17 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is pleased to announce that social justice champion Marilyn Cochran-Smith will speak at the Opening Session of the 71st AACTE Annual Meeting. The session will take place at the Kentucky International Convention Center on February 22, 2019.
A teacher education scholar and practitioner for more than 40 years, Cochran-Smith is the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College (MA). She is widely known around the world for her scholarship on teacher education research, practice and policy and for her sustained commitment to inquiry-based teaching and diversity and equity in teacher education.
16 Oct2018
By Jacqueline E. King, Ph.D.
Are you an AACTE member? If yes, then the Association needs to hear your voice! The Strategic Planning Task Force would like you to tell them about your professional needs and priorities by taking the Member Flash Poll (member login required) before October 19.
You might wonder, why is AACTE going through all of this work? The simple answer is because it leads to better decisions, better engagement, and better execution. Member engagement has become critical to associations’ success and the AACTE strategic planning process is designed to be interactive and iterative for all members. I encourage you to participate in the member flash poll, which is the first of several opportunities to weigh-in and share your insights. This is an important way to help ensure that AACTE remains relevant to you, your institution, and your students.
15 Oct2018
By Wendy Fothergill and Donna Cooner
This fall, AACTE will present a new webinar series called “Supporting Novice Principals on the Job,” supported by The Wallace Foundation as part of the Association’s ongoing partnership to disseminate the latest research and practice innovations in principal preparation. As moderators of the four webinars, we will explore the day-to-day work of a principal and how principal preparation programs can collaborate with districts to support new leaders.
The webinar series builds on the Wallace Foundation’s Theme from the Field that highlights the need for realistic clinical experiences in quality preparation programs. The webinars can be used to provide clinical expertise to principal preparation programs and to support new principals’ induction programs. The conversations will provide critical, timely information for pre-service principals, novice administrators, and university faculty who teach in principal preparation programs. If you are involved in school leadership, please join us!
15 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Nearly 40 members of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission (CPC) and the Special Education Task Force met in Washington, DC on September 24-26 to discuss their separate and shared initiatives that serve as next steps for advancing the new CPC report. Released in January 2018, A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon, and the Renewal of Educator Preparation by the CPC offers a framework, guidance, and common lexicon to expand the operationalization of clinical educator preparation. Its 10 proclamations and tenets identify highly effective and evidence-based practices for embedding teacher preparation in the PK-12 environment.
During the planning session, the CPC developed a working plan to advance its emissary work and to create a site-based peer-coaching model. The Taskforce focused on finalizing a series of tenets that will be added to the existing CPC proclamations to provide more specific practice recommendations for special and inclusive educator preparation.
“The CPC met on the first day to discuss the next round of their work, which is to share findings of the report more broadly through focused emissary work and the development of peer coaching strategies,” said Amanda Lester, AACTE director of programs and professional learning. “This emissary work includes a defined plan that will help AACTE members learn more about how to implement the report’s research for developing or expanding their clinical practice model.”
12 Oct2018
By Ann Sebald
The AACTE Co-Teaching in Clinical Practice Topical Action Group (TAG) has awarded two scholars with funds to attend the 2018 National Conference on Co-Teaching, which is being held at St. Cloud State University in Bloomington, MN, October 24-26. The awardees, Brenda Harrison and Rhonda Mannon, are education professionals at the Ceredo-Kenova Elementary School in Wayne County, WV, who have collaborated with Marshall University over the years to implement a Professional Development School (PDS) model of educator preparation that incorporates co-teaching in clinical practice. The funding was made available from an AACTE grant to support the activities and projects of the TAG.
To learn more about the work of the TAG awardees, I invite you to attend the National Conference on Co-Teaching. The conference will examine co-teaching between pre-service and in-service teachers during the student teaching experience and how it enhances the induction and mentoring of teacher candidates, as well as enriches the practice of veteran teachers who have found new energy in teaching and working with students.
11 Oct2018
By Jacqueline E. King, Ph.D.
One of the most important—and sobering—findings of AACTE’s recent report, Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, is that those studying education at the undergraduate and graduate levels are not nearly as diverse as the students they will serve. Indeed, the only other large professional field with less diverse bachelor’s degree recipients is agriculture.
As the author of the report, I invite you to join me and your colleagues for a close examination of education students’ characteristics during the webinar, National Portrait Deep Dive on Student Diversity, on October 18, 2:00–3:00 p.m. You will find answers to questions such as:
10 Oct2018
By Mary Harrill
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has released the first public draft of its position statement on “Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators.” Feedback from AACTE members—schools, colleges, and departments of education that house many early childhood degree programs—about the content and clarity of the statement is critical! We encourage you to provide feedback through this survey.
This statement is a revision of the 2009 position statement on “NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation,” which is a cornerstone of the early childhood profession. It serves as the standards for NAEYC’s higher education accreditation system, as well as the standards for the NAEYC SPA recognition system through the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). It also influences states’ early childhood competencies and professional development systems and informs the program content and design of most early childhood degree programs (preparing an early childhood workforce that serves young children, birth through age eight).
09 Oct2018
By Kim Metcalf and Michael Dantley
Greetings, colleagues. In our first blog on the strategic planning process, we noted that a Task Force would be meeting to draft revisions to the organization’s vision and mission and to outline strategic priorities for 2019 to 2022. That meeting just concluded and we are pleased to report that the Task Force is on track to deliver a draft to the full membership for review next month.
Over two days, the Task Force, which is composed of terrific members of the AACTE Board of Directors and National Office staff, wrestled with the challenges and opportunities confronting AACTE and its members and reached consensus on a set of strategic priorities that can guide the association’s work during the next 3 years. These priorities, with their associated objectives and progress metrics, will guide the staff as they experiment with new member programs and services and will help the board to track the association’s progress.
09 Oct2018
By Deborah Koolbeck
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) named the 2018 recipients of the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program on Friday, September 28. In total, the DOE funded 17 grantees from the $43.1 million appropriated by the U.S. Congress in the Fiscal Year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill.
The TQP grant program is the only federal initiative dedicated to strengthening and transforming educator preparation at institutions of higher education (IHEs). To be an eligible grant recipient, the IHE must offer a baccalaureate or graduate program in education, and collaborate with PK-12 partners. Other requirements include the IHE’s educator preparation program and college of arts and sciences work in partnership with a high-need school or schools in a local, high-need district. This helps prepare teacher candidates to teach in high-need fields by providing practical experience in these schools during their training. The innovative partnerships between IHEs and PK-12 schools transform educator preparation programs as well as provide benefits to teachers in the classroom.
04 Oct2018
By John McDonald
This article originally appeared in UCLA Ed & IS online magazine, Ampersand, and is reposted with permission.
CTS joins with Orange County and Butte County to expand California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support for educators and school systems.
In recent years, California has greatly reduced the number of student suspensions. Between the 2011-12 and 2016-17, the number of suspensions each year dropped by nearly half, from about 710,000 to a little over 381,000 students.
03 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Did you know AACTE selects the Annual Meeting destination four to five years in advance? To ensure the conference offers the best bang for your buck, AACTE works behind the scenes to secure event space and accommodations at budget-conscious pricing. Many factors are taken into consideration when determining future locations for the Annual Meeting, such as geographic location and rotation among U.S. regions, cultural diversity, attendee cost, available meeting space and accessibility, and social justice considerations. A complete list of the AACTE site selection procedures is available at aacte.org.
03 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
In celebration of National Principals Month this October, AACTE joins the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), and American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA) in recognizing the important work of principals in making schools great. National and state resolutions, formal awards and recognitions, and acknowledgments from U.S. senators and representatives and other top government officials mark this broad celebration of the principalship. It is an opportunity to say “thank you” to principals across the nation, and to reflect on the roles of school leaders and the importance of preparing them well.
02 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Manchester launched its new clinical master’s degree program during the 2018-19 academic year. The program offers dual certification in elementary and special education or early childhood and early childhood special education. It is designed to prepare teacher candidates for certification and to ensure that new educators have the required skills, competencies, knowledge, and dispositions specifically needed to support the development and learning of students in elementary grades (K-8) and general special education (K-12).
“It’s an accelerated 15-month clinical program that enables teacher candidates to work clinically with students during 11 of those months,” said Mary Ford, Interim Dean in the School of Education at SNHU. “They are [working] in supervised clinical experiences learning the craft and skill of teaching as well as monitoring the learning progress of their K-12 students.”
01 Oct2018
By Lynn M. Gangone
Our educator preparation community lost one of its strongest advocates for teacher quality on Friday, September 14, when Frank B. Murray passed away after a sudden illness. He was 79.
Frank played a vital role in advancing national accreditation in educator preparation. He was the founding president of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) and served as chair of its board of directors and for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). He also worked closely with AACTE as editor of The Teacher Educator’s Handbook and a leader of the Holmes Partnership. He served in various capacities on the editorial boards of several journals in developmental and educational psychology and was a fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association.
01 Oct2018
By Katrina Norfleet
AACTE members Rebecca Kantor and Barbara Seidl of the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) recently appeared on the EduTalk radio show to discuss their award-winning program. A recipient of the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity, CU Denver has discovered innovative ways to infuse multicultural education and diversity into educator preparation.
When asked by Education Talk Radio host Larry Jacobs about what makes their program stand out, Seidl answered, “Nationally, we all struggle to diversify the teacher workforce. But we thought about it in two ways: the first is to diversify the actual teaching pool … and the other is to make sure that [multicultural education and diversity] is really infused across all of our content and preparation.”
