18 Oct2021
By Jane E. West and Kaitlyn Brennan
This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Congress has been working hard this week, even though they are out of session. Negotiations on the reconciliation bill continue intensely behind the scenes, and next week promises to be action packed when they return.
Default Averted: President Biden Signs into Law Short-Term Measure to Raise the Debt Ceiling
On Thursday, President Biden signed into a law a bill to raise the debt ceiling, averting a default on the nation’s financial obligations through at least December 3. The House interrupted their scheduled recess and voted on the Senate passed measure earlier in the day. As you recall, last week the Senate passed the short-term debt ceiling extension with a party line 50-48 vote–though 11 Republicans ultimately joined with Democrats to get the required 60 votes to overcome the legislative filibuster.
14 Oct2021
By Rachel Walker Bowman
When Mildred Boveda, associate professor of special education at Penn State University, was filling out some basic forms required for an academic appointment, she came to a question that made her pause:
Which of these best describes your race/ethnicity?
- White/ Non-Hispanic
- Black/ Non-Hispanic
- Hispanic
The list went on.
Boveda, an Afro-Latina woman of Dominican descent and complex intersecting identities, had always felt more at home in the Black community. But the erasure of her Latina roots, even just through a checkmark, was not something she could reconcile with.
She checked Hispanic.
11 Oct2021
By Jane E. West and Kaitlyn Brennan
This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
It’s been a tense week in Washington as a vote to save the nation from default hovered on the horizon. With a temporary solution in place, the rest of the year promises to be a continued set of cliff hangers.
First Log Jam Broken in Congress—More to Come
Last week, President Biden signed into a law a Continuing Resolution to fund the government through December 3, thus avoiding a government shutdown. The stopgap measure was the first of four major pieces of legislation on Congress’s agenda. At the start of this week the other three—bi-partisan infrastructure, reconciliation, and legislation to raise the debt ceiling—remained in limbo. But, on Thursday evening 11 Senate Republicans joined with all Democrats to pass a short term solution to the debt ceiling.
07 Oct2021
By Katrina Norfleet
Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) recently released a special report about teacher workforce diversity, Building a more ethnoracially diverse teaching force: New directions in research, policy, and practice, guest edited by AACTE members Conra Gist (University of Houston) and Travis Bristol (University of California, Berkeley). The special report highlights the forthcoming Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color (AERA, 2022) by Gist and Bristol, featuring research by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) educators on developing a more diverse teacher workforce.
The Kappan report provides brief overviews of the 11 domains of inquiry that are explored in greater length in the handbook by Gist and Bristol, along with a wide range of contributors. To bring Teachers of Color, Indigenous Teachers, and other educators into the conversation about how best to diversify the teaching profession, each domain pairs research briefs with teacher-written testimonies. The domains of inquiry include the following:
07 Oct2021
By Laurie Kinglsely
This fall, the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) conference will take place under the theme, Rediscovering the Joy in Teaching: Recharging and Rebuilding, on October 25-26. To maximize opportunities to engage, session times will vary by day, from 12:00-5:00 p.m. each day.
07 Oct2021
By Jane Bray
This op-ed originally appeared in District Administration and is reprinted with permission.
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented responses. For the first time, much of the country appears to have the same goal: getting both students and teachers back into schools. To that end, there has never been a more critical time to advocate for educator preparation and policies than now.
COVID-19 drastically changed the world, and its impact continues to influence opinions, strategies, and even political policies. The pandemic shined a spotlight on the importance of education for both students and educators alike. Everyone could finally see the existing deficits in the education system. The absence of education in the physical classroom revealed the importance of educating our children and ensuring quality learning environments.
06 Oct2021
By Meghan Grenda
Connect360 is your new, members-only, virtual platform that brings together AACTE’s community of over 15,000 individuals in a collaborative way. It’s your opportunity to share best practices, connect with colleagues, and engage in ongoing conversations.
With over 20 communities to join, there is a home for everyone. Check out the newest communities:
- Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) – The Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) operates as the governing body of the AACTE state chapter associations of colleges for teacher education. ACSR meets to advise the national organization on state policy issues and helps to set the policy agenda for the coming year. If you are a member of an AACTE state chapter, please join this community.
- Holmes Program – The AACTE Holmes Program supports students who self-identify as racially and ethnically diverse and are pursuing graduate degrees in education at AACTE member institutions. If you are a Holmes Scholar or coordinator, we encourage you to join this community.
- Military Affiliation and Educator Preparation Topical Action Group (TAG) –This TAG aims to highlight longstanding connections between the military and education as well as cultivate new opportunities between the two. This TAG community is open to all AACTE members.
06 Oct2021
By Nicole Dunn
As of September 25, 2021, there are 11 states—Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah—that have passed restrictions on racial justice education in public K-12 schools. As programs that prepare educators to enter classrooms during this current onslaught of education censorship, it is imperative to ensure they are prepared to balance the harsh realities of these bills with their abilities to affirm student identities by teaching a curriculum that is a full and accurate representation of our nation’s history across disciplines.
AACTE invites you to join “Black Lives Matter at School ‘Year of Purpose’” in a national day of action to #TeachTruth about structural oppression on George Floyd’s birthday, Thursday, October 14. This day of action is co-sponsored by the African American Policy Forum and is supported and endorsed by the Zinn Education Project (a project of Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change), National Education Association, Alliance for Quality Education, NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, and NYC Coalition for Educational Justice.
06 Oct2021
By Michael Rose
The Department of Education announced today changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) that will allow thousands of students to qualify for the program and see their debts forgiven.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was designed to allow student loan borrowers, who pay down their debts for 10 years while working at a public-sector or nonprofit job, to have any remaining debt forgiven at the end of that decade. However, only a small number of borrowers benefited from the program because they had taken out the wrong type of federal loan or had been enrolled in an ineligible repayment plan. In come cases, the debt was not forgiven because of minor clerical errors.
06 Oct2021
By Linda Minor
AACTE’s virtual 2021 Leadership Academy Series is almost sold out! Secure your spot now for the second Session, “When Thinking Wrong is Right: Purposeful Disruption of the Status Quo,” on Wednesday, October 20, from 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET.
05 Oct2021
Education Funds Hanging in the Balance
By Jane E. West and Kaitlyn Brennan
This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Congress Struggles to Move Forward
Since returning from the August recess Members of Congress have been scrambling to get four major pieces of legislation passed and ultimately to keep the government running. As you will recall, the big four are: a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, legislation to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the government from heading into default on its obligations, the bi-partisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill. Last week we reported that the four trains appeared to be moving down the track and were poised to avoid a collision after all—this week, we’re on standby.
05 Oct2021
By NAEd
The Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs commissioned paper series is part of the Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs project by the National Academy of Education (NAEd) that aims to identify best practices among existing models of evaluation tools and provide recommendations for the development of new models.
The commissioned papers will be published on a rolling basis, and the first two papers are released now.
Download both papers.
05 Oct2021
By Meghan Grenda
The deadline is soon approaching to submit your application for the 2022 AACTE awards. Ensure your institution’s best practice or individual, professional achievement is submitted for the 2022 AACTE Award program. Awards will be presented at the AACTE 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, March 4-6. Award submissions can be either self-nominated or nominated by a third party. To submit your nomination, visit AACTE’s online submission site and complete your submission by Friday, October 8
This is the 26th year AACTE’s Awards program has been recognizing member institutions’ exemplary programs as well as individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to education preparation. For an overview of the 2021 award winners, see this press release.
01 Oct2021
By Meghan Grenda
The AACTE membership team is working to deliver tools and resources to enhance members’ career development, provide answers to current challenges, and present opportunities to network and engage with other professionals in the field.
We encourage you to check out some of the new and/or enhanced member resources below to ensure you are taking full advantage of all that is offered to you via your AACTE membership. Remember, these tools and resources are available to all faculty, staff, and even students at AACTE member institutions.
30 Sep2021
By Jennifer Strange
This article originally appeared on the Elon University News site and is reprinted with permission.
Three faculty in the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education, Elon University presented at the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Teacher Education (NCACTE) 39th Annual Teacher Education Forum. In addition, one alumnae was recognized as a finalist for the North Carolina Student Teacher of the Year award.
The North Carolina Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NCACTE) held the 39th Annual Teacher Education Forum on Thursday, September 23 through Saturday, Sept. 25. The theme of the virtual forum was “Rethink, Reshape, Reimagine, Revolutionize: Growing the Profession Post Pandemic.”
