23 Sep2019
By Kim Metcalf
As we settle in to a new academic year, it’s a particularly opportune time to update you on the work the Board of Directors has been doing on your behalf.
I am fortunate to collaborate with an exceptional group of leaders on the AACTE Board of Directors. They serve the Association in so many ways: as ambassadors for AACTE and for our profession, as liaisons to our Standing Committees, as officers on the Executive Committee, and as chairs and members of Board task forces addressing key issues, among many other activities. I want to thank each and every one of them for their hard work and dedication.
Already this year, the Board has taken a number of significant steps. In June, the Board approved new vision, mission, and core value statements for the Association as part of an ongoing board-led, member-informed strategic planning process. This plan reinforces the Association’s role in serving to promote advancement and innovation in educator preparation. Special thanks to Michael Dantley, who led this work, and to the members of the Strategic Planning Task Force for engaging in this process.
18 Apr2019
By Kim Metcalf
How often have you said (or thought to yourself), “I can’t possibly take on any more responsibilities! I can barely keep my head above water now?”
As I write to encourage you to serve on the AACTE Board of Directors and standing committees, I’m acutely aware that concerns about time and commitments exist for each of you. Given that we all struggle to balance our professional and personal lives, why should we commit time for service to AACTE? As someone who manages to serve on the Board of Directors—and who is now the chair—let me offer a few reasons why I find service to AACTE worth the investment of time and talent.
- It is important. Our institutions prepare students for the most important profession in the world. Yet, we are regularly reminded that policy makers and political leaders, the members of our communities, and sometimes even our colleagues in the academy don’t fully value the breadth or impact of our work. AACTE, through our collective voice, is both a vehicle and a resource for highlighting the value and importance of high-quality, university-based educator preparation. Being actively engaged in the work of AACTE has provide me with opportunities to influence the national conversation about educator preparation, helped me be better aware of developments beyond my institution, and provided tools and materials by which to more effectively communicate to my own regional and state audiences.
14 Dec2018
By Kim Metcalf and Michael Dantley
In our last blog, we invited you to contribute to the strategic planning process by reacting to a draft of the plan that outlined the vision, mission, strategic priorities and core values of our Association. Thanks to all of you who provided your insights. In today’s update, we’ll share some of what we heard and how we plan to incorporate your ideas going forward.
In addition to providing concrete feedback on the draft text, many of you also asked for a plan that is more forward-thinking and that outlines how AACTE can help shape the future as well as navigate the challenges and opportunities that it presents. For example, how will trends such as competency-based and technology-enabled instruction influence both the daily work of the educators we prepare and our own programs? How can we best confront the teacher shortage in partnership with PK-12 leaders and state policy makers, while also ensuring the quality of the education workforce? What more can we and the same partners do to ensure that the profession is diverse and that educators are prepared to effectively instruct all learners?
09 Oct2018
By Kim Metcalf and Michael Dantley
Greetings, colleagues. In our first blog on the strategic planning process, we noted that a Task Force would be meeting to draft revisions to the organization’s vision and mission and to outline strategic priorities for 2019 to 2022. That meeting just concluded and we are pleased to report that the Task Force is on track to deliver a draft to the full membership for review next month.
Over two days, the Task Force, which is composed of terrific members of the AACTE Board of Directors and National Office staff, wrestled with the challenges and opportunities confronting AACTE and its members and reached consensus on a set of strategic priorities that can guide the association’s work during the next 3 years. These priorities, with their associated objectives and progress metrics, will guide the staff as they experiment with new member programs and services and will help the board to track the association’s progress.
17 Sep2018
By Michael Dantley and Kim Metcalf
Greetings, colleagues. We are honored and excited to be co-chairing AACTE’s Strategic Planning Task Force. The task force is charged with creating a plan to guide AACTE’s activities through 2022. We had our first meeting on September 12, and we will be working hard over the next several months to produce a final plan in time for the 2019 Annual Meeting in Louisville.
We are embarking on this effort at a pivotal moment in the Association’s history. Colleges, schools, and departments of education have fewer resources to spend on representation and professional development, and there are more competitors for those scarce resources. AACTE has to constantly demonstrate its value and rapidly evolve to meet the changing needs of our profession.
04 Oct2017
By Kim Metcalf
Students from Clark County School District at the Rebel Science Camp in March. The district’s diversity makes it a "living laboratory” for developing educational practices the entire country will eventually adopt.
This article was originally published in the UNLV News Center and is reposted with permission. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
From the earliest days of our republic, we have believed that education was critical to our democracy. Our founders knew that the health of our country, the wellbeing of the citizenry – and particularly the strength of the democracy – would be built on a well-educated population. Though disagreements have been fierce regarding who is to be educated, how much education they need, and whether to measure its value in economic growth, individual growth, or societal growth, fundamentally, we have always agreed that educating our citizens is important.
