Every Child Can Learn – and Deserves the Opportunity to Do So

By Renée A. Middleton

One of AACTE’s most important goals is to support members in preparing educators for highly diverse schools. Teachers must work with students from different racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as students with varying abilities – and varying command of the English language. The notion that educators will only teach one type of student from one type of background is as antiquated as reruns of Leave It to Beaver. Thus, AACTE members are committed to ensuring that teacher candidates will be successful with all of their students.

Teachers, however, cannot do this alone. They need our help, and they need the help of policy makers and key stakeholders within their states, cities, and school districts.

Take a ‘Deeper Dive’ at #AACTE18

By Kristin McCabe

As AACTE heads into the final weeks of planning for the 70th Annual Meeting, we can’t wait to welcome you to Baltimore! Be sure to visit the Online Event Planner to create a personal schedule that makes the most of your time. In addition to adding the opening and closing keynote sessions, you’ll want to select the Learning Labs and “Deeper Dive” sessions that are of greatest interest to you.

The Deeper Dives take the place of AACTE’s former “Major Forums,” providing a large-format, expert-facilitated exploration of a key topic during one dedicated time slot each day. Refreshed for 2018 with new expectations for audience interaction and other adult-learning principles, five such sessions will be offered this year:

CU Denver to Be Honored With AACTE Award for Multicultural Education

By Kristin McCabe

Congratulations to the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) on its selection to receive the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity! The award will be presented March 1 at the Opening Keynote of the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The university, known as CU Denver, offers multiple pathways for teacher preparation to fit the needs of candidates from a variety of backgrounds and contexts, succeeding in attracting a diverse range of students. The program aims to prepare teacher candidates who believe all PK-20 learners deserve access to an excellent education by building upon the strengths of their individual culturally diverse backgrounds.

Marcelle Haddix to Win AACTE Award for Book on Diversifying Literacy Teacher Prep

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE is delighted to announce the selection of Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me, by Marcelle Haddix of Syracuse University (NY), to receive the 2018 AACTE Outstanding Book Award. The award will be presented at the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting Closing Keynote session, March 3 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviewers praised this book for its clear and engaging writing and its well-sourced, thoughtful scholarship – as well as its timely and critical focus on diversifying the teaching workforce. The book’s copublishers, Routledge and the National Council of Teachers of English, articulate this focus in the following abstract:

AACTE Names Rutgers Language Partnership for Global Award

By Kristin McCabe

Congratulations to the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education (New Brunswick, NJ) on its selection to receive the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Perspectives! The award will be presented March 1 at the Opening Keynote of the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Rutgers Graduate School of Education (GSE) offers learning opportunities that link the local and global to connect future educators, leaders, and researchers to the reciprocal influences of local communities and global society. Teacher candidates may participate in several global opportunities, including education-study abroad programs, PK-12 mentoring, and a new linguistically diverse program, “The Conversation Tree: Community-Based Language Partnerships.”

Our Shared Commitment to Quality

By Lynn M. Gangone

AACTE is committed to high-quality educator preparation and works continually to assist member institutions in understanding what is necessary to engage in quality assurance processes. A recent decision by the AACTE Board of Directors, described in this blog by AACTE Board Chair Renée A. Middleton, reaffirms the importance of a unified national accreditation system that assures our nation’s teacher candidates are of the highest caliber, and clarifies AACTE’s role in the quality assurance environment. The Board and the AACTE national office team are dedicated to listening to and serving our members, and Dean Middleton’s blog reflects that commitment to member value.

One of the primary roles of educators is to prepare learners to become engaged citizens in a 21st-century democratic society. Today’s educators enter highly diverse schools that reflect the breadth of our nation, and AACTE members are committed to ensuring that their candidates are ready and able to be successful with all of their students. National accreditation requires educator preparation providers to address profession-wide standards of excellence and supplies metrics that support high quality by promoting programmatic reflection and continuous improvement. AACTE members embrace accountability measures that demonstrate their programs’ effectiveness and contribute to program improvement.

#AACTE18 Preconference Event to Bring Focus of ‘Global Lens’ to Educator Preparation

By Jungnam Kim and Dianne Mark

The authors are members of AACTE’s Committee on Global Diversity.

The AACTE Committee on Global Diversity will host a premier symposium a day before the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The free preconference event, “A Global Lens to Educator Preparation: Shared Knowledge and Advocacy for Diverse and Multicultural Perspectives,” will be held Wednesday, February 28, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and includes breakfast and a keynote luncheon. Please sign up to join us!

SHEEO Initiative Focuses on Practice at HBCUs to Increase Teacher Diversity

By Denise Pearson and Amanda Lester

As the nation’s classrooms become more diverse, research has demonstrated that developing a more diverse teaching workforce is imperative to meeting the needs of all students. Efforts are under way across the nation to identify successful strategies for increasing the recruitment and retention of teachers of color, especially men of color, into the education workforce. Organizations including AACTE and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) are among those leading such efforts.

At AACTE, this work includes the Black, Hispanic, and Latino Male Teacher Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC), the AACTE Holmes Program, and the Diversified Teaching Workforce: Recruitment and Retention Topical Action Group. Each of these initiatives is focused on increasing educator diversity by identifying and implementing practice that supports degree attainment and teacher certification. The NIC is currently developing a conceptual framework paper to highlight some of these strategies and plans to release the paper at the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting.

Call for Nominations: Teacher Diversity Research Award

By Conra D. Gist

AACTE’s Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group invites you to register for a free institute and to nominate individuals – by December 15 – for the 2018 DTW Teacher Diversity Research Award.

The second annual Diversified Teaching Workforce Institute will convene February 28, 2018, at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD. The institute will unite a group of national leaders at colleges and universities across the United States to spotlight and explore innovative efforts for addressing racial/ethnic teacher diversity across five key areas: recruitment and retention, teacher preparation, mentorship, induction and professional development, and advocacy.

Holmes Scholar of the Month: Monique Matute

By Brianna Joseph

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.

One Size Does Not Fit All: What It Means to Serve All Learners

By Renée A. Middleton

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.

Will Your Institution’s Voice Be Heard on DACA?

By Jane E. West

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.

Deadline Extended! Apply by Oct. 20 for AACTE Awards

By Kristin McCabe

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.

Nickey Yates Named September Scholar of the Month

By Olimpia Tilles

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.

Marist to Diversify Education Pipeline Through New Holmes Cadets Program

By Christina Wright Fields

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.