18 Oct2016
By Courtney Glazer and Diane M. Fogarty
Last week, AACTE’s Clinical Practice Commission (CPC) met to continue its consensus work regarding clinical experiences in teacher preparation. Colorado State University was a gracious host, and the high altitude was matched perfectly by the commission’s high expectations.
After our last meeting in June, commission members had been hard at work reviewing literature, considering exemplars, and drafting pieces of a large research document. Early on at this meeting, we affirmed our belief in the centrality of clinical practice and clinical partnerships for high-quality teacher education programs and practices. In hopes of maximizing the usefulness and traction of our work in the field, we decided to adjust our focus to producing a shorter white paper outlining bold claims and key supporting tenets for successful clinical partnerships and practices. The white paper will be accompanied by several additional pieces of scholarship aimed at different audiences and providing more details.
13 Oct2016
By Christine Tambini
AACTE has extended the application deadline for the 2017 Best Practice and Professional Achievement Awards until October 26! Now you have an extra 2 weeks to submit an entry through AACTE’s online submission site or to finish an entry you have already started. For detailed submission information, please refer to the official Call for Entries.
Our Best Practice Awards recognize your institution’s exemplary and innovative work in one of three areas:
04 Oct2016
By Amanda Lester
AACTE is excited to launch a new webinar series highlighting the experiences and findings of each of the 10 institutions in the AACTE Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC). Kicking off Thursday, October 20, 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. EDT, the inaugural webinar is “Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline at MidAmerica Nazarene, Western Kentucky, and UConn: Lessons From AACTE’s NIC.”
The goal of this NIC is to identify and test strategies to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/Latino men receiving initial teaching certification through educator preparation programs. This webinar series will provide an inside look at the path of inquiry guiding the NIC’s work and process and how that has shaped and changed recruitment and retention of Black, Hispanic, and Latino male teacher candidates at each institution.
06 Sep2016
By Gail Richmond
The editors of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) invite manuscripts for a special issue on historical and contemporary issues in teacher education. Manuscripts are due February 1, 2017, and the editors anticipate that the issue will be published later that year.
As is the case in many other fields, historical events and issues in education have the potential to inform contemporary ones, and it is clear that the field would benefit from attention to the connections between the past and present.
30 Aug2016
By Omar Davis
As the AACTE Holmes Program has expanded its scope over the past year and brought many new members into the fold, several participants have asked about the program’s history. To supplement the brief overview available on our web site, I am pleased to present the additional backstory below, written by Holmes alumna Phyllis Metcalf-Turner, dean and professor in the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education at Prairie View A&M University (TX).
16 Aug2016
By Omar Davis
This month, I visited the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) to participate in a kick-off symposium for the new AACTE Holmes Cadets Program starting there. The participating high school students were a dynamic reminder of why AACTE is expanding the Holmes Program: to support historically underrepresented students pursuing careers in education in order to diversify the field, from PK-12 through the professoriate. I was honored to welcome these passionate Holmes Cadets, who are poised to bring a strong Hispanic/Latino contingent to the teaching profession.
16 Aug2016
By Rodrick Lucero
Are your teacher candidates prepared to work with LGBTQ students? We’d like to learn about your perspectives and practices in our joint survey with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), which closes September 15.
In educator preparation, we continually strive to prepare teachers to be more inclusive of and responsive to the range of human diversity their students bring. To help inform this work, it’s useful to survey the field periodically to monitor trends in practice and define a course for moving forward.
09 Aug2016
By Kristin McCabe
Time is running out to apply for AACTE’s 2017 Outstanding Dissertation Award! Entries must be made online by Tuesday, August 16. Help AACTE showcase outstanding doctoral research at your institution by encouraging your top recent graduates (or recent hires!) to apply for this prestigious award, which includes a $1,000 cash prize.
The Committee on Research and Dissemination will review submissions this fall, and applicants will learn of their status in November (although the announcement of the winner is embargoed until February). The winner then will join other award recipients for special recognition at AACTE’s 69th Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, March 2-4, 2017.
04 Aug2016
By Kathryn Opatick and Amanda Lester
AACTE is excited to announce a call for new submissions to the Innovations Inventory! Online submissions will be accepted now through September 23.
The Innovations Inventory is an online repository of successful programs and initiatives that are improving educator preparation at AACTE member institutions. By documenting successful innovations, the inventory aims to inspire and support advances in educator preparation based on proven approaches that will benefit the field broadly. Members and their PK-12 partners are invited to submit examples of unique or new approaches to educator preparation programs or initiatives that address critical issues in educator preparation and show evidence of positive impact.
In this year’s call for submissions, we are pleased to offer two pathways through which faculty and partners can share their innovative programs:
02 Aug2016
By Sungti Hsu
Sharon Robinson addresses the China Teacher Leaders Forum. Photo courtesy of East China Normal University
Thank you for responding to AACTE’s survey earlier this year about members’ international activities. We were excited to hear from 142 of you about your established partnerships, new ventures, and suggestions for AACTE to take up the global agenda.
The survey results seem to reflect the growing emphasis, at least among the subset of educator preparation providers (EPPs) that responded, on international exchange and competitiveness as educators in our global society seek to learn from and share with colleagues around the world.
22 Jul2016
By Rodrick Lucero
We are excited to announce the second webinar in the AACTE clinical practice series: “Advancing Educator Preparation Through Clinical Practice: The Dean’s Perspective,” to be held August 19, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT.
Please join AACTE moderators Tim Finklea and Amanda Lester for a conversation with deans and directors representing five diverse universities as they explore the role clinical practice has played at their institutions through the lens of leadership. The panelists:
15 Jul2016
By AACTE Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability
The annual AACTE call for award nominations is currently open. As members of the AACTE Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability, we have the honor of overseeing the three Professional Achievement Awards. Please take a moment to nominate someone deserving for the 2017 Margaret B. Lindsey Award, David G. Imig Award, or Edward C. Pomeroy Award.
These awards honor individuals who have made a meaningful contribution to our profession with their research, policy leadership, or other service to the community. Certainly, you know someone whose tremendous impact on educator preparation deserves recognition. We hope you will take a moment to help us develop a robust pool of nominees for these awards:
29 Jun2016
By Sharon Chappell
Are you interested in advocacy and inclusion in teacher preparation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues? How can teacher education better support family diversity and gender-diverse and transgender youth, as well as address gender stereotyping and bias-based bullying topics in teacher preparation? Please join me in forming a new AACTE topical action group (TAG) to address these questions together!
According to a recent update from the Human Rights Campaign, 201 anti-LGBT bills have been introduced in 34 states this year, which comprises 76% of legislatures in session this year. However, only 3% of the total measures have been enacted. In Kansas, for example, senators encouraged schools and universities to disregard federal Title IX guidance that protects against discrimination, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. North Carolina recently passed HB2, which denies transgender people use of bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke recently on the issue of the U.S. Department of Justice suing North Carolina over the law:
28 Jun2016
By Abigail Mercadante
I was honored to attend AACTE’s Clinical Practice Summit earlier this month, where the common theme was creating a unified profession to improve teacher preparation programs. It was wonderful to see so many passionate educators working to make improvements for future educators like me.
During the summit, I was able to sit in on the conversations of various groups and heard about roadblocks facing education policy. One that was mentioned repeatedly is the fact that many policy makers have no experience in education to inform policies that are truly helpful. There is also a persistent disconnect between higher education institutions and PK-12 schools. One participant noted that many principals still do not know what edTPA is, for example, making it hard to implement. This is just one of the many examples that show the necessity of better communicating and operating as a unified profession.
27 Jun2016
By Rodrick Lucero
AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series on the Patton College of Education at Ohio University is coming to a close. We’ve enjoyed sharing the successful partnership work of the college and its network of professional development schools (PDSs) in a series of videos and blogs over the past 2 months, and now we’ve posted one final video – a longer clip with some great insights from the college’s leaders about their clinical practice model.
