10 May2022
By AACTE
On behalf of AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone issued the following statement in response to recent legislation meant to oppress educators and students, including, as well as legislation specifically targeting transgendered and gender non-conforming students:
“Recently, there has been a concerted effort to prevent students, teachers, and educators from discussing our nation’s history in an honest and open manner. More than 30 states have pending legislation that prohibit the discussion of issues deemed “divisive,” including discourse of indigenous people and their removal from native lands, acts of antisemitism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and sexual orientation and gender identity.
AACTE strongly opposes legislation that censors curriculum and educators and prevents students, especially LGBTQ+ students and those from historically marginalized groups, from receiving the full and safe academic experience they deserve.
Additionally, AACTE supports policies and legislation that ensure teacher candidates are appropriately trained to support LGBTQ+ students and the various communities they represent. For example, according to GLSEN, LGBTQ+ students face increased rates of school discipline—including detention, suspension, or expulsion from school. Non-binary students are more likely to say they feel unsafe in schools. In addition, transgender and gender-nonconforming youth are three times more likely than LGBQT+ students to say that they did not expect to finish high school.
Elected officials should expand educational opportunities to all students, regardless of race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or creed, rather than implement policies that limit a student’s value in the classroom. Such discriminatory policies prohibit students from reaching their full academic potential by enabling bullying, harassment, and other harmful practices.
Though couched as efforts to make sure no student feels uncomfortable or to increase parental engagement, these laws do the opposite. Teachers, counselors, and school staff should be empowered to provide safe and inclusive spaces for all students, not stifled.
Addressing historical and current events prepares students to live, participate, and empathize with diverse perspectives. Efforts to suppress inquiry and curb discussion violate the basic principles of free speech and an open exchange of ideas, which undermines the foundation of a healthy democracy through an educated citizenry.
AACTE encourages all educators to report any censorship efforts to organizations such as the American Library Association, National Coalition Against Censorship, African American Policy Forum (race/racism) and to report discrimination to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.”
25 Apr2022
By AACTE
Leslie T. Fenwick, Ph.D., is being appointed a member, Board of Visitors to the U.S. Military Academy, which provides independent advice and recommendations to the President of the United States on matters related to morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and any other matters relating to the Academy that the Board decides to consider. Fenwick will be one of six members of the Board appointed by the President and serve a term of 3 years.
Fenwick is noted for her expertise in leadership and ethics; public policy; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workforce. She is dean emerita of the Howard University School of Education and a tenured professor of leadership studies and education policy. A nationally-recognized scholar, Fenwick is a former Harvard University Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar, and Salzburg Global Fellow. Since 2017, she has been engaged at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as a McDonald Conference for Leaders of Character Senior Fellow, the 2019 Corbin Distinguished Lecturer, and the 2017 Black History Month Lecturer. She has delivered hundreds of national and international invited and distinguished lectures on equity, leadership, and ethics to convenings for college/university leaders, elected officials and government agencies, and corporate CEOs and senior leaders. She earned her Ph.D. at The Ohio State University and her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia.
22 Mar2022
By AACTE
Today, AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) releases the second edition of 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 of community colleges to educator preparation.
This update of AACTE’s signature report offers a comprehensive picture of the nation’s schools, colleges, and departments of education: the work that they do, the people who do that work, and the students they serve. The report describes the key trends and challenges in meeting the nation’s need for highly skilled educators.
Colleges and universities can benchmark their programs against peers, gain innovative ideas to grow and diversify enrollment through community college partnerships, and describe to stakeholders the challenges confronting educator preparation.
09 Mar2022
By AACTE
Thank you for joining over 1,300 education leaders at AACTE’s 74
th Annual Meeting in New Orleans to revolutionize and transform the profession. The collective energy of this year’s attendees made for an exciting return to in-person collaboration. We hope you left feeling energized, inspired, and ready to rethink, reshape, and reimagine the future of education.
Key Reminders:
08 Mar2022
By AACTE
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.
07 Mar2022
By AACTE
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.
05 Mar2022
By AACTE
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.
17 Feb2022
By AACTE
Join more than 1,200 education leaders in moving the profession forward at AACTE’s 74th Annual Meeting, March 4 – 6, 2022, in New Orleans, LA.
There’s still time to reserve your spot at this crucial educator preparation event. This high energy and transformational conference will guide attendees in engaging in meaningful discussions, sharing research and practices, and becoming better equipped to drive change in the educator preparation field and beyond.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
ACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced Shauna Adams, Ed.D., Professor of Early Childhood Education in the University of Dayton School of Education and Health Sciences as the recipient of the 2022 AACTE Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education. The Margaret B. Lindsey Award recognizes an individual whose research over the last decade has made a significant impact on the field of teacher education and will be awarded at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La, on March 6.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) announced today the winner of the 2022 AACTE Best Practice Award for Innovative Use of Technology. The College of Education, Health, and Human Studies Educator Preparation Program at Southeast Missouri State University is the recipient of this prestigious award for implementation of its EDvolution Model. Southeast Missouri State University’s Trudy Giasi, Ph.D., assistant professor of STEM Education, and Jana Gerard, coordinator of the EDvolution Center, will accept the award at AACTE’s 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La on March 6.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced the article, “Three Different Measures of Graduates’ Instructional Readiness and the Features of Preservice Preparation That Predict Them,” received the 2022 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) Article Award. This award, cosponsored by AACTE’s Committee on Research and Dissemination and Sage Journals, recognizes exemplary scholarship published in JTE in educator preparation or teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. The award will be presented at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La. on March 6.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced that Robert E. Floden, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus of the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Education, is the recipient of the 2022 AACTE David G. Imig Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teacher Education. Floden will be presented with this prestigious award at AACTE’s 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La, on March 4.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced Lin Wu, Ph.D., as the recipient of the 2022 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for Borderland Teaching of Chinese American Teachers with Mexican American Students: Toward the Development of a Theory. The author completed his dissertation for the Ph.D. at the University of Washington-Seattle and currently serves as an assistant professor in the College of Education at Western Oregon University. He will be recognized formally with the award at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La, on March 4.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) today announced that Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Anti-racist Literature Instruction for White Students, coauthored by Carlin Borsheim-Black, Ph.D., and Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Ph.D., is the winner of the 2022 AACTE Outstanding Book Award. This annual award recognizes a book that makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. Sponsored by the AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination, the award is given to a book that is well-written and offers a fresh lens on current assumptions or practices, reorients thinking in the field, and shows potential for significant impact on policy or practice in educator preparation. The authors will be recognized formally with the award at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting on March 4.
16 Feb2022
By AACTE
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) today announced that Old Dominion University (ODU) is the recipient of the 2022 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity. This award, sponsored by AACTE’s Committee on Global Diversity, recognizes the infusion of diversity throughout all components of a school, college, or department of education as fundamental to quality teacher preparation and development. Kala N. Burrell-Craft, Ph.D., director of teacher residencies, Darden College of Education & Professional Studies, will accept the award on behalf of ODU at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La, on March 4.
