During the AACTE Washington Week, June 4-7, teacher educators, preservice teachers, and PK-12 school administrators united under the event theme “Diverse Perspectives, Deep Partnerships, One Profession.” The convening brought together attendees from across the nation to discuss important education policies and advocate for educator preparation with members of Congress and their staff.
The AACTE membership renewal season has officially begun! Each institution’s Chief Representative should have received an invoice via mail last month. Although the payment deadline is January 1, 2018, many of you have indicated you prefer to remit dues before your budget year ends in the summer – so we’ve made invoices available now for your convenience.
Your membership in AACTE, the nation’s largest network for educator preparation institutions, provides your faculty, staff, and students with access to valuable resources that help you achieve your program and career goals. Complimentary subscriptions, access to online resources, discounts for conferences and workshops, free continuing education opportunities, and inclusion in the membership directory are just a few of the benefits you’ve enjoyed during the past year.
Are you planning to attend the 2017 AACTE Washington Week next month? Be sure to book your hotel, the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, VA, by May 12 to take advantage of AACTE’s group rate, which includes complimentary high-speed Internet in guest rooms and meeting spaces.
Conveniently located near Reagan National Airport, the hotel offers stunning views of the Potomac River and the Washington skyline – an inspirational setting to convene with other teacher educators from across the country under the event’s theme “Diverse Perspectives, Deep Partnerships, One Profession.” The hotel will host all of our Washington Week events before we head to Capitol Hill Wednesday morning.
(April 24, 2017, Washington D.C.) – Today, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) launches its inaugural Quality Support Workshop in Fort Worth, Texas. The workshop, which runs through Wednesday, is the first in a new series of regional events focused on supporting teacher preparation providers to improve program quality. By providing a forum for educators to share experiences about program innovation and construct solutions to shared problems of practice, the Quality Support Workshops aim to meet the present-day needs of teacher educators.
Offered through the Association’s Quality Support Center, these workshops deliver professional development for assessment, accreditation, and documenting quality assurance in convenient sites around the country. Each event connects participants with specialists in facilitated, hands-on sessions where faculty can share strategies and develop customized, actionable plans for use in their home institutions.
The Welcoming Session at the AACTE 69th Annual Meeting featured guest speaker Shaun Harper, professor and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. In his presentation, “Ed Schools and the Mis-Education of White America,” he discussed diversity, equity, and race issues in education and the obligation of universities – especially educator preparation programs – to address them.
He emphasized the critical role for schools of education in preserving and advancing democracy in America: As preparers of teachers for the public schools, they are in a position to ensure that every student is educated with the proper consciousness and skills needed to raise race questions and pursue greater equity. Harper said that most teacher preparation programs do not currently live up to this objective, as their curricula contain very little about cultural diversity and fail to challenge racial biases.
AACTE’s enhanced online professional seminars, offered through the Quality Support Center on the FutureLearn social-learning platform, are well under way! More than 5,000 registrants signed up for the first run of our introductory assessment course, which just concluded, and the second course, Using Data to Improve Student Outcomes, opens March 20. (Please note this start date is a change from the original schedule.)
In this free 3-week course, you will discover how to apply data science to deliver better outcomes for students. Led by Linda McKee, AACTE’s senior director for quality support initiatives, you’ll learn to identify a range of data sources, analyze the data, and present your findings, then select indicators and establish actions to achieve continuous improvement.
Do you follow AACTE on Twitter? Do you tag @AACTE in Tweets about your program’s exciting news so we can retweet it? We want to engage with you on social media – and that’s why we invite you to join us on Twitter during the 2017 Annual Meeting. By using the hashtag #AACTE17, you can spread the word about dynamic presenters or interesting research, contribute to the event’s narrative, and even win a prize!
As an incentive for attendees to connect with AACTE on Twitter, we are running a contest for registrants who tweet a group selfie tagged with #AACTE17 during the Annual Meeting. Between March 1 at 7:00 a.m. EST and ends March 3 at 11:59 p.m. EST, just take a photo of yourself with at least one other attendee at the Annual Meeting and post the image to Twitter using #AACTE17.
A new set of brief videos in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series focuses on implementing clinical practice at the George Mason University (VA) College of Education and Human Development; see this article introducing the series and the first video segment. Today’s article highlights messages from the next two videos, which discuss the team-building approach used by Mason’s education faculty to create strong relationships with partner schools for supporting teacher candidates.
The College of Education and Human Development at Virginia’s George Mason University (GMU) and its professional development school (PDS) partners have established leadership teams to plan robust and personalized training programs for teacher candidates. The teams at the university and school sites work together to engage interns in well-rounded experiences, such as by involving them in local school activities, to help fulfill their individualized professional development plans.
AACTE collaborated with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology last month to host a 2-day summit focused on advancing educational technology in teacher preparation. Participants were chosen based on their pledged commitment to the “Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Challenge” announced last fall.
More than 30 AACTE members and partners attended the first day of meetings in the AACTE building, with workshops highlighting how to develop a culture for active use of technology in teacher preparation programs; promote standards, competencies, and credentials for higher education faculty and preservice teachers in educational technology; and build a sustainable system of professional learning.
On the second day, participants visited the White House for the Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation Innovation Summit. The event highlighted the forward-thinking work of providers advancing the four principles of educational technology in teacher preparation as outlined in the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan:
Wondering what’s happening at AACTE this year? Come visit our all-new AACTE Gallery at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, to interact with the latest offerings from the Innovation Exchange and the Quality Support Center. You’ll have an opportunity to peruse the featured showcases, network with members and partners engaged with AACTE’s initiatives, and maybe even win a prize!
The Gallery will be located in Room 21, directly across from the Conference Community Center, in the Tampa Convention Center. It will be available during four time blocks:
Registration is now open for the preconference events at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida. All three will be held Wednesday, March 1. Sign up now to secure your spot – space is limited! – at one of the following:
How do you do continuous improvement? Are you looking to make better use of data to move your program forward? Is your institution working toward accreditation or other quality assurance targets?
AACTE’s new Quality Support Workshops provide a forum for educators to address these questions and develop viable solutions with guidance from expert facilitators. These regional events were developed in response to the needs of the field and offer opportunities to share resources and build actionable strategies for program assessment, accreditation, and continuous improvement goals.
This year, AACTE will bring these workshops to three regions: Fort Worth, Texas, April 24-26; Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 10-12; and Seattle, Washington, November 9-11.
The 2017 AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa is an opportunity for you to not only invest in your own professional development but also come away feeling both energized and rested. With its warm climate, sunny days, palm trees, and beautiful beaches, Florida is a great place to learn, connect, and relax in March.
This year, AACTE has four host hotels located just steps away from the Tampa Convention Center (TCC):
Check out the full lineup of sessions and presenters at the 2017 Annual Meeting now available through AACTE’s Event Planner at http://planner.aacte.org. View session titles and descriptions, presenters’ names, and locations all at your fingertips through mobile or online access to the Event Planner.
In recent years, AACTE has offered enhanced technology to foster robust interaction with event participants by providing the Event Planner as the go-to-resource for the Annual Meeting.
The 2017 AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, will present a broad range of education content featuring innovative practices, progressive policy trends, and the latest research in the field. From PK-12 educators to state and federal government leaders to deans and professors from around the country, the Annual Meeting’s programming will target a variety of specialties, providing something for everyone!
What’s more, the conference theme calls on educators of all stripes to join in “Acting as One” to unite the professional community. Find inspiration, resources, and common ground in a wide selection of sessions:
