Third Way Report on TEACH Grants Comes Up Short

By Zachary VanHouten

A recent report by the think tank Third Way claims that the federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant program is failing to meet its aims, instead burdening nearly 40% of recipients to date with converted unsubsidized loans after they failed to complete all program requirements.

The report calls for changes to the program, either through “short-term fixes” such as reducing reporting requirements and limiting grant use to “high-performing” programs (as proposed in the new federal regulations for teacher preparation programs) or, preferably, in a thorough overhaul that streamlines all federal assistance for teachers into a simple loan-forgiveness program.

Safeguarding Student Data Is Everyone’s Business

By Sharon Robinson

This post also appears on the Public School Insights blog of the Learning First Alliance.

Last week, the White House announced a new push to protect students’ digital privacy, as ever-expanding data collection efforts heighten concerns from parents and advocacy groups about appropriate uses of the data. Institutions of higher education share the administration’s priority to protect elementary and secondary students and uphold diligent safety and privacy practices in preparing teachers for the classroom. Ultimately, safeguarding student data is everyone’s business.

Member Voices: Join AACTE Twitter Campaign on #EDregs

By Joen Larson

With an intention of generating 100,000 comments to the U.S. Department of Education on its proposed regulations for teacher preparation programs, the members of the AACTE Committee on Government Relations and Advocacy are leading the charge with a Twitter campaign to spread awareness of the proposed regulations.

Remember, the deadline to comment is February 2, and the teacher preparation profession’s voice must be heard! (See AACTE’s regulations web page for more information.)

Please join our Twitter campaign at #EDregs to help us reach out to colleagues, public officials, students, organizations, and the public to help generate more conversation on Twitter about the regulations—leading, we hope, to more comments submitted to the government.

Member Voices: Rallying Responses to the Federal Regulations

By Jennie Whitcomb

We have an opportunity to make our voices heard. Though the proposed federal regulations for teacher preparation programs were released for comment most inconveniently during the hurly burly of exams and the holidays, I was determined to find a festive, collegial way to engage the faculty and students at my institution in contributing our knowledge and experience by February 2.

AACTE’s challenge to generate 100,000 comments inspired me. There’s no guarantee that the U.S. Department of Education will listen, of course, but an onslaught of letters will hopefully grab their attention. The question for me: How to spur people to actually read and respond to the proposal.

AACTE Submits Comments to OMB on Burden of Proposed Regulations

By Deborah Koolbeck and Zachary VanHouten

On Friday, January 2, AACTE submitted formal comments to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding the burden and cost estimates that were provided in the proposed federal teacher preparation regulations. The extensive 38-page analysis echoes many of the concerns raised by AACTE members and colleague organizations.

Member Voices: Comments to OMB on Proposed Federal Regulations

By James J. Hennessy

Editor’s Note: The following text includes issue prompts provided by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities followed by responses submitted to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget by Dr. Hennessy on December 14. AACTE encourages others to file comments with OMB by the January 2 deadline.

FY 2015 Appropriations: ‘CRomnibus’ Signed Into Law

By Deborah Koolbeck

On Tuesday, December 16, President Obama signed into law H.R. 83, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, which distributes $1.1 trillion across the federal government.

U.S. Department of Education discretionary funding was cut by $166 million. The Teacher Quality Partnership program took only a small hit, reducing funding to around $40 million. We are grateful to our champions on the Hill, including Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), for the continued funding of this program.

January 2 Deadline to Comment on Regulations’ Cost, Burden

By Deborah Koolbeck

As you may know, embedded in the teacher preparation program regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Education is a request for feedback from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concerning the cost estimates and burden estimates of the proposed information collection. AACTE encourages you to respond to this request.

The deadline for the OMB request is January 2, 2015. Please note this deadline is a month earlier than the deadline to comment on the overall regulations.

Federal Regulations Now Open for Comment

By Deborah Koolbeck

The proposed federal regulations for teacher preparation programs are now officially open for public comment. AACTE is carefully reviewing the regulations and encourages others to do the same during the 60-day comment period, which closes February 2, 2015.

We will be producing various resources for AACTE members and posting updates on our web site as they become available. Be sure to read Sharon Robinson’s initial statement on the regulations in the meantime, and contact us at regs@aacte.org with any questions or other feedback.

Draft Federal Regulations Released

By Deborah Koolbeck

Late yesterday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a press conference to announce the release of proposed federal regulations for teacher preparation programs. While the regulations are not yet open for public comment through the Federal Register, the draft language is now available on the Department of Education’s web site.

TQP Residency Study: Graduates Feel More Prepared, Supported

By Kristin McCabe

A study of 30 teacher residency programs funded through the federal Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Program finds that graduates of the residencies feel more prepared at the start of their careers and more supported during their time in the classroom than their same-district peers from other pathways.

Teacher-Quality Coalition Issues Policy Roadmap for Teacher, Principal Development

By Kristin McCabe

Recognizing the fact that students in many high-need schools continue to have disproportionately low access to great educators, on Tuesday the Coalition for Teaching Quality (CTQ) released Excellent Educators for Each and Every Child: A Policy Roadmap for Transforming the Teaching and Principal Professions. The Coalition also held House and Senate briefings on Capitol Hill with practitioners to help explain the importance of these strategies to address the inequity of opportunity.

In the policy roadmap, CTQ—which comprises more than 100 civil rights, disability, rural, youth, higher education, principal, and education advocacy organizations, including AACTE, dedicated to ensuring that every child has fully prepared and effective educators—presents a vision for a continuum of the teaching and principal professions to ensure every child has well-prepared and effective educators.

‘Building Better Teachers’: Advances in Teacher Preparation

By Sharon Robinson

What will it take to build a better teacher? That’s the question that was recently discussed in a PBS NewsHour report featuring Elizabeth Green, cofounder and CEO of Chalkbeat and author of the new book Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (And How to Teach It to Everyone).

In her book, Green explores the qualities and experiences that impact a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, underscoring one of the most important factors in performance: their preparation. She emphasizes that effective teaching requires not only intellect, but also a strong set of skills developed through rigorous instruction and clinical experience. Green’s book pierces through the complexities surrounding program quality to ask fundamental questions about how teachers become great and how schools of education can best support that process.

AACTE Statement on Federal Award of 2014 Teacher Quality Partnership Grants

By Deborah Koolbeck

AACTE is thrilled that the U.S. Department of Education last week announced the awarding of a new round of Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grants, the federal government’s only investment in reforming teacher preparation. With grants totaling more than $35 million to 24 partnerships in the first year alone, these awards will assist to recruit, train, and support more than 11,000 educators in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

AACTE is pleased by the administration’s recognition of the value of continued federal investment in higher education-based teacher preparation programs. Many AACTE member institutions have benefited from TQP funding since the program’s inception in 2009, and the new round of grants expands the reach to more institutions and their partner schools.

September Reading List

By Kristin McCabe

With the school year now in full swing, we know it’s a challenge to stay on top of your professional reading. Here are a few hot assignments you won’t want to miss:

1. Journal of Teacher Education

The latest issue of AACTE’s journal offers fascinating insights into the professional development and practice of teacher educators. Based on the premise that “while research on teaching informs research on teacher education, the latter needs a specialized knowledge base of its own” (see the issue’s editorial), articles address general and specific elements of that knowledge base, professional identity, core practices, and more.

Extra credit:Read the latest research to be published in future issues of the journal! It’s posted on a rolling basis in Sage’s Online First system.