28 Nov2023
By AACTE
AACTE is excited that the launch of its first-ever individual giving program begins today, November 28, with #GivingTuesday — offering you and others an opportunity to have a direct impact on building the next generation of the educator workforce. Members and educator preparation advocates are invited to be a part of this inaugural giving campaign, “The Future of Teacher Education Starts Now.”
Your tax-deductible gift to the campaign will greatly assist AACTE in its work to elevate educator preparation and grow the educator workforce. Become an AACTE champion and directly impact the programs, products, and services that create a more robust, diverse, and high-quality educator workforce.
28 Nov2023
By Tonya Lowentritt
The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has awarded a $1.67 million contract to Northshore Regional STEM Center, led by Southeastern Louisiana University in partnership with Northshore Technical Community College and LaSTEM.
Appropriated by the Louisiana State Legislature, the funds will be used to develop and deliver 40 hours of computer science Praxis exam training through multiple cohorts to 1,000 6th-12th grade teachers statewide. The project will be led by the Northshore Regional LaSTEM Center Director Wendy Conarro, Southeastern Interim Computer Science Department Head Bonnie Achee, and Dean of the College of Education Paula Summers Calderon.
As part of the LDOE initiative to “Ignite, Inspire, and Energize” computer science education across Louisiana supporting education and industry, the training will be held virtually in March and April, with a hybrid cohort in June.
28 Nov2023
By Amanda Nelson
(Right) Principal investigator Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., professor and chair, UK College of Education Department of STEM Education, and co-principal investigator Cindy Jong, Ph.D., professor, UK College of Education Department of STEM Education.
A new University of Kentucky (UK) study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to make mathematics more relatable to all students by focusing on how teachers respond to children’s experiences, knowledge, and mathematical reasoning.
UK College of Education Department of STEM Education faculty are collaborating with faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Georgia State University, and Rowan University on the $1.5 million NSF grant, with $821,000 of the funding coming to UK.
Preparing teachers to create equitable mathematics classrooms is an ongoing challenge for teacher education, said Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., lead principal investigator of the NSF grant and professor and chair in the UK College of Education Department of STEM Education.
“There are students not being reached, sometimes because the structures we have in place send signals that this thing called ‘math’ really isn’t for you, and we want to push against those narratives. We lose so much talent, brain power and creativity by shutting certain doors,” Thomas said.
13 Nov2023
By Kirstin Werner
The Kern Family Foundation is pleased to announce an exciting opportunity. The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham located in Edgbaston, U.K. delivers a Master of Arts (MA) in Character Education. The MA program is a part-time degree that is taught online over three years giving students the flexibility to complete the program alongside full-time employment. The 2024 cohort begins in September 2024.
The university will offer scholarships covering the full tuition expense for a select number of U.S. citizens, who live and work in the United States. This scholarship is known as the Kern Award. As a valued partner of the foundation, we invite you or one of your esteemed colleagues to apply for the program.
At 11:00 a.m. CST on December 14, 2023, Paul Watts, Ph.D., program lead for the MA in Character Education, will be presenting an information session about the program via Zoom.
23 Oct2023
By Vorhees University
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Voorhees University a $26.7 million grant to serve more than 850 teachers and nearly 11,000 students.
Voorhees’ Center of Excellence for Educator Preparation and Innovation is receiving a new Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program grant to improve student achievement in Fairfield County School District and Georgetown County School District.
The REAP: Rewarding Educator Achievement and Performance grant aims to improve the quality of education, elevate educator effectiveness, raise student achievement, and increase equity in learning.
03 Oct2023
By California Lutheran University
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Cal Lutheran a $1,241,679 grant to support the Graduate School of Education’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Credential Program.
The five-year grant will fund Access Teach: Closing the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Educator Gap, a project to support 60 graduate-level students who will leave the program as credentialed teachers of high-need deaf and hard-of-hearing students in public schools. In addition to tuition, financial aid, textbooks, and instructional materials, the project will provide mentoring and other support to recruit and retain students.
The grant also allows the program to be restructured to a hybrid format by summer 2024. Classes will be synchronous with some in-person classes on Saturdays. This change will enable the university to accommodate the needs of working professionals across Southern California.
18 Jul2023
By AACTE
The “Strengthening Educator Preparation: Addressing Needs and Exploring Innovative Solutions” congressional briefing organized by AACTE, University of Northern Iowa (UNI), and American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), took place today, Tuesday, July 18, on Capitol Hill. The briefing brought together a group of university presidents and deans, all AACTE members, from around the country for a candid conversation on issues impacting educator preparation and innovative solutions.
The issue summary provided to briefing participants stated, “the educational profession is in crisis.” The summary outlined the following four legislative actions necessary to address the crisis:
- Removing financial barriers to entering the education profession
- Updating and expanding the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program
- Reauthorizing the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program
- Increasing Capacity of Educator Preparation Programs
19 Jun2023
By Laura O'Brien
Sen. Tim Kaine took part in a visit in February to the Franklin Military Academy classroom taught by Christal Corey, a graduate of VCU’s RTR teacher residency program and Richmond Public Schools’ Teacher of the Year for 2023. (Photo contributed by Andrew Daire)
This article was originally published by Virginia Commonwealth University News.
The funding will help recruit and support more teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds and provide them with the skills to teach in high-need schools, including those in Richmond Public Schools. The VCU School of Education’s RTR program is an undergraduate and graduate teacher residency program.
16 Jun2023
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.
Following the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raises the debt ceiling and limits federal funding for the next two years, Members of Congress, their staff, and education advocates alike have shifted their focus towards an FY 2024 spending bill. House Appropriations Committee chair Kay Granger (R-TX) announced on Monday that the Committee will continue to produce FY 2024 funding bills with new funding capped at the FY 2022 level, which is $119 billion below the FY 2024 discretionary level set in law by the debt limit deal. The level for the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee is $60 billion or 29% below its FY 2023 level of $207 billion in discretionary funding. Your voices and advocacy efforts will be critical as we move toward an FY2024 spending bill.
23 May2023
By Kaitlyn Brennan
The “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.
For the first time in Pennsylvania’s history, the number of emergency teaching certifications issued across the state outpaced the number of newly fully certified teachers entering the field. The shift comes as the Commonwealth faces its most significant staffing challenges in well over a decade. During the 2021-22 school year, 6,366 people received emergency permits — compared to 4,220 students who received teaching certificates. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, more than 15,000 in-state certifications were issued during the 2010-11 school year. By 2021-22, that number dropped to more than 4,200 — a decrease of 10,800 certifications. As you may recall, those prepared through alternate pathways that require less coursework and student teaching experiences are 25% more likely to leave their teaching positions and the profession than those who are well prepared.
15 May2023
By UNC Charlotte
University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Cato College of Education, a leader in literacy instruction and research, has been selected by the Mebane Foundation to help continue its legacy of supporting innovation in literacy education in North Carolina and beyond through a five-year grant and potential endowment of up to $23 million.
The decision follows a competitive statewide search to identify a partner to continue to carry on founder Allen Mebane’s commitment to support inventive educational endeavors as the foundation winds down operations over the next decade.
15 May2023
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, in recognition of National Teacher Appreciation Day and National Teacher Appreciation Week the Biden-Harris Administration acknowledged the hard work and critical importance of our nation’s educators. President Biden issued a proclamation, saying in part:
“In schools across America, teachers are arriving early to set up classrooms, spending long hours educating students, and staying late to prepare tomorrow’s lesson plans. Their devotion to our children embodies the best of America — ready to serve and eager to see others thrive. Today and during this week, we celebrate our nation’s remarkable teachers and early childhood educators, and we recommit to having their backs, just as they have ours.”
Additionally, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden shared a video of 2023 State Teachers of the Year receiving thank you messages from the parents of their students. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona released a video and penned an op-ed, calling for the “ABCs of the teaching profession: agency, better working conditions, and competitive salary.”
09 May2023
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.
It was another busy week in Washington — with conversations surrounding the debt limit continuing to dominate much of the conversation. As you will recall, last month House Republicans passed a bill which ties the debt limit to appropriations by raising the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or through the end of next March, whichever happens first, in exchange for a wide range of proposals to decrease government funding. The cuts to federal funding would include capping federal funding at fiscal year (FY) 2022 levels- a nearly 22% cut to non-defense discretionary programs (i.e., education)- while also limiting spending growth to 1% every year over the next decade.
02 May2023
By Longwood University
Longwood University faculty members were recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) totaling $1.45 million to recruit and support future secondary school teachers who want to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects in Southside and southwestern Virginia.
The NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grant will fund a five-year project that aims to serve the national need for preparing and retaining highly qualified science and mathematics teachers to teach in rural, high-need school districts. The grant will be used to provide scholarships and academic support to 20 undergraduate students, 14 of whom will be transfers from the Virginia Community College System who will major in biology, chemistry, mathematics or physics and pursue a STEM teaching career.
02 May2023
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.
It was another busy week in Washington. The Department of Education co-hosted the 2023 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP), welcoming more than 22 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The theme for this year’s summit was “Poised for the Future: Transformative Teaching for Global Engagement, Sustainability, and Digital Access.” Building on discussions held during past summits, 2023 focused on elevating and enhancing the teaching profession, educating for global and cultural competence and civic engagement, and leveraging digital technologies to ensure equitable access and enhanced learning for all. Jill Biden and Secretary Cardona both participated in the convening using the opportunity in part to tout President Biden’s commitment to educators. This comes on the heels of President Biden announcing his 2024 reelection campaign. In his first two campaign videos President Biden has referred to Republican-led efforts to restrict what’s taught in schools — we expect education will continue to be a major theme throughout this election cycle.
