21 Dec2017
By Rodrick Lucero
Educators from the Clark County School District speak at the Summit on Nevada Education, held December 4 in Las Vegas. (Photo: UNLV College of Education)
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the third annual Summit on Nevada Education hosted by the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). I was invited to attend the gathering by Dean Kim Metcalf, a member of the AACTE Board of Directors, and was delighted to witness the excitement of participants who shared and discussed their work to improve education across the state.
As I entered the student union on the UNLV campus, I followed the laughter and energy to find the ballroom. The excitement and synergy was palpable among attendees as they gathered, grabbed coffee, and greeted one another. The introductions began, and I was impressed with the numerous video greetings from Nevada senators and representatives as well as from Governor Brian Sandoval. These dignitaries were teeming with pride over the collaborative efforts under way to elevate education in Nevada. They recognized the ongoing work and articulated future directions for preparing teachers with the “next, best practices.”
19 Dec2017
By Jerrica Thurman
Join dynamic education leaders in an interactive discussion on ways to strengthen educator recruitment and retention during the Opening Keynote at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. This general session, to be held March 1, 2018, at 12:15 p.m., will feature the following speakers:
19 Dec2017
By Kristin McCabe
Two new videos are available this week in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series highlighting clinical preparation and partnerships of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) College of Education. The latest videos focus on the culture of continuous improvement and the program elements that set graduates up for success in the field.
The educator preparation programs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), set candidates up for success through a variety of supports and forward-looking practices.
19 Dec2017
By Jerrica Thurman
In a Twitter chat last week, members of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission discussed how effective clinical educator preparation produces profession-ready teachers, sharing key points from the commission’s findings over the past 2 years. The nearly 80 tweets at #AACTEcpc yielded more than 108,000 impressions during the lively conversation led by Susan Adams (Butler University, IN), Jennifer Roth (Poudre School District, CO), Laurie Henry (University of Kentucky), Marcy Keifer-Kennedy (Ohio University), Rene Roselle (University of Connecticut), Diane Fogarty (Loyola Marymount University, CA), Rod Lucero (AACTE), and moderator Amanda Lester (AACTE).
Participants discussed the purpose of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission, the importance of clinical practice in teacher preparation, the role of clinical partnerships, and how the soon-to-be-released report of the commission will help inform the practice of the entire education community.
19 Dec2017
By Zachary VanHouten
Did you miss last week’s Federal Update webinar? AACTE members can log in now to view the recording here.
An overcrowded agenda is staring down members of Congress as they prepare to leave for the winter recess. Items such as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), tax reform, a budget deal, disaster relief, and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) are items requiring policy makers’ attention before they leave Washington. In the midst of this activity, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced the “Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act,” which is the House Republican bill that would reauthorize the Higher Education Act.
19 Dec2017
By Deborah Koolbeck
On Friday, December 15, members of the U.S. Congress unveiled a conference report on tax reform, resolving differences between the House and Senate bills.
Full text of the conference report, which is nearly 1,100 pages long, can be found here. For those who want to go into the weeds, a joint explanatory statement, which describes current law, the House and Senate provisions, and what is in the conference agreement, can be found here.
18 Dec2017
By Kristin McCabe
The National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) requests proposals for workshops and other interactive sessions to be presented at its 2018 National Teacher Leadership Conference, July 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Proposals are due by February 5.
The 4-day conference will convene state and national teachers of the year (and finalists from the states) to “engage with national education leaders, administrators, policy makers, the business community, and colleagues to dynamically teach and learn in order to impact students, schools, and the profession.” Themed Teaching Tomorrow’s Leaders, the conference will offer sessions focused on four urgent problems of practice identified through a membership survey by NNSTOY:
15 Dec2017
By Zachary VanHouten
To keep members informed, AACTE regularly monitors and reports on the activity of the National Council on Teacher Quality that could affect educator preparation programs. Visit our NCTQ resource page for additional information.
This week, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its biannual review of state policies related to teacher quality, providing a status report on what the organization considers effective policies governing how teachers are selected, prepared, evaluated, and retained.
According to the 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook, many states have room for improvement in these policies, and despite recent progress on several fronts, NCTQ reports, many have stalled in their efforts to improve key policies related to educator quality.
The yearbook recommends various areas of improvement for states to consider:
15 Dec2017
By Matthew Wales
Have you ever wondered what goes into creating the AACTE Annual Meeting? One of the largest professional gatherings for the educator preparation field, the 2018 Annual Meeting will offer more than 300 presentations over the course of 4 days—the final destination on the long and winding road that leads up to each conference.
Here’s an inside look at some of the planning and milestones along the way to the 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, starting more than 4 years ago:
15 Dec2017
By Monique Matute
Congratulations to Eboni Caridine, Holmes Scholar of the Month for December 2017!
Caridine is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. program in higher education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Her research interests include undergraduate student involvement in campus governance processes, community-based organizations and their partnerships with postsecondary institutions, and racial equality in education.
At UNLV, Caridine has taught several first- and second-year seminar courses for the College of Education and served as a graduate assistant with CREA (Center for Research, Evaluation, and Assessment), where her responsibilities included assisting the team with evaluating school reform programs in the state of Nevada.
12 Dec2017
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is pleased to share new announcements related to the Clinical Practice Commission’s upcoming press briefing. We’ve confirmed several speakers and panelists for the briefing in Washington, DC, and in addition to registering to attend the live event, you can sign up to view a live webcast of the briefing and join members of the commission for a Twitter chat this week.
Limited seating is still available for the briefing itself, which will be held Wednesday, January 17, 9:00-11:00 a.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Register for free by December 18 to secure your spot at the briefing, where members of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission will unveil their findings on how effective clinical educator preparation ensures educators are prepared to meet the needs of all learners.
12 Dec2017
By Jungnam Kim and Dianne Mark
The authors are members of AACTE’s Committee on Global Diversity.
The AACTE Committee on Global Diversity will host a premier symposium a day before the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The free preconference event, “A Global Lens to Educator Preparation: Shared Knowledge and Advocacy for Diverse and Multicultural Perspectives,” will be held Wednesday, February 28, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and includes breakfast and a keynote luncheon. Please sign up to join us!
11 Dec2017
By Sarah Verneret
Three new videos are available this week in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series highlighting clinical preparation and partnerships of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) College of Education. The latest videos focus on the importance of building clinical partnerships around “natural connections” with the community, the key challenges to keep programs going, and aspirations for the future of the UNLV-Clark County School District partnership.
The University of Las Vegas (UNLV) and its clinical partners, including the Clark County School District (CCSD) and the on-campus CSUN Preschool, have cultivated strong relationships that allow them to weather obstacles together and share hopes for the future.
08 Dec2017
By Denise Pearson and Amanda Lester
As the nation’s classrooms become more diverse, research has demonstrated that developing a more diverse teaching workforce is imperative to meeting the needs of all students. Efforts are under way across the nation to identify successful strategies for increasing the recruitment and retention of teachers of color, especially men of color, into the education workforce. Organizations including AACTE and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) are among those leading such efforts.
At AACTE, this work includes the Black, Hispanic, and Latino Male Teacher Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC), the AACTE Holmes Program, and the Diversified Teaching Workforce: Recruitment and Retention Topical Action Group. Each of these initiatives is focused on increasing educator diversity by identifying and implementing practice that supports degree attainment and teacher certification. The NIC is currently developing a conceptual framework paper to highlight some of these strategies and plans to release the paper at the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting.
08 Dec2017
By JTE Insider
Have you seen the JTE Insider blog managed by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team? Check out the following interview with the authors of a recent article. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles themselves in the full JTE archives online – just log in with your AACTE profile here.
This interview features insights from the article “Focusing on Teacher Learning Opportunities to Identify Potentially Productive Coaching Activities,” by Lynsey K. Gibbons of Boston University (MA) and Paul Cobb of Vanderbilt University (TN). The article, which appears in the September/October issue of JTE, is summarized in the following abstract:
