Author Archive

Inspiring, Interactive General Sessions at 2014 Annual Meeting

The call to “take charge of change” drew nearly 1,900 of you to Indianapolis last week for an exciting professional experience at AACTE’s 66th Annual Meeting. Videos of the general sessions are now available in AACTE’s Learning Center, and more recordings will be added in the coming days.

The Welcoming Session officially kicked off the conference March 1 with the announcement of AACTE’s new Innovation Exchange, presentation of several awards, and a keynote address by Diane Ravitch of New York University.

Annual Meeting Highlights: ‘AACTE News 14’

A news crew has captured highlights of the 66th Annual Meeting, producing a series of brief videos that convey the feel of the event. Click here to watch session footage, interviews, and more from the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, where the conference is wrapping up today.

Video recordings of the general sessions and major forums will also be posted as soon as they are available. Stay tuned for details!

AACTE Launches ‘Innovation Exchange’ to Speed Pace of Change in Educator Preparation

AACTE today announced the official launch of an initiative to support innovation in the professional community and speed the pace of change in university-based educator preparation. The Innovation Exchange will serve as a forum for AACTE members, partners, and other constituents to share experiences and findings as they work together to address the most urgent issues of student achievement, curriculum reform, and educator preparation program advancement.

Through this national initiative, AACTE will seek to strengthen educator preparation, demonstrate the necessity and effectiveness of educator preparation, and enhance members’ opportunities to collaborate on key issues.

New Partnership to Broaden Inclusion of LGBT Awareness in Teacher Preparation

AACTE, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) have announced a partnership to support teacher preparation programs in including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues in their curriculum.

Research suggests that positive, supportive, and inclusive classroom environments lead to better academic and psychosocial outcomes for students. While some teacher preparation programs incorporate LGBT-inclusive content and awareness into their curriculum, there has been no deliberate, comprehensive effort to expand the practice throughout the profession.

Announcing AACTE’s 2014 Award Winners

AACTE Awards, Recognizing ExcellenceAACTE is delighted to announce the winners of our 2014 awards!

The following awards will be presented during the Welcoming Session (March 1) and the Speaker Spotlight Session (March 3) at AACTE’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis:

  • Outstanding Dissertation Award: Empathic Interaction: White Female Teachers and Their Black Male Students, by Chezare A. Warren (University of Illinois at Chicago; Steven E. Tozer, adviser)

Teacher Educators Among ‘Who’s Who’ in NBPTS Conference Lineup

A March conference being hosted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) includes a veritable “who’s who” of speakers in its ambitious program that includes several faculty from AACTE member institutions.

Deborah Loewenberg Ball of the University of Michigan, Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University (CA), Andy Hargreaves of Boston College (MA), Mark Ginsberg of George Mason University (VA), James Hennessy of Fordham University (NY), Pedro Noguera of New York University, Robert Pianta of the University of Virginia, and other teacher educators will join dozens of other representatives from various education circles at “Teaching & Learning 2014” in Washington, DC.

March/April Issue of JTE Now Online

The March/April 2014 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) is now available online. See what Volume 65 Number 2 has to offer!

  • In this month’s editorial, “Research as a Catalyst for Change,” JTE‘s editors at Penn State University relate the issue’s contents to AACTE’s 66th Annual Meeting theme, Taking Charge of Change. Heralding the theme as an opportunity to champion the role of research in informing policy and practice, the editors highlight the articles’ contributions to knowledge about innovative practices in the development of both preservice and in-service educators.

New Report on Cultivating a Principal Pipeline

A new report from the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative highlights practices for the preparation and support of new principals. Cultivating Talent Through a Principal Pipeline is the second in a series of evaluations of the initiative, prepared by Policy Studies Associates. It describes results from the initiative’s first 2 years as participating districts worked to beef up their principal corps through training and ongoing support.

New Issue of JTE: Politics of VAM, Finnish Context for Teacher Prep, NCTQ Critique, and More Now Online

The January/February 2014 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) is now available online. See what Volume 65 Number 1 has to offer—without waiting for the mail delivery!

  • In this month’s editorial, JTE‘s editors at Penn State University announce the 2014 Editorial Review Board and outline the highlights of this issue’s articles.
  • The Effects of Teacher Entry Portals on Student Achievement” classifies North Carolina public school teachers into 11 predominant “portals” of entry into the profession and estimates their effects on students’ test score gains. The gains are generally higher for students of teachers prepared through in-state, public undergraduate programs—but Teach for America corps members seem to be more effective in STEM subjects and at the secondary level.

2012 PISA Results Highlight Inequities, International Lessons

PISA 2012 ResultsToday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released results from the 2012 administration of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide study of 15-year-old students’ performance on mathematics, science, and reading. American students’ performance remained largely unchanged from the previous PISA administration in 2009, although the U.S. ranking declined relative to other countries that improved over the past 3 years.

AACTE signed on to a statement of the Learning First Alliance about the results and also issued its own call for policy makers to look closely at the test’s lessons, along with the recommendations made by the OECD in its report Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons From PISA 2012 for the United States as well as in the 2011 edition of the report, which focuses more on teacher preparation.