Throughout the AACTE Annual Meeting sessions in Atlanta, I was reminded of the lesson from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. The imperative of ample, authentic practice as a foundation for professional mastery resonated across several conference presentations.
AACTE is pleased to offer the State Chapter Support Grant Program for a 5th year, directing member dues toward strengthening the relationship between state chapters and AACTE and supporting the development of chapters through their initiatives.
Have you created PK-12 lessons aligned with new college- and career-ready standards? Achieve, Inc. wants you to share them—and is offering cash prizes for the best units of study submitted this spring.
The Achieve initiative known as EQuiP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products) is collecting instructional units to support the Common Core State Standards in English language arts (ELA)/literacy and math. Units rated exemplary by peer reviewers will win $1,500.
On Tuesday, March 10, the U.S. Department of Education’s International and Foreign Language Education Office will host a free webinar to assist minority-serving institutions (MSIs) with applications for Fulbright-Hays grants. An additional webinar will be open to all audiences the following day.
Now through May 29, AACTE is accepting session proposals for the 68th Annual Meeting, to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 23-25, 2016. We also invite applications by May 15 from AACTE member faculty to review proposals.
The conference theme is “Meeting the Demands of Professional Practice: Tough Questions, Tough Choices,” conceptualized as follows in the call for proposals.
AACTE’s Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability would like to encourage AACTE members to respond to the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Call for Service. The online application for the CAEP “Volunteer Corps” is open through March 20.
Volunteers may apply to serve as reviewers at different levels or on CAEP’s governance bodies. The call seeks a diverse population of volunteers, not only faculty from programs holding CAEP accreditation. But it is important for teacher educators to be represented in CAEP, and this can be achieved if you volunteer!
Do you know an individual with broad or deep experience in the field of educator preparation? Do you think someone’s guidance would benefit the educator preparation community nationally? Nominate that person (or yourself!) by May 8 to serve an important role in the governance of AACTE.
On February 26, the AACTE Board of Directors unanimously passed the following resolution regarding the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP):
“The Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) reiterates its support for a single, unified professional accreditation system for educator preparation programs. Further, AACTE is committed to the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). However, the AACTE Board also reiterates its ongoing, significant concern about the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and asserts that there is a ‘crisis of confidence’ with respect to CAEP. Specific concerns are related to the accreditation standards, process for accreditation, costs associated with accreditation, the capacity of CAEP to implement the accreditation system and the representativeness of the CAEP governance structure.”
The following letter to the editor was published in the Washington Post February 23, in response to the February 20 commentary by the University of Virginia’s Robert C. Pianta, “Teacher Prep Programs Need to Be Accountable, Too.”
Robert C. Pianta vastly oversimplified the narrative about accountability among those who prepare educators.
Educator preparation programs should indeed be accountable, and the profession has been busy creating data tools and processes for accountability. States such as Louisiana, California, and Georgia are working to determine the best ways to use data collected through existing assessments and surveys to document program impact. These systems rely on access to K-12 student achievement data as one indicator.
The state of Florida recently passed a new rule governing the implementation and evaluation of teacher preparation programs. The Florida Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (FACTE) was very active during the development and public comment periods for this new rule, and while we did not secure all the changes we’d hoped, we did make a difference in the process and in the outcomes.
FACTE implemented a detailed advocacy strategy during the public comment period. One of our greatest assets was our relationship with the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), which has always worked to be partners with our programs. I cannot speak enough of the importance of building relationships with those charged with program approval before you are in the process of rule development. We have focused our efforts on building on our shared vision of ensuring every child in the state is taught by a high-quality educator.
At this year’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta, AACTE is proud to partner with a local organization, Arts for Learning, to give back to the surrounding community. Look for the designated table beside the AACTE Resource Center outside the Conference Community Center.
Arts for Learning at the Woodruff Arts Center aims “to transform the lives and learning of young people through the arts.” It is an affiliate of Young Audiences, Inc., the nation’s largest source for arts-in-education services, and reaches preschool through high school students. According to its web site, the organization’s “performances, workshops, and residencies encompass a wide variety of art forms, genres, and cultural traditions in the visual, performing, literary, and media arts.” Arts for Learning serves more than 200,000 PK-12 students annually in hundreds of schools across Georgia, with targeted supports for classroom teachers to implement arts-integrated instructional strategies, particularly those focused on literacy.
This post originally appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education and is reposted with permission.
With high rates of retirement by an aging teaching force and continuing growth in school enrollments, we as a nation need more than ever to focus on how, where, and how well we prepare our future educators. Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Education has recognized the need to move on those issues. But one of its proposed solutions, in the form of regulations for evaluating the quality of higher-education programs that prepare elementary and secondary school teachers, could take us down a hazardous track.
AACTE has selected Pamela Grossman, dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, to receive the 2015 AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education. The award will be presented at the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Friday, February 27, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
The Pomeroy Award, named for longtime AACTE Executive Director Edward C. Pomeroy, recognizes distinguished service either to the educator preparation community or to the development and promotion of outstanding practices in educator preparation at the collegiate, state, or national level.
AACTE has selected special education scholars Mary Brownell and Paul Sindelar of the University of Florida to receive the 2015 AACTE David G. Imig Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teacher Education. The award will be presented at the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Sunday, March 1, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
The Imig Award, named for AACTE President Emeritus David G. Imig, recognizes distinguished achievement in the formulation, implementation, or analysis of teacher education policy, or in the performance of distinguished scholarship in educator preparation.
AACTE has selected Kansas State University’s College of Education to receive the 2015 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Teacher Education. The award will be presented at the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Friday, February 27, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
A model for global diversity education throughout the institution, K-State will be honored in particular for its Teaching English as a Second Language “Go Teacher” program, an award-winning, multifaceted program of professional education for practicing Ecuadorian teachers.