29 May2023
By Nicole Dunn
May is Jewish American Heritage Month. AACTE joins the nation in celebrating the values, culture, and contributions of Jewish people by encouraging all educators to think broadly and critically about how to teach the diverse and complex history and experience of Jewish people. This is more critical than ever, as noted by Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon in Dear Colleague Letter issued in conjunction with the Biden-Harris administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism; in which Lhamon reminds us of the nationwide rise in reports of antisemitic harassment, including in schools.
29 May2023
By Nicole Dunn
Since its designation by Congress in 1999, National Military Appreciation Month in May, is the nation’s opportunity to honor the service and sacrifice of servicemembers and their families. Part of honoring that service is to ensure active and veteran military have access to educator preparation for those seeking to be teachers or administrators in the nation’s PK–12 schools.
01 May2023
By Nicole Dunn
In May, AACTE joins together with cultural institutions, school districts, municipalities, state legislatures, public servants, and non-profit organizations around the country to celebrate the immeasurable contributions of the Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage (AANHPI) community and recommit to the work of making sure that all people have the opportunity to be a part of the nation’s exceptional and equitable education system. AACTE encourage members to share the history, culture, and achievements of those who identify as AANHPI in their classrooms and on their campuses in observance of AANHPI Heritage Month.
11 Apr2023
By Nicole Dunn
This month, AACTE joins together with cultural institutions, school districts, municipalities, state legislatures, public servants, and non-profit organizations around the country to celebrate the immeasurable contributions of Arab Americans to our nation. As part of National Arab American Heritage Month this April. AACTE recommits to the work of making sure that all people have the opportunity to be a part of an exceptional and equitable education system as part of the American dream. AACTE encourages its members to share the history, culture, and achievements of Arab Americans in their classrooms and on their campuses during the month of April, such as the Arab American National Museum offers Educator Resources for free.
As part of its strategic plan to increase access and opportunities for diverse voices in educator preparation programs, AACTE will set up a database where members — faculty and teacher candidates — can post their research and publications to be cited by the field. If you identify as Arab or Arab American, you are encouraged to share your educator preparation research with your peers. This form also provides you with an opportunity to create a profile so that people can learn more about your research interests and other works.
Please take a moment to fill out the AACTE Cited Research Database Form or send it to your Arab/Arab American colleagues who may want to take advantage of the opportunity to highlight their work on AACTE’s website.
27 Mar2023
By Kari Vogelgesang
Are you interested in advocating and bolstering social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health (SEBMH) content and practice in your teacher education program? As the director of professional development for the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health at the University of Iowa, I invite teacher education professionals to join AACTE’s newly-formed SEBMH Topical Action Group (TAG).
21 Mar2023
By Brooke Evans
AACTE is still accepting applications from all AACTE member faculty and Ph.D. students who are interested in joining the Longview-supported Global Education Faculty PLC.
The Global Education Faculty Professional Learning Community (PLC ) will provide a peer support network and professional development to faculty and Ph.D. students at comprehensive teacher preparation programs to effectively integrate global teaching competencies within their curriculum and practices.
07 Mar2023
By Michael Rose
AACTE joins scores of organizations in celebrating this year’s Civic Learning Week, which takes place from March 6 – 10. This is a critical moment to call for increased understanding of the essentials of our government, how to engage with elected officials and understanding the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
02 Feb2023
By Nicole Dunn
Join AACTE as we celebrate Black History Month. This year, AACTE’s 75th Annual Meeting falls in February, the theme of which is Innovation through Inspiration: Remembering the Past to Revolutionize the Future; and how could we revolutionize the future of education and education and education preparation to ensure all learners receive a high-quality, equitable education without Black educators? AACTE is excited to offer programming throughout Annual Meeting and its preconference events, February 23 – 26, dedicated to supporting Black Educators and the representation of Black history and perspectives and curriculum and educator preparation policy and practice.
24 Jan2023
By Brooke Evans
Through the generous support of the Longview Foundation, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is launching a new Global Education Faculty Professional Learning Community (PLC). This PLC will provide a peer support network and professional development to faculty at comprehensive teacher preparation programs to effectively integrate global teaching competencies within their curriculum and practices.
A long-time supporter of AACTE, Longview Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Manise reflects on why the foundation has invested in AACTE since 1967: “the Longview Foundation made a grant to AACTE in its inaugural year to bring global perspectives to teacher education programs. In 2023, Longview awarded our eighteenth grant to AACTE. Together, we will support faculty development and innovative programming to prepare new educators and their students to be globally ready.”
24 Jan2023
By Anne Tapp
Quality real-world Science Technology Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) educational resources are needed within programs of teacher education and P-12 classrooms. The National Association of Manufacturing (2018) reported that the United States will need to fill 3.5 million jobs by 2025, with more than two million going unfilled due to lack of highly skilled in-demand candidates. The US Defense Industrial Base Industrial Capabilities Report (2021) showed a need for STEM education by stating that the STEM shortage is quickly approaching crisis status. This report is a congressionally-mandated, annual requirement in which the Secretary of Defense informs the armed services committees on the actions, investments, and overall health of the U.S. defense industrial base.
20 Dec2022
By Kaitlyn Brennan
This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
On Friday afternoon President Biden signed a short-term funding bill, otherwise known as a continuing resolution or CR, that will keep the government open and funded through December 23. The CR keeps the government open and freezes funding levels at their FY22 levels while appropriators finalize a deal for the FY23 spending bill. Stay tuned as we now have one final busy week in Washington before Members of Congress break for the holiday.
10 Nov2022
By Daniel Bergman
“Teacher Pipeline” is a common term used to encompass issues of teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention. The phrase is not new, popular in seasons of dire teacher shortages —from the 1980s (AACTE, 1988; Ekstrom & Goertz, 1985) to our present age (Choate, Goldhaber, & Theobald, 2020; Goldhaber & Mizrav, 2021; Kyser et al., 2021).
A “Teacher Pipeline” evokes vivid imagery: supply and demand, staff shortages akin to an energy crisis, and an impetus to extract and extrude future educators. To wit, the pipeline analogy lends itself to further symbolism such as “refueling” (Goldhaber et al., 2015/6); “widening” (Gagnon et al., 2019), “excavating” (Goldhaber & Cowan, 2014); and dealing with numerous “breaks,” “holes,” or “leaks” (Barth et al., 2016; Shah et al., 2018; Stohr, Fontana, & Lapp, 2018; TNTP, 2020).
21 Oct2022
By Jenna Conan Simpson
In today’s schools, the ability to integrate technology into the teaching and learning environment is a necessary and crucial skill. Many K-12 classroom environments are technology-rich, with 1:1 devices, blended learning, and even distance instruction taking place. However, new teachers often enter the classroom unprepared to successfully utilize educational technology and navigate the technology-rich classroom environment. The research study, Preparation to Teach in Technology-Rich K-12 Classroom Environments, examined the preparation of preservice teachers to teach with technology in today’s classrooms and explored the gap between the preparation teachers received in their teacher education program and what they needed to be able to do to be successful as classroom teachers. The study was conducted during the spring of 2022, and a total of 217 K to 12th grade teachers in their first three years of teaching in the United States participated in the survey, with ten participating in an in-depth follow-up interview.
18 Oct2022
By Lynn M. Gangone
Greetings! As we are entering the final months of 2022 and AACTE is strategically planning for the year ahead, I wanted to share some prodigious achievements we have made over the year and updates from our recent Board of Directors’ meeting.
Given the scope and scale of the teacher shortage, at the Board of Directors’ meeting, we determined that we should evaluate all current and new opportunities based on whether they will contribute to increasing enrollment in educator preparation programs. We are calling this our “North Star.” The strategic priorities of the association won’t change. Still, we will emphasize the near term on addressing the teacher shortage, understanding that by doing so thoughtfully and carefully, we can advance our priorities in advocacy, DEI, and advancing educator prep policy, practice, and research. I am also pleased that our Strategic Priority, “Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” has been changed to “Prioritizing DEI” because it better reflects AACTE’s emphasis on racial and social justice and equity.
14 Oct2022
By Kristien Zenkov
The Teacher Educators’ Journal (TTEJ) is published by the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (VACTE), a state unit of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The journal aims to stimulate discussion and reflection about issues related to teacher education; authors need not be based in and research need not be conducted in Virginia for manuscripts to be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted for consideration may be research/empirical reports and analyses, position papers, book reviews, or conceptual essays.
To facilitate collaboration amongst teacher education scholars and practitioners and improve teaching, research, and student learning, the Fall 2023 special issue of the journal will call on authors to address two related sub-themes in two distinct sections.
- Section I: The sub-theme for this section is “Opportunity Gaps and Collaborative Inquiry: Structures, Explorations, and Early Outcomes of the ATE Inquiry Initiative.”
- Section II: The sub-theme for this section is “From Policy to Practice: Striving for Inclusive Excellence through Personal Reflection, Connectivity, and the Building of Support Systems for Leaders, Educators, Students, and Families.”
