07 Feb2019
By Jerrica Thurman
The members of the Learning First Alliance (LFA) will host Public Schools Week, March 25-29, 2019, to show the great things happening every day in public schools–and show the potential for greater things.
This second annual event encourages school leaders to invite community members, lawmakers, parents and others to visit and see the wide array of programs and high-quality opportunities offered, honor students’ accomplishments and see the joys and challenges of teaching and learning in public schools.
“Public education is the foundation for students’ success, the growth of communities, and our nation’s future,” said Nathan R. Monell, CAE, executive director of the National PTA and 2018-19 chair of the Learning First Alliance, a coalition of 12 national education organizations representing more than 10 million parents, teachers, administrators, specialists, school board members and teacher educators. “Public schools educate 90 percent of our nation’s students and are providing talented professionals for jobs in the corporate and public sectors as well as the military. It’s vitally important that we have a strong system of public schools across the United States.”
05 Feb2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is delighted to announce the selection of Millennial Teachers of Color, by Mary E. Dilworth to receive the 2019 AACTE Outstanding Book Award. The award will be presented at the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting Closing Session, February 24, in Louisville, KY.
The volume, published in 2018 by Harvard Education Press, explores the opportunities and challenges for creating and sustaining a healthy teaching force in the United States. Millennials are the largest generational cohort in American history, with approximately 90 million members and, of these, roughly 43 percent are people of color. This publication offers a fresh look at these millennials and explores their views of the teaching profession, focuses attention on their relation to schools and teaching and considers how these young teachers feel about teaching for social justice.
05 Feb2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE will honor announced Emily Evans Fanaeian as the recipient of the 2019 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for Preparing Pre-service Teaches for Working with Linguistically Diverse Students: Examining University Teacher Preparation Programs Across the United States. The author completed her dissertation for the Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and is now the interim director of English as a Second Language/Bilingual Graduate Programs for the School of Education at Edgewood College (Madison, WI). She will be recognized formally with the award at the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting, February 22-24, in Louisville, KY.
In her dissertation, Evans Fanaeian designed an ambitious multiple case study to examine the ways in which university-based teacher education programs take up the task of preparing general education teacher candidates to provide instruction to English learners. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Director of Teacher Education Center, Kimber Wilkerson, explained: “Dr. Evans Fanaeian’s dissertation research provides many important implications for teacher education. Acknowledging the importance of preparing general educators to meet the needs of the wide diversity of learners in our schools, Dr. Evans Fanaeian designed an ambitious multiple case study to examine the ways in which university-based teacher education programs take up the task of preparing general education teacher candidates to provide instruction to English learners. In this study, she surfaces the very real local and contextual constraints that teacher educators face when attempting to add complexity to teacher preparation programs. This is particularly important at a time when teacher preparation programs face pressure to reduce the time and cost toward degree. Dr. Evans Fanaeian’s research provides insightful guidance to teacher educators considering different approaches to incorporating new content. Her recommendations for practice are thoughtful as well as pragmatic, and could be applied conceptually to other types of expertise beyond educating English learners.”
05 Feb2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE has chosen an article by Melanie M. Acosta of the University of Alabama, Michele Foster of the University of Louisville, and Diedre F. Houchen of the University of Florida, as recipients of the 2019 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education Article Award. Their article, “Why Seek the Living Among the Dead? African American Pedagogical Excellence: Exemplar Practice for Teacher Education,” was published in the September/October 2018 issue of the journal and will be recognized formally with the award at the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting, February 22-24, in Louisville, KY.
In this article, the authors address current dilemmas in recruiting and preparing a diverse teaching force by reorienting teacher education toward an underutilized resource—African American pedagogical excellence. This article outlines the core attributes of African American pedagogical excellence, including its historical genesis, and reveals ways public school desegregation has jeopardized the transcendence of African American pedagogical excellence within teacher education. The article concludes with possibilities and recommendations for moving African American pedagogical excellence from margin to center in teacher education.
30 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE’s Annual Meeting is just 3 weeks away, and one place you certainly must visit on site is the Conference Community Center. Located on the second floor of the Omni Louisville Hotel, the Center is the place for you to expand your network by connecting with thousands of educators, vendors, and strategic partners to discuss solutions to your program needs.
Adjacent to many of AACTE’s Learning Labs, and also the location for official Annual Meeting registration, the Center offers you a place to take a break, socialize, network, greet old friends, and meet new ones, all while engaging with our Annual Meeting sponsors in the following booths:
Premier Sponsor
21 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE kicks off its countdown today to the advance registration deadline for AACTE’s 71st Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY. Only 7 days are left to take advantage of discounted rates. As the premier educator preparation conference in the nation, AACTE’s Annual Meeting provides you access to tools to drive change at your institution, in your community, and for the profession.
Here are 10 reasons why you should plan now to attend:
- Shake up your routine by tackling important issues in education today and sharpen your skills with a different set of peers.
- Hear from inspiring speakers and get motivated with fresh perspectives.
- Customize your learning experience by choosing among hundreds of sessions that cover a broad variety of topics.
- Share your experiences and get new ideas that can make you more effective with your students, colleagues, and partners.
- Mix and mingle to form new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Bring a partner to share in the learning!
- Create new alliances, business ventures, and partnerships to advance your work.
- Get hands-on demonstrations of new products, and discuss solutions to your local needs with exhibitors and sponsors.
- Step out of your comfort zone and open your mind to innovation.
- Gain greater focus on the problems of practice to help you take your programs to the next level.
- Feel the energy of diverse perspectives uniting around common goals. Add your voice to the mix!
Don’t be left out of the largest annual gathering of educator preparation professionals! The January 28 advance registration deadline for the AACTE’s 71st Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, February 22-24, is quickly approaching! Act now to get the best rates.
Read the full lineup of the keynote speakers, schedule and preconference events on our website. To view the full list of sessions and create your personal schedule, log in to the Online Event Planner. Secure your spot today!
14 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is pleased to announce the keynote speakers for the 71st Annual Meeting Closing Session are Mary Dilworth, editor of Millennial Teachers of Color, and Leslie Fenwick, dean emerita of Howard University. The session will take place at the Kentucky International Convention Center on February 24, 2019.
Join this dynamic duo in a provocative discussion that probes beneath the surface to address how the millennial generation of teachers and those of color, in particular, have become agents of change in education. Discover why the missing link in the recurrent conversation about teacher diversity and inequities is the millennial generation—the most diverse, educated, socially connected, and now largest generation in the workforce.
11 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
Arrive early and attend a free AACTE preconference workshop prior to the 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY. AACTE is excited to offer these special workshops at no cost this year! Now is your chance to delve into pressing topics critical to advancing educator preparation with colleagues who share your specific academic and research interests.
The full list of AACTE preconference events held February 21 is as follows:
11 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released yesterday A Vision and Guidance for a Diverse and Learner-Ready Teacher Workforce, a report that outlines key recommendations state education chiefs, leaders in educator preparation, local education agencies, and others can take to ensure each child in the public school system is taught by a diverse and learner-ready teacher workforce. The report highlights actions for attracting, preparing, placing, supporting, and retaining teachers from diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds and socioeconomic experiences. It identifies specific policy levers state education agencies (SEAs) have authority over that should be activated to achieve the vision of what success can look like for students and teachers as well as highlight distinct responsibilities of SEAs where they have a moral imperative to lead for equity. Additionally, the report appendix references some of the best practices and policy recommendations states have implemented to push this work forward.
Along with state chiefs, AACTE and other national education organizations partnered with CCSSO on its new initiative to diversify the teaching profession through its Diverse and Learner-Ready Teachers (DLRT) Initiative. The collaboration led to the production of the new report—a viable resource for state teams that provide model research- and evidence-based state best practices and policies.
03 Jan2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE and fellow members of the Learning First Alliance issued a joint statement on December 19, 2018 that emphasizes the Federal School Safety Commission should help schools provide mental health resources to prevent violence. LFA members said the federal government should focus its next steps on resources and training more mental health specialists to ensure safety of students and school staff:
A new federal report misses a high-profile opportunity to bring leadership and resources to social-emotional and mental health needs in K-12 schools, the Learning First Alliance, a coalition of 12 major national education organizations that represents 10 million parents, teachers, administrators, school counselors, specialists, teacher educators, and school board members, stated in response to recommendations by the federal Commission on School Safety, led by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Simply talking about the need for something to be done without creating the ability for schools to have the tools to reach more students in need avoids a core responsibility.
11 Dec2018
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE members Donna Cooner and Wendy Fothergill at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins were featured in a recent episode of Education Talk Radio to discuss their university’s School Leadership Institute. CSU launched the institute a year ago to identify effective ways to support new PK-12 principals and administrators.
The institute helps identify effective ways to support principals in their critical first year on the job based on feedback from recent program graduates. The goals of the Institute are
04 Dec2018
By Jerrica Thurman
In Fall 2017, AACTE member institution Towson University’s College of Education launched a pilot program, SIMTeach@TU, to strengthen its clinical and practice-based curriculum through virtual simulation. The program features eight faculty who develop problem-based case scenarios for teacher candidates to experience real-world human interactions with avatars via the virtual reality technology called Mursion. The training simulations recreate the most demanding interpersonal challenges that teacher candidates may confront in the classroom with PK-12 students. It allows preservice teachers to practice and master the complex interpersonal skills necessary to be effective in difficult situations.
“We see simulation—or approximations of practice—work as part of the trajectory of getting our preservice teachers ready to work with real students in classrooms,” said Laila Richman, associate dean of the College of Education at Towson. “We think about this as the first phase of a university-based clinical curriculum that moves them towards being able to work with students.”
28 Nov2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Check out the initial lineup of sessions and presenters for the 2019 Annual Meeting, now available through the online AACTE Event Planner!
Once you have logged in, sort through the hundreds of sessions to attend by searching titles, descriptions, presenter names, locations, and other fields. And new this year, you can now select strands and interest areas to narrow down your options as well.
19 Nov2018
By Jerrica Thurman
The draft of the AACTE 2019-2022 strategic plan is now available for members–only review. You can access the plan on the AACTE strategic planning web page.
The draft plan is a two-page document, which consists of the following sections:
16 Nov2018
By Jerrica Thurman
The 2019 AACTE Annual Meeting is just 12 weeks away! As you prepare for your stay in Louisville, Matt Wales, AACTE vice president, membership, events and special projects, offers some helpful tips to help you make the most of your time at the conference and in the host city:
What features of the Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC) make it a great host location for the AACTE Annual Meeting?
The KICC is truly a state-of-the-art facility. The KICC was closed in 2016, to undergo two years of construction enhancement and renovation. Having just reopened in August 2018, AACTE attendees will experience our General Sessions and Deeper Dives in a brand new, 40,000-square-foot ballroom that allows us to accommodate more seating, more space for networking, and additional, technological capacity for increased interactivity during these AACTE sessions.
