10 Jan2024
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced that the University of Central Florida is the recipient of the 2024 AACTE Best Practice Award for Exemplary Holmes Program.
This award recognizes Holmes Program institutions that demonstrate exemplary and innovative practices in supporting graduate students of color resulting in increased productivity of its scholars. Amanda Wilkerson, Ed.D., assistant professor, and Caroline Pratt Marrett, Ph.D., senior lecturer and program coordinator for the Exceptional Student Education Program, College of Community Innovation and Education, will accept the award at AACTE’s 2024 Annual Meeting on Feb. 16–18, 2024, in Aurora/Denver, Colo.
09 Jan2024
By AACTE
With nearly a month to go until the 2024 AACTE Annual Meeting, be sure to make the most of your experience by booking your hotel room at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center by January 22 to be guaranteed the special AACTE discount. By doing so, you not only guarantee your spot at this premier gathering but you will also unlock exclusive benefits related to your hotel accommodation.
The 2024 AACTE Annual Meeting takes place February 16-18 in Aurora/Denver, Colorado. Check out the hotel’s dining options and enjoy other amenities at the Gaylord Rockies Resort, including the spa, fitness center, and indoor pool, to make the most of your stay in the Mile High City.
09 Jan2024
By U.S. Department of Education
The Biden-Harris Administration announced eight new grant awards today totaling more than $37 million over five years under the Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) program and one new grant for $10 million over five years under the National Center on School Infrastructure (NCSI) program. This $47 million investment, issued by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), bolsters the capacity of states to support school districts in improving school facilities with the goal of more equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and modern learning environments for all students.
“These new investments in modern, healthy, and sustainable school infrastructure reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to both promoting student success and protecting our planet for generations to come,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Research has shown that modern, well-maintained facilities and healthy learning environments can help schools Raise the Bar by increasing student achievement, reducing absenteeism, and improving teacher retention. At the Department of Education, we’re going to keep fighting to provide every student in every community with access to safe and healthy 21st-century schools that inspire learning, unleash imagination, and motivate children and youth to bring their best each day.”
08 Jan2024
Lunch & Learn with Guy Trainin
By Brooke Evans
AACTE is pleased to offer Lunch & Learns: professional development opportunities for members. These 30-minute sessions are designed to provide you with an immediate tool or strategy to apply to your work. Can’t make it virtually? All Lunch & Learns will be available on-demand for AACTE members. Watch them during your lunch break or whenever it is convenient for you.
AACTE will continue its Lunch & Learn series with Lesson Planning: Generative AI Tools for Teachers and Teacher Educators on Wednesday, January 17, from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. ET.
Guy Trainin (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) will talk about various AI tools, their functionalities, and best practices so that these tools can enhance teaching and not just serve as a novel addition. Furthermore, he will discuss ethical considerations, such as data privacy and avoiding algorithmic biases, ensuring that the implementation of AI is not only effective but also responsible.
Visit the AACTE events page to register or read more about this Lunch & Learn.
08 Jan2024
By Deborah Boyd
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 Brooke Evans at mailto:bevans@aacte.org.
Faculty members often help candidates build intercultural understandings during individual courses. Still, embedding this into already packed teacher/leader preparation at a programmatic level can be a challenge. Those of us in educator preparation programs (EPPs) can agree with Andreas Schleicher, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) director for education and skills, who says, “It takes deliberate and systematic efforts to create the global competence through which we can share experiences, ideas, and innovation with others, and increase our radius of trust to other countries and cultures.”
Programmatic global competence requires intentional planning, consistent implementation, and thoughtful reflection to ensure candidates see these understandings as integral to teaching and leading. While every college develops these skills differently, in this blog I detail some of the ways our college works to integrate intercultural understanding, depending on the level (undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate) and the program (teacher or leader).
08 Jan2024
By Martin Ackley
Ninety-six additional school districts in Michigan will be developing more teachers from within their ranks with Future Proud Michigan Educator Grow Your Own (GYO) staff grants, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) announced today. This is the second round of Grow Your Own grants awarded by MDE, building on the school districts awarded grants in the first round.
GYO staff grants provide opportunities for districts to increase the number of teachers in areas of shortage by supporting school employees seeking initial teacher certification or additional teacher endorsements, in response to their unique local needs for staffing. Each awardee will administer its own GYO program in partnership with one or more educator preparation providers.
“Grow Your Own programs provide an opportunity for schools to develop educators from within their districts and benefit from their successful experiences working with children,” said State Superintendent Michael Rice, Ph.D. “We continue to invest our resources to rebuild the teaching profession in Michigan in partnership with our school districts and teacher preparation providers—all in support of children.”
08 Jan2024
By Michael Bratton
AACTE Teacher Stories is a series highlighting the experiences of K-12 educators who are attending or 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. Please email submissions to Tyler Pointer at tpointer@aacte.org.
A Bowling Green State University (BGSU) graduate student was recently recognized for her exceptional performance in the classroom by receiving the Emerging Leader Award from the Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics — an honor given to a current mathematics pre-service teacher or a mathematics educator who has taught for five years or fewer.
Kaitlyn Solymosi ’22, who earned a bachelor’s degree in integrated mathematics education and has been involved in the University’s Math Camp, Math Emporium, and was a Thompson Family Scholar, said she found herself immersed at BGSU from the start.
“I was going to math conferences as a freshman, and I joined the math-ed community way before I was in my own classroom student teaching,” Solymosi said. “My experience at BG was definitely more than I expected to get out of a math-ed degree.”
03 Jan2024
NM Residencies Program Provides Aspiring Teachers with Classroom Experience
By Nate Williams
The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) has been awarded a five-year, $8 million federal grant for NM Residencies, a statewide initiative to provide aspiring teachers with a year of co-teaching alongside an accomplished mentor teacher as part of their pre-service preparation program.
The grant, part of the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Education Innovation and Research Program, will provide much-needed research, infrastructure, and implementation support for NM Residencies.
03 Jan2024
By Stacie Brensilver Berman
Queering the Curriculum: Advocating for and Affirming LGBTQIA+ Identities in the Teacher Education Curriculum in Challenging Times is a webinar intended for faculty and staff who are preparing teacher education students to work with all students, with a special emphasis on important curricular considerations for LGBTQIA+ candidates, cooperating teachers, and K-12 students and families. Join nationally recognized experts as they discuss how recent legislation that targets LGBTQIA+ identities has the potential to shape teacher education and how teacher educators can respond via curriculum and instructional decision-making.
I started teaching high school in 2001 at a large public high school in New York City, highly regarded for its theater and arts programs. Two-thirds of the students identified as female and one-third identified as male; several students were openly gay. It was a rare and different environment for the time; though there was growing recognition and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community we were not yet at a moment where, when surveyed, 20% of the generation that I taught identified as LGBTQ+.
Teaching in New York City, and this particular school, allowed me opportunities to integrate LGBTQ+ history in ways that I might not have felt safe doing in other schools. Early in my career, I saw the way students’ faces lit up when they felt represented in the curriculum. Conversely, I also learned how to address and navigate homophobic comments that students made in class, often based on preconceived ideas they learned outside of school. Neither my colleagues nor the administration weighed in on what I should or shouldn’t teach. It seemed right and accurate to me to teach LGBTQ+ history, so I did. It was only later, as a doctoral student, that I started to understand the level of support necessary to effectively and meaningfully bring this history into our classrooms.
03 Jan2024
By U.S. Department of Education
The Biden-Harris Administration announced $44.5 million in grants to 22 institutions of higher education to improve rates of postsecondary education enrollment, persistence, and completion among students in rural communities. The Rural Postsecondary and Economic Development (RPED) grant program promotes the development of high-quality career pathways aligned to high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand industry sectors and occupations in the region.
In America’s rural communities, only 29% of individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 are enrolled in higher education, compared to almost 48% of their counterparts in urban areas and 42% in suburban areas. In addition to navigating how to pay for college and the application process, students in rural areas face other barriers to accessing and completing college, including reliable transportation, food and housing insecurity, and access to health care and high-speed internet.
“The grants announced today by the Biden-Harris Administration reflect our commitment to empowering rural communities to build on their strengths, attract new investments, and prepare students for the high-skill, high-wage jobs of tomorrow,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “When we invest in postsecondary attainment in rural communities, we create pathways for students to find rewarding careers that do not require them to leave their hometowns for economic opportunity. These grant awards will help rural institutions Raise the Bar for student success and the attainment of valuable degrees and credentials that lead to brighter futures and greater prosperity.”
A full version of the press release is available on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.
03 Jan2024
By Tyler Pointer
In their work to prepare aspiring teachers with pathways to paid residencies, Prepared To Teach is offering a six-part webinar series titled “Foundations to Futures” to support building new residencies. Foundations to Futures is a free, exploratory webinar series on residencies that will culminate in an invitation to join the Prepared to Teach Community of Practice to launch residencies.
The series will launch on January 29, 2024, with its first webinar, “Foundations for a Strong Residency” which will focus on the potential teacher residencies have to fundamentally transform both how individuals enter the profession and how students and teachers experience schooling. This webinar will share the following:
- A vision for residencies as a unique approach to preparation—and why we need them today,
- How preparation programs and school/district partnerships form the backbone of a strong residency,
- The basics of co-constructing residency designs,
- And tools and resources—all Creative Commons Licensed—for you to use in your local context.
03 Jan2024
By Michael Slaton
The Clemson University College of Education is dedicated to improving teacher preparation and student outcomes in every classroom, focusing on underserved schools and communities. With this in mind, researchers in the college are interested in classroom practices and the effects of education policies on schools, districts, and entire regions.
Two recent grants awarded to college faculty showcase both ends of this spectrum.
Faiza Jamil, associate professor in the college, uses data from multiple sources to examine the effectiveness of district policies designed to increase the number of teachers from diverse backgrounds. Meanwhile, Kristen Duncan, an assistant professor in the college, uses more qualitative research to examine how Black educators tackle challenging discipline-specific content with students.
