AACTE Board Chair Introduces Connect360

By Robert Floden

Join Me for AACTE’s 2021 Washington Week

By Robert Floden

You’re Invited to AACTE’s 2021 Leadership Academy Series

By Robert Floden

As chair of the AACTE Board of Directors, I personally invite you to attend AACTE’s virtual Leadership Academy Series. This year’s event offers three sessions, with the first session occurring in just a few days.

Join AACTE for “When We Get Together Again: Creating New Opportunities Post COVID,” an interactive discussion on Wednesday, August 11 from 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. This session, facilitated by John Kuykendall, dean of the School of Education at the University of Indianapolis, and John Henning, dean of the School of Education at Monmouth University, explores our new “normal” environments and examines how other educational leaders are navigating challenging conditions.    

Service on the AACTE Board of Directors: An Investment in Yourself, Your Association, and Your Profession

By Robert Floden

These are challenging and exciting times for leaders in educator preparation. As our institutions strive to recover from the pandemic, there is the promise of dramatically expanded funding from Washington to address the teacher shortage. And as we continue to reel from acts of racial violence, educator preparation is playing a leadership role in helping teachers and school leaders understand and address systemic racism.

With all that we have to do in our “day jobs,” service on the AACTE Board of Directors may seem like an obligation that isn’t worth the effort. I have found it to be just the opposite. Serving on the AACTE Board of Directors has been a valuable way to make a difference, and has given me insights and connections that significantly added to my ability to serve my institution. I have grown as a leader, broadened my professional network, and gained a deeper understanding of our field and the wider political and social environment. It also has been deeply gratifying to contribute to AACTE’s work in advancing educator preparation.

Join Me at AACTE’s 2021 Annual Meeting

By Robert Floden

As chair-elect of the AACTE Board of Directors, I invite you to join me and your colleagues at the AACTE virtual 2021 Annual Meeting, February 24-26. Education leaders from across the nation will convene and share innovative perspectives, orientations, strategies, and technologies designed to address equity and inclusivity among diverse groups of learners and school contexts.

 

Inclusion and equity are overarching principles that should guide all educational policies, preparation programs, and practices. To do so effectively, educators must recognize the principle that education, particularly in an inclusive democracy, is both a fundamental right and the foundation for more equitable, inclusive, and cohesive communities.

 

Themed “Resisting Hate, Restoring Hope: Engaging in Courageous Action,” this year’s conference will feature four strands: Equity and Inclusivity in Preparation and Practice; Activism for Renewing Democracy; Establishing a Sustainable and Diverse Profession; and Clinical Practice and Community Engagement. The Equity and Inclusivity in Preparation and Practice strand will leverage the collective knowledge and experience of leading experts on ways to advance AACTE’s strategic direction to revolutionize education for all learners and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 

Watch the video to learn more about the virtual conference. The February 19 registration deadline is quickly approaching! Register now and invite your colleagues and students to participate in AACTE’s 2021 Annual Meeting. View the event schedule and details at www.aacte.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and join the conversation using #AACTE21.

 

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact AACTE’s Events Team at events@aacte.org. 

 

I look forward to greeting you at AACTE’s virtual conference in two weeks!

Sincerely, 

Robert Floden, Ph.D. 
Chair-Elect, AACTE Board of Directors  
Dean, College of Education, Michigan State University 

Teacher Performance Assessments as a Tool for Teacher Learning, Program Improvement, and Accountability: The Case of edTPA

By Robert Floden

One feature of the AACTE Annual Meeting will be panel discussion about the uses of edTPA, for accountability, support for teacher learning, and program improvement.  The session is scheduled for Wednesday, February 24, from 4:00 – 5:15 pm EST.

Some teacher educators see edTPA as a valuable tool, but other have concerns. Recent research has described its weaknesses as a criterion for high-stakes decisions about individual teachers.  This session is intended to help teacher educators and policy makers appreciate the variety of ways edTPA is being conceptualized and implemented, with the associated variation in positive and negative consequences.

Reflecting on Benefits of Editing the Journal of Teacher Education

By Robert Floden

The Michigan State University (MSU) College of Education has served as editorial home of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) for almost six years. With the editorship have come benefits, both to the editorial leaders and to our college. To handle the large number of manuscripts that come to JTE each year, we recruited a team, with four faculty co-editors (all at MSU), a half-dozen or so faculty associate editors (some at MSU, some at other institutions), and a part-time staff member as managing editor. We also had a rotating annual appointment of a junior faculty member as assistant editor, and two part-time graduate assistants.

As a part of the editorial team, faculty members contributed to scholarship on teacher education by making decisions and providing guidance to authors, both of which ensured that the publications in JTE were substantial contributions to the field, using high quality scholarship to address important issues. Editorial team members also had opportunities to participate in writing the editorials included in each issues—editorials that were then frequently cited by other scholars.