29 Nov2016
By Rodrick Lucero and Tim Finklea
It’s been a busy fall of traveling for the AACTE Member Engagement and Support team as we’ve been visiting campuses to document exemplary clinical partnerships and practices for our online Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series, part of the AACTE Innovation Exchange.
This fall, we’ve been filming at St. John’s University (NY); the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and California State University, Long Beach. We are also busy scheduling visits with State University of New York at Oswego and Butler University (IN) for spring 2017. At each location, we’ve met with deans, professors, teacher candidates, school district principals, teachers, and PK-12 students to see firsthand how a variety of programs are developing and sustaining successful clinical partnerships. The video production company “Ideas That Breathe” has been a valuable partner for filming, editing, and producing a compelling series from each site we visit. Each series is then segmented into episodes for posting on the Innovation Exchange and highlighting in the Ed Prep Matters blog.
29 Nov2016
By Amanda Lester
Next month, AACTE will host the second installment of a webinar series highlighting the experiences and findings of each of the 10 institutions in the AACTE Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The webinar, “Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline at Florida Atlantic University and the University of St. Thomas: Lessons From AACTE’s NIC,” will be held Wednesday, December 14, 2:30-3:30 p.m. EST.
The goal of this NIC is to identify broadly applicable strategies to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/Latino men receiving initial teaching certification through educator preparation programs. This webinar will provide an inside look at the path of inquiry guiding the NIC’s overall work and how that process has shaped and changed recruitment and retention of Black, Hispanic, and Latino male teacher candidates at two participating institutions.
28 Nov2016
By Sandra M. Chafouleas
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
In the 90s, I worked as a school psychologist and then as an administrator in urban and rural settings. I used my graduate training in behavior management to help students overcome challenges and meet classroom expectations.
22 Nov2016
By Rodrick Lucero
Is your educator preparation program doing enough to equip students to manage their finances when they enter the workforce? Money concerns often influence students’ career choices as well as whether a new employee will stay in the profession. As the country grapples with ongoing teacher shortages and declining teacher preparation enrollments, an important part of the solution is helping prospective educators address the particular financial challenges they’ll face.
To assist programs in meeting this goal, AACTE is partnering with The Horace Mann Companies on a series of webinars for teacher educators. The first webinar, “New Educator Financial Wellness: Challenges and Solutions,” will be held Thursday, December 8, at 11:00 a.m. EST.
10 Nov2016
By Michelle Mitchell and Terrance McNeil
Congratulations to November Holmes Scholar of the Month Nevin Heard!
Heard is a second-year doctoral student in the counselor education program at the University of Central Florida. He is the program coordinator for the Situational Environmental Circumstances Mentorship Research Project, a mentor liaison for the Counselor Education Doctoral Student Organization, and a board member for the Cultural Encounter Committee of the Multicultural Research Center Initiative.Heard is also a founding member and doctoral representative for the Multicultural Partnership of Organizers for Equity and Resilience (M-POWER) in the hopes of creating a newly recognized university organization to support counseling students.
18 Oct2016
By Courtney Glazer and Diane M. Fogarty
Last week, AACTE’s Clinical Practice Commission (CPC) met to continue its consensus work regarding clinical experiences in teacher preparation. Colorado State University was a gracious host, and the high altitude was matched perfectly by the commission’s high expectations.
After our last meeting in June, commission members had been hard at work reviewing literature, considering exemplars, and drafting pieces of a large research document. Early on at this meeting, we affirmed our belief in the centrality of clinical practice and clinical partnerships for high-quality teacher education programs and practices. In hopes of maximizing the usefulness and traction of our work in the field, we decided to adjust our focus to producing a shorter white paper outlining bold claims and key supporting tenets for successful clinical partnerships and practices. The white paper will be accompanied by several additional pieces of scholarship aimed at different audiences and providing more details.
04 Oct2016
By Amanda Lester
AACTE is excited to launch a new webinar series highlighting the experiences and findings of each of the 10 institutions in the AACTE Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC). Kicking off Thursday, October 20, 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. EDT, the inaugural webinar is “Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline at MidAmerica Nazarene, Western Kentucky, and UConn: Lessons From AACTE’s NIC.”
The goal of this NIC is to identify and test strategies to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/Latino men receiving initial teaching certification through educator preparation programs. This webinar series will provide an inside look at the path of inquiry guiding the NIC’s work and process and how that has shaped and changed recruitment and retention of Black, Hispanic, and Latino male teacher candidates at each institution.
04 Aug2016
By Kathryn Opatick and Amanda Lester
AACTE is excited to announce a call for new submissions to the Innovations Inventory! Online submissions will be accepted now through September 23.
The Innovations Inventory is an online repository of successful programs and initiatives that are improving educator preparation at AACTE member institutions. By documenting successful innovations, the inventory aims to inspire and support advances in educator preparation based on proven approaches that will benefit the field broadly. Members and their PK-12 partners are invited to submit examples of unique or new approaches to educator preparation programs or initiatives that address critical issues in educator preparation and show evidence of positive impact.
In this year’s call for submissions, we are pleased to offer two pathways through which faculty and partners can share their innovative programs:
25 Jul2016
By Mia Hines, Dominique Battle-Lawson, Ann Traynor, Mark Kohan, Rene Roselle and Dorothea Anagnostopoulos
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Like other programs, our teacher preparation program at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education has long struggled to recruit as many students of color as we’d like. That’s why we joined AACTE’s networked improvement community (NIC) in 2014 to collaborate with other institutions on strategies to bring more Black and Latino men into our programs. Already, we have nearly doubled the percentage of students of color in our program, going from roughly 12% of students to 20% of our entering cohort this fall.
28 Jun2016
By Abigail Mercadante
I was honored to attend AACTE’s Clinical Practice Summit earlier this month, where the common theme was creating a unified profession to improve teacher preparation programs. It was wonderful to see so many passionate educators working to make improvements for future educators like me.
During the summit, I was able to sit in on the conversations of various groups and heard about roadblocks facing education policy. One that was mentioned repeatedly is the fact that many policy makers have no experience in education to inform policies that are truly helpful. There is also a persistent disconnect between higher education institutions and PK-12 schools. One participant noted that many principals still do not know what edTPA is, for example, making it hard to implement. This is just one of the many examples that show the necessity of better communicating and operating as a unified profession.
27 Jun2016
By Rodrick Lucero
AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series on the Patton College of Education at Ohio University is coming to a close. We’ve enjoyed sharing the successful partnership work of the college and its network of professional development schools (PDSs) in a series of videos and blogs over the past 2 months, and now we’ve posted one final video – a longer clip with some great insights from the college’s leaders about their clinical practice model.
21 Jun2016
By Rodrick Lucero
Last week, the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission met with members of the former CAEP State Alliance for Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for a summit that began merging the outcomes from the alliance’s work into the ongoing efforts of the commission. Summit participants from the alliance were invited to join the commission, which is now in Round 2 of its quest to better define clinical practice and related best practices for the field.
The synergy in the room when these two groups got together was palpable. They began as if they had been working together forever. Each group has been studying clinical practice with an eye to advancing the recommendations of the 2010 NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel report, but tackling the work from different angles. The alliance’s findings, produced by state-based teams through work cycles grounded in improvement science, provide a valuable complement to the commission’s national effort. (CAEP, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, allowed the alliance to sunset this spring.)
13 Jun2016
By Francisco X. Gaytán
When considering the trends in college degree attainment among students of color, there appears to be a tale of two genders, and something must be done about it. In April, I was part of a group of educators from across the country that convened in New Jersey at William Paterson University’s College of Education to consider the issue. The attendees have been working together over the past 2 years as members of AACTE’s Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Initiative Networked Improved Community (NIC), drawing upon the collective expertise of the member institutions to increase representation of Black and Hispanic/Latino males in the teacher workforce.
13 Jun2016
By Melvin Bogard
A new set of brief videos in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series focuses on operationalizing clinical practice through the award-winning partnerships of Ohio University’s Patton College of Education (see this article introducing the series, this overview of the first three videos, and this summary of the next four videos). Today’s article highlights messages from the next three segments, which feature faculty and administrators from the partner schools as well as Patton College students.
17 May2016
By Katrina Sheffield
A new set of brief videos in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series focuses on operationalizing clinical practice through the award-winning partnerships of Ohio University’s Patton College of Education (see this article introducing the series and this overview of the first three videos). Today’s article highlights messages from the next four segments, which feature students and leaders from the college as well as from its partner schools.
The Patton College of Education at Ohio University and its partner schools nurture future teachers with extensive and hands-on experience in classrooms. Teacher candidates play an active role from early in their college years, actively participating and working closely with veteran educators to develop their own proficiency.
