05 Feb2019
By Katrina Norfleet
AACTE is delighted to announce Butler University College of Education as the recipient of the 2019 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Perspectives for its Global Network for Teacher Preparation program. Kelli Esteves, Butler College of Education (COE) associate professor and global coordinator, will be presented with the award at the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting, February 22-24, in Louisville, KY.
Butler’s Global Network for Teacher Preparation is a comprehensive program designed to bring international and multicultural perspectives into their teaching through experiential learning in other countries. Made up of local and global partners, the network has sent faculty and students around the world and has hosted educators on Butler’s campus and in its lab schools from Sweden, Colombia, Italy, Australia, and China to ensure its teacher candidates are exposed to international perspectives and curriculum. The network’s local partners include the College of Education’s two Reggio-inspired Lab Schools, Shortridge International Baccalaureate World School (lab high school) and Butler’s Center for Global Education. Global partners are the Institutes of Higher Education student exchange partners, including Uppsala University, Sweden, University of Tasmania, and the Education University of Hong Kong; and School partner for student and educator exchange—Vallentuna Gymnasium in Sweden.
05 Feb2019
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE will honor announced Emily Evans Fanaeian as the recipient of the 2019 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for Preparing Pre-service Teaches for Working with Linguistically Diverse Students: Examining University Teacher Preparation Programs Across the United States. The author completed her dissertation for the Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and is now the interim director of English as a Second Language/Bilingual Graduate Programs for the School of Education at Edgewood College (Madison, WI). She will be recognized formally with the award at the AACTE 71st Annual Meeting, February 22-24, in Louisville, KY.
In her dissertation, Evans Fanaeian designed an ambitious multiple case study to examine the ways in which university-based teacher education programs take up the task of preparing general education teacher candidates to provide instruction to English learners. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Director of Teacher Education Center, Kimber Wilkerson, explained: “Dr. Evans Fanaeian’s dissertation research provides many important implications for teacher education. Acknowledging the importance of preparing general educators to meet the needs of the wide diversity of learners in our schools, Dr. Evans Fanaeian designed an ambitious multiple case study to examine the ways in which university-based teacher education programs take up the task of preparing general education teacher candidates to provide instruction to English learners. In this study, she surfaces the very real local and contextual constraints that teacher educators face when attempting to add complexity to teacher preparation programs. This is particularly important at a time when teacher preparation programs face pressure to reduce the time and cost toward degree. Dr. Evans Fanaeian’s research provides insightful guidance to teacher educators considering different approaches to incorporating new content. Her recommendations for practice are thoughtful as well as pragmatic, and could be applied conceptually to other types of expertise beyond educating English learners.”
14 Sep2018
By Wanda J. Blanchett
Greetings to my AACTE colleagues around the country!
As your AACTE Board of Directors chair and as a recent recipient of an AACTE Best Practice Award (on behalf of my institution), I encourage you to apply or nominate worthy individuals and programs for the 2019 AACTE awards. The call for entries is open through October 10, 2018.
19 Jun2018
By Kristin McCabe
Four new videos are available this week in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series highlighting the urban residencies of the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego School of Education. In these final videos of the series, educators discuss the significance of getting to know students well and how the yearlong clinical experience helps TESOL candidates prepare for edTPA–and beyond.
Participants in the clinical partnerships of the SUNY Oswego School of Education say one of the significant benefits of a yearlong residency is that teachers get to know their students well and engage deeply in their community.
05 Jun2018
By Kristin McCabe
Five new videos are available this week in AACTE’s Research-to-Practice Spotlight Series highlighting the urban residencies of the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego School of Education. In the latest videos, educators discuss the professional growth they experience through their partnership work, the primary challenges they’ve faced, and advice they’d offer others looking to transition to a clinical residency.
Teachers of English as a new language (ENL) at Grant Middle School in Syracuse, New York, say they are fortunate to host preservice teachers from the SUNY Oswego TESOL program, who spend their full senior year working with them and other city schools in a coteaching residency.
01 Feb2018
By Kristin McCabe
Congratulations to the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education (New Brunswick, NJ) on its selection to receive the 2018 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Perspectives! The award will be presented March 1 at the Opening Keynote of the AACTE 70th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Rutgers Graduate School of Education (GSE) offers learning opportunities that link the local and global to connect future educators, leaders, and researchers to the reciprocal influences of local communities and global society. Teacher candidates may participate in several global opportunities, including education-study abroad programs, PK-12 mentoring, and a new linguistically diverse program, “The Conversation Tree: Community-Based Language Partnerships.”
03 Apr2017
By Sharon Brennan
The author and her collaborators will be presenting a free AACTE webinar Wednesday, April 12, 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT on “Building Teachers’ Cultural and Global Awareness to ‘Reach and Teach’ All Students” (see this blog for more information). The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Various education-oriented groups have sounded the call for increasing attention to global competence among our nation’s PK-12 students. Recent reports from the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Asia Society, the Longview Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have underscored the need to prepare all students to live and work in an interconnected, interdependent world. What does this mean for the preparation of their teachers?
21 Mar2017
By Sharon Brennan
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Classrooms today are more diverse than ever. Students come with a wide array of learning modalities, interests, and life experiences and represent increasingly varied socioeconomic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. As of 2014, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, “minorities” now constitute the majority of PK-12 students in U.S. public schools, and more than 10% of students are considered English language learners (ELLs). How can we better prepare our candidates to “reach and teach” all children in today’s schools?
16 Aug2016
By Rodrick Lucero
Are your teacher candidates prepared to work with LGBTQ students? We’d like to learn about your perspectives and practices in our joint survey with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), which closes September 15.
In educator preparation, we continually strive to prepare teachers to be more inclusive of and responsive to the range of human diversity their students bring. To help inform this work, it’s useful to survey the field periodically to monitor trends in practice and define a course for moving forward.
12 Jan2016
By Melissa M. Burnham and Cece Zhou
Ed Prep Matters is featuring “Stories of Impact” to showcase AACTE member institutions with educator preparation programs that are making a positive impact in their communities and beyond through innovative practices. We are committed to sharing members’ success stories and encourage you to do the same.
Teacher shortage is an issue nationwide but especially in Nevada, where 955 classrooms were without licensed teachers at the start of the 2015-16 school year. Now with engineering and technology giants Tesla and Switch establishing a strong presence in northern Nevada, top-quality teachers are in more demand than ever in our community.
04 Aug2015
By Sungti Hsu
A new report calls on states to ensure more intentional preparation of educators to work with struggling learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and students with unidentified learning and behavior needs, to address persistent achievement gaps. The report, issued by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the University of Florida’s Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center, builds on a 2012 paper from CCSSO about policies to transform educator preparation generally—whose recommendations were supported by AACTE—and echoes messages of a recent policy brief developed by AACTE and the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
10 Jun2014
By Elizabeth Ross
The Innovations Inventory of AACTE’s Innovation Exchange is an online database highlighting members’ pioneering practices in educator preparation that have shown a positive impact on issues of student learning, preparation program advancement, or educator workforce needs. This blog post is one in a series highlighting entries from the inventory. To request inclusion of your institution’s innovations, contact Zachary VanHouten at zvanhouten@aacte.org.
Georgia State University (GSU) is the largest producer of minority educators in the state of Georgia and graduates approximately 500 teachers annually. GSU’s Network for Enhancing Teacher Quality (NET-Q) program aims to increase teacher quality in urban and rural areas in Georgia. The program includes both pre- and postbaccalaureate initiatives for educators serving high-need school districts in these settings.
NET-Q boasts a partnership with at least 15 rural PK-12 schools, local businesses, two historically Black colleges, and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.
17 Apr2014
By Jane E. West
Tomorrow, April 18, is the deadline for public comment on the proposed “highly qualified teacher” (HQT) data collection by the U.S. Department of Education. A detailed letter submitted yesterday by the Coalition for Teaching Quality hails the proposed collection as “an important first step towards meeting the legislative intent” of Congress’ directive to report on the extent to which students in certain high-need categories are taught by teachers who are labeled as “highly qualified,” but who are actually teachers-in-training in alternative routes.
24 Feb2014
By Catherine Emihovich
In addition to my work in educator preparation at the University of Florida, I am a member of the Anthropology Education Task Force (AETF) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Among other things, our task force is charged with examining the potential role of anthropology in teacher education programs to prepare teachers for working in culturally and linguistically diverse schools. We would greatly appreciate AACTE members’ input on this work, if you are able to take 15-20 minutes from your busy schedule to respond to our survey (see below).
As readers of this blog are aware, the rapid demographic changes sweeping across the United States bring increasing importance to ensuring that teachers are well prepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students. AAA is eager to partner with AACTE members in this endeavor, and to demonstrate that key anthropological concepts can play a significant role in helping teachers develop more effective strategies for addressing diverse students’ needs. For example, through its award-winning RACE Project exhibit (http://www.understandingrace.org/), AAA has enabled thousands of teachers and students across the country to deconstruct destructive myths surrounding racial differences. The web site provides numerous thought-provoking activities and curricular materials to engage students in more meaningful classroom dialogues about a topic that has long ruptured our social fabric.
21 Feb2014
By Joyce Nutta
The author is a member of AACTE’s topical action group on Preparing Educators of English Learners. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Are you interested in meeting other educators who address teaching English learners in their teacher preparation programs? Would you like to discover new ways your colleagues are preparing all candidates to support the success of these students? Come to the inaugural meeting of AACTE’s Preparing Educators of English Learners (PEEL) Topical Action Group to learn about joining our current projects—and help brainstorm future projects and opportunities for advocacy by our group.
