PVAMU Welcomes Students with Aldine ISD, Impact Leadership Academy Partnership

Prairie View A&M University students, faculty and staff were on hand bright and early to help welcome students to the first day of school at Aldine ISD’s Impact Leadership Academy (ILA), the district’s first all-boys school. PVAMU is partnering with the ILA to cultivate learning experiences rooted in identity, leadership, community, and activism, all designed to address academic achievement and support social and emotional needs for young Black and Latino male students.

Butler University’s Program Provides Training for Teachers with Alternative Credentials

Butler University is addressing Indiana’s teacher shortage through a new program designed to support new teachers, alternatively credentialed teachers, emergency-permitted teachers, or long-term substitute teachers with the training they need to succeed in the classroom. Butler’s first cohort of teachers will begin the first module of training in its “Teacher-Led, Teacher Education” program at the end of August.

According to a 2016 report from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, 8.5 percent of Indiana educators leave the field for reasons other than retirement (the third highest rate in the nation). The high attrition of educators, coupled with an insufficient pipeline of teacher candidates from bachelor’s degree programs, has led to drastic increases in alternative teaching credentials and emergency permits.

First-of-its-Kind Teacher Apprenticeship Program Launched at UCCS

This article originally appeared on Communique

UCCS has partnered with Calhan School District to offer a new K-12 Teacher Apprenticeship program. The program, offered through the College of Education, helps paraprofessionals become certified to teach in their own classrooms. 

“There’s a huge teacher shortage, especially in the rural communities, it’s especially difficult to recruit and retain teachers there,” explained Katie Anderson-Pence, Interim Associate Dean for the College of Education. “What this program looks to do is help people who are already at those schools, working as a paraprofessional or a teacher’s aide, to help them get their teaching license.”

New GSU Program to Assist Students in Special Education

Georgia Southern University special education faculty created an Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s (ABM) program to assist undergraduate special education students with earning an advanced degree in special education in less time.

The team, including the College of Education’s Eric Landers, Ph.D., Cynthia Massey, Ph.D., Stephanie Devine, Ph.D., Kathryn Haughney, Ph.D., Caitlin Criss, Ph.D., and Karin Fisher, Ph.D., received approval for the new ABM to begin this fall, encouraging special education undergraduates at Georgia Southern to complete a M.Ed. in Special Education.

VSU Graduate Program To Address Richmond And Petersburg Teacher Shortage

The Virginia State University College of Education has announced an innovative program which will enhance the experience of future teachers serving Richmond and Petersburg, while earning a Teacher License and Masters degree “free” of charge.
  
In the new teacher residency program, graduate students will co-teach and earn a Master of Education within one year, while gaining real-world experience in a classroom under the supervision of a master teacher. Once the co-teacher earns the degree, they must commit to full-time teaching positions in their residency school division for an additional 3-years.

Innovative Teacher Pathway Program Removes Barriers for Career Changers

The Kansas State University College of Education is adding a new pathway to the teaching profession for career changers who want or need to work full time while pursuing their teaching license and master’s degree in education.

The Kansas State Board of Education recently approved the Master of Arts in teaching residency, which leads to elementary licensure. It is an 18-month online program with three entry points each year: August, May and December. The equivalent program for those seeking licensure for secondary classrooms was approved in March.

Literacy Leaders Undergo Transformative Experience Through Warren Fellowship

This May, a group of students in the Texas Christian University’s College of Education took a week-long trip to the Holocaust Museum of Houston as part of the Warren Fellowship program. The trip was a culmination of studying the Holocaust and antisemitism in Jan Lacina’s Literacy Leadership class. Lacina is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education and associate dean of graduate studies in the TCU College of Education.

“I was compelled to integrate course goals, readings, and discussions about the Holocaust into my Literacy Leadership class because of recent antisemitic acts that took place in Texas,” Lacina said.

University of Iowa $15M Gift to Support School Mental Health

This article was originally published by the University of Iowa College of Education.

Thanks to a generous $15 million gift from the Scanlan Family Foundation, the Iowa Center for School Mental Health in the University of Iowa College of Education will be renamed the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health, pending approval from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, at its July 27 board meeting.

In addition to the new name, the gift will expand clinical support for school mental health in collaboration with the Belin-Blank Center, not only across the state but across the nation.

Summer Scholars Helps Develop Science Teaching

 

The University of North Georgia’s (UNG) Summer Scholars STEM Institute held throughout the month of June helped pre-service teachers in UNG’s College of Education gain experience in preparing lesson plans in science and engineering while focusing on English language learners. A nearly $300,000 National Science Foundation grant, which runs through 2024, helped fund the academy for 60 students rising into fourth grade through eighth grade at local area schools.

UW’s Teacher-Mentor Corps Cohort to Improve Teacher Support, Retention

The University of Wyoming has welcomed the inaugural cohort of the Wyoming Teacher-Mentor Corps (WTMC), an initiative led by the UW College of Education.

The WTMC is designed to foster teacher excellence by creating a network of Wyoming educators who can provide expert support for emerging teachers. The 21 cohort members represent 16 of the state’s 48 school districts — creating a web of expert teacher mentors that spans Wyoming.

High-Quality Principal Learning Programs Associated with Improved Outcomes

As state leaders continue to weigh the best use of federal funding to improve education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a major new research report by the Learning Policy Institute and The Wallace Foundation underscores the importance of federal, state, and district policies that foster the availability and quality of principal preparation and professional development programs. The research finds that the preparation and professional development a school principal receives not only shapes their efficacy as a leader, but are also associated with positive outcomes for teachers and students.