As classes resume at your institution, so too does the work of Congress, which returns to Washington today following its August recess. The disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey may upend the Congressional agenda, potentially shuffling a laundry list of items Congress needs to address, including funding for FY18 and where the federal dollars will flow.
With all of this going on, it has never been more important to remain informed and engaged – and AACTE’s members-only Federal Update webinars help you do just that. You can sign up now for this month’s webinars, September 19 or 20 (see below); you can also view archived webinars and presentation slides through this link.
In order to support the communities affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath, the U.S. Department of Education has activated its emergency response contact center for school districts and institutions of higher education in the Gulf Coast region. The Department is also coordinating efforts with the Texas Education Agency, the Louisiana Department of Education, and the institutions and districts in impacted areas.
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.
In case you missed July’s Federal Update webinar – available exclusively to AACTE members – it is now available on demand in AACTE’s Resource Library. Just log in to view the video recording or download the slides from July or any webinar from the past year!
The Federal Update webinars are AACTE members’ go-to source to catch up on all the developments in Washington, DC. For July, AACTE Government Relations Director Deborah Koolbeck highlighted the latest action on the Fiscal Year 2018 federal appropriations process, the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, ways you can engage your members of Congress during the August recess, and more.
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:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES) has released a series of on-demand webinars to assist prospective grantees in completing applications for the Fiscal Year 2018 grant cycle.
Some webinars provide viewers with general guidance on the grant application process, while others are more specific to particular grant programs. After viewing a webinar, potential applicants can e-mail IES with any questions they might have that weren’t addressed during the webinar.
In addition to the general-topic webinars, the IES archive currently contains information on five grant opportunities; another five are said to be coming soon. Each webinar’s archive includes a video recording, PowerPoint slides, and a transcript.
Last week, the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) released its annual “Budget Book” analysis of the president’s federal spending proposal and its impact on education programs. This year’s report presents detailed narrative, charts, and tables illustrating concerns about President Donald J. Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. CEF highlighted the findings at a Capitol Hill briefing featuring practitioners from several states and various education sectors.
At the briefing, panelists from Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and New Jersey all urged for education spending to be increased. Several speakers noted that even “level-funding” a program amounts to a cut when factors such as cost-of-living and other inflation-related expenses are considered, and they advocated for funding increases to permit at least the continuation of current programming.
CEF Deputy Executive Director Sarah Abernathy pointed out that education-related expenses account for only 2% of all federal spending – far short of the 5% called for in CEF’s “Five Cents Makes Sense” campaign. She highlighted components of the report, which called the president’s education cuts “devastating” and noted that the budget is more than $6 billion below FY 2010 education spending levels, proposing cuts that are far deeper than in any of the previous five administrations.
An education subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing June 28 on “Exploring Opportunities to Strengthen Education Research While Protecting Student Privacy.” Throughout the hearing, hosted by the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, witnesses stressed the need to maintain a balance between safeguarding sensitive student data and allowing researchers access to information that evaluates performance and determines best practices.
Anonymizing the data in order to maintain student privacy was a top concern for the panelists, but Nathaniel Schwartz from the Tennessee Education Department noted that guidelines outlining proper procedures for doing so are lacking at the federal level, leaving states and districts to determine how best to handle the data.
UPDATE: The Department has extended the deadline to submit comments on federal regulations. Those who would like to do so now have until September 20.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Regulatory Reform Task Force has released a progress report identifying more than 150 regulations and 1,700 pieces of guidance for review, and now the public is invited to comment on the items by August 21.
The task force, which originated from an executive order signed in February by President Donald J. Trump to reduce regulatory burdens, will now further review the regulations and guidance and develop recommendations on whether to repeal, modify, or keep them.
With the U.S. Congress and the Trump Administration continuing to work in June and July, we also continue to monitor their activity, including the funding of key programs for educator preparation. If you joined us for Day on the Hill earlier this month, you got a sense of what’s unfolding and how you can engage. If you missed Day on the Hill, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered with Federal Update webinars to let you know where your advocacy can make an impact.
Registration is now open for the next few Federal Update webinars, available exclusively to AACTE members. Take a moment to mark your calendar and sign up online so you can stay informed and engaged! We will offer these updates twice each in June, July, and September (but like the Congress, we’ll take August off).
Participants in the Holmes Summer Policy Institute in Arlington, VA, during AACTE’s 2017 Washington Week
AACTE’s 2017 Washington Week brought two dozen Holmes Program students from across the country to learn and advocate together in the nation’s capital. It was grand to reconnect with Holmes members I had not seen in months, to meet new members, and to network with leaders of the state chapters of AACTE – and of course to elevate our voices collectively in the halls of Congress!
During the AACTE Washington Week, June 4-7, teacher educators, preservice teachers, and PK-12 school administrators united under the event theme “Diverse Perspectives, Deep Partnerships, One Profession.” The convening brought together attendees from across the nation to discuss important education policies and advocate for educator preparation with members of Congress and their staff.
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
To help educator preparation programs address calls for better preparing new teachers to integrate technology in their practice, we recently led a collaborative research effort to develop a set of teacher educator technology competencies. An article outlining the competencies and our underlying methodologies is currently in review for publication, and we look forward to disseminating the details soon – but for now, we’d like to share some background on what spurred the project and how we decided to approach it.
U.S. Representative Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone celebrate Guthrie’s acceptance of the AACTE Congressional Leadership Award. The other recipient, U.S. Senator Benjamin E. Sasse (R-NE), was unable to attend the event but supported AACTE by securing the room for the Day on the Hill breakfast.
On June 7, AACTE honored U.S. Representative Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and U.S. Senator Benjamin E. Sasse (R-NE) for working with AACTE and its partners to rescind the U.S. Department of Education regulations on teacher preparation programs. The lawmakers received the 2017 AACTE Congressional Leadership Award, which is presented during AACTE’s Day on the Hill to recognize members of Congress who have played a strong leadership role in support of the profession.
AACTE issued the following press release today to mark the opening of the 2017 AACTE Washington Week:
(June 5, 2017, Washington, D.C.) – The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is hosting its 2017 Washington Week through Wednesday, bringing teacher educators from across the nation to Capitol Hill and to the Renaissance Arlington Capital View hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The conference, themed “Diverse Perspectives, Deep Partnerships, One Profession,” offers attendees opportunities to showcase their programs, discuss important education policies and advocate for educator preparation in meetings with members of Congress.
