02 Feb2017
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology has selected the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University to receive the 2017 AACTE Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology. The award will be presented during the Speaker Spotlight Session on Saturday, March 4, at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
About 5 years ago, the college eliminated its stand-alone educational technology course and instead began infusing the tech content into methods courses. Because of the college’s large size, this undertaking required massive support and commitment among dozens of faculty and administrators. Their infusion initiative was based on a vision to prepare students to teach and learn with technology, achieved through four components:
01 Dec2016
By AACTE
Sharon Robinson, President and CEO of AACTE, issued the following statement today regarding President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education:
“AACTE congratulates Betsy DeVos on her nomination. On behalf of the nation’s educator preparation programs, we stand ready to collaborate with her to improve education for every student in America.
18 Oct2016
By AACTE
Press Release
(October 18, 2016, Washington, DC) – The AACTE Board of Directors today announced the planned departure of President and Chief Executive Officer Sharon P. Robinson. After more than a decade at AACTE, Robinson will retire in July 2017.
“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I would like to thank Dr. Robinson for her many contributions to AACTE,” said AACTE Board of Directors Chair Jane Bray. “Since 2005, Dr. Robinson has led AACTE to achievements well beyond our expectations and has challenged our profession to aspire to great heights. AACTE is met with mixed feelings as Dr. Robinson deservingly transitions into retirement. We are happy for her next phase of life and grateful for her wonderful tenure, yet we realize she leaves a cavernous hole for us to fill.”
12 Oct2016
By AACTE
Press Statement
(October 12, 2016, Washington, DC) – Today, the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule on the regulations for each of our nation’s 26,000 teacher preparation programs. The official version will be published in the Federal Register by the end of the month, and the Department is expected to release guidance in the coming weeks as well. AACTE is carefully analyzing the new rule and urges members and stakeholders to do the same to determine its potential impact on the profession.
15 Sep2016
By AACTE
Today, the Learning Policy Institute released a set of reports that present the latest data on U.S. teacher supply and demand and promote comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies to alleviate persistent shortages. AACTE commends the reports’ attention to the steep cost to students of understaffed schools, particularly in low–income communities, as well as the proposed solutions centered on high-quality clinical preparation of new teachers and reducing the attrition rate among practicing teachers.
School districts across the nation are struggling to staff classrooms with adequate numbers of skilled teachers, forcing them to make tough choices that shortchange students. Many educator preparation programs have stepped up recruitment and developed innovative partnerships with districts to meet local needs. Although these efforts are seeing some success, adjustments to the production end of the educator pipeline cannot compensate for the “leaky bucket” of practicing teachers who, according to the Learning Policy Institute, leave at a rate of nearly 8% per year.
25 Apr2016
By AACTE
A set of principles released this month gives educators and policy makers new guidance on the secure and ethical use of video and other classroom materials gathered as part of preservice teacher preparation. A task force of educators led by AACTE created the principles to ensure the privacy of those whose images and work are captured in the performance assessment of aspiring teachers.
The 27-member task force began convening last fall, meeting several times to develop the principles and supporting documents. Their brief brochure, “Securing Personal Information in Performance Assessment of Teacher Candidates,” explains the importance of videos and other artifacts in teacher performance assessment and introduces nine principles to guide those involved in creating or reviewing materials that include student images or identifying information.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has selected Ena Goodrich Shelley, professor and dean of the College of Education at Butler University (IN), to receive the 2016 AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Tuesday, February 23, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
The Pomeroy Award, named for longtime AACTE Executive Director Edward C. Pomeroy, recognizes distinguished service either to the educator preparation community or to the development and promotion of outstanding practices in educator preparation at the collegiate, state, or national level.
Dean Shelley wins accolades in both of these categories, captured in an impressive nomination portfolio submitted by a passionate coalition of faculty, staff, and students at Butler and beyond.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has chosen Matthew Ronfeldt of the University of Michigan School of Education to receive the 2016 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) Article Award for his article “Field Placement Schools and Instructional Effectiveness,” published in the September/October 2015 issue of the journal. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Thursday, February 25, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Ronfeldt’s study aimed to determine (a) what types of schools in an urban district are used most for preservice field placement, (b) what school characteristics make a difference in the effectiveness (gauged by value-added measures, or VAM, in reading and math) of the teachers placed there, and (c) whether teachers’ effectiveness corresponds to the degree of match between their preparation sites and the schools where they currently work.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE will honor Monica T. Billen, assistant professor in the Kremen School of Education at California State University, Fresno, with the 2016 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for her study #Learningtoteach: Using Instagram to Elicit Pre-service Teacher Reflection. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Thursday, February 25, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Billen’s study investigated how using participant-driven images on Instagram influenced reflective expression among preservice teachers during a yearlong internship. By employing a photojournalistic approach, teacher candidates constantly noticed their surroundings and used these “noticings” as catalysts for deeper, more critical reflections. Participants touted this method as much more connected to real life, collaborative, and interesting than traditional reflection methods. Amassing more than 1,800 photos over a year’s time, preservice teachers built a unique visual data set using familiar technology combined with written and oral reflections.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE will honor Anthony S. Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, with the 2016 AACTE Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Thursday, February 25, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Bryk will be honored especially for his transformative work at the Carnegie Foundation developing the field of improvement science in education—lessons of which he will then be sharing as a panelist at the Speaker Spotlight Session.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has chosen Rethinking Field Experiences in Preservice Teacher Preparation: Meeting New Challenges for Accountability, edited by Etta Hollins of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, to receive the 2016 AACTE Outstanding Book Award. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Tuesday, February 23, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Published by Routledge in 2015, this edited volume offers a robust set of perspectives on critical and challenging elements of teacher preparation—how field experiences are designed to support preservice teachers while they are learning to teach. Chapters are organized into three sections focusing on “approximation and representation of practice,” “learning teaching situated in context,” and performance assessment and program improvement. The book provides a collection of models of field experiences across a variety of teacher preparation contexts and deeply examines how the experiences are theorized, designed, and implemented for preservice teacher learning.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has selected the Loyola Marymount University School of Education (CA) to receive the 2016 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Tuesday, February 23, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
All of the education programs at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) are grounded in principles such as the promotion of social justice, cultural responsiveness, inclusion, value and respect for all individuals, and leadership that is moral, intellectual, responsible, and caring. Their effectiveness is evident in the conceptual framework, curriculum, commitment of faculty and staff, and the culturally and linguistically diverse teacher candidates and students throughout the programs.
18 Feb2016
By Elizabeth Finsness
AACTE’s Committee on Innovation and Technology has selected the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) to receive the 2016 AACTE Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology for Tech EDGE, a collaborative partnership between UNL and eight PK-12 partner school districts. The award will be presented during the Speaker Spotlight Session on Thursday, February 25, at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
Tech EDGE infuses best practices in technology integration centering on the ideas of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The partnership is dedicated to preparing preservice teachers with research and theory in university courses and practical applications in schools. As 21st-century skills are adopted locally and across the nation, it is critical that teacher preparation programs and schools work together to determine how to best teach the skills that are necessary in a diverse, global, and digital world.
18 Feb2016
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE has selected the Global Gateway for Teachers, offered through the School of Education at Indiana University (Bloomington), to receive the 2016 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Perspectives. The award will be presented at the 68th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Tuesday, February 23, at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
The Gateway program, in existence in various forms for over 40 years, aims to enhance and engage the professional preparation of future educators by offering them experiences in schools, homes, and communities of culturally and linguistic diverse groups in 18 countries and in domestic placements on Navajo reservations and in urban Chicago. Participants are engaged in 18 weeks of student teaching abroad as well as domestically where they immerse themselves in the language, the culture, and the educational system of that nation or community.
The program is directed by Laura L. Stachowski and enjoys strong support from the School of Education’s administration, including Dean Emeritus Gerardo Gonzalez and Interim Dean Terrence Mason.
11 Dec2015
By Kristin McCabe and Zachary VanHouten
On December 10, President Obama signed into law the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—now titled the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
The long-overdue reauthorization is being heralded as the end of the heavy-handed No Child Left Behind era, returning much of the authority to states and local agencies to oversee PK-12 education. But like any law of such great scope, this one has plenty of contentious content, and education organizations are offering decidedly mixed reviews.
In its statement on the passage of ESSA, the Coalition for Teaching Quality (of which AACTE is a founding member) said, “While the Coalition appreciates ESSA’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of states and districts to improve teacher quality, the bill unfortunately reflects a significant step back for many of our nation’s neediest students by eliminating a meaningful minimum entry standard for teachers and the need for states and districts to correct ongoing inequities in access to high-quality teachers.”
