08 Apr2014
By Kristin McCabe
Seeking to identify promising research areas in teacher preparation as well as roles for the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) in advancing and disseminating the field’s knowledge base, JTE editor Stephanie Knight (Penn State University) and AACTE assembled a group of advisers for a meeting last week in Philadelphia.
The meeting, held in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), also included AACTE President/CEO Sharon P. Robinson and the following advisers:
03 Apr2014
By Christine Tambini
AACTE’s 2014 Leadership Academy will convene June 22-26 at the Marriott Milwaukee Downtown to develop rising leaders in educator preparation in an intensive networking and skill-building experience. Attendees will be guided by experienced deans and chairs of the Leadership Academy Faculty in developing the powerful leadership and administrative skills needed to succeed.
As registration gets under way for this year’s event, I called upon Kandi Hill-Clarke, dean of the Bayh College of Education at Indiana State University and alumna of the 2013 Leadership Academy, to tell me about her experience at last year’s event. Below she describes how she has used what she learned to become a more successful leader and dean.
02 Apr2014
By Tim Finklea
Last week’s conference of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) drew some 1,100 educators to Nashville, Tennessee, to learn more about the new accreditation system.
Offering workshops for the various accreditation pathways, a mixture of keynote presentations, panel and plenary sessions, networking events, and group work, the conference brought together educator preparation providers, member associations, researchers, and practitioners from across the country.
25 Mar2014
By Elizabeth Ross
AACTE has partnered with Achieve Inc. to provide a series of webinars on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) this spring for teacher preparation programs.
In the summer and fall of 2013, AACTE surveyed its members about the activities programs have undertaken relative to CCSS and what resources AACTE might provide to support members’ understanding and capacity to address the standards. A majority of respondents cited access to CCSS-aligned lesson plans and rubrics as the number-one resource they needed.
18 Mar2014
By Omar Davis
Did you attend the edTPA-related sessions at AACTE’s Annual Meeting this year? If not, here’s a taste of what you missed! Click here to view a list of the descriptions and presenters for the various sessions that provided attendees the opportunity to converse with other users of edTPA.
A highlight of the conference was the edTPA breakfast hosted by SCALE, which drew more than 200 attendees. In her opening remarks, AACTE President/CEO Sharon P. Robinson championed edTPA, emphasizing that it was developed by and for the people in the room. She also encouraged audience members to advocate for edTPA in their communities. Afterward, Ray Pecheone, SCALE’s executive director, described in detail the developmental process of edTPA. He explained topics such as standard setting and state policy and announced that SCALE would conduct validity and consequential studies in the weeks ahead. Finally, attendees engaged in a question and answer session with Andrea Whittaker, SCALE’s director of teacher performance assessment, and other representatives.
10 Mar2014
By Kristin McCabe
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.
07 Mar2014
By Alicia Ardila-Rey
Close to 60 AACTE Holmes Scholars® and program alumni met in Indianapolis February 28-March 3 in conjunction with the 2014 AACTE Annual Meeting. The Holmes Scholars preconference event offered dedicated networking, mentoring, and professional development opportunities to the Scholars. This year we welcomed six new institutions to the program, as well as 25 Scholars who were attending the event for the first time.
03 Mar2014
By Kristin McCabe
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!
03 Mar2014
By Aimee Hall
AACTE is now accepting proposals for the 2015 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, February 27 – March 1.
“As our profession embraces change, we must be mindful of forces that enrich as well as interfere with its development. National, state, and local efforts to improve multiple dimensions of the educational process provide the impetus for practitioners, researchers, and community leaders to re-examine challenges that address our purpose and our intentions. These challenges include strengthening professional preparation; making the moral commitment to educate all individuals to develop their abilities; attending to emerging organizational structures; harnessing technologies that support the teaching and learning processes; modeling inclusive practices; and engaging in research focused on impactful practices that nurture student learning.” – 2015 Call for Proposals
21 Feb2014
By Zachary VanHouten
Next week’s AACTE Annual Meeting calls on us to “take charge of change.” Heed the call by signing up now to join your peers this June in Washington, DC, for action in advocacy!
With federal education programs facing budget cuts, potential teacher preparation regulations on the horizon, reauthorization looming for the Higher Education Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and partisan gridlock, now is a crucial time to learn how you can become an effective advocate for the profession. AACTE’s signature advocacy conference, Washington Week, offers three key events to assist in building members’ capacity for advocacy: Day on the Hill, the State Leaders Institute, and the Holmes Scholars Summer Policy Institute.
18 Feb2014
By Aimee Hall
AACTE’s 66th Annual Meeting is almost here. Have you thought about which of the almost 300 sessions to attend in Indianapolis? Take a look at the 2014 Annual Meeting program book, now available online.
After flipping through the program book, log in to AACTE’s Event Planner to build an itinerary (or add to your existing one) of the sessions you can’t miss. Export the itinerary to your Outlook calendar, or print a copy to keep handy.
See you in just 10 days!
18 Feb2014
By Elizabeth Ross
A call for proposals is now available for the 2014 State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities. The conference, to be held in Virginia in November, is cosponsored by the Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disabilities at George Mason University (VA) and the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education at Syracuse University (NY).
11 Feb2014
By Alicia Ardila-Rey
For more than a decade now, I’ve had the privilege to work closely with a wonderful group of diverse doctoral students during the AACTE Annual Meeting. Each year I am reenergized by their passion, ideas, and determination to succeed. I’m proud to see more and more of these bright scholars diversifying the makeup of the conference and of the profession, with hundreds of them now leading successful careers in academia and other education-related posts.
Close to 50 current AACTE Holmes Scholars® and many alumni will be joining Annual Meeting participants in Indianapolis this year. Look for the purple ribbon on their name tags, attend their poster session March 2 at 9:00 a.m. to learn about their research, and talk to them individually about your institution in our Holmes Scholars Job Fair March 2 at 3:45 p.m. You may find among them your next hire for that open position—or strong candidates for future ones.
11 Feb2014
By Kristin McCabe
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.
07 Feb2014
By Mary Harrill
Data literacy is not a new concept in education. Teachers and school leaders are constantly processing data—on student behavior, attendance, performance on assessments, district- and state-level data, etc.—and utilizing it to improve student and school outcomes. What is new, though, is the burgeoning amount of data now generated by district- and state-wide data systems, think tanks, research and policy organizations, and multiple other sources including schools themselves. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has been leading the push for equitable access to this information—and the push to develop educators who can filter out the “white noise” and home in on the data that are relevant to their classrooms and schools.
