24 Apr2018
By Trish Parrish
AACTE’s Day on the Hill is always an exciting event for me. I love the energy of the group at orientation and the feeling of making a difference when I visit my elected officials and their staff during Washington Week. But anticipating these visits can also provoke some anxiety, which is why AACTE offers a full day of preparation before our Capitol Hill visits.
The orientation day has always prepared us well, but this year’s promises to be even better. The enhanced agenda offers a choice of two tracks with breakout sessions tailored to increase readiness based on your experience and comfort level with advocacy.
20 Apr2018
By Larry Daniel
James McManus (undergraduate social studies education major), Jennifer Bucciarelli (MAT math education major), and Associate Professor Stephenie Hewett represent The Citadel in their visit with Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) at the 2016 AACTE Day on the Hill.
I have been attending AACTE’s Day on the Hill (DOTH) for the past 18 years. It is a highlight event of the year, as it allows opportunity to assess our priorities for advocacy while simultaneously putting advocacy into action. Over time, I have found that some of the best advocacy team members are our education students. I have had the privilege of making DOTH congressional visits accompanied by numerous students over the last 8 years – including both undergraduate and graduate students – and, in every case, the students have added value to the conversations well beyond what might have been obtained by faculty and deans alone.
When planning our Hill visits, we ask students to help us deliver important messages about pending legislation or federal education budgets and policies to our congressional members, and they are very effective in doing so. More importantly, we ask our students to tell their own story: Why did they decide to become an educator? How will new policy changes impact them as practicing teachers and school leaders? What can the federal government do to make a career in education more important to other students at their institution? When students visit and present answers to these and other questions, congressional members and staffers take notice.
03 Apr2018
By Donna Cooner and Wendy Fothergill
This article has been updated to reflect new presenter information.
On Wednesday, April 18, AACTE will host a free webinar on principal leadership, supported by The Wallace Foundation as part of the Association’s ongoing partnership to disseminate the latest research and practice innovations in principal preparation. Please join us from 3:00-3:45 p.m. EDT for Leveraging Community Resources to Strengthen Clinical Practice: Mental Health Support for School Leaders.
New principals must not only learn to seamlessly integrate curriculum, lead change, and manage personnel; they must also become first responders in times of tragedy and grief counselors, while supporting their own mental health in high-stress jobs. This webinar will discuss –
03 Apr2018
By Kristin McCabe
Although violence and hate permeate our society, there is reason for hope: It is an amazing time to be in education. We are in a profession that has more to do with what we might do to change this society than any other profession. So how do we reframe the way we work with young people to make a better world?
These words were part of Deborah Loewenberg Ball’s introduction of a March 2 Deeper Dive session at the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting, organized by TeachingWorks under the theme “Outrage to Action: Disrupting Inequity Through Teacher Education.” Ball, of the University of Michigan, invited the audience to combat today’s fragmented society by intentionally building more connections, including with the “invisible” people who play supporting roles in our lives.
03 Apr2018
By Shardae Proctor
Clinical Practice Imperative Deeper Dive presenters Michael Alfano, Rene Roselle, Jennifer Robinson, Laurie Henry, Valeisha Ellis, and Christine Slattery
A Deeper Dive session at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting emphasized the criticality of incorporating clinical practice in educator preparation, drawing on the recent report of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission (CPC). Commissioner Michael Alfano of Sacred Heart University (CT) moderated “The Clinical Practice Imperative: A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon, and the Renewal of Educator Preparation” where a panel of experts discussed the CPC’s paper and its 10 proclamations for effective clinical preparation, the impact of clinical practice within the profession, and future plans to advance the work.
03 Apr2018
By Janine Allen
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
On February 28, AACTE hosted a daylong preconference workshop titled “A Global Lens to Educator Preparation: Shared Knowledge and Advocacy for Diverse and Multicultural Perspectives,” organized by the AACTE Committee on Global Diversity (GDC). The event, held just prior to the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, was attended by higher education faculty and administrators interested in exploring opportunities for a global focus in educator preparation. Participants discussed innovative experiences and partnerships that prepare mindful teacher candidates who will advocate for diverse global perspectives in curricula, policy, and practice.
03 Apr2018
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is excited to announce the dates for our 2018 summer events, offering a variety of targeted professional development for teacher educators. You can join your colleagues from around the country in Washington, DC, to learn to advocate for the profession; meet with fellow new deans and administrators in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for intensive leadership development and networking; and discover best practices for quality assurance in Columbus, Ohio, to help enhance your programs. Group discounts are available for each of these three events, so plan now to bring your friends and colleagues to these popular summer conferences.
WASHINGTON WEEK: JUNE 3-6
02 Apr2018
By Jerrica Thurman
28 Mar2018
By Robert Toy-Giles
Education Talk Radio host Larry Jacobs traveled to the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting earlier this month to capture voices from the field in a series of in-person interviews with AACTE members and volunteer leaders. The recorded discussions later aired in three segments on Jacobs’ radio show, the first of which is highlighted below (subsequent articles will feature the other segments).
In the first interview, two members of AACTE’s Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability – Jacob Easley of Eastern Connecticut State University and Deb Rickey of Grand Canyon University (AZ) – discussed the committee’s work to assist teacher educators with quality assurance and program improvement. Having just facilitated a preconference workshop on the topic, Easley and Rickey explained what quality assurance means for colleges of education and what the key challenges are.
23 Mar2018
By Randa Suleiman
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
The Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) partnered with AACTE to invite practitioners and administrators from PK-12 schools and educator preparation programs (EPPs) to provide a retrospective look at the influence of edTPA since consequential use began in fall 2013. The panel participants presented their views of the benefits and challenges of educative edTPA implementation in different policy contexts; how actionable evidence from edTPA has informed their programs, teaching, and scholarship; and connections across the full continuum of professional learning and development for teachers. The March 2 panel at the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore featured two new teachers who have completed edTPA over the past 5 years, a PK-12 administrator, EPP and state leaders, and two faculty scholars.
20 Mar2018
By Amanda Lester
On February 28, AACTE hosted a daylong preconference workshop titled “Strengthening the Pipeline to Transform the Principalship,” sponsored by The Wallace Foundation. The event, held just prior to the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, was attended by PK-12 and higher education leaders from across the nation and engaged participants in presentations and conversation on educational leadership through the lenses of policy and practice.
The agenda was broken into two thematic segments. The first segment highlighted how policy, partnerships, and resources influence strategies to renew principal preparation programs. The second included presentations about key policies that influence the renewal of principal preparation programs.
19 Mar2018
By Kristin McCabe
Cindy Gutierrez of the University of Colorado Denver listens as fellow panelist Steve Wojcikiewicz of the University of Portland (OR) discusses institutional supports for “deeper learning” teacher preparation.
A “Deeper Dive” session held March 3 at the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting shared lessons on how to engage preservice teacher candidates in the kinds of meaningful learning experiences they are expected to create later for their own students. Organized by the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), “Walking the Talk: Teacher Preparation for Deeper Learning” highlighted findings from a national study of seven teacher preparation programs that are organized in ways that align with deeper learning approaches – meaning less emphasis on rote learning and more on experiential, innovative, collaborative, and equity-focused pedagogy.
LPI researcher Maria Hyler opened the session by describing the primary features of successful programs identified in the study, details of which will be published by Harvard Education Press in a book later this year. These features include opportunities for candidates to experience learning that is applied and transferred, developmental and personalized, collaborative and social, contextualized, and socially just. Hyler then invited panelists representing several programs in the study to outline one of the key domains.
19 Mar2018
By Shardae Proctor
AACTE Media Relations Intern Shardae Proctor, a communications major at Maryland’s Towson University, attended the AACTE Annual Meeting earlier this month. Ed Prep Matters asked her to report on what she learned at one of the Deeper Dive sessions.
Participants discuss research and strategies to bolster and diversify the teacher pipeline at the March 1 Deeper Dive session organized by the editors of the Journal of Teacher Education.
Across the country, many schools continue to struggle to staff their classrooms with qualified teachers and to diversify their workforce to more closely match student demographics. To explore the contributing factors and potential solutions to this challenge, the editors of AACTE’s Journal of Teacher Education organized a “Deeper Dive” session at the AACTE Annual Meeting March 1 titled “Filling the High-Quality Teacher Pipeline: Promising Research and Strategies.”
13 Mar2018
By Kristin McCabe
UPDATE: Video recording is now available! Visit the AACTE Learning Center to watch.
At the March 3 closing session of AACTE’s 70th Annual Meeting, Diane Ravitch delivered a rousing defense of public schools and an unsparing critique of those who seek to privatize education in America.
She opened with a declaration of admiration for the bravery and articulate activism of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, following the recent tragic shooting there. Ravitch noted their engagement has been enabled by a well-rounded education—including drama, speech, and other subjects that have been eclipsed in many places by the focus on raising test scores.
13 Mar2018
By Jerrica Thurman
The March 1 Opening Keynote Session at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting featured an interactive panel discussion on recruiting and retaining profession-ready candidates in teacher preparation programs as well as increasing the number of teacher candidates of color. AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone, who facilitated the discussion, was joined by special guests Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, assistant vice chancellor of Teacher Education and Public School Programs for the Chancellor’s Office of the California State University (CSU) System, and Kimberly Tobey, executive director of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP).
The conversation began with identifying ways for how teacher preparation programs are effectively implementing programs and practices that reaffirm strengthening and diversifying the teacher candidate pool. The panelists highlighted successful strategies such as developing community college partnerships, creating capacity for students to have ease of transfer, and providing support to assist first-generation college students and others to pass through required pathways to completion.
