07 Nov2022
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.
We have finally made it to mid-term election week. Congress remains on recess until after the elections, but important work continues. It is my hope that by the end of the week we will have the complete results of the mid-term elections and I will provide an analysis on the makeup of the 118th Congress in our next Washington Update.
01 Nov2022
By Brandi Palmer
AACTE is launching “75 Days/75 Ways,” a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of ways to support changes that ensure every student has a highly trained and qualified teacher in their classroom and equitable education is available for all learners.
31 Oct2022
By Brandi Palmer
AACTE thought leaders have spoken about issues ranging from solutions to the teacher shortage to the impact of censorship on education over the past month.
As a result, AACTE has been cited in stories about colleges innovating ways to fill teacher jobs, reinvigorating interest among students in the teaching profession, and celebrating the next generation of teachers.
31 Oct2022
By University of San Diego Media Relations Office
The School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) at the University of San Diego has received a $1.5 million grant from the San Diego Foundation to develop and launch the Black InGenius Initiative (BiGI)– a college access and early literacy program for Black students within the San Diego region.
Sixty rising sixth graders will be selected for BiGI every year starting in fall 2023. USD will provide students with consistent academic support delivered by SOLES students and faculty trained in neurodivergent teaching, which is the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in different ways, therefore there is no one “right” way of thinking, learning or behaving.
25 Oct2022
By Jessica Jackson
Understanding learner variability helps disrupt the idea of a one-size-fits all approach and paves the way for more equitable teaching and learning. The intersection of culturally responsive practice with the science of learner variability can provide great insight into what it takes to successfully implement culturally responsive instruction with both teachers and students. It also helps us understand why culturally responsive practices are necessary for reaching and embracing the whole learner.
On November 10, 2022 at 1:00 p.m., we will hear from our distinguished panelists, Courtney Teague, Angela Elkordy, and Leigh Ann Erikson, on how they approach culturally responsive practice in their courses and practice. We’ll discuss some of the key findings from the research on culturally responsive practices, where the research gaps are, and the importance of culturally responsive practices in teacher education and K-12 classrooms. Register today for the Learner Variability and Culturally Responsive Practices, hosted by Digital Promise and AACTE.
25 Oct2022
By Lynn M. Gangone
With the onset of a new academic year, AACTE is optimistic about the future of the profession as there has been positive movement in policies and legislation that addresses the challenges educators and educator preparation programs face. However, to maintain forward momentum, we must continue to advocate at the local, state, and federal levels.
As an education leader, your voice matters. That’s why I am asking you to participate in AACTE’s
75 Days | 75 Ways to Advocate for Education campaign. Developed to mark AACTE’s 75th anniversary, the movement centers around raising national awareness of ways to advocate for change that ensures every student has a highly trained and qualified teacher in their classroom and equitable education is available for all learners.
11 Oct2022
By Alexander Cuenca
In 2021, Indiana joined the Consortium for Research Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA), an initiative by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to examine state-level certification assessment scores and their impact on promoting a diverse educator workforce. Our state team consisted of faculty from Indiana University’s School of Education, representatives from the Indiana Department of Education, and school district administrators from Indiana’s public schools. Together, we looked at our state-level data on entrance and content area licensure exams and reached the same conclusion many have reached for decades in Indiana and across the United States: significant pass rate gaps between white and Black teacher candidates.
06 Oct2022
By Michael Rose
A federal district court recently ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, saying that President Obama overstepped his authority to create the program in 2012.
The ruling legally strips Dreamers of their ability to live and work in the United States, but the appellate judges prohibited immigration officials from deporting anyone that was granted legal status until the US Supreme Court makes a final ruling on the program.
04 Oct2022
By Kaitlyn Brennan
The new “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.
Arizona: Peoria Unified School District to Remedy Discriminatory Harassment of Students
This week, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of a complaint of racial harassment filed against Peoria Unified School District in Arizona. Following an investigation, OCR determined that the district failed to address harassment of students on the basis of race, color, and national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations.
04 Oct2022
By AACTE
Education systems must adapt and tailor its programming to meet the needs of every learner. The Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR), a technical assistance center, aims to successfully educate and train educator and leader preparation programs to support inclusive education. The center’s aim is to create quality education for every student — with a focus on preparing students with disabilities to achieve college and career-ready standards. This is done by implementing evidence-based practices within multi-tiered systems of support.
CEEDAR, an AACTE partner organization, recently announced two new resources based on evidence-based practices:
28 Sep2022
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.
This week, Washington, D.C. welcomed more than 2,000 in-person participants and 1,500 virtual attendees for the annual National HBCU Week Conference. This year’s conference focused on the work the federal government is doing to meet President Biden’s executive order that directed federal agencies to increase their engagement with HBCUs. Under the order, federal agencies must submit plans each year that describe how they are working to increase HBCU participation in their programs. The conference also comes as a group of Florida A&M University students announced they are suing the state’s university system in federal court alleging that the HBCU has not been receiving its fair share of funding for years.
23 Sep2022
By U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education has announced new awards to help recruit, prepare, develop, and retain a strong, effective and diverse teacher workforce for classrooms across the country through the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program. This year’s investment includes 22 new five-year grants totaling $24.8 million through its TQP program. The award recipients represent IHEs and national nonprofits, including three HBCUs and one MSI.
15 Sep2022
In 74 Interview, author Leslie T. Fenwick said the effects were so damaging that ‘the nation’s public schools still have not recovered’
By Greg Toppo
This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America.
American students have attended school for nearly 70 years under the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools. But a new book uncovers a little-known by-product of the case: Educators and policymakers in at least 17 states that operated separate “dual systems” of schools defied the spirit of Brown by closing schools that served Black students and demoting or firing an estimated 100,000 highly credentialed Black principals and teachers.
In Jim Crow’s Pink Slip, scholar Leslie T. Fenwick, tapping seldom-seen transcripts from a series of 1971 U.S. Senate hearings on the topic, writes that the loss of Black educators post-Brown was “the most significant brain drain from the U.S. public education system that the nation has ever seen. It was so pervasive and destabilizing that, even more than half-century later, the nation’s public schools still have not recovered.”
06 Sep2022
By Jill McGranahan
This article originally appeared on MSU Denver RED.
With the psychological and economic pressures of Covid-19, increased gun violence, systemic racism, political polarization and, most recently, the financial stresses of inflation, many adults are struggling with their mental and emotional health. It’s no wonder that children, too, are experiencing more trauma than ever.
Last fall, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health due to “soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness and suicidality” caused by Covid-19 and other factors. Trauma such as physical abuse, bullying and witnessing violence will often contribute to higher anxiety and negatively impact attention, memory, cognition, problem solving, reading ability and academic performance, according to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
23 Aug2022
By Nicole Dunn
AACTE has teamed up with the leaders of Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Project to address systems-level transformation that directly addresses the challenges students face by using the Learner Variability Navigator (LVN); a free open-source tool to make learning sciences research accessible to educators. Earlier this year, a representative group of AACTE members were introduced to the project and navigation tools, and using their feedback, AACTE is pleased to bring you the webinar series that lifts up tools and practices with the Learner Variability Project most relevant to the educator preparation field.
