Robert Floden at Michigan State University Becomes AACTE Board Chair

Robert E. FlodenAACTE announced today Robert E. Floden, Ph.D., of Michigan State University (MI) as the new chair of its Board of Directors. During his one-year term, Floden will support AACTE and its President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone in implementing the Association’s strategic goals, incorporating lessons learned from the pandemic to advance educator preparation and policies, and growing AACTE’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

“Our key priority now is clearly recovering from the pandemic. Face-to-face instruction is an important part of education. We can draw upon what we have learned about the ways in which we make good use of remote instruction and other important lessons,” said Floden. “I think teacher education programs in general made the pivot well, although it was challenging in the first months. But we learned how to continue to provide solid preparation for educators, and I think we can harvest what we have learned and use that as we move forward in the fall of 2021.”

New AACTE Report Tracks EPP Response to COVID-19 and Racial Injustice Crises

Fall 2020 Member Survey CoverIn October 2020, AACTE invited the chief representatives of its member institutions to complete a survey on how the twin crises of COVID-19 and racial injustice had affected their educator preparation programs and how they have responded to these crises. AACTE conducted a similar survey in April 2020, asking members about the immediate impact of COVID-19 on their educator preparation programs. A new report, released during the 2021 Annual Meeting, summarizes results from both surveys, tracking the evolving response of EPPs to these twin crises. 

Key findings include the following:

Bryan A. Brown Recognized with AACTE Book Award for Science in the City: Culturally Relevant STEM Education

Science in the City CoverAACTE is pleased to announce Bryan A. Brown’s Science in the City: Culturally Relevant STEM Education, as the recipient of the 2021 AACTE Outstanding Book Award. Brown is being presented with the award at today’s virtual AACTE 73rd Annual Meeting Awards Forum.

Science in the City: Culturally Relevant STEM Education, published by Harvard Education Press in 2019, examines how language and culture impact effective science teaching. In the book, Brown argues that teachers need to understand how cultural issues intersect with the fundamental principles of learning, and that science education can thrive if it is connected to students’ culture, backgrounds, identities, and language.

Developers of Teacher Educator Technology Competencies Recognized with 2021 Pomeroy Award

AACTE is pleased to announce that Teresa Foulger, Kevin Graziano, Denise Schmidt-Crawford and David Slykhuis are the recipients of the 2021 AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education. The foursome are being recognized for the development of the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs) and for their efforts to broadly disseminate the TETCs to teacher educators. The recipients are being presented with the award at today’s virtual AACTE 73rd Annual Meeting Awards Forum.

Sarah Mia Obiwo Recognized with 2021 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award

Sarah Mia ObiwoAACTE is pleased to announce Sarah “Mia” Obiwo as the recipient of the 2021 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Bringing Clarity to the Construct: A Content Analysis of Disposition for Urban Teaching and Learning.” The author completed her dissertation for the Ph.D. at Georgia State University, and she currently serves as assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Memphis. She is being presented with the award at today’s virtual AACTE 73rd Annual Meeting Awards Forum.

AACTE Honors JTE Article on Justice-Oriented Teaching Practices with 2021 Award

JTE banner

AACTE is pleased to announce authors of the article, Rethinking High-Leverage Practices in Justice-Oriented Ways,as the recipient of the 2021 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education Article Award. Published in the September/October 2020 issue of the journal, the authors of the article, Angela Calabrese Barton of University of Michigan, Edna Tan of University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Daniel J. Birmingham of Colorado State University are being presented with the award at today’s virtual AACTE 73rd Annual Meeting Awards Forum.

“There is much to admire and value about the scholarship that Calabrese Barton, Tan, and Birmingham report in this award-winning piece,” said Elizabeth Birr Moje, dean of the School of Education, University of Michigan. “Their ambitious pursuit of justice-oriented teaching practice, conducted in partnership with teachers, makes invaluable contributions to our understanding of how educators engage in socially transformative teaching.”

GoReact Partners with AACTE to Expand Access to Video Assessment for Teacher Education programs

Collaboration benefits AACTE member institutions with complimentary access to GoReact’s platform through July and discounted access thereafter.

GoReact and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) today announced a joint venture to expand educator preparation programs’ access to video assessment tools. The partnership was announced during AACTE’s 73rd Annual Meeting, the premier event for teacher education.

Through the partnership, AACTE member institutions can receive complimentary access to GoReact’s video assessment platform for a limited time and an ongoing discount thereafter. New GoReact users will receive free access to the platform until July 31, 2021, while existing GoReact users will receive expanded usage rights during the same timeframe. All AACTE members will receive a minimum of 10% discounted pricing following the complimentary service period. More than 175 AACTE member institutions currently use GoReact within their educator preparation programs.

America’s Teacher Educators Convene to Address Challenges

The 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) begins today. The conference, themed “Resisting Hate, Restoring Hope: Engaging in Courageous Action,” is being held virtually February 24 – 26. Attendees include deans, faculty, students, and administrators from undergraduate and graduate education programs, community colleges, and PK-12 schools, as well as representatives from state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and foundations. 

The past year has presented the educational system with many challenges. The onset of the pandemic, incidents of racial injustice, and the digital divide magnified the systemic challenges occurring in PK-16 environments that serve the nation’s most vulnerable populations—students of color, students with disabilities, students from immigrant families, students from low-income families, and LGBTQ students. Under its 2021 theme, the AACTE conference offers attendees hundreds of concurrent sessions that explore how to revolutionize U.S. educational systems and practices to better serve all learners, dismantle inequities, and assure that no child’s future is determined by their race or socioeconomic background. 

Member Spotlight: Teresa Clark

AACTE’s new Member Spotlight features an individual from a member institution, highlighting how their work makes a difference in classrooms across the country. Nominate yourself or another member by providing a response to the following questions and sending to mgrenda@aacte.org.

Teresa ClarkGet to know Teresa Clark …

Position/Institution: Associate Professor of P-20 and Community Leadership, Murray State University 

Number of years in your position: I am in my seventh year at Murray State. I started as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate last summer. 

Alma Mater(s): Geneva College (B.A. and M.A.) and Vanderbilt University (Ed.D)

Hometown: I grew up in Beaver, PA, lived in Nashville, TN and now Murray, KY.

Join Conversations in the AACTE Connect360 Online Community

AACTE Connect360 logoAACTE is in the final stages of launching the AACTE Connect360 online community. This week, Annual Meeting attendees will be among the first to preview and engage with colleagues in the new, members-only platform. As a registered attendee, members can create their profile, introduce themselves, and start or respond to a conversation during the 2021 virtual conference.

Attendees are invited to stop by the virtual Conference Community Center on Wednesday, February 24 or Thursday, February 25  for a tutorial on AACTE Connect360, where they can learn more about how to make and maintain professional connections during and after the annual conference. The AACTE team will be available to answer questions and guide members through the digital, collaborative tool. Plus, there will be plenty of opportunities to participate in online discussions with Annual Meeting colleagues over the next few days.

Call for Articles and Columns: ‘Education in a Pandemic Age: Evolution or Transformation?’

The Journal for Success in High-Need Schools, is seeking articles and columns for its Volume 16, Number 2, Issue theme – “Education in a Pandemic Age: Evolution or Transformation?” 

The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest and by far the most severe of several pandemics (e.g., HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola) global society has experienced in recent decades. COVID-19 has dramatically affected all sectors of education and society, including teaching and learning; how schools are structured; student, teacher, and parent/family relationships; and has thrust eLearning front and center in all aspects of education.  In shuttering virtually all schools and colleges and with nearly all students “sheltering in place,” COVID-19 transformed, at least in the short term, the trajectory of the decades-long evolution of online and distance learning.  As teachers scramble to develop their classes online and schools struggle to make technology more widely available, families must adjust to new realities with children at home.  Already there are wider impacts on work, leisure, and family life, not to mention jobs, careers, social organization, governance, international relations, and the global economy.  The timing and magnitude of these changes are open to speculation, but it appears that at some level they will be long lasting, even as the duration of COVID-19 and the likelihood of future pandemics on our complex, highly interactive Earth society are unclear.