18 Jul2023
Ten years and 55 graduates later, UNM is responding to a critical need for Board Certified Behavior Analysts.
By Savannah Peat
Copeland teaches class for ABA certificate.
This article was originally published by The University of New Mexico Newsroom.
UNM’s Department of Special Education, in the College of Education & Human Sciences (COEHS) is filling a critical need in New Mexico.
Now with its 55th graduate, the Graduate Certificate Program in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is creating Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) for the state. It’s a proper milestone for a program which just hit its 10th anniversary.
“It makes me feel really excited. Depending on which statistics you’re looking at, we have been identified as a state where sometimes there are no behavioral health providers in an entire county, so for us to have prepared these individuals who are now providing this critical service for children and families just really warms my heart,” Special Education Department Professor Susan Copeland said.
Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) are responsible for teaching, instruction and behavioral support to individuals with developmental disabilities. While many focus on autism spectrum disorder, the field covers children and adults who have intellectual disabilities or emotional behavior disturbances.
18 Jul2023
By Katherine Adams
This article was originally published by the University of Houston — Clear Lake Newsroom.
Teaching is a tough job. So tough that the Texas Associate of School Boards reports that about half public school teachers nationally have seriously considered leaving the profession within their first five years of teaching. Although many teachers cite low pay and underfunding as a main source of frustration, TASB says that about 62% consider a different profession because as teachers, they feel undervalued and unsupported.
University of Houston-Clear Lake professors in the College of Education have a plan to address the shortage of teachers in local school districts. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they came up with the idea to create a mentoring collaborative with the aim of setting up a progressive, responsive approach to mentoring new teachers.
“We have ideals and values that we want to embrace through this collaborative, such as communication and continuity,” said Associate Professor of Special Education Elizabeth Beavers. “We were experimenting with what we wanted mentoring to look like. From the beginning, we wanted to do something so students could stay connected with faculty after leaving.”
11 Jul2023
By Tunara Moore
Have you considered playing a crucial role in shaping the educational content offered at the premier national conference for the educator preparation community? If so, consider serving as a reviewer or submitting a proposal for the 2024 AACTE Annual Meeting, occurring February 16 – 18 in Denver, CO.
11 Jul2023
By AACTE
The 2023 Leadership Academy is not just another leadership program — it’s a transformative experience that will:
- Enhance leadership skills;
- Address current issues; and
- Build a professional peer network.
Join a professional network of deans, chairs, and heads of education preparation programs who have already registered. Secure your spot at this must-attend event for higher education leaders and register before Friday, July 14.
Location: Denver, CO
Date: July 30 – August 4
11 Jul2023
By Kaitlyn Brennan
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.
While Congress was on recess, the Supreme Court issued two major rulings impacting higher education: affirmative action and student debt relief. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Biden Administration’s effort to eliminate nearly $400 billion of student loan debt was an illegal use of executive power. The Department of Education had already approved the relief for upwards of 16 million borrowers with millions of additional applicants pending.
11 Jul2023
By Kaitlyn Brennan
The “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.
California is poised to potentially pass two new bills that would pay teacher candidates while they are student teaching and begin a public relations campaign to recruit new teachers into the profession.
Under current credentialing standards, California teachers are required to complete 600 hours of student teaching. Without pay, the student teaching experience, while vitally necessary for candidates, is considered a roadblock. Students are still required to pay for tuition, books, supplies, living expenses, and more, with limited time available to secure supplemental income.
11 Jul2023
By Brooke Evans
Our interconnected, global society highlights the importance of globally competent teaching to help students make sense of complex topics and issues worldwide and prepare young people for global citizenship. As part of AACTE’s Global Education Faculty PLC Professional Development Series, on Thursday, July 27, from 2:00 –3:00 p.m. ET, you are invited to learn about tools and strategies designed to help embed global education within K-12 classrooms. The webinar, Innovative Best Practices for Embedding Global Education in K-12 Classrooms, is for educators interested in developing students’ global competencies through classroom and community approaches. The goal is to showcase examples of pedagogy, practice, and actions teachers can employ with students in developing global competencies.
11 Jul2023
By Audrey Breen
This article was originally published by UVAToday.
Most modern school systems are actually designs from the last century. A UVA professor is researching applying classroom mindfulness techniques to bring them into the present. (Illustration by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications.)
What’s good for a classroom may be good for an entire school system.
For 20 years, Patricia Jennings, a professor of education at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development, has worked to apply mindfulness practices and compassion to help teachers create a more emotionally supportive learning environment in the classroom, a sometimes high-stress space that is both cognitively and emotionally demanding.
Now she is also considering how mindfulness can extend beyond classrooms and play a role in re-envisioning and modernizing entire education systems.
11 Jul2023
By Erica Techo
This article was originally published by the University of Georgia’s College of Education.
A new study from the University of Georgia aims to improve how we evaluate children’s creativity through human ratings and through artificial intelligence.
A team from the Mary Frances Early College of Education is developing an AI system that can more accurately rate open-ended responses on creativity assessments for elementary-aged students. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
06 Jul2023
By Tunara Moore
A reminder that the prestigious James D. Anderson Outstanding Dissertation Award nomination period is quickly approaching. As the leading voice on educator preparation, AACTE is dedicated to recognizing excellence in our member institutions and the individuals who have made remarkable contributions to the field.
Learn more about the Dissertation Award, and submit your nomination by July 28. All other award nominations are due by September 1. This is your chance to shine a spotlight on the remarkable programs, practices, writing, research, and achievements that shape the future of educator preparation.
06 Jul2023
By Novea McIntosh
This blog article is part of the Global Education Faculty PLC Professional Development Series, sponsored by the Longview Foundation. The writing series aims to elevate the perspectives of international scholars — including teacher educators, graduate students, and alike — to offer insights into how Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) can integrate intercultural understanding within their programs. AACTE members interested in participating in the series should contact AACTE’s Brooke Evans.
Note: the AACTE Call for Awards is open for the 2024 Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Perspectives, which recognizes exemplary practice in the intercultural, global, cross-cultural, and international arenas. The 2024 Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity is also open and recognizes the infusion of diversity throughout all components of a school, college, or department of education (SCDE) as critical to quality educator preparation and professional development. If you wish to apply for one of these awards, please visit aacte.org. Applications must be received by September 1, 2023.
While we celebrated with 2023 graduates from colleges across the United States, some students graduated this spring with more than a diploma. These students have passports in their hands to a global experience teaching abroad, as Fulbright recipients. A recent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education (2023), highlighted “Fulbright U.S. Scholar and Fulbright U.S. Student Programs sponsored by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to support academic exchanges between the United States and over 150 countries around the world.”
06 Jul2023
By AACTE
With all the summer activities and vacation breaks, AACTE understands that you may not have gotten around to registering for the 2023 Leadership Academy, so we have extended the registration deadline to Friday, July 14.
The Leadership Academy is an exclusive opportunity for deans, chairs, and heads of education preparation programs to connect with each other. Join your peers and be part of strategic conversations to elevate the work you are doing at your institution.
05 Jul2023
By AACTE
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny student loan debt relief to as many as 40 million low- and middle-income Americans will have many adverse personal, economic, and social consequences. One of those consequences will be to exacerbate the nation’s shortage of PK-12 educators. By making it less affordable to become or remain a teacher, principal, or other education professional, this decision will impede our ability to build the diverse, highly qualified educator workforce that our nation’s children need and deserve.
Student loan debt plays a significant role in shaping the education workforce. Concern about compensation—including being able to repay student loans—is the most commonly cited factor dissuading young people from choosing teaching as a career. AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) has documented that, because teachers earn less than other college-educated workers, even comparatively modest levels of student loan debt are difficult to afford. This problem is particularly acute for students of color, and so these students are far less likely to choose education as a career compared with better compensated fields such as business or healthcare. Moreover, current educators who were counting on debt relief will now be forced to leave education for better paying jobs and those who had hoped to advance in their careers by pursuing graduate education will be unable to do so.
03 Jul2023
By Kristien Zenkov
The Teacher Educators’ Journal (TTEJ) is published by the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (VACTE), a state unit of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The journal aims to stimulate discussion and reflection about issues related to teacher education; authors need not be based and research need not be conducted in Virginia for manuscripts to be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted for consideration may be research/empirical reports and analyses, position papers, book reviews, or conceptual essays.
29 Jun2023
By AACTE
Since its founding in 1948, AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) has been committed to advancing the field of educator preparation and ensuring that those preparing to be teachers, principals, and other professional educators represent the diversity of the children they educate. Today’s Supreme Court of the United States decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard University is contrary to our collective efforts to build an educator workforce that is diverse and representative.
Diversity in the college student population is important to recruiting a cadre of teachers, principals, and other education professionals who reflect the diversity of the K-12 student population. Today, 79% of public school teachers identify as white while the majority of public school students are students of color.
