The Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact Is Now in Effect. Here’s What That Means

By Madeline Will

It’s about to get much easier for some teachers to keep teaching after moving across state lines.

Ten states have signed on to the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact this spring — the benchmark needed for the agreement to become active. Now, a teacher who has a bachelor’s degree, completed a state-approved program for teacher licensure, and has a full teaching license can receive an equivalent license from participating states.

That means they can teach in another state without having to submit additional materials, take state-specific exams, or complete additional coursework.

Read the full article in EdWeek.

AACTE is one of the organizations that contributed to the development process for the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact.

For more information, read the recent press release issued by The Council of State Governments (CSG).

AACTE is one of the organizations that contributed to the development process for the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact.
For more information, read the recent press release issued by The Council of State Governments (CSG).

A New Program Will Train Teachers to Teach Climate Change, Without the ‘Doom and Gloom’

By Madeline Will

Climate change is expected to affect every facet of our lives, and students are hungry to learn more about it. Many experts say the topic goes beyond science class and should be woven through subjects and grade levels.

Yet more than three-quarters of teachers have never received any professional training or education on climate change or how to teach it, according to a nationally representative survey of teachers, conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in December.

Alternative Certification Programs Are Booming. But Candidates Aren’t Finishing

By Madeline Will

Michael Darmas, a Teach For America instructor, gives his student a high five in this 2011 photo taken at Holmes Elementary School in Miami.
J Pat Carter/AP

This article originally appeared in Ed Week. 

Alternative-certification programs have long been thought of as one solution to teacher shortages, but a new analysis shows that the number of candidates completing those programs has declined over the past decade, despite a boom in enrollments and new offerings.

The findings underscore the complex and changing nature of the teacher hiring pipeline: Alternative programs are typically cheaper and faster than traditional teacher-preparation programs based at colleges and universities. They are bringing in new and more diverse talent to the teaching workforce. But as the authors of the new report warn, their candidates don’t always finish, and quality control remains an issue.

The Push to Get More Teachers of Color in Special Education Classrooms

By Madeline Will and Corey Mitchell

The excerpt below is taken from an article originally published in Ed Week and is reprinted with permission.

It’s a constant struggle for school districts across the country to find qualified special education teachers. An extra challenge: finding special educators of color to help meet the needs of a student population that can be disproportionately nonwhite.

Just over 82 percent of special education teachers in public schools are white, according to 2011-12 federal data, the most recent available. Meanwhile, only about half of students receiving special education services are white, according to 2017-18 data.

Yet teacher diversity matters: Decades of research has shown that students often perform better academically when they are taught by teachers of the same race.

“The special education field is really prime to recruit faculty of color,” said Jacqueline Rodriguez,

65 Years After ‘Brown v. Board,’ Where Are All the Black Educators?

By Madeline Will

The excerpt below is taken from an article originally published in Ed Week and is reprinted with permission. The article explores the historic decision that ended segregation in U.S. public schools and the unintended consequences that led to thousands of Black teachers and principals losing their jobs. Several AACTE members are quoted in the article, including the new AACTE Dean in Residence Leslie Fenwick.

“We decimated the black principal and teacher pipeline, and we’ve never rectified that,” said Leslie Fenwick, the dean emeritus and a professor at the Howard University School of Education. “It is the unfinished promise of Brown that we have not integrated our faculty and school leadership.”

Prior to Brown, in the 17 states that had segregated school systems, 35 to 50 percent of the teaching force was black, said Fenwick, who has researched the displacement of black educators for her upcoming book, Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: Public Policy and the Near Decimation of Black Educational Leadership After Brown.

Now, no state has anywhere close to those percentages of black teachers or principals, she said. According to the most recent federal data, about 7 percent of public school teachers, and 11 percent of public school principals, are black.

“Not having these models of intellectual authority and leadership in schools is detrimental to children,” Fenwick said. “All children deserve to have diverse models of intellectual authority in the classroom via their teacher, or diverse models of leadership in schools.”

Read the full article.