Prepared to Teach: How New Mexico is Building Its Path 

By Karen DeMoss

This two-day convening on May 30-31, 2024 in Albuquerque, NM, will explore concrete, synergistic actions based on the Prepared to Teach model to produce positive, mutually reinforcing transformations in the teacher preparation ecosystem. 

Day 1 of this convening will review New Mexico’s robust, supportive public and policy environment for teacher preparation transformation. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore key approaches for shifting public narratives about teacher preparation and education, using new and existing data to build political will for residency funding, and framing policies that support ecosystem shifts. 

Tennessee English as a Second Language Teacher Named 2024 National Teacher of the Year

By Erica Stanley

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) today announced Missy Testerman, a kindergarten through eighth grade English as a second language (ESL) teacher, as the 2024 National Teacher of the Year.

Testerman served as a first and second-grade teacher at Rogersville City School in Rogersville, TN, for three decades before taking advantage of the state’s Grow Your Own initiative and adding an ESL endorsement three years ago. She currently works as an ESL specialist at Rogersville City School, where she teaches K-8 students who do not speak English as their first language and supports them in all academic areas. A staunch advocate for students, teachers, and families, Testerman prioritizes instruction that ensures her students have the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve. She knows families are extensions of the classroom and often advocates for her families who speak little English.

National Center for Learning Disabilities Research and Survey

By Lauren Wong

My name is Lauren Wong and I am from WestEd, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization engaged in educational technical support and research across the country. We are partnered with the National Center for Learning Disabilities, one of the nation’s leading organizations advancing the lives of individuals with learning disabilities through policy, innovation, practice, and outreach. We are working together to learn about the experiences, opinions, and perspectives of educators who teach students with learning disabilities. 

We are surveying K-12 educators who teach students with learning disabilities. Your participation in this survey will help us understand your experiences teaching students with learning disabilities, the needs you have related to professional development and access to resources, and your school’s climate. All information shared will be kept secure and will be de-identified to protect your privacy and confidentiality. Results from this survey will be used to guide NCLD’s efforts in outreach, policy, and advocacy.

AACTE Celebrates Public Schools Week 2024 

By AACTE

AACTE is joining with the Learning First Alliance and partners nationwide to celebrate educators, students, and school communities during Public Schools Week 2024.  

This year’s week of events takes place from February 26 to March 1, 2024. Throughout the week — families, educators, and community members are encouraged to highlight the amazing things happening in their local public schools while expressing their support and advocacy for public education and all the benefits it provides children and families alike.  

“Public schools not only educate the minds of our future leaders but nurture the values of community, citizenship, and democracy that cultivate a society where every individual has the chance to thrive and contribute,” said AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D. “AACTE extends a happy Public Schools Week to our educator workforce that stands as pillars for the students who will one day become exemplary American citizens.” 

AACTE is Co-Hosting National Symposium for Educator Preparation, Policy, and Leadership

Registration is Open

By AACTE

AACTE is co-hosting the 2024 National Symposium for Educator Preparation, Policy, and Leadership. The symposium will bring together teachers, university/college faculty, education deans, teacher leaders, school district personnel and superintendents, state licensure and certification professionals, education leaders, and state and federal policymakers to identify and highlight effective and equitable strategies, resources, policies and practices to recruit, prepare, and retain an effective teacher workforce with a focus on teachers from historically marginalized communities.

AACTE Joins National Coalition to Combat SPED Shortages

By AACTE

AACTE has joined the National Coalition on Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services (NCPSSERS) to continue advancing toward solutions for the nationwide PK-12 special educator shortage. 

NCPSSERS is a national coalition composed of more than 30 participating member organizations. Since 2006, NCPSSERS has been dedicated to addressing the issue of shortages in special education and related services personnel in schools. 

Prepared To Teach Launches Webinar Series on Building Residencies

By Tyler Pointer

In their work to prepare aspiring teachers with pathways to paid residencies, Prepared To Teach is offering a six-part webinar series titled “Foundations to Futures” to support building new residencies. Foundations to Futures is a free, exploratory webinar series on residencies that will culminate in an invitation to join the Prepared to Teach Community of Practice to launch residencies.

The series will launch on January 29, 2024, with its first webinar, “Foundations for a Strong Residency” which will focus on the potential teacher residencies have to fundamentally transform both how individuals enter the profession and how students and teachers experience schooling. This webinar will share the following:

• A vision for residencies as a unique approach to preparation—and why we need them today,
• How preparation programs and school/district partnerships form the backbone of a strong residency,
• The basics of co-constructing residency designs,
• And tools and resources—all Creative Commons Licensed—for you to use in your local context.

Kern Family Foundation’s Master of Arts in Character Education Scholarship Opportunity

By Kirstin Werner

The Kern Family Foundation is pleased to announce an exciting opportunity. The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham located in Edgbaston, U.K. delivers a Master of Arts (MA) in Character Education. The MA program is a part-time degree that is taught online over three years giving students the flexibility to complete the program alongside full-time employment. The 2024 cohort begins in September 2024.

The university will offer scholarships covering the full tuition expense for a select number of U.S. citizens, who live and work in the United States. This scholarship is known as the Kern Award. As a valued partner of the foundation, we invite you or one of your esteemed colleagues to apply for the program.

At 11:00 a.m. CST on December 14, 2023, Paul Watts, Ph.D., program lead for the MA in Character Education, will be presenting an information session about the program via Zoom.

Department of Education and Partners Launch PSA Campaign – Teachers: Leaders Shaping Lives

By Nicole Dunn

On November 9, the U.S. Department of Education, TEACH.org, and the One Million Teachers of Color (1MToC) Campaign announced their partnership for a new public service announcement (PSA), Teachers: Leaders Shaping Lives.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and the Biden Administration are prioritizing teachers and the shortage crisis by investing in strong teacher pipelines that focus on diversifying the profession. AACTE was consulted on this project and on the development of the PSA.

By demonstrating the value and impact of teaching, the PSA looks to elevate the profession, shift perceptions, ignite respect, celebrate teachers, and inspire more talented people — especially Black and Latino talent — to become teachers.  In a LinkedIn Live event that accompanied the PSA launch, Secretary Cardona dived into teacher diversity and shortages, stating that the teacher shortage is a symptom of a teacher respect issue.

Fenwick Delivers 20th Annual Brown Lecture in D.C.

By Tyler Pointer

AACTE’s Dean in Residence Leslie T. Fenwick, Ph.D., recently delivered the 20th Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research in Washington D.C.

According to the American Educational Research Association, which hosted the event, the Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research illuminates the important role of research in advancing the understanding of equality and equity in education.

Fenwick’s lecture, “Otherwise Qualified: The Untold Story of Brown and Black Educators,” offered a newly excavated history of implementing the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. It also advances her theory of “cultural elision” to explain how Brown is still misdefined.

A Culturally Responsive School Leadership Approach to Developing Equity-Centered Principals

By Nicole Dunn

The Wallace Knowledge Center on School Leadership released a new report over the summer that can help principal prep programs prepare candidates to be equitable leaders in their school districts.  A Culturally Responsive School Leadership Approach to Developing Equity-Centered Principals: Considerations for Principal Pipelines posits whether pipelines can be designed to advance a district’s vision of equity, and if so, what the pipeline would look like.

University preparation programs are an integral part of the pipeline, especially in developing equity-minded leaders, as covered in Episode 4, ‘Districts and Programs Collaborate in Commitment to Equity’ of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)’s University Principal Preparation Initiative Podcast. This report focuses on the four key characteristics of equity-centered school leaders: critical consciousness, inclusive schools, culturally relevant and responsive classrooms, and community engagement.

Take a Seat at the Table: The Role of EPPS in Teacher Apprenticeship Programs

By AIR Center on Great Teachers and Leaders

Educator preparation programs (EPPs) have an opportunity to strengthen existing district partnerships and lead the way in co-designing teacher Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), including the launch, operation, and continuous improvement of programs. EPPs should be at the table as states, districts, and other partners establish these mutually beneficial partnerships and subsequent teacher RAPs by offering options and informing how the classroom training, related instruction, and hands-on experience are fulfilled.

The American Institutes for Research (AIR) Center on Great Teachers and Leaders is partnering with AACTE, the CEEDAR Center, and InnovateEDU to host a webinar that will expand upon the report, Take a Seat at the Table: The Role of Educator Preparation Programs in Teacher Apprenticeship Programs. In the webinar, we will provide concrete strategies and examples of the role that EPPs can play in teacher RAPs, drawing on National Guideline Standards that were developed by the Pathways Alliance and recently published by the U.S. Department of Labor. Leaders from Ball State University and Missouri State University will share their experiences with designing, implementing, and funding teacher Thwacks. 

The Take a Seat at the Table: The Role of EPPS in Teacher Apprenticeship Programs webinar will take place Wednesday, October 11, 2:00 – 3:00 pm. ET. To join this webinar, please complete the registration form. Participation in the webinar is free, and additional colleagues are welcome.

Presenters

•            Lynn Holdheide, AIR, CEEDAR Center, and Center on Great Teachers and Leaders
•            Weadé James, AACTE
•            Sabrina Baptiste, InnovateEDU
•            Reesha Adamson, Missouri State University
•            Susan M. Tancock, Ball State University
•            Carrie Lively, The Pursuit Institute

Register Today: 2023 Institute of Education Sciences Mathematics Summit

By Amanda K. Belue

In October 2022, the Nation’s Report Card revealed that fourth- and eighth-grade students assessed in the 2021-22 school year experienced the largest declines in mathematics performance in the program’s history. These national declines in achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) highlight the unprecedented learning crisis that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, gaps in the mathematics achievement of students with the highest and lowest performance were already widening.

On the afternoons of September 12, 19, and 26, 2023, national, state, and local leaders — along with educators, researchers, policymakers, and instructional experts — will convene to explore efforts to address this crisis. The three-day summit will be led by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO); the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS); the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy have contributed to the design and planning for the Summit.

Daniel Named TACTE President-Elect

By Odessa American

Larry Daniel, dean of the College of Education at University of Texas Permian Basin, is the new president-elect of the Texas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (TACTE).

TACTE is a membership organization for education deans in the state of Texas and is affiliated with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).

Daniel joins the TACTE Executive Committee, assists the association’s president as needed, serves in the absence of the president, and plans the program for the association’s summer retreat.

Daniel says he feels honored and grateful for this opportunity.

“I am humbled by the confidence that my TACTE colleagues have placed in me. For many years, I have had a passion for monitoring and influencing educational policy and legislative activities related to teacher education. Service to TACTE will give me an opportunity to work with others to influence state policy for the good of future teachers in the Lone Star State,” Daniel said in a UTPB Facebook post.

AERA Announces New Editor Team for Educational Researcher

By American Educational Research Association

AERA has announced the appointment of Nicholas Bowman (University of Iowa) as the new editor-in-chief of Educational Researcher for 2024–2026. Joining Bowman are three co-editors: Olusola O. Adesope (Washington State University), Brian P. An (University of Iowa), and Anjalé (AJ) Welton (University of Wisconsin, Madison).

This team will succeed the co-editor team of Thurston Domina (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Andrew McEachin (NWEA), Dana Thompson Dorsey (University of South Florida), and Sarah Woulfin (University of Texas at Austin).