This year marks the 70th anniversary of AACTE, and we want to celebrate with you at the 2018 Annual Meeting! As we honor the past, present, and future of educator preparation in Baltimore, Maryland, several fun activities will be offered to engage attendees, including the AACTE History Trivia Contest. Come test your knowledge about the history of AACTE and have a chance to win one of three prizes!
In an online radio show February 12, Education Talk Radio host Larry Jacobs interviewed AACTE staff members about the upcoming AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. Rodrick Lucero (vice president) and Matthew Wales (senior director of meetings, events, and special projects) joined Jacobs to discuss preparations for the event, which marks the 70th anniversary of AACTE, and what to expect on site at the Baltimore Convention Center and Hilton Baltimore.
Jacobs opened with an overarching question about AACTE’s purpose, in honor of the Association’s 70th anniversary. Lucero said it boils down to uniting the field in a national narrative, pooling everyone’s research and practice and solutions so that progress anywhere can benefit students everywhere. He emphasized that this narrative must be “put forward by the experts, and those are the people that are trained and able to speak about the work we do with kids, and with training teachers.”
On February 12, President Trump released his Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) budget request to fund the federal government. Similar to the previous request, this plan cuts 29 education programs while carving out space and funds for new programs focusing on choice opportunities.
In a press release from the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Betsy DeVos lauded the request for “expanding education freedom for America’s families while protecting vulnerable students.”
According to the Department’s fact sheet, the president’s education budget features six major themes:
Despite all the action in Washington, DC, this month, AACTE will not be offering a February Federal Update webinar – instead, please catch it live at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore.
In fact, I am thrilled that this year you have two opportunities to catch my Washington Update: Thursday, March 1, 3:45–4:45 p.m., and Saturday, March 3, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Congratulations to Ruby Ellis, Holmes Scholar of the Month for February!
Ellis is pursuing her doctorate at Auburn University (AL) and is committed to both equity and diversity in the classroom, which directly aligns with the mission of the Holmes Program. Her highest interest is serving individuals from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds in efforts to give them access to a higher quality of education. She believes that all students should have access to the best pedagogical practices in order to enhance learning.
The authors are organizers and moderators of the principal preparation webinar series for AACTE.
On February 21, AACTE will kick off the new interactive webinar series, “Leveraging Community Resources to Strengthen Clinical Practice for New Principals,” supported by The Wallace Foundation. These free webinars are designed to build on the Wallace Foundation’s 2016 report Improving University Principal Preparation Programs: Five Themes From the Field, which highlights the need for realistic clinical experiences in quality preparation programs.
Last month, the Oregon Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (OACTE) convened the second annual Oregon Education Summit, organized to unite as many stakeholder groups as possible around educator preparation and related topics. Held January 5 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, just 15 miles from the State Capitol in Salem, the gathering attracted representatives from every OACTE member institution as well as community colleges, legislators, PK-12 district staff, the state Department of Education and licensing agency, and nongovernmental agencies.
The summit was borne of the desire by OACTE to both claim a seat at the state table and access first-hand information – while establishing the organization and its members as willing collaborators on all aspects of education in the state. The first summit, held a year ago, was a success that organizers were eager to build on in Year 2. “Our first step is always a proactive one. We begin by asking, ‘How can we help?’” said OACTE President Leif Gustavson, who is dean of the College of Education at Pacific University. “Then we tend to get invited to the table. We are not an obstructionist organization, and we need to not think of others that way either. The summit gives us all an opportunity to meet face to face and realize the potential of what we can accomplish collectively.”
The National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) and AACTE are partnering in a new effort to better align their members around common work. In this pilot initiative, the organizations will explore and develop collaborative membership and governance structures, joint programming at the AACTE Annual Meeting, and other offerings.
Currently, 2-year colleges are eligible only for “affiliate” membership with AACTE, but a recent survey of AACTE members revealed an openness to incorporating community colleges more explicitly in the Association’s membership structure. About 800 community colleges nationwide offer some type of teacher preparation, including many programs that lead to bachelor’s degrees and licensure as well as others that prepare candidates to move on to 4-year institutions. Approximately 120 of these community colleges are members of NACCTEP.
One of AACTE’s most important goals is to support members in preparing educators for highly diverse schools. Teachers must work with students from different racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as students with varying abilities – and varying command of the English language. The notion that educators will only teach one type of student from one type of background is as antiquated as reruns of Leave It to Beaver. Thus, AACTE members are committed to ensuring that teacher candidates will be successful with all of their students.
Teachers, however, cannot do this alone. They need our help, and they need the help of policy makers and key stakeholders within their states, cities, and school districts.
Did you catch AACTE’s recent Facebook Live sessions hosted by our Director of Member Engagement Tim Finklea? As we prepare for our big conference next month, we want to let you in on some of the excitement through our new live web series titled “What to Expect at AACTE’s 70th Annual Meeting.” Join us on Facebook Live for a behind-the-scenes view of AACTE staff and their preparations for Baltimore!
Considering that the Annual Meeting is just weeks away, our whole staff is in high gear, and we will bring you one live episode each week featuring different guests. If you can’t join the live shows, don’t worry – they are captured for later viewing as well. To watch our first two installments of “What to Expect at AACTE’s 70th Annual Meeting,” just click on the thumbnails above.
The authors are 2019 editors of the Review of Research in Education. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
The schools in Chicago have a lot of initiatives going on. The three of us live and work here, so we are very engaged with the public and parochial schools across the city and suburbs. We see a dizzying array of efforts to improve teaching and learning: Professional Learning Communities, the International Baccalaureate, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, culturally responsive teaching practices, one-to-one computing, and many, many more efforts.
The AACTE Annual Meeting is just 3 weeks away, and in order to maximize your time in Baltimore, you will want to do some advance preparation. With over 250 sessions covering a wide variety of topics of interest, you are guaranteed to find sessions and content that fits your needs. Be sure to check out the AACTE Event Planner, where you can search the Annual Meeting offerings by keywords, topics, conference strands, and other criteria to locate sessions and create your personalized conference itinerary.
One place you most certainly don’t want to miss is the Conference Community Center. Located on the second floor of the Hilton Baltimore, the center is the place for you to connect with colleagues in a dynamic, engaging environment. Conveniently situated in the Key Ballroom Foyer, adjacent to many of AACTE’s Learning Labs, the center offers you a place to take a break and network, while also engaging with our Annual Meeting sponsors in the following booths:
As AACTE heads into the final weeks of planning for the 70th Annual Meeting, we can’t wait to welcome you to Baltimore! Be sure to visit the Online Event Planner to create a personal schedule that makes the most of your time. In addition to adding the opening and closing keynote sessions, you’ll want to select the Learning Labs and “Deeper Dive” sessions that are of greatest interest to you.
The Deeper Dives take the place of AACTE’s former “Major Forums,” providing a large-format, expert-facilitated exploration of a key topic during one dedicated time slot each day. Refreshed for 2018 with new expectations for audience interaction and other adult-learning principles, five such sessions will be offered this year:
This spring, AACTE will present a new webinar series, “Leveraging Community Resources to Strengthen Clinical Practice for New Principals,” 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 the roles and responsibilities of a principal continuously evolve, this free webinar series will explore how these changes impact principals’ day-to-day work and how to support new principals in navigating challenges successfully. The four webinars in the series build on the Wallace Foundation’s 2016 report Improving University Principal Preparation Programs: Five Themes From the Field, which highlights the need for realistic clinical experiences in quality preparation programs.
Congratulations to the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) on its selection to receive the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity! The award will be presented March 1 at the Opening Keynote of the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
The university, known as CU Denver, offers multiple pathways for teacher preparation to fit the needs of candidates from a variety of backgrounds and contexts, succeeding in attracting a diverse range of students. The program aims to prepare teacher candidates who believe all PK-20 learners deserve access to an excellent education by building upon the strengths of their individual culturally diverse backgrounds.