) in social psychology. Carter is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in special education at Lehigh.
This article originally appeared in District Administration and is reprinted with permission.
Our nation’s most significant innovations stem from education. From the founding of our nation to the moon landing in 1969, from the introduction of personal computers in 1971 to the advent of the internet in 1983, such accomplishments would not have occurred without education and an educated populace. Without educators we will not continue to innovate, create, and lead the world. We have ignored the dwindling number of people entering the field of education for decades. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of teachers exiting classrooms only continues to increase.
AACTE is excited to announce that it is offering its members monthly public policy webinars to learn about critical policy updates impacting education preparation. The inaugural AACTE Public Policy in Action webinar will take place March 17 at 1:00 p.m. (EST). We hope that attendees will also share policy developments in from their states during the member-only briefings.
During the March discussion, attendees will learn about a new and innovative way to address the nation’s teacher shortage by utilizing the Department of Labor’s apprenticeship program. The U.S. Department of Labor recently approved Tennessee Department of Education’s application to include teacher residencies as a qualified apprenticeship program, opening the door to additional federal funds to help address the state’s teacher shortage. The program will provide candidates with high-quality, in-classroom experiences while learning from a mentor teacher as part of their clinical experience (known as student teaching in some states) and will increase the quantity and diversity of teachers in Tennessee’s classrooms; other states are expected to pursue this option to address teacher shortages in their classrooms.
In February, Vice President for Research Policy & Advocacy Jacqueline Rodriguez and I presented at the National Teacher Shortage Summit. The Summit was hosted by the American Association of School Personnel Administrators and co-sponsored by numerous organizations, including AACTE. Our presentation summarized findings from numerous AACTE studies on trends in educator preparation and featured initiatives by several AACTE members to address the shortage of teachers and other essential educators.
The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) subsequently recorded a webinar with the two of us, summarizing our presentation, and has made it available free for AACTE members. The webinar also features other presenters from the Summit.
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) announced Michael E. Dantley, Ed.D., Dean Emeritus of the College of Education, Health and Society (EHS) at the Miami University of Ohio as the new chair of its board of directors.
During his one-year term, Dantley will support AACTE and President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D., in implementing the Association’s strategic goals, upholding democracy by combatting the divisive issues taking hold in education, and preparing the organization for its 75th anniversary in 2023.
AACTE was one of 94 higher education associations and organizations to issue the following joint statement:
Colleges and universities exist to examine complex issues, challenges, and ideas, and to provide a forum in which issues and opinions can be explored and openly debated. In our intensely politicized and divided country, with social media and societal silos coarsening already heated conversations, this can be extraordinarily challenging. Yet, fostering a rigorous and civil exchange of ideas has never been more important. To best serve American society, higher education institutions are committed to transparent intellectual inquiry and academic excellence, free speech, and civil discourse. It is incumbent on our governmental institutions to share and support this commitment.
Efforts to suppress inquiry, curb discussion, and limit what can be studied violate the basic principles of free speech and an open exchange of ideas, and undermine the very purpose of higher education. Nonetheless, some elected officials have proposed measures foreclosing evaluation of complex and challenging ideas.
