Congratulations to Monique E. Matute, Holmes Scholar of the Month for November 2017!
Matute is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in special education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). This is her second year in the doctoral program, and she is also a graduate assistant.
Matute is a determined doctoral student who exemplifies hard work and dedication to the field of special education. Her research interests are the disproportionality of African American males in special education and applied behavioral analysis. She strives to present critical issues and implications on overrepresentation and underrepresentation of students from culturally linguistic and diverse backgrounds in special education.
The evolution of a teacher candidate into a professional educator does not occur overnight. Rather, it is a slow, steady, empowering journey that unfolds over several years, with teacher candidates receiving support and encouragement from mentor teachers and university faculty alike. Through it all, teacher candidates learn just as many lessons as they teach, ideally with one overarching principle repeatedly impressed upon them: that they must serve all learners.
This is no small task, as today’s educators enter increasingly diverse schools. This diversity creates wonderful learning opportunities for all, but it also presents its fair share of challenges. Teachers will encounter students with disabilities. They will encounter students who are gifted and talented. They will encounter students from low-income families. They will encounter students from various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as students who do not speak English as a first language.
The American Council on Education, the major coordinating association for our nation’s colleges and universities, is leading the Protect Dreamers Higher Education Coalition, of which AACTE is a member. The coalition is coordinating a week of advocacy efforts beginning today, October 16, and has developed a website providing multiple resources related to Dreamers, including fact sheets and talking points, which can be used by individual campuses for advocacy.
In addition, the coalition is leading a letter that your institution can sign on to – but time is tight. The deadline is Wednesday, October 18, at noon EDT. To have your institution sign on to the letter, please reach out to your president’s office as well as your government relations staff. Find the instructions here.
The deadline to apply for a 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award or Professional Achievement Award has been extended to Friday, October 20. Act now to win recognition for your program or colleagues and to contribute to “Celebrating Our Professional Identity” at the 2018 Annual Meeting when the awards are given in Baltimore, Maryland!
Award winners are honored during the general sessions at the opening and closing of the conference, providing inspiring bookends to the experience with examples of outstanding achievement and best practice.
This article also appears in the September issue of Scholars Report, a monthly e-newsletter for and about the AACTE Holmes Program. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Congratulations to Nickey F. Yates Sr., Holmes Scholar of the Month for September!
Yates is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. program in educational leadership at Florida A&M University. His research interests include Black superintendents’ engagement with White community constituents, PK-12 environments, and racial issues in education.
New York’s Marist College is the latest AACTE member institution to join the Holmes Program. For information about how to join the program, contact Tim Finklea at tfinklea@aacte.org. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
This summer, the Education Department at Marist College partnered with the Beacon City School District to join AACTE’s Holmes Cadet Program. Marist College, located in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, is committed to student success, innovation, and providing for social good. Joining the Holmes Cadet network supported Marist’s efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline, while connecting them to a national network of students and faculty who were passionate about the same cause.
This month’s episode of Education Talk Radio spotlighted AACTE’s national Black & Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC) and other efforts to increase men of color in the teaching workforce. In the August 9 show, host Larry Jacobs interviewed Director of College Access and Completion Michael Dennehy of Boston University (MA), Director of Call Me MISTER Roy Jones of Clemson University (SC), Associate Professor Shatriya Collier-Stewart of California State University-Northridge, Executive Director Lemuel Watson of the Center for Innovation in Higher Education at the University of South Carolina, and Behavior Interventionist Ryan Jeffery at Fairfax County Public Schools (VA).
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, just 2% of public school teachers across the country are Black males and fewer are Hispanic males. AACTE’s national NIC initiative helps institutions identify innovative strategies to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/Latino men receiving initial teaching certification through their preparation programs.
The AACTE Quality Support Workshop this month was an inspirational model of improvement in action. During my 3 days in Minneapolis, I witnessed a profound commitment among participants to ensure high levels of quality in their programs. Understanding standards and evidence more deeply, using data more strategically, and creating more effective quality assurance systems were some of the topics covered.
Dedication to continuous improvement is shared by AACTE’s members and the Association itself. To that end, the AACTE team is focusing the first part of this new academic year on an extensive review of the organization’s operations and programs, facilitated by an experienced consulting firm with assistance from a staff steering committee (see this recent article by Vice President Rod Lucero). In addition, an Association-wide member survey launches in September, and we’re counting on your participation to inform our work going forward. AACTE is always looking to improve and meet the changing needs of the membership.
Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released initial data from the 2015-2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey, providing the latest nationwide snapshot of the characteristics of public school teachers. (Results of the school-level survey are being released today, and principal-level data are available here.) The “First Look” report on the teacher survey (download PDF here) shows the education workforce has grown slightly more female (77% compared to 76%) and slightly less White (80% compared to 82%) than it was 4 years ago – although NCES cautions that comparisons are somewhat imprecise because some of the questions were worded differently or drew on different sources than in the former Schools and Staffing Survey, on which the new survey is based.
A recent article in Education Week highlights key data and comparisons between this survey and the last, noting that the education profession has made some advancements in diversifying the teaching workforce. However, these modest gains may be more conditional than intentional, and the survey spotlights continued trouble spots such as low pay and uneven assignment of teacher expertise. What this article says to me is that we must continue to work every day to make teaching a worthy career option, valued for its contributions to the democratic fabric of our society – especially among the most underrepresented demographics. As a profession, we have an ongoing imperative to attract highly motivated, diverse, innovative, smart educators into the profession and support them with programs rich in the pedagogy and content that will serve the nation’s young people well into the future.
Lynn M. Gangone, President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), today issued the following statement regarding the racial violence that occurred two days ago in downtown Charlottesville:
“AACTE strongly condemns the acts of hate, bigotry and racial violence that took place during the “Unite the Right” rally on Saturday. This tumult has devastated the local community of our member institution University of Virginia (UVA) and has deeply impacted our nation and the world. We support UVA President Teresa Sullivan’s official statement that the acts “…of the many groups that have converged on Charlottesville this weekend contradict [American] values of diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect.” AACTE also considers an outbreak of insular behavior in the setting of a university paradoxical as institutions of higher education characterize enlightenment, progression, and democracy.
In a letter led by the American Council on Education, AACTE joined 32 organizations this month in supporting the Dream Act of 2017, a bipartisan bill introduced July 20 by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The legislation would provide a path for young immigrants who entered the United States as children to attain lawful permanent residency status if they meet a series of requirements.
The target population is immigrants who in essence know only the United States as their home. Individuals may be eligible if they meet the following criteria:
Next month, AACTE’s Quality Support Workshop in Minneapolis will help participants take their programs and practices to the next level with 2 days of hands-on, expert-facilitated sessions. Attendees will interact with leaders from educator preparation programs (EPPs) as well as with researchers, program administrators, and other professionals who will be on hand to guide their progress at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, August 10-12.
Participants can work on assessment data, quality assurance plans, standards and evidence for accreditation, and much more in their choice of over two dozen sessions led by these facilitators:
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
As educators, we are responsible for preparing students for life after graduation. Thus, many of our debates focus on optimizing the student experience: things we should do – or not do – to create a well-rounded individual who is ready to take on his or her next challenge, whether it’s a job, college, or the sixth grade. Far too often, however, we focus entirely on the people who sit in classrooms and neglect the people who stand in front of them. Educational policies must make sense for students, yes, but they must make sense for teachers, too.
Thanks to several brand-new sessions and revamped activities throughout the original program, next month’s regional AACTE Quality Support Workshop will deliver an even more robust program than its popular predecessor. During the event August 10-12 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, participants will choose from two dozen expert-facilitated workshops offered in seven time blocks – with topics such as interpreting candidate assessment data, mapping curricula to competency indicators, preparing evidence for an accreditation visit, recruiting and supporting more diverse candidates, and others.
Many of the sessions from last spring’s southern regional workshop, held in Fort Worth, Texas, will run again in Minneapolis with few changes. Others are bringing in new facilitators or making adjustments to reflect feedback from attendees (the organizers do try to practice what they preach about using data for improvement!).
Congratulations to Whitney Watkins, Holmes Scholar of the Month for June-July 2017! Watkins is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Policy Studies Ed.D. program at the University of Central Florida (UCF).
Watkins recently completed a 2-year tenure as president of the Holmes Scholars Council, marked by her heart and passion for equity and diversity. Putting forth all efforts into the Holmes Program expansion, she was excited to see the organization grow.
At UCF, Watkins teaches at least two classes a semester focusing on student leadership and development, often with a heavy focus on diversity initiatives. In addition, she serves as the adviser for two student organizations on her campus and mentors countless individual students from a variety of backgrounds, reflecting her incredible passion for college student development and leadership.
