15 Apr2014
By Lucy Berrier
The Call for Nominations to serve on AACTE’s Board of Directors and standing committees is open at submit.aacte.org until May 9, 2014. One of the seven standing committees is the Committee on Membership Development and Capacity Building, focused on membership recruitment and retention, including the development of supporting programs and services. I asked the committee’s chair, Patricia Heydet-Kirsch, director of Assessment of Program Evaluation at Florida Atlantic University, to share why she was drawn to serve and what experiences she has gained.
What caused you to want to serve on AACTE’s Committee on Membership Development and Capacity Building?
I was interested in serving on AACTE’s Committee on Membership Development and Capacity Building to understand the broader perspective of AACTE’s impact.
08 Apr2014
By Kristin McCabe
Seeking to identify promising research areas in teacher preparation as well as roles for the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) in advancing and disseminating the field’s knowledge base, JTE editor Stephanie Knight (Penn State University) and AACTE assembled a group of advisers for a meeting last week in Philadelphia.
The meeting, held in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), also included AACTE President/CEO Sharon P. Robinson and the following advisers:
08 Apr2014
By Elizabeth Ross
The College of Education at the University of Florida last week announced the launch of a new center on “Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform”—also known as the CEEDAR Center—focused on supporting states in developing teachers to prepare students with disabilities for college and careers. CEEDAR is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, receiving $15 million over 3 years with the possibility of receiving additional funds for an additional 2 years.
08 Apr2014
By Kristin McCabe
Policy makers should allow more time for schools to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), according to a statement released today by the Learning First Alliance.
The Alliance—a partnership of leading education organizations, including AACTE—wants policy makers to make sure instructional alignment and various supports are established before they apply high-stakes consequences to CCSS test results.
In support of this agenda, a new web site houses implementation success stories, such as podcasts from selected states, and a collection of other implementation resources.
03 Apr2014
By Christine Tambini
AACTE’s 2014 Leadership Academy will convene June 22-26 at the Marriott Milwaukee Downtown to develop rising leaders in educator preparation in an intensive networking and skill-building experience. Attendees will be guided by experienced deans and chairs of the Leadership Academy Faculty in developing the powerful leadership and administrative skills needed to succeed.
As registration gets under way for this year’s event, I called upon Kandi Hill-Clarke, dean of the Bayh College of Education at Indiana State University and alumna of the 2013 Leadership Academy, to tell me about her experience at last year’s event. Below she describes how she has used what she learned to become a more successful leader and dean.
02 Apr2014
By Tim Finklea
Last week’s conference of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) drew some 1,100 educators to Nashville, Tennessee, to learn more about the new accreditation system.
Offering workshops for the various accreditation pathways, a mixture of keynote presentations, panel and plenary sessions, networking events, and group work, the conference brought together educator preparation providers, member associations, researchers, and practitioners from across the country.
02 Apr2014
By Sharon Robinson
This post was originally published on the Learning First Alliance’s Public School Insights blog.
The teaching profession is well known for losing almost 50% of its novices in the first 5 years. This churn is concentrated in high-need schools, which have a hard time attracting teachers in the first place. Not only does this “revolving door” phenomenon increase the chance that students with the greatest educational needs will be taught by an inexperienced teacher, but it is also financially costly in recruitment, staffing, and induction burdens.
01 Apr2014
By Elizabeth Ross
Starting last week, approximately 4 million students across 36 states and the District of Columbia began taking field tests for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) assessments developed by the PARCC and Smarter Balanced consortia. The field tests are scheduled to run March 24 through June 6.
A few states are piloting the tests on a broader scale. Nearly all students in California, Connecticut, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota will participate in the field tests.
31 Mar2014
By Jane E. West
On March 25, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) convened the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) to consider changes to Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA), the portion of the law that addresses teacher preparation. This was the seventh hearing in a series in the Senate on HEA reauthorization.
The predominant theme of the hearing was concern that the Title II data reporting requirements for teacher preparation programs are out of date, onerous, and not useful for program improvement. All five witnesses agreed on this point and offered recommendations for change.
25 Mar2014
By Elizabeth Ross
AACTE has partnered with Achieve Inc. to provide a series of webinars on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) this spring for teacher preparation programs.
In the summer and fall of 2013, AACTE surveyed its members about the activities programs have undertaken relative to CCSS and what resources AACTE might provide to support members’ understanding and capacity to address the standards. A majority of respondents cited access to CCSS-aligned lesson plans and rubrics as the number-one resource they needed.
25 Mar2014
By Jessica Milton
On March 19, I attended the release event of Beginners in the Classroom: What the Changing Demographics of Teaching Mean for Schools, Students, and Society, a report that examines the causes, conditions, and consequences of the rise of less-experienced teachers in the classroom.
Issued by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the report cites research showing that the shift toward greater numbers of inexperienced teachers has “serious financial, structural, and educational consequences for American public education—straining budgets, disrupting school cultures, and, most significantly, depressing student achievement.” (AACTE, too, seeks to address these problems through its Educator Workforce Advisory Task Force, an initiative of the new Innovation Exchange.)
25 Mar2014
By Kristin McCabe
We’ve just posted video recordings of all 10 major forums held during AACTE’s 66th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.
These videos, housed in AACTE’s Learning Center, are accessible only to conference registrants. Other available videos include one from the Town Hall Meeting (open to all AACTE members), two from other general sessions (open to the public), and two installments of “AACTE News 14” (open to the public).
In other exciting news, we’ve heard from our Indianapolis community partner School on Wheels that AACTE attendees donated $1,500 to that organization during the conference. Many thanks to all who contributed!
25 Mar2014
By Lucy Berrier
Thank you for voting on the changes to the AACTE bylaws during this month’s online vote. The proposed changes to both bylaws passed, with over 90% of respondents supporting the changes.
The first set of changes applies to Article II, Section 2, which now reads as follows:
24 Mar2014
By Valerie Fry
AACTE and the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) are pleased to announce the availability of new video interviews about edTPA, a nationally available teacher performance assessment created to ensure new teachers are effective from Day 1.
The first set of video interviews comes from New York State. As of May 1, 2014, New York State will require teacher candidates to pass edTPA as a requirement for initial certification, and many institutions in that state have been piloting edTPA. For the videos, we set up a roundtable discussion with teacher candidates from some of these institutions to talk about their experiences using the assessment. The video series Candidate to Candidate: Reflections on Taking edTPA shows teacher candidates discussing the challenges of edTPA, sharing advice and major takeaways they learned from the program, and offering many other valuable insights on teaching and teacher preparation. Click here to see for yourself!
20 Mar2014
By Lucy Berrier
With AACTE’s annual Call for Nominations under way, I asked a current Board of Directors member to share why he serves on the Board and what skills have proved particularly valuable. Grant Hayes, executive associate dean and professor in the College of Education and Human Performance, University of Central Florida, graciously accepted my request. The Call for Nominations is open at submit.aacte.org from now until May 9, 2014. If you have any questions, please contact me at lberrier@aacte.org.
What caused you to want to serve on AACTE’s Board of Directors?
Serving on the Board provides me the chance to make a difference and to give back to the profession by assisting to achieve AACTE’s goals and mission. It also affords me the opportunity to be part of a leadership team of one of the most dynamic professional associations in education.
