Day on the Hill: Making a Difference in Early Childhood and Rural Education

As a former early childhood public school prekindergarten teacher in rural South Carolina, I have always engaged in advocacy for better educational policies. I have been engrossed in issues such as reduced recess, teacher professional development policies, parent access, and teacher training since I was in the classroom. I continue to serve as a point of inspiration as a 13-year veteran teacher educator at a historically black college and university (HBCU). Such personal connections and identified issues led me not only to serve on the AACTE Committee on Government Relations and Advocacy but also to engage in AACTE’s “Day on the Hill.”

AACTE’s Government Relations and Advocacy Committee is as way for me to provide support, experience, and advice in an area that I feel honored to have some expertise in—early childhood teacher education—to affect change at the highest level of the United States Government through the AACTE community. I have always said, “I trust my leaders, but they always need to have access to all of the information and the right information to make a comprehensively informed decision.” I lay that same claim to politicians and other policy makers and enforcers. This committee has given me much additional excitement because I not only see changes happening, but also, I believe that my small, humble contributions help make a difference.

Iowa’s Baker Teacher Leader Center Offers Social-Emotional-Behavioral Health Webinars

This past summer, the Iowa Department of Education and the University of Iowa announced a new partnership aimed to expand mental health supports for students, teachers, and school administrators. The Iowa Department of Education designated $20 million in federal relief provided in the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) Fund within the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRSSA) Act to help support the development of the Iowa Center for School Mental Health (ICSMH). This center is housed in the College of Education at the University of Iowa and will provide social-emotional-behavioral health (SEBH) focused training opportunities and resources for education professionals, pre-service teachers, school administrators, and conduct research on the effective delivery of these services.

In addition to the SEBH professional learning and trainings, the ICSMH is in the process of building a crisis response team, offering face-to-face and online crisis interventions, strategic planning support, needs assessment and SEBH program evaluation.

House Committee Approves Significant Investments in Education Preparation Programs

High School Students With Teacher In Class Using LaptopsOn September 9, the House Education and Labor Committee began work on its part of the reconciliation package that would make historic investments in American families, students, and the workforce. The legislation passed on a party line vote (28-22) and will be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.

Among the new policies, the House Education and Labor committee calls for investing an additional

Advancing Educational Equity

This article is a personal reflection of the 2021 Holmes Policy Institute by attendee Rangel Zarate.

Rangel ZarateThis year’s AACTE Holmes Policy Institute was rich with memorable discussions about culturally-relevant care, digital technology in the classroom, and equity issues in schools.

The year 2021 has led to an unexpected metamorphosis in education and has forced many instructors and educational leaders to rethink the way they approach student learning and their own teaching practices. In our conference panel discussion, “Advancing Educational Equity Post-COVID” AACTE staffer and associate professors at Columbia University’s Teachers College Deltra Price-Dennis and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz invited us to reflect on our own thoughts surrounding this new culture of change in educational institutions.

Promoting Policy Change from the Bottom-Up

This article is a personal reflection of the 2021 Washington Week Holmes Policy Institute by attendee Kamilah Bywaters.

Kamilah BywatersAACTE’s Holmes Policy Institute was literally “a breath of fresh air.” The gathering was a reminder of the extraordinary leaders within our nation who are dedicated and committed to forward thinking ideas that are good for all of humanity. I was more than thrilled to hear from Jessica Cardichon, assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development with the U.S. Department of Education. Her specific role that day was to inform Holmes Scholars of the initiatives and goals of the Biden Administration. To top it off, Nick Lee, the deputy assistant secretary for higher education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development with the U.S. Department of Education, provided valuable information on one of the objectives to ensure that higher education is equity focused and affordable to underserved and underrepresented communities. I am filled with hope to know that many of our nation’s leaders listen to the communities they serve and strive to implement policy that provides access and does good in the world.

Hear From Past Attendees About AACTE Washington Week

Connect with peers from across the nation during the virtual AACTE 2021 Washington Week. Themed Your Voice Matters, the conference unites AACTE’s collective efforts to advance education policy and funding to support programs at your local institutions. Hear what past attendees had to say about the value of Washington Week events in these testimonial videos:

Christine Carrino Gorowara, Ph.D.
Past president of the Delaware Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
University of Delaware
 
Christine Carrino Gorowara, Ph.D.
 

House Marks Up Proposed Build Back Better Act

Signing paperwork with a fountain paperwork. The image has added grain and styling.This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide updated information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

The following is an interim update on the big development in the House this week—the Committee on Education and Labor’s markup of the long-awaited Reconciliation bill, which features significant investments in the educator workforce.  

The House Education and Labor Committee Begins Mark Up on Reconciliation Proposal 

As you will recall, several months ago President Biden proposed two significant investments in the nation’s infrastructure—both human and physical: the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. The human infrastructure component is now being developed by Congress, in the form of a reconciliation bill. Yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee began to mark up its portion of the reconciliation proposal. The 289 page proposal, with a $761 billion price tag—otherwise known as the Build Back Better Act—is part of the larger $3.5 trillion proposal.

As described by the Committee, the proposal would lower costs for families, secure good-paying jobs for American workers, and set a strong foundation of America’s children. The three major education programs in the bill include Universal Pre-K, Tuition-Free Community College, and Child Care.

New Tools to Support Your Advocacy

White House in the fall

As we enter September, we are just weeks away from AACTE’s Day on the Hill, the Association’s premiere advocacy event.  Participation in the event is critical to helping advance AACTE’s legislative priorities and highlighting the importance of teacher preparation programs.  If you have not participated in Day on the Hill, or if you need a refresher, you may be wondering what attendees will be advocating for during their meetings with Members of Congress and congressional staffers. The AACTE team has posted a variety of Washington Week resources on the to help guide participants. 

In many cases, you will be familiar with the issues: the importance of TEACH Grants, which are critical to helping students enter the teaching profession while helping to address shortages in hard-to-staff fields and schools; Teacher Quality Partnerships (TQP), which helps strengthen the teacher pipeline; and a variety of other bills that will help make sure our nation’s classrooms are staffed with profession-ready, diverse group of educators.

While it is helpful to review these materials ahead of Day on the Hill sessions, please know that we will discuss the political landscape and AACTE’s legislative priorities before meeting with members of congress to help you become more comfortable with advocacy. And there will be several other panels to help you understand why advocacy is important and how you can have successful meetings.

If you haven’t already, I hope you will plan to join us for our Day on the Hill. To register, please visit AACTE’s website

 

 

UW College of Education Launches Competition to Spark Interest in Teaching

University of Wyoming - WY TeachThe University of Wyoming College of Education and UW Trustees Education Initiative (TEI) have partnered with Mursion, a company that develops virtual reality training simulations, to present the inaugural College WYTeach competition.

UW and Wyoming community college students who are freshmen or sophomores and interested in becoming teachers can participate in the contest. The top three participants will be awarded scholarship money to UW or a Wyoming community college.

In Wyoming and across the nation, schools are experiencing a shortage of teachers. The WYTeach competition was developed to get students interested in teaching careers and provide a stream of highly qualified teachers into classrooms. This exposure will provide students the opportunity to practice their professional skills and put their teaching abilities to the test by leading a class of students inside a virtual reality simulation.

Washington Week Viewpoint: Why State Leaders Institute?

Beth KubitskeyBeth Kubitskey, ACSR Midwest Region representative and president of the Michigan Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, recently shared her experience as a State Leaders Institute attendee and what she’s looking forward to at this year’s virtual event during Washington Week. 

Why do you believe it is important for AACTE members to actively advocate for education?  

One of the reasons I think it is vital for AACTE members to advocate for education is because we are the experts. Still, often we are so busy doing the work that we do, we have to remind ourselves that we need to be proactive, not reactive. Often by the time we finally receive word on a bill, law, or state policy, it has already moved through many processes.

And so, we are not aware of those kinds of things before they get to far down the road, and we lose our opportunity to have an impact. There are multiple examples of where we are more likely to succeed if we can get that information early and be proactive.

Workshop Recording Available: How to Use ESSER Funds for Ed Prep

In case you missed it, there is another opportunity to learn about how to use ESSER funding to recruit into Educator Preparation Programs (EPP).

As you know, in the past year, Congress has set aside billions for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund. To help educator preparation programs effectively allocate those funds, AACTE created an Advocacy Toolkit with examples from EPPs across the nation who are expanding their recruitment using federal dollars.  In this workshop, GoReact and AACTE put together a panel of national, state, and university teacher preparation professionals. We explored one state—Tennessee—which used ESSER funds to support a statewide Grow Your Own Program to address teacher shortages and diversify the profession.

It’s Renewal Season at AACTE

It's time to renew your membershipAs the Fall 2021 semester kicks off, AACTE would like to remind you to renew your membership for 2022.  With our member’s support we have been able to provide you the tools and resources necessary to successfully navigate the past 18-months. Below are just a few of the essential tools and initiatives AACTE has developed in the past year. 

  • Connect360 – Join this new, members-only, virtual platform that brings together AACTE’s community of over 15,000 individuals in a collaborative way.  Share best practices, connect with colleagues, and engage in ongoing conversations.
  • Research, Reports and Briefs – Receive the latest information from the field, including the update to our popular Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, coming this fall.
  • Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA) – Discover how AACTE, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is evaluating cut scores and how they can be refined to attract, rather than exclude, potential candidates.
  • ARP Funding Toolkit – Learn how members can collaborate with their local district partners to allocate ESSER funds toward strengthening the educator workforce.
  • Webinars – Explore the latest in the AACTE Webinar library: Leading in and Leading Through Crises: AACTE’s Education Deans in Discussion, Growing and Sustaining White Racial Justice Allyship in Education, and Combating Racism in Educator Prep: Justice and Joy for BIPOC Individuals.

Telling Our Stories on Capitol Hill

Unrecognizable woman having videocall with her african american boss, using laptop in office, cropped. Lady employee having business training online, business woman talking to partner online, collageIn a couple of weeks, I’ll participate in my first Day on the Hill as a member of the AACTE Committee on Government Relations and Advocacy.  I am really excited by the opportunity and want to invite you to participate.  Like many AACTE members, I have worked with city and state elected officials, policymakers, and representatives from state agencies.  But speaking with members of Congress and their staffs offers an opportunity for even greater engagement.

As leaders in education, AACTE members all know that we must be outward facing, managing our colleges while we tell our story to many stakeholders.  That story is what enticed most of us to get in this line of work in the first place.  We all advocate for our needs and interests all the time, and although our interests may not be identical, they are often closely related regardless of our institutions.  Some of us push for greater equity in teacher preparation programs.  We want to diversify the teacher pipeline and the resultant teacher workforce, knowing how vital representation along the lines of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual identity is to students across the country.

AACTE Invites Entries for 2022 Awards

2022 AACTE AwardsThe 2022 AACTE Awards Program is open for submissions. Do you know someone who or an institution that has made significant contributions to the field of educator preparation? To submit your nomination, visit AACTE’s online submission site. Winning entries will be decided by AACTE’s Programmatic Advisory Committees and recognized on stage at the 2022 Annual Meeting, March 4-6, in New Orleans, LA. 

Entries for the Outstanding Dissertation Award are due September 15. The due date for all other award submissions is October 8.

AACTE’s awards program has been recognizing member institutions’ exemplary programs as well as individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to education preparation for 25 years. For an overview of the 2021 award winners, see this press release.

For 2022, we invite nominations or applications for the following awards: