20 Dec2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
As we review the accomplishments of 2022 and look toward a New Year, AACTE is honored to have been one of the national organizations to have contributed to the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact (ITMC), recently finalized and ready for enactment by states.
Especially in the era of extraordinary teacher shortages, the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact (ITMC) creates the opportunity for classrooms across our country to have a profession-ready teacher guiding and supporting student’s academic growth.
11 Jul2022
By Kate Cochran and Jacqueline Rodriguez
The National Partnership for Student Success is a public-private partnership committed to providing the supports that will help our students succeed and specifically addresses the ability for students to thrive post-COVID. AACTE has proudly joined the National Partnership for Student Success as a Champion of the initiative.
05 Jul2022
By Kelly Coash Johnson, Jacqueline Rodriguez and Jacqueline E. King, Ph.D.
AACTE participated in this past spring’s National Educator Shortage Summit, to promote conversations across traditional silos, hosted by the American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA). The Summit convened PK-20 stakeholders to discuss educator workforce and pipeline shortages with a culminating report, Shortage to Surplus: 5 Shifts to Address the National Educator Shortage.
14 Jun2022
By Michael Rose and Jacqueline Rodriguez
On June 9, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona released a vision to support and elevate the teaching profession. AACTE applauds the vision to recruit, develop, and retain future educators in a time when extreme educator shortages are afflicting the country, and looks forward to working with the secretary to realize each strategy. The secretary’s vision, announced during a fireside chat at AACTE member institution, Bank Street College of New York, arrived on the heels of AACTE’s premier advocacy event, Washington Week, as AACTE members and its state affiliates met with their federal legislators to promote comprehensive educator preparation.
07 Jun2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
On June 8, the EdPrepLab, a collaboration between the Learning Policy Institute and Bankstreet College, will host its annual Spring Convening. Registration closes Tuesday, June 7.
Speakers will discuss research on new design principles for educator preparation based on the science of learning and development. We will kick off the discussion with a keynote address by Pamela Cantor, MD, founder and senior science advisor of Turnaround for Children, on the importance of using the science of learning and development to design learning environments for PK–12 students. We will then turn to a conversation about how EdPrepLab is using the science of learning and development to craft principles for the preparation of teachers and leaders. These principles will sharpen EdPrepLab’s focus on the structures and practices educator preparation programs need to enact in order to prepare teachers and leaders focused on deeper learning and equity. Speakers will discuss the critical role these principles should play in designing preparation programs that develop the educators all our students need and deserve.
11 Apr2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
The Department of Education hosted a national Roundtable addressing Teacher Shortages through collaborative partnerships on April 7, 2022. The Strengthening Partnerships Between States, School Districts, and Higher Education to Increase the Number of Teacher Candidates Prepared to Enter the Classroom and Provide Immediate Support to Schools included Grow Your Own, Residency, and Apprenticeship Strategies to support pipelines into the education profession.
AACTE’s Jacqueline Rodriguez, vice president for research, policy, and advocacy, laid the context of the national educator shortage with data from AACTE’s recently released second edition of the National Portrait and Fall Member Survey. AACTE members Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Northern Colorado presented innovative programs that are supporting diverse candidates and para-professionals to enter the field. Gwen Perea Warniment, deputy secretary of teaching, learning and assessment for the state of New Mexico, shared the enormous financial investment New Mexico is contributing to state-wide residency programs. In addition to financial investments from the Department of Education, States, and local districts, Manny LaMarre, senior advisor to the Department of Labor, shared the newly established federal level apprenticeship program in teaching.
11 Apr2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
AACTE will facilitate a webinar, “Educator Preparation Innovation: Creating Pathways to Strengthen Recruitment,” on Tuesday, April 19. The virtual session is part of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the CEEDAR Center 12-part webinar series focused on evidence-based strategies to strengthen and diversify the special education workforce.
According to multiple research studies, fully prepared teachers in special education are more effective and are more likely to remain in the teaching profession than are teachers who are not fully prepared. It is clear that public schools need fully prepared and credentialed special education teachers.
04 Apr2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
The U.S. Department of Education invites you to join the Strengthening Partnerships Between States, School Districts, and Higher Education to Increase the Number of Teacher Candidates Prepared to Enter the Classroom and Provide Immediate Support to Schools Webinar. The webinar will be held Thursday, April 7 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT
As states, districts, and schools are working hard to address the impact of COVID-19 on students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs, many of them are facing significant challenges in attracting and retaining teachers. Preexisting teacher shortages in critical areas such as special education; bilingual education; science, technology, engineering, and math; career and technical education; and early childhood education have only been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — directly impeding student access to educational opportunity. Research shows that shortages disproportionately impact students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and, often, rural communities.
During this roundtable we will
- Discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s call to action for states, institutions of higher education, and school districts to commit to using American Rescue Plan and other federal relief funds to help address teacher shortages.
- Share how federal relief funds and opportunities through the U.S. Department of Labor can and are being used to address teacher shortages and provide support to schools by establishing or scaling up teaching residency and apprenticeship programs.
- Hear from states increasing their investments in a diverse educator pipeline and from educator preparation programs at institutions of higher education that a re partnering with districts to scale up their programs and leveraging their residency and apprenticeship programs to provide immediate support to schools.
AACTE Participation
AACTE’s vice president for research, policy, and advocacy, Jacqueline Rodriguez, will present a national perspective on the ongoing educator shortages and promising practices to address them. Two of AACTE’s member institutions, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and University of Northern Colorado (UNCO), will present their work during the roundtable. Andrew Daire, dean of College of Education at VCU, and Corey Pierce, professor at UNCO, will discuss how they are increasing recruitment of diverse learners to their education programs.
If you are interested in joining this roundtable, register and please submit any questions you would like to have answered during the conversation. After you register, you will receive a Zoom link to join the meeting on Thursday, April 7 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT.
25 Mar2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez and Nicole Dunn
AACTE continues its collaboration with AERA’s Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education to produce an in-depth, scaffolded, three-part series of professional learning opportunities addressing the recent uptick in education censorship across the nation. The first presentation of the series took place as a Deeper Dive session during AACTE’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans. On April 12, AACTE and AERA Division K will co-host a workshop: Educators Addressing Censorship through Collective Action & Messaging, which will include members of our P-20 education system. The third session in our series is a Town Hall taking place during the AERA Conference in late April where Lynn Gangone, AACTE CEO and president will be moderating alongside AERA Executive Director, Felice Levine, and Division K Chair, Dorothea Anagnostopoulos.
08 Feb2022
By Nicole Dunn and Jacqueline Rodriguez
AACTE is committed to tackling systematic censorship within our country’s education system, alongside our members and partners, and it does so through an intersectional lens.
As an organization whose mission is to revolutionize education for all learners, AACTE developed the Racial and Social Justice Resource Hub to be a place for members to learn, grow, inquire, and share resources with one another that address social injustices and advocate for the preparation of profession-ready educators.
The Hub includes three sections: Education Censorship, Combating Racism, and LGBTQ+ Rights. Each section offers resources created by AACTE and its members and strategic partners, including articles, webinars and workshops, curriculum tools, and calls for action. Considering the ongoing efforts underway that limit educators’ teaching and discussion of our nation’s history, and other so-called divisive topics, AACTE is encouraging members to engage with the Hub to support your own teaching and scholarship.
03 Feb2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
The growing interest by policymakers to provide early childhood education to learners across the country has been met with celebration by parents and families, and support from education organizations, including AACTE. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) recently released a groundbreaking report addressing the future of the early childhood profession, Preparing a Profession: Perspectives of Higher Education Leaders on the Future of the Early Childhood Education Workforce. The report synthesizes interviews with key education stakeholders, including AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, focused on two key areas: What is the status of the early childhood profession? and What can education institutions be doing to strengthen the preparation of early childhood educators?
28 Jan2022
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
AACTE joined the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) in 2020 as the pandemic gave rise to the growing challenges to teaching students with learning differences online. The Alliance steadfastly supports PK-20 students through resource development, including the newest resource: A Framework for Change: Investing ESSER Funds to Prepare and Support Teachers of Students With Disabilities.
This resource was developed by EALA partners to give an overview of strategies for preparing and developing highly qualified general and special education teachers. It will show how states and districts can invest Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to address the current and growing need for educators to support students with disabilities and their peers. It shares data and research on both current challenges and recommended strategies and outlines recommended actions for states, districts, and educator preparation programs.
06 Dec2021
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
The Center for Innovation, Design, and Digital Learning (CIDDL) is inviting you to join a community of higher education faculty members focused on sharing tips and tricks, research-based practices, and strategies for innovative use of educational technology in educator or leadership preparation programs. CIDDL’s mission is to influence change that supports the appropriate use of educational technology in all early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE), related services, and K-12 learning environments to improve outcomes for all students, especially those with disabilities.
18 Nov2021
By Ellen Sherratt and Jacqueline Rodriguez
The Teacher Salary Project surveyed 1100+ teachers nationally, with an oversample of recognized teachers (e.g., State Teachers of the Year -STOYs, Nationally Board Certified Teachers – NBCTs, Teach Plus Fellows, and others) and found:
- Nearly half of the surveyed teachers say their salary was not sufficient to sustain them in teaching for the medium-to-long term (two-thirds when teachers who weren’t sure if they could continue teaching on their salary are included).
03 Nov2021
By Jacqueline Rodriguez
Higher education is a critical part of the early childhood education (ECE) profession as it serves as the primary pipeline for the early childhood education workforce. And, like early childhood educators, most ECE higher education programs find themselves under-resourced and under-valued. As such, the Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession calls for a significant investment in ECE higher education programs to shore up the ECE workforce pipeline and to ensure that practitioners are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively support the development and education of young children.
