29 Aug2022
By AACTE
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) announced its support for the Biden Administration’s decision to forgive a portion of the federal student aid debt certain individuals have incurred to attend college.
“The federal government’s decision to forgive a portion of federal student debt is long overdue,” said AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D. “Many students are overwhelmed with student debt, preventing them from beginning families, purchasing homes, or achieving other life milestones. This announcement is a significant step in helping these students. However, much more needs to be done to help students interested in pursuing a career in education finance their college degree. As a nation, we must address the high cost of a college degree and the low compensation of teachers, both of which have contributed to a nationwide shortage of profession-ready, fully licensed educators.”
23 Aug2022
By AACTE
There is still time to nominate a book for the AACTE 2023 Gloria J. Ladson-Billings Outstanding Book Award. The deadline to submit entries has been extended to Friday, August 26.
This national award recognizes exemplary books that make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. The award-winning book and its author/editor(s) will be recognized at AACTE’s 75th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN, February 24 – 26, 2023.
09 Aug2022
By AACTE
The AACTE 2023 Gloria J. Ladson-Billings Outstanding Book Award is open for submissions. Now is your chance to nominate an author’s book for this prestigious national award. The deadline for submission is August 19.
This award, overseen by the AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination, recognizes exemplary books that make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation.
09 Aug2022
By AACTE
Have you or do you know someone who recently completed a doctoral dissertation related to educator preparation? Now is the time to submit entries for the AACTE 2023 James D. Anderson Outstanding Dissertation Award. The deadline for submission is August 26.
This award recognizes excellence in doctoral dissertation research (or its equivalent) that contributes to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation.
02 Aug2022
By AACTE
AACTE is hosting a three-session Back to School Webinar Series, which will begin in August with its first event, “The Growth and Impact of Alternative Certification: Findings from Two Studies.”
For-profit alternative educator preparation programs have seen their enrollment almost triple in the last 10 years. Join AACTE and researchers from the University of Texas, Austin, who have examined national and state trends among alternative certification programs, paint a rich — and concerning — portrait of the impact of these programs as they continue to expand across the United States.
02 Aug2022
By AACTE
AACTE has named its annual Outstanding Dissertation Award in honor of James D. Anderson, a leading scholar of American education. Anderson currently serves as dean of the College of Education, the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Education, and affiliate professor of History, African American Studies, and Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His landmark 1988 book, The Education of Blacks in the South, transformed the field of African American educational history and also won the American Educational Research Association outstanding book award in 1990.
26 Jul2022
By AACTE
AACTE announced today that it named its annual Outstanding Book Award in honor of the prominent American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator Gloria J. Ladson-Billings. Distinguished for her work in the field of education, her expertise is in cultural pedagogy and equity in educator and student instruction, including critical race theory.
The Outstanding Book Award, given annually, recognizes an author or book that makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation. The award, overseen by the AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination, acknowledges those that offer a fresh lens on current assumptions or practices, reorient thinking in the field, and show potential for significant impact on policy or practice in educator preparation.
30 Jun2022
By AACTE
On behalf of AACTE , President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone issued the following statement after Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law, the first gun control measures in approximately 30 years in response to the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, and due to other gun violence in our communities:
“The actions of Congress since the Uvalde school shooting on May 24 are long overdue. According to the Washington Post, at least 185 children, educators and others have been killed by gun violence at U.S. schools since the Columbine massacre in 1999, in which two teenagers killed a dozen students and one teacher.
08 Jun2022
By AACTE
The Center for American Progress (CAP) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) today released The Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education. The report, which builds upon CAP’s 2020 study of this sector, updates and extends the analysis to include more recent student data and a historical look at patterns in the teacher preparation program landscape.
In response to the teacher shortage, some states allow non-traditional models for preparing teachers, including alternative certification programs run by organizations other than colleges and universities. According to the report authors Jacqueline King, senior consultant to AACTE, and Jessica Yin, former policy analyst for the K-12 Education Team at CAP, The Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education provides information for policymakers, education researchers, and leaders in educator preparation seeking to better understand this sector and identify necessary legislation, regulations, or opportunities for additional research. It tracks enrollment and completion trends in this sector over the last decade, with particular attention to fast-growing programs run by for-profit companies that account for nearly 70 percent of all students enrolled in the sector as of academic year 2018-19.
27 May2022
By AACTE
On behalf of AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone issued the following statement after the most recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which at least 19 students and two teachers were murdered.
“Our nation has experienced yet another senseless act of violence in our schools. By one estimate, since 1999, at least 554 children, educators, and school staff have been victims of school shootings and 311,000 children have been exposed to gun violence at school. This is simply unacceptable. It is long past time for policymakers to take action to protect our students, educators, and school staff from such violence. We can and must do more.
What is clear is that no progress has been made toward keeping guns, especially semi-automatic weapons, out of the hands of those that seek to cause devastation. As a result, more children and their teachers are murdered. This must stop. We implore Congress to pass sensible, life-saving, gun-reform legislation, which the vast majority of the American public overwhelmingly supports.
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.
