This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide update information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
I’m downright excited to have some GREAT news to report from Washington! Some of our leaders want to increase the federal INVESTMENT in public education! Hallelujah.
House Moves Expansive Education Funding Bill through 8 Hour Marathon Mark up
This week Chair of the House Subcommittee on Labor/HHS/Education Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) successfully moved her spending bill out of the full Appropriations Committee. The bill retains its overall 6% increase for education from last fiscal year, bringing the Department of Education to $75.9 Billion, and features significant increases for key education programs.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is pleased by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies’ (Labor-H Subcommittee) draft bill released for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) yesterday. Among the programs seeing an increase in funding is the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program, the only federal initiative dedicated to strengthening and transforming educator preparation at institutions of higher education.
AACTE members have worked tirelessly to inform Congress about the effectiveness of this program, and the result is now tangible. The AACTE community can take heart, as their voices have clearly been heard on Capitol Hill. The bill in its current form increases TQP by $10 million for a total of $53 million; TQP has been flat-funded at $43.1 million since FY15.
The AACTE Federal Update Webinars are back! As April has unfolded, quite a few things have started to bloom and grow in Washington, DC, including the budget and appropriations process. The President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request was released and the Congress is in full appropriations season. But will the caps on defense and non-defense discretionary funds be raised to avoid deep cuts in programs? What is unfolding with legislation, including the Higher Education Act reauthorization?
We will cover this and more during the AACTE April 2019 Federal Update webinar. Remember there is always time to get your questions answered, and the webinar will be recorded and posted on the AACTE Advocacy Center federal page.
This blog post is written by AACTE consultant Jane West and is intended to provide update information. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Congress was busy this week trying to wrap a few things up as they enter an extended recess period. With the timeline for the election pressing, the momentum will continue. Remember the first Democratic presidential candidate debate is in June—just two months away! So the pressure is on.
House Makes Magic Move on Budget!
The Budget Control Act, as it stands now, would require dramatic cuts for education and other programs for FY 2020, which begins October 1. In order to avoid significant cuts to education and other programs, the Budget Control Act needs to be amended to increase the spending caps. While the House Budget Committee adopted new spending caps this week, Democrats were unable to find consensus and bring that provision to the House floor.
But do not despair! Where there is a will there is a way! On Wednesday the House adopted something called a “deeming resolution” which provides for $1.3 trillion for the 12 spending bills in FY 2020. The “non-defense discretionary” portion (which includes education) will be $34 billion over the FY 2019 spending level. This deeming resolution paves the way for Appropriations Chair, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), to divvy up the funding into 12 pots—one for each of the appropriations bills.
The U.S. Department of Education has released its Notice of Inviting Applications for the Fiscal Year 2019 Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Grants in the Federal Register. TQP is the only federal initiative dedicated to strengthening and transforming educator preparation at institutions of higher education and to meet the workforce needs of high need school districts and schools.
In July 2018, AACTE and the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) entered into an 18-month pilot partnership program to foster collaboration through the common goals of advocating for, advancing, and diversifying educator preparation programs. Since then, the partnership has grown with community colleges from seven states: California, Oregon, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. If you are part of a community college educator preparation program interested in connecting with 4-year degree-granting institutions, then you can join the partnership too!
The partnership helps strengthen the teacher pipeline, bring diversity to the field, and advance the preparation of educators. In addition to receiving NACCTEP benefits, all partners receive AACTE benefits, including the following:
AACTE and NACCTEP launched the partnership for 2018-2019 to foster collaboration among our memberships through the common goals of advocating for, advancing, and diversifying educator preparation programs. This pilot partnership connects 4-year degree-granting institutions and community college educator preparation programs to grow and strengthen the teacher pipeline, bring diversity to the field, and advance the preparation of educators.
The author is executive director of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP), an affiliate member of AACTE, which is partnering with AACTE to better align each organization’s members around common work (see this article). The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
I recently had the privilege of flying into Kansas City, Missouri, to attend an education training; as a first-timer to the city I took complete advantage of the amazing barbeque and love for basketball. While my time in the city was grand, one of the most eye-opening moments of my stay had to do with a little tunnel system within the city called The Link. What I found most intriguing about this system, and I know similar ones exist in other cities, is the fact that it was such a useful aid. The Link connected two distinctly different hotel chains, kept me out of the adverse weather conditions, and provided the necessary directions to get me to my next stop—and it immediately reminded me of the NACCTEP partnership with AACTE.
The March 1 Opening Keynote Session at the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting featured an interactive panel discussion on recruiting and retaining profession-ready candidates in teacher preparation programs as well as increasing the number of teacher candidates of color. AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone, who facilitated the discussion, was joined by special guests Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, assistant vice chancellor of Teacher Education and Public School Programs for the Chancellor’s Office of the California State University (CSU) System, and Kimberly Tobey, executive director of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP).
The conversation began with identifying ways for how teacher preparation programs are effectively implementing programs and practices that reaffirm strengthening and diversifying the teacher candidate pool. The panelists highlighted successful strategies such as developing community college partnerships, creating capacity for students to have ease of transfer, and providing support to assist first-generation college students and others to pass through required pathways to completion.
The National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) and AACTE are partnering in a new effort to better align their members around common work. In this pilot initiative, the organizations will explore and develop collaborative membership and governance structures, joint programming at the AACTE Annual Meeting, and other offerings.
Currently, 2-year colleges are eligible only for “affiliate” membership with AACTE, but a recent survey of AACTE members revealed an openness to incorporating community colleges more explicitly in the Association’s membership structure. About 800 community colleges nationwide offer some type of teacher preparation, including many programs that lead to bachelor’s degrees and licensure as well as others that prepare candidates to move on to 4-year institutions. Approximately 120 of these community colleges are members of NACCTEP.
Interested in learning more about what’s been happening at AACTE this year? Looking for information about innovative initiatives being led by AACTE members and partners? For all of this and more, be sure to add the AACTE Gallery time blocks to your personalized 2018 Annual Meeting Online Event Planner schedule. Returning to the Annual Meeting for a second year, the Gallery will offer opportunities to network while learning about promising innovations in educator preparation.
In addition to offering interactive presentations, this year’s Gallery will feature a dedicated coffee and conversation space where Annual Meeting participants can chat with representatives from AACTE member and partner initiatives, as well as AACTE staff, to learn more about programs and opportunities of interest. The AACTE membership booth will also be located nearby, and staff will be on hand to share information and answer questions.
In a recent podcast with Enrollment Fuel, the organization’s president, Jacquelyn D. Elliott, interviewed AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone about what leadership means. The following summary highlights the conversation.
Opening the interview with a question about her definition of leadership, Gangone explained it as the process of orchestrating change “with people and for people” – that is, while the individual leader may have the power to implement change, the collective team is where change happens.
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 views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
In certain circles, it is popular to view colleges and universities as the embodiment of an intolerant “education establishment” driven more by liberal ideology than by valued learning experiences. Particularly with the recent leadership transition in Washington, DC, espousers of this view have grown bolder in their accusations of brainwashing and progressive elitism in higher education. These claims are frustrating in that they betray a lack of familiarity with the mission of our institutions, but they are also dangerous: if used to erode public support for higher education, they will further impede access by those most in need.
While we welcome constructive criticism of our work, statements that delegitimize higher education are counterproductive and must be challenged. When officials suggest that professors are deviously indoctrinating students with a limited, biased, and distorted set of beliefs, such intimation is demeaning to faculty and students alike. And after 35 years in higher education, I can attest to the utter falseness of this assumption.
