Registration is now open for the preconference events at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida. All three will be held Wednesday, March 1. Sign up now to secure your spot – space is limited! – at one of the following:
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
We were thrilled to be accepted to participate in the first-ever topical Teach to Lead Summit on Teacher Preparation, held November 2-4 in Washington, DC. Our team worked on a state-funded project that focuses on recruiting high school and undeclared college students of color to education called Abriendo Caminos: Opening Pathways for Students of Color to the Teaching Profession. Our participants included one active teacher, Cynthia Chavez; one undergraduate preservice teacher, Marcus Jackson; a doctoral student and assistant professor, Tonya Walls; and the two of us: Rosemary Q. Flores, a family engagement specialist, and Jori Beck, a teacher preparation representative. The purpose of attending the summit was to further develop our project, and we were provided with ample opportunities from both internal and external critical friends for this work.
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.
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE. For more information on the AACTE Holmes Program, visit http://aacte.org/programs-and-services/holmes-program.
It is amazing how life is connected in cyclical threads, sometimes leading you down old paths, but showing you completely new views. This recently happened to me as I became a coordinator of a new Holmes Cadets program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. As a former Holmes Scholar, I remember the impact I felt when I was inducted into the program. That was an amazing experience, for it made me realize my potential in leading others to become teachers.
On October 28-30, we had the privilege of taking part in the National Convening on Success in Teacher Education at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), held at the University of Pennsylvania. Hosted by the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, the convening was focused around the release of the Center’s new report, A Rich Source for Teachers of Color and Learning: Minority Serving Institutions.
MSIs, which include Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, historically Black colleges and universities, and Asian American and Native American/Pacific Islander-serving institutions, educate 20% of college and university students, many of whom are low-income and first-generation college students as well as students of color. Because of their focus and scope, MSIs play a key role in teacher preparation and efforts to diversify the nation’s teaching workforce.
The AACTE Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group (TAG) invites nominations by December 2 for the 2017 Teacher Diversity Research Award.
The award recognizes outstanding research and advocacy related to various policies, practices, programs, pedagogies, systems, and/or institutions for the purpose of advancing teacher diversity. The research leadership embodied by the recipient of this award reflects the DTW TAG mission and goals and advances our current understanding of how to diversify our teacher workforce to enhance educational opportunities for all students.
The AACTE Annual Meeting always presents a full schedule of opportunities for registrants, even before the conference officially begins. The 2017 event in Tampa, Florida, will uphold this tradition with a wide variety of preconference meetings, workshops, and other events on the schedule for March 1.
As always, several affiliate organizations and leadership groups will hold business meetings, including the Florida state chapter, various deans’ organizations, and AACTE’s Board of Directors, standing committees, and topical action groups. (Separate registration may be required for some of these meetings–if in doubt, check with your group!) Special events will also be offered for participants in certain AACTE initiatives, and an assessment–focused workshop is available for anyone to register.
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has selected the “Schools Within the Context of Community” (SCC) program at Ball State University (IN) to receive the 2016 Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award. The award will be presented October 30 at the AASCU Annual Meeting and recognized again at the AACTE Annual Meeting in March 2017.
Launched in 2009 as a partnership between Ball State University’s Department of Elementary Education and the Whitely neighborhood of Muncie, Indiana, the SCC program takes a unique approach to teacher education. It immerses preservice candidates in a low-income, African-American community where they are carefully matched with mentors who serve as cultural ambassadors and impart the strengths and values of the community.
AACTE has extended the application deadline for the 2017 Best Practice and Professional Achievement Awards until October 26! Now you have an extra 2 weeks to submit an entry through AACTE’s online submission site or to finish an entry you have already started. For detailed submission information, please refer to the official Call for Entries.
Our Best Practice Awards recognize your institution’s exemplary and innovative work in one of three areas:
Congratulations to October Holmes Scholar of the Month Cara Gafford!
Gafford is a 4th-year doctoral student at Bowie State University (MD). She is also academy director (vice principal) of the Academy of Information Technology at Friendship Collegiate Academy, a college preparatory high school in Washington, DC.
Her research interests include science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and student achievement in STEM learning at high-poverty schools.
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.
Tampa, Florida, is short 1,000 teachers this year. Nine out of 10 low-income schools have staffing deficits in special education. Across the United States this year, classrooms are in need of 60,000 teachers, and the number could reach 100,000 by 2018. These are among the sobering statistics presented at a national policy forum I attended September 15, sponsored by the Learning Policy Institute (LPI).
The event, “Solving Teacher Shortages: Attracting and Retaining a Talented and Diverse Teaching Workforce,” presented the latest staffing and enrollment data and what they mean for education – ranging from fewer classes and larger class sizes to the hiring of underqualified teachers. Various high-profile speakers explained that shortages are driven largely by attrition of teachers for reasons such as lack of respect and autonomy, poor working conditions, and inadequate pay and administrative support.
Congratulations to September Holmes Scholar of the Month Emily Rose Aguiló–Pérez, who just completed her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at Pennsylvania State University!
Aguiló–Pérez’s research interests are in children’s literature, girlhood studies, and Latino studies. The emphasis of her course of study was language, culture, and society in children’s literature, with a minor in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Her dissertation, Tracing Puerto Rican Girlhoods: An Intergenerational Study of Interactions with Barbie and Her Influence on Female Identities, was led by adviser Jacqueline Reid–Walsh.
Today, the Learning Policy Institute released a set of reports that present the latest data on U.S. teacher supply and demand and promote comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies to alleviate persistent shortages. AACTE commends the reports’ attention to the steep cost to students of understaffed schools, particularly in low–income communities, as well as the proposed solutions centered on high-quality clinical preparation of new teachers and reducing the attrition rate among practicing teachers.
School districts across the nation are struggling to staff classrooms with adequate numbers of skilled teachers, forcing them to make tough choices that shortchange students. Many educator preparation programs have stepped up recruitment and developed innovative partnerships with districts to meet local needs. Although these efforts are seeing some success, adjustments to the production end of the educator pipeline cannot compensate for the “leaky bucket” of practicing teachers who, according to the Learning Policy Institute, leave at a rate of nearly 8% per year.
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) and the Brookings Institution explores the teacher diversity shortages that persist throughout the United States. To illustrate the current imbalance between teacher and student demographics, the report notes that in order to reach uniformity between the two populations, some 1 million White teachers currently in the profession would need to be replaced with approximately 300,000 African American teachers and over 600,000 Hispanic teachers.
Pointing to problems that exist throughout the teacher pipeline, the authors predict that resolving the imbalance in teacher demographics will continue to be challenging. As the nation’s diversity continues to grow, so too will the pressure and struggle to address teacher workforce diversity, they say, requiring a long-term approach to improving it.
